Clash of the Titans (19 page)

Perseus, beginning to have trouble keeping all three crones in sight, shouted, "Now!"

With an assist from Thallo the metal owl launched itself into the fetid air, screeching softly and clicking like a new clock as he climbed ceilingward.

The third witch frowned at the unusual noise but like her sisters was too overcome by the proximity of healthy young flesh to pay much attention to anything else.

Bubo banked sharply near the apex of the crumbling dome and dove downward.

"The eye," Perseus yelled as he waited for the attack, "Bubo, go for the eye!"

The original plan had called for Perseus and the owl to occupy the witches so his companions could surprise them from behind, but the owl's aerial abilities had sparked a fresh idea in the youth's mind.

Red eyes spun like a magician's pendant as the owl altered its approach in response to Perseus's order. He swooped in low and fast over the second witch. She reacted an instant too late. Her inhuman strength, which had enabled her and her sisters to overcome stronger warriors than Perseus and his companions, did not include unusual agility.

One metal talon dipped like a surgeon's knife at just the right instant and plucked the crystal orb from her hand. She snatched upward but the thief was already out of reach. A fight with Perseus was on her mind, not an attack from above.

Bubo let out a rattle of triumph as he soared low and let the eye drop. Holding his sword momentarily under his shield arm, Perseus caught the sparkling globe neatly.

Thallo and the others cheered as they scrambled down from the mosaic pediment. Bubo executed a little aerial jig and then resumed his perch on the rocks.

"The eye!" the second witch was screaming. "I've lost the eye!" She bent over and started scrabbling among the bones. "Foul trickery, sisters!" Her fury was directed at Perseus. "What have you done with the eye, stranger? Tell me, or you and your friends will become less than this!" and she lifted a rock the size of her fist and ground it to dust between her gnarled palms.

The display of strength caused Perseus to lift the eye high over his head. He stood studying it while the three evil sisters spent a few minutes contemplating a stew of a different sort than the one they'd anticipated.

Their fingers clawed frantically at the garbage carpeting the floor.

"We must have it, where is it?" babbled the second witch.

"Where?" echoed the third. "Tell us, or you will all surely die."

"You would have killed us anyway, witch," Perseus responded sharply, unimpressed by the threat.

"A rotten lie, stranger!"

"Rotten it is, but the truth. Rotten as this place and your souls. You don't frighten me with your threats, witch. Not now.

"As to the eye, never fear. It is safe . . . for the moment."

"Give it back to us now," screeched the first witch hysterically. "Give it back! Back! Back! We can't see anything without it."

"On one condition will I return it."

"Anything you ask," agreed the third witch.

"But we must have it now," added the first desperately.

"Your attitude shifts like a spring storm. No," he told them resolutely. "You'll have it back, I promise, but only after you've answered my question. I've come a long, hard way to ask it and I'm growing impatient. Hurry and decide, or an accident may befall your eye. Can you see with it if it's all in pieces?"

"Horrible, evil boy!" growled the second witch threateningly. "You would never do such a thing to three poor blind old women!"

"How many innocent travelers have you welcomed to the shelter of this place, only to slaughter them mercilessly? How many children have you devoured while their helpless parents watched and begged mercy of you, before you consumed them also?

"I know you for what you are, you three mothers of evil, so don't plead with me. Strike the bargain and have back your accursed eye, or refuse and dwell in darkness forever."

"No, no!" the first witch shouted quickly. For the first time she sounded genuinely frightened. "Ask your question then, boy, so that we may have back our sight."

"And hurry," the third witch said.

Perseus took a deep breath. "How might a mortal man face and defeat the Kraken?"

The three witches, who until now had been voluble to the point of confusion, were struck speechless.

"Impossible," declared the second witch, eventually breaking the silence.

"Young man of an unknown flavor," said the first witch slowly, "your question is brief and uncomplicated, and so must be our answer.

"The Kraken is invulnerable, immune to the weapons of man. You cannot fight the last of the Titans with spear and sword. His skin is like iron and his teeth can turn granite to hash. A thousand men could not bother him. He would sweep them aside with one arm and drown them in the sea."

