12
They left the Sacred Grove of Ares by the trail leading from the opposite side of the clearing. It took them on a winding course down to the bottom of the ravine and curled around to follow the river that ran down from the mountains to the sea. It was a narrow path that necessitated their traveling single file along the riverbank, making it difficult for Jason and Delaney to carry the golden fleece. It was too heavy for one man to carry any distance by himself and between Jason, Steiger and Delaney, they spelled each other. Idmon walked ahead of them with Medea leading as they picked their way among the rocks and shrubs. The trail was old and clearly little used. In many places, it took them over flat rock surfaces slick with the water spray from the rapids. Even without the weighty burden of the golden fleece, making fast time would have been difficult. The sky was already growing gray by the time they left the trail along the riverbank and circled round roughly parallel to the coastline on a path which led down to the shore.
'From here on, you must lead,' Medea said to Jason, 'as I do not know where you have hidden your ship.' She pointed.
'The main road to the city lies just north and to the east of here.'
'Then we must go north and to the west,' said Jason. 'We must keep to the shelter of the trees as much as possible, in case we should encounter any of Aietes' soldiers.' He looked up at the sky. 'The sun will rise soon. I had hoped to be underway by now. Theseus and the others should already be at the ship, unless something has gone amiss.' He glanced at Idmon. 'What do you see, soothsayer? Shall we put safely out to sea?'
Idmon was frowning. 'I do not know. But I have a strong sense of death nearby.'
'Whose death?' Medea said, frightened.
Idmon shook his head. 'I cannot tell,' he said. 'I only feel death's presence. Death itself, waiting in the shadows, hidden. Death armed and waiting to do battle.'
They walked along the shoreline, staying out of the open and away from the beach, which slowed them down still more. The sun was rising and starting to dispel the early morning mists by the time they neared the place where they had hidden the Argo.
'Something has gone wrong,' said Idmon, staring at the still hidden ship. 'If the others had arrived, they should have uncovered the ship by now and made ready to sail.'
Medea looked bewildered. 'Where is it?'
'There,' said Jason, pointing. 'Hidden in the reeds.' He gave a slight start. 'I just saw something move!'
He glanced at the others. 'Wait here. Guard the golden fleece.'
He started to run across the open stretch toward the reed-bank where the ship was hidden. When he was not quite halfway to the ship, some of the reeds on board were thrown aside and Theseus leaped out, along with Hercules, Orpheus and several of the others. They ran toward Jason, who quickened his pace at the sight of them.
'We were beginning to think you had been killed or captured,' Theseus said. 'What happened to the others?'
'They are back there,' Jason said, pointing, 'with the golden fleece.'
'You have it, then!'
'We have it!' Jason said. He turned and shouted to the others. 'Come on, then! All is well! Come quickly!'
'We kept the ship hidden in case there were any patrols about,' said Orpheus, 'but it appears that we have foxed them.' He stared hard at the approaching party. 'Who is that girl? Not Aietes' daughter!'
'Yes, Medea,' Jason said. 'She is returning with us.'
'You have been busy,' Orpheus said with a grin. 'A throne and a queen gained at one stroke!'
'Make ready to sail!' Theseus shouted back at the ship. Instantly, the camouflaging reeds were thrown aside as the Argonauts cleared the decks and started to raise the mast. 'We'll be halfway back to Iolchos before Aietes is any the wiser!'
'I fear not,' said Idmon softly. He pointed. 'Look.'
'STAND WHERE YOU ARE!' shouted Kovalos. He was seated on horseback at the head of a troop of cavalry on a crest some fifty yards away. In front of the mounted soldiers were several squads of archers, arrows nocked and bows drawn back.
'Are we in range?' asked Idmon.
'I'm afraid so,' said Delaney. 'And caught right out in the open.'
The rest of the Argonauts quickly worked to raise the mast. 'The archers can pin us down until the cavalry rides in to finish us off,' said Steiger. 'We can try to make a run for it, but nobody's going to be moving very fast carrying the golden fleece. And whoever carries it will be their main target.'
'Th-then we sh-shall see how g-good th-their archers are,' said Hercules, bending down and picking up the golden fleece as easily as if it were a sheepskin throw rug.
'What is he doing?' asked Medea. Kovalos had dismounted and he now stood before the archers, both hands raised high over his head. His voice carried down to them as he threw his head back and shouted at the heavens.
'ARISE, WARRIORS OF ARES! ARISE AND RID COLCHIS OF THE INVADERS! ARISE AND LIVE AGAIN!'
'He's gone straight off his nut,' said Steiger.
'Death comes!' whispered Idmon, harshly.
'Where?' cried Jason, looking around wildly.
'Look!' said Orpheus, pointing.
Medea screamed.
A hand was clawing up from beneath the ground about a dozen yards away. Near it, two more hands appeared like crabs scuttling out from beneath the sand, twisted fingers grasping at the air. Arms were sprouting from the ground like impossibly fast growing plants, thrashing around and pushing to pull the bodies free. A head became visible, then another, and another. Dozens of upper torsos were visible, arms pushing against the sand, straining to free legs. They crawled forward, pulling themselves out, dozens of them, to stand unsteadily on their feet like stalks of wheat swaying gently in the wind.
'They are dead men,' Orpheus said with horror.
They stood as if in catatonic trance, bedraggled, life-sized marionettes held up by loose strings, rotted, decomposing flesh flapping, bones protruding, eyes encrusted or absent altogether from the vacant sockets, gums retreating from yellowed and blackened teeth, wisps of white-gray hair escaping from beneath corroded helmets. The leather armor was dry and veined with cracks like the surface of some long dry, sunbaked riverbed and the cloaks hung down in tatters from bony shoulders. The rusted noseguards of the helmets shielded nonexistent noses and the earpieces covered holes no longer graced by earlobes. Worms and maggots writhed in places where decayed flesh was exposed and pieces of once living tissue dropped down onto the sand.
Medea could not stop screaming. Her hands were up over her ears, as if to shut out the sound of her own shrieks. She stood frozen to the spot, paralyzed with terror. Hercules dropped the fleece onto the sand and stared at the living dead with disbelief.
'Corpses,' said Jason, his voice cracking. 'How does one fight corpses? How to kill that which is already dead?'
'If a corpse cannot be killed,' said Theseus, drawing his sword, 'it can still be dismembered.'
'Remember what you said about people who don't panic?' Andre said to Finn. She nodded at Theseus. 'There's one. You think maybe he can tell us how it's done? I just went numb all over.'
'It's Drakov,' Steiger said. 'That bastard's brewed himself up a bunch of zombies.'
'Cybernetically augmented,' Delaney said. 'Isn't that what he said? He found the ship, clocked back in time and buried a bunch of his hominoids out here. They died, but the cybernetics kept on working, sending impulses to circuits buried in the decomposing muscles or in the skeletal structure.'
'That lunatic has set us up,' said Steiger. 'The only way out is to do what Theseus said, dismember them or smash their skulls and destroy the implants. Then all we have to figure out is what to do about Kovalos with his archers and his cavalry. Piece of cake. Or we could run out into the water and try swimming back to Iolchos.'
'KILL THEM!' Kovalos screamed.
The corpses shambled toward them slowly, dead hands pulling rusted blades from rotted scabbards.
