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Very hesitantly, he bent his head to it, touched his mouth to the rim, and sipped. His face sagged with relief as he finally drank.
    “Behold, O King, the reward of obedience.”
    “Here’s my ring,” he said, “my seal. With it you can speak in my name. Have Jason released and bid him prepare for his voyage. Draw upon the treasury for the necessary expenses. But be prudent, I urge you, be prudent.”

ELEVEN
    E KION
    I FOUND JASON PROWLING the wild beach that lies along the northeast shore and is the first to get the wind. It was a deserted beach, a good place to hide someone.
    We walked along the water’s edge, and I told him what had happened at court: how I had sowed the king’s sleep with visions of drought, of his wrath and his threats, and how Hermes had parched him into submission. “That’s why he agreed to let us sail for Colchis,” I said. “But he’ll change his mind when he regains his courage. So we’d best make haste.”
    “I’m ready now. When do we start?”
    “We must first provide ourselves with ship and crew.”
    “A ship? Do we build it, or buy it, or simply help ourselves to a vessel of the royal fleet?”
    “Hermes will instruct us.”
    “Does he realize the need for haste? You’re always telling me god-time is not our time.”
    “I shall consult him tonight.”
    We had paused. He was gazing out to sea. He turned and stared at me. “Do you consider yourself kind-hearted?” he said.
    “Never occurred to me.”
    “I heal by touch. What passes through my hands is some sort of energy—nothing to do with kindness or pity.”
    “To heal something is a kindness, no matter what you feel.”
    “Perhaps … and perhaps I am meant to be a killer. Obviously my skill at archery was not given me so that I could shoot at trees.”
    “You’ll be finding other things to shoot at. Things that shoot back.”
    “Consider this,” he said. “I’m fond of birds, you know. But I am also fascinated by that butcher among birds, the falcon, the female hawk, larger and stronger than the male. She drops out of the sky upon the pigeon, the lark, the gull … drives her hooks into him, stabs him with her beak, and eats the flesh. And I, who have esteemed her victim, also admire the hawk.”
    “You make too much of it. Falconry has always been the sport of kings. No reason you shouldn’t enjoy it without guilt.”
    “You came to Cythera to trouble my sleep and plant visions. But I dream without your assistance now. She visits me every night.”
    “Who?”
    “A winged girl. She is sleek and powerful and has brass claws on hands and feet. And her eyes—the iris is utterly black and the pupil yellow; they are full of yellow light and cold as moon fire. They freeze my marrow. In the plan of this dream, it seems that I have trained her, for she brings me her prey uneaten. A goat, a lamb, and once—a child.”
    “I don’t like the sound of this. It may be a harpy you’ve attracted.”
    “Are there really such things?”
    “One of my father’s duties is to conduct the newly dead to Tartarus. And he has told me about the Land Beyond Death. Many kinds of demons attend Hades, and the most feared are those hell hags called harpies. They have brass wings and brass claws and carry coiled whips at their girdles. They are used to recapture runaway shades. Indeed, Hades casts them like falcons, and they return to him with their prey.”
    “Mine has brass claws, but her wings are white leather, delicate as membrane. And she’s young. Our age, you know. Not a hag.”
    “Well, dreams are of unequal value. Not all of them are sent by the gods. Perhaps this creature is simply the feverish vapor of your own fancy.”
    “No, she’s real. She exists outside my mind. Somewhere she stands near a source of light so strong that her shadow is cast across the sea, past the frontiers of mortal sense, into my sleep.”
    “You know that she dwells beyond the sea?”
    “Yes.”
    “Perhaps she visits you to