"What about a catapult arrow fashioned from the log of a single great tree?" asked Thallo from the darkness.

"Hercules himself could heave such a weapon, only to see it bounce off the Kraken's chest, bold soldier." The witch waved a warning finger toward the source of Thallo's voice.

"You could throw a mountain at the Titan and it would only be amused. You cannot drown it. It has no animal fear of fire; its skin would protect it were the whole world burning.

"An army could not kill it," the third witch added.

"You say it's impossible," Perseus said, keeping his attention on the witches' movements as he spoke. "Nothing is impossible. Nothing is invulnerable. Zeus and the other Olympians slew the rest of the Titans."

"You are no god, boy, fighting for control of the universe."

"There must be a way."

The third witch became suddenly thoughtful. "Perhaps one way."

The second faced her in confusion. "Sister, you have become senile as well as blind."

"Not I." She sniffed disdainfully and dismissed the remark. "You all talk of mortal men and mortal weapons. A mortal man may destroy with the assistance of immortal powers. That route is even more dangerous in its subtle fashion than the Kraken itself. The Kraken can be avoided. Once engaged, the way I have in mind can be instantly fatal."

"Tell me this way," Perseus urged her.

"Give me the eye and I'll tell you."

"Sly witch, do not think you can bargain with me. This is no marketplace. I will fight the Kraken with or without your advice."

"Then you will die," said the third witch coldly.

"And you three will live in blackness for eternity."

"Very well," she sighed. "It requires the head of Medusa, the Gorgon."

"Of course, of course!" exclaimed the first witch excitedly. "Yes, that might accomplish your end, boy. One look from the head of Medusa, be she dead or alive, will turn any living thing into stone, no matter how huge or powerful it may be."

"And her blood is a weapon as well. A deadly venom. She has two ways to kill," added the third witch.

"Yes, yes, the head of Medusa could overcome the Kraken," agreed the second.

"A Titan against a Gorgon," cackled the third witch. Her sisters joined in a coarse laughter which Perseus found utterly revolting.

"Ah, but first you must win Medusa's head, bold boy of the nasty caution," the first warned him.

"She's not going to give it to you," put in the second, laughing harder than ever.

"As a present!" the third concluded mockingly.

The first witch continued to admonish her intent listener, shaking a warning finger.

"Medusa's as difficult and dangerous in a fight as a dozen Krakens. Not as strong, it's true, but she has no need of strength. And she's far quicker. Are you quick of eye, boy?" More ghastly laughter from the other sisters. "You'll need more than quick wits to defeat Medusa."

"You'll not find her so easy to trick as we harmless old women," chuckled the second witch.

"It's your only chance if you mean to go against the Kraken," the third assured him. Then she frowned and asked, "Why do you intend to risk such a confrontation?"

"To save a city and the woman I love."

"Pfagh!" The second witch spat to one side, yellow phlegm spotting the floor. "How foolish you are, young man. There are many cities and many women you could conquer without having to battle a Titan."

"Don't waste your time, Sister," the third witch advised. "Mark that sweet-sour aroma that swirls about him. The boy's in love."

"Then not only does he lack the quick wits he'll need," observed the first witch, "he has no wits left at all!" Her cackle was brief and her tone turned serious again.

"Now give us back our eye, boy. We have answered your question."

"Yes, give it back." The third witch held out eager fingers ending in claws.

"I've not yet finished with my question. If, even after death, the face of Medusa can turn any onlooker to stone, what of her blood? Does it retain its potency?"

"Yes, yes. Deadly as when alive, until the last drop has dried."

"Then if I gain her head, how am I to handle it without getting the blood on me?"

"Poisonous and corrosive it stays," said the first witch, "and would burn through any container. No bottle or flask could restrain that blood. But you have touched the eye—
our
eye. Are you by chance wearing anything the color of blood, anything of red?"

"My cloak happens to be red."

