Atalanta by Jennifer Saint

Author:Jennifer Saint
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Flatiron Books

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The next day, the blind prophet was at the shore to bid us farewell. “It is not so far now for you to sail to reach Colchis,” he told us. “Though there are more treacherous waters between here and Aeëtes’s kingdom, and other danger besides.” He held out a wooden box, which Jason took obediently. I could see that it had small holes in the surface, and wondered what it could contain. “The first threat you’ll face is the Symplegades,” Phineus was saying. “Open the box and let her fly through them first; if she makes it through clear to the other side, follow at once—don’t hesitate, or you will be crushed between them.” Jason was nodding, and I wondered if we had missed more explanation the previous night. Phineus gave more directions, and when he had finished, he turned his cloudy eyes to me. “You have lost two comrades already,” he said, “and there will be more. I see a young man of extraordinary beauty, searching for water in a pool beloved by nymphs. They were bewitched by his handsome face, and they reached up their arms and pulled him under so that he could be theirs.”

I remembered the pitcher, lying by the still water. No signs of a struggle. It must have been silent and quick.

“He can never return,” Phineus said, his voice gentle. “But his lover, the one that couldn’t leave him, he has more labors to complete. This quest was never for him.”

There was some comfort in knowing what had happened to Hylas, even if I couldn’t imagine what kind of nymphs they must have been, so predatory, so unlike those I had left behind in Arcadia. The world beyond was such an alien place; I was learning every day how different it was.

And maybe I was different, too. I leaped lightly on board the Argo, at home on it now; I, who had never gone beyond the farthest trees of my forest. On days like this, I didn’t miss my home at all, days when the sunlight was golden and the sea sparkled, when the world was laid out before us like a feast. I felt invulnerable, like it was all mine for the taking, with no consequence to bear.

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