'You don't have to ask me twice,' said Delaney, shucking his chiton and sandals. He got in and one of the women smilingly moved over and began to scrub him gently with a soft-cloth.
Steiger sat down cross-legged on the floor. 'Would it be too much trouble to ask just what in hell is happening here?'
Delaney reclined into the woman's arms and sighed. 'Right this minute, I'm in no particular hurry to find out.'
A woman bent down over Steiger and smiled, gesturing toward the bath, but he shook his head.
'I could force myself to stay here for a while,' Delaney said, grinning.
Steiger frowned. 'What did you tell Queen What's-her-name?'
'Hypsipyle,' Andre said. 'She thought I was being kept by the crew against my will, sort of a ship's concubine. I told her I was part of the crew, voluntarily, and we were on a voyage to Colchis to bring back the golden fleece. She thought the Argonauts were pirates. She seems to have a tendency to think the worst of men.'
'Have you seen any men here at all?' said Steiger.
'Not a one. No old people or children, either.'
'How did Hypsipyle account for that?'
'She said the men were away at war and the children were being kept with the old people on another part of the island, for their protection.'
'And none of the men stayed behind to provide this protection?'
'The women seem quite capable of looking after themselves,' said Andre, 'which makes me wonder why none of them went to war with the men. I spent more time answering questions that asking them. Hypsipyle said you were all being kept in another part of the palace until she could determine whether or not you were a threat. I wasn't sure of my ground, so I didn't want to press her. Apparently, she's decided we're welcome to stay, so long as our stay is brief. Her story is obviously thin, but it matches the events of the myth.'
'I know and I don't buy it.'
'You sure you don't want a scrub?' Delaney asked.
'Delaney, doesn't any of this seem a little unusual to you?'
'Sure. But that doesn't mean I can't enjoy myself while I think about it. I do my best thinking when I'm relaxed.' He looked up at the woman in whose arms he reclined and smiled. 'And this sure is relaxing.'
Steiger spoke to her in Greek. 'Where are all the old people? Where are the children?'
She smiled at him vacuously and shook her head, as if she didn't understand. She beckoned him into the tub.
'No thanks. I'm old enough to wash myself.' He got to his feet and switched back to English. 'We're obviously not going to get anything out of them. I'm going to take a look around. Something about this mission has to start making sense, sooner or later.'
'I thought he said he didn't get tense,' said Delaney, after Steiger had left.
'He's right, you know,' said Andre. 'There's something very peculiar about these women. With the exception of Hypsipyle, they all seem stunted in their development. Childlike. It's as if they were all stamped out of the same mold. They're all young and beautiful, yet somehow asexual.'
Delaney reached out and touched the naked breast of the woman bathing him. She made no response. 'You think maybe they're just not interested in men?' he said.
'No one's made a pass at me,' said Andre. 'I've tried communicating with them, but you see what they're like. They don't really seem interested in us at all. We're speaking in a foreign language that they've never heard before and they're not in the least bit curious. I've spoken with Hypsipyle, but nothing I say gets more than a smile out of any of the others. I haven't even heard any of them converse among themselves.'
'Interesting,' said Delaney, looking thoughtful. 'No men, no children and apparently no one over the age of twenty-five. They're all young, all beautiful, and they all act somehow retarded, except in direct response to Hypsipyle. And they only seem capable of limited reactions.'
As if in play, Delaney threw his arms around one of the women, then suddenly bit down hard on the flesh of her upper arm.
'Finn!' Andre shouted, shocked by his action.
The woman merely looked puzzled.
'That should have made her scream,' said Andre.
Delaney pushed the woman away and got out of the bath. 'It should have, only androids don't feel pain.'
'Androids!'
'Come on. We'd better go find Creed.'
Steiger pressed himself against the wall and waited until the women passed by, then turned the corner. He heard the sounds of music and male laughter from the direction of the main chamber. The women had been carrying trays of food. The Argonauts were being royally entertained. He ran quickly down the length of the corridor until he came to a flight of steps leading down. He listened for a moment, then slowly started down the stairs.
The stone steps led down to a landing, then turned at a right angle and continued down to a floor below ground level. He went down and paused at the end of the stairs. To his left was a large wooden door before which stood two women armed with spears. One of them saw him and immediately came forward, spear held crosswise in front of her.
'I'm sorry,' Steiger said in Greek, 'I seem to have become lost. I saw my friends coming in this direction and I was trying to find them.'
The woman made no other response save pointing in the direction from which he had come, her face expressionless.
The other woman remained near the door, watching them.
'You don't seem to understand,' said Steiger. 'They came this way, I'm sure of it. They were with the queen.'
The woman pointed again, more emphatically.
'What's behind that door?'
She came closer, as if to push him back with her body, still pointing back toward the stairs.
'I get the message,' Steiger said. He turned around as if to obey, then spun around again quickly and plucked the spear out of her hands. 'All right, now we're going to-'
He ducked quickly and the spear thrown by the other woman passed inches over his head and fell clattering on the stairs behind him. The woman whose spear he had taken grabbed at it, attempting to wrestle it away from him. Steiger twisted to one side and used her strength and momentum to throw her off her feet. The other woman came at him quickly and Steiger held the spear toward her, point first, but she didn't even slow down. Only by jerking the spear away at the last moment did Steiger prevent her from impaling herself on its point.
'Are you crazy? What-'
She was on him and he had to toss the spear behind him to grapple with her. Then her companion joined the fray and Steiger quickly found his hands full. He used a judo throw to flip the first one away from him, then grasped the arm of the second and pivoted, turning her around in front of him and forcing her hand up behind her back in an armlock. She continued struggling and Steiger increased the pressure. It seemed to have no effect. He kept up the pressure, turning her to keep her body between himself and the second woman, who had recovered from his throw and was trying to get at him. Neither of them made a sound as they fought.
Steiger suddenly heard a snapping sound and felt a looseness in the woman's arm. He had broken it and she did not even cry out. He pushed her away and they both came back at him. One of them held a dagger. He had no choice but to stop holding back. He executed a spinning wheel kick and sent the knife flying out of her grasp. She went after it and her companion, now also armed with a blade, came at him. He trapped her wrist, spun backwards into her body and delivered a hard elbow strike into her solar plexus. It should have taken all the fight out of her, but she merely sagged, struggling for breath, while the other woman launched herself at him.
He blocked the knife thrust and delivered a punishing hammer-first blow to the bridge of her nose, breaking it. Blood spurted, but again there was no outcry and the woman kept at him. He smashed a blow into her midsection, knocking the wind out of her, but as she bent over, fighting for breath, her companion was already regaining hers and preparing to rush at him again.
'All right, ladies,' Steiger said, breathing hard himself. 'From here on in, it's hardball.'
