quarter, perhaps from within the palace itself. While we were there, I had the strongest intuition that an event of great significance would soon occur within those walls.'
'Then I would be best served to take you with me to stay within the palace tonight,' said Jason. 'Theseus, you shall come as well and Fabius, Creon and Atalanta, since you were the first to join me. That makes up the five Aietes has so graciously allowed me. Hercules, I leave you in charge in my absence. Should anything befall us, I will leave it to you to decide what's to be done, but if I am killed, then it shall mean that I have lost the favor of the gods and there will be little to gain in pursuing that which they have chosen to deny me. In that event, I charge you to bring the Argonauts back home in safety. In the meantime, I will take council with these five and plan a way for us to get the golden fleece. When we have decided what to do, I shall contrive to send a message to you. The soldiers may try to antagonize you. Do not allow yourselves to be provoked. And beware the food and drink Aietes sends. Best to eat from the supplies we brought with us.'
'The escort has arrived to take you to the palace, Jason,' Hylas said from the window.
Jason picked up his weapons and his leather sack. 'Be patient,' he told the others, 'and wait to hear from me. The golden fleece is not yet lost to us. Trust to the gods to see us through.'
10
The rooms set aside for them within the palace had been carefully chosen. They were in the right wing, at the end of a long and narrow corridor with no other doors or hallways leading off from it. At the end of the corridor was the largest room, the one set aside for Jason, with two smaller rooms on either side of it through connecting doors. The palace was situated on the heights over the city and the only windows in their rooms looked out over a deep ravine.
'They have us well in hand here,' Theseus said. 'We cannot climb down and the only other way out is down that narrow corridor, which affords no shelter and little room to move. We will not be in a good position if it comes to fighting our way out. The guards posted at the corridor's end would see us coming in enough time to give alarm and two or three archers could easily dispatch us before we had a chance to reach them.'
'Perhaps not,' said Jason. He walked over to a large oval table standing in the center of the room. 'This would make a useful shield against archers or spearmen if we carried it before us.'
'It would if it were not wider than the corridor,' said Idmon, looking down at it.
'How could it be wider than the corridor?' asked Jason. 'If it were, how could they have brought it in here?'
'Lengthwise,' Idmon said, wryly, 'carried by each end. It would not make much of a shield that way.'
Jason frowned. 'We could hack the ends off with our swords until it was of a right size to carry before us.'
'And make such a racket that they would be upon us before we were half finished with the task,' said Idmon. 'Observe its thickness. We should give less thought to carpentry and more to planning what to do when morning comes. There is little doubt that Aietes' soldiers are even now searching for our ship. Aietes will wish to be certain that we did not leave other men outside the city. I would not expect him to take you at your word. If they find the ship and discover it to be unmanned, they will no doubt burn it to the waterline and then attend to us.'
'It is fortunate that we have hidden it,' said Theseus. 'They will look first to see it anchored just offshore and it may escape their notice. There will not be time to make a careful search of the entire coastline in one night.'
'You three have been silent,' Jason said to the agents. 'Have you no thoughts to add? Fabius, you acted well and quickly in the storm. Do you agree with Idmon?'
'I think Idmon is right,' Delaney said. 'Aietes has nothing to gain by allowing us to leave. What would prevent us from returning with more men, enough to meet his army on more equal terms? If his soldiers do not find the ship tonight, he can have us lead them to it when we are forced to leave tomorrow. Once we are well away from the city and caught with the sea at our backs, his soldiers will attack.'
'Those would be sound tactics,' Theseus said. 'It means that we must somehow act tonight.'
'Only there seems to be no course of action open to us,' Jason said. He glanced at Idmon. 'Where is this unexpected help your intuition told you of?'
Idmon shook his head. 'I cannot say. I can only repeat that I have the certain feeling that it will arrive. As to when or what form it may take, that I cannot tell you.'
'For a soothsayer, you do not reveal much,' Theseus said, sourly.
'Nor do I embellish,' Idmon said. 'I reveal only what I know. I do not embroider upon my revelations, as do other soothsayers, who cloak their revelations with imponderables meant to reassure the gullible.'
'This quarreling serves no purpose,' Jason said. 'We have not come all this way for nothing. Thus far, the gods have seen us through and they will see us through it to the end. Aietes cannot defy the gods. Nor can we anticipate them. When the time is right, they will show us what must be done.'
'It may not be wise to depend too much upon the gods,' said Theseus. 'I have always found that the gods help those who help themselves. We should never have allowed ourselves to be separated from the others. With us here as his hostages, Aietes may try to force our friends to reveal the location of our ship.'
'I do not think that Hercules would be an easy man to force,' said Idmon. 'Have faith, Theseus. And patience. Both are kingly virtues. We have not yet-' he stopped, abruptly. 'Listen!'
'I hear nothing,' Theseus said.
But a moment later, they all heard it, a distinct, low scraping sound like that of large stones grinding against one another. A portion of the wall began to swing out slowly, revealing a secret passageway that had been concealed by the mortared cracks between the stones.
Theseus unsheathed his sword and moved to stand concealed behind the hidden door as it opened slowly. Jason stood where he was, so that whoever was behind the door would see him clearly, but he too unsheathed his sword.
'Our benefactor has arrived,' said Idmon and Medea came into the room.
Theseus quickly looked to see if anyone was coming through behind her, but she said, 'I am alone. I have come to help you.'
'Why would Aietes' daughter wish to help us?' Theseus said. 'Take care, Jason, this is some sort of trick.'
'No trick,' Medea said. She came up close to Jason and placed her hands upon his chest. 'Look into my eyes and say if you see trickery.'
'What man has ever discerned trickery in a woman's eyes?' said Theseus, but his words did not stop Jason from gazing long and not at all hard into Medea's eyes.
'From the first moment that I saw you,' Medea said, 'I knew that you were not like other men. It took great courage to have come so far and to have marched so boldly to the palace and spoken so plainly to my father's face. I have never met another who would dare such things!'
'Would you have us believe,' said Theseus, 'that you would turn against your father merely because Jason has impressed you with his daring and his courage?'
'When you went to Crete to slay the Minotaur, did not Ariadne turn against her father because she was impressed with yours?' said Jason. 'Is that not how I heard it from your own lips when you told the tale?'
'Well, perhaps that was not quite the same,' said Theseus, uneasily.
'It is not the only reason,' said Medea. 'I do this for my poor grieving sister as much as for myself. She, too, has dreamed of Phrixus since he died and took it to be an omen that his spirit cannot rest. After you had gone, Chalciope came to me, weeping because her husband's spirit was tormented and heartbroken that brave men had to die because our father will not part with the golden fleece.
'He believes it to be the source of all the wealth and good fortune in our kingdom,' she continued. 'He wishes to keep it because it brings him fame. He has commissioned poets to compose works about it which increase his fame and bring many here to pay him tribute, yet these works also bring pirates and thieves to Colchis.'
'You mean men such as ourselves,' said Theseus.
'No,' said Medea. 'You are different. It was clear at once, even to my father, that you were not brigands. Jason came openly, in the full light of day, and spoke to my father as one ruler to another. We in Colchis have also