"Good. That should do you . . .
if
you get that far. Just as the eye has the power to give us sight, so the caress you give it will make your red cloak proof against the Gorgon's blood. I declare this so, by the powers of Hades and the eye. Wrap a portion of your cloak completely around the crystal and hold it still for a moment."

Perseus followed the instructions. A slight warmth seemed to emanate from the eye, heating his hands through the folds of material. It grew almost too hot to hold, then abruptly cooled to nothing.

"I've done as you instructed," he told them. "It grew hot."

"Has it cooled now?"

Perseus opened the folds and carefully touched the crystal. "Yes, completely."

"Then you have your shield, foolish boy. You must not touch the blood yourself."

"We can help you no more. Give us back our eye."

Perseus turned to his companions and gave a prearranged signal. Thallo nodded in acknowledgment. With Bubo clicking away overhead, the soldiers hurried around the circumference of the chamber and headed gratefully for the gap which opened onto clean air and daylight.

Perseus found himself alone with the three witches. "You have told me the truth?"

"We swear it," said the first witch.

"By all the gods of Olympus," added the third.

"By all the powers of Hades," the second finished.

"We have spoken only the truth," the first witch declared empathically. "We have done as you asked, have answered your question. The rest remains for you to do, for we cannot help you in that. Seek Medusa . . ."

". . . on the Isle of the Dead, where the River Styx broadens into a lake and touches the world of the living, at the very fringes of the Underworld," the third instructed him.

"And now the eye. As we speak the truth, you must keep your part of the bargain. You are bound to return the eye to us now, lest all the curses of the Fates befall you."

"And when I give it back to you," he said quietly, "what will happen then, when you have your sight back?"

"Ah," murmured the first witch through a shrewd smile, "we will be able to see again. That's all."

"That's all?" Perseus nodding knowingly. "You will be able to see again? You'll also be able to see
me,
won't you? If I hand you the eye, will you not also try to take my hand with it?"

"Only in friendship," the first witch assured him demurely.

"Yes," added the second, "so that we might shake the hand of so worthy and clever an adversary."

"What else could we do?" asked the third. "Three poor old women?"

"You would take my hand, of that I'm certain. But not in friendship, I think. Most likely you'd take it all the way up to the shoulder, with the rest to follow later, over a hot, slow fire."

'You do us a great injustice, boy," said the first witch, her anger seeping through her grandmotherly manner. "In any case, you have agreed to the bargain we've struck. You must now give us back the eye." She held out eager claws.

"And so I will," Perseus said. "Here . . . catch!" And he tossed it toward them.

There was a tripartite shriek of rage and frustration. Stumbling into each other, the witches tried to catch the falling crystal. It fell between their weaving hands to land with a subdued clink among the bones and rotting leather and forgotten armor.

They bumped into one another, tripping in their haste to find their sight. Bones and skulls flew in all directions as they started digging through the garbage covering the floor. Perseus was forgotten.

"Where! Where is it?" they were shouting. "Where! I want it . . . it's my turn . . . give it to me!"

Still carefully staying out of reach, Perseus edged his way around the three harridans. Only when he'd finally succeeded in rejoining his companions outside the temple did he allow himself to relax.

Menas slapped him on the back, then looked distastefully back toward the noisome hole from which they'd emerged. "A foul place, Prince Perseus. I'd rather face a phalanx of Spartans than those three," he added, his expression emphasizing his words.

"We've gained what we came for," Perseus announced, breathing deeply of the fresh mountain air. "And also the enmity of the three Witches of Stygia. Let's begone from this place before they recover their eye. They might be able to see their way to some unknown revenge."

"I think not, sir." Thallo considered the temple opening thoughtfully. "Once they set to arguing, I'll venture it takes them a dozen years to settle things."

Everyone laughed, glad of the joke.

"Maybe so, good Thallo," Perseus agreed with a smile, "but let's not stay here long enough to find out."

They started back down the mountain path, moving with care, the image of empty skulls and gnawed bones still fresh in their memories.