‘Why are they called that?’
‘Because they’re grey. Also, they’re ugly and immortal. And if they get the chance they’ll cut you up and barbecue you.’
‘So why do I want to find them?’
‘They know the location of Medusa’s secret lair. Even I don’t have that information. Plus, they have a couple of extra items that will help you with your quest.’
‘What items?’
Hermes frowned. From his pocket, he pulled a piece of paper and read it. ‘I dunno. They’re not listed on the manifest. But I got this info from Athena, and she usually knows what she’s talking about. Just start flying due east. After two days, you’ll see the island of the Grey Sisters. Can’t miss it. It’s … uh, grey.’
‘Thank you, Hermes!’ Perseus was so grateful he tried to give Hermes a hug.
The god pulled away. ‘Okay, kid, let’s not get excited. Good luck, and try not to run into any mountains, yeah?’
Hermes disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Perseus launched himself into the air, flying east as fast as his ankle-mounted dove wings would carry him.
The island of the Grey Sisters was definitely grey.
A big grey mountain rose from a grey forest, blanketed in ash-coloured fog. Slate cliffs dropped into a churning grey sea.
This must be the place, Perseus thought, because he was smart like that.
He put on his invisibility cap and descended towards a line of smoke rising from the trees – like someone had a campfire going.
In a dreary clearing next to a scum-green lake, three old ladies sat around the fire. They were dressed in grey rags. Their hair looked like dirty straw. On a spit over the fire was a big hunk of sizzling meat, and Perseus really did not want to know where that meat had come from.
As he got closer, he heard the women arguing.
‘Give me the eye!’ one yelled.
‘Give me the tooth and I’ll think about it!’ the second one said.
‘It’s my turn!’ wailed the third. ‘You took the eye when I was in the middle of the last season of The Walking Dead. You can’t do that!’
Perseus edged closer. The old ladies’ faces were withered and sagging like melted masks. Their eye sockets were empty – except for the middle sister, Ugly No. 2, who had one green eye.
The sister on the right, Ugly No. 1, was enjoying a chunk of mystery meat, ripping off pieces with her single mossy incisor. The other two sisters seemed to have no teeth at all. They slurped unhappily from cups of Dannon non-fat Greek yogurt.
Ugly No. 1 popped another piece of meat in her mouth and chewed it with relish. (I mean, with pleasure. She didn’t actually have any relish.)
‘Fine,’ she said. ‘I’m done eating anyway. I’ll trade you for the eye.’
‘That’s not fair!’ said Ugly No. 3. ‘It’s my turn! I don’t have anything!’
‘Shut up and eat your yogurt,’ said Ugly No. 1. She yanked the tooth out of her mouth.
Ugly No. 2 put her hand over her eye and forced a sneeze. The eyeball popped out into her palm, and Perseus tried not to puke.
‘Ready?’ asked Ugly No. 1. ‘We’ll toss them on the count of three, and no funny business!’
Perseus realized this was his chance to do something sneaky and very disgusting. He crept forward.
‘One …’ said Ugly No. 1. ‘Two …’
As the grey lady yelled ‘Three!’ Perseus stepped up. All his training at the temple of Athena and his hours playing Call of Duty must have really improved his hand–eye coordination, because he snatched the eye and the tooth right out of the air.
The grey ladies kept their hands out, ready to catch their traded body upgrades.
‘What happened?’ asked Ugly No. 1. ‘You didn’t throw.’
‘I threw the eyeball!’ Ugly No. 2 said. ‘You didn’t throw the tooth!’
‘I did so!’ shrieked Ugly No. 1. ‘Someone else must have taken it.’
‘Well, don’t look at me!’ said Ugly No. 3.
‘I can’t!’ screamed Ugly No. 1. ‘I don’t have an eye!’
‘I have it,’ Perseus interjected.
The Grey Sisters fell silent.
‘And your tooth,’ he added.
All three ladies whipped knives out from under their rags and lunged towards the sound of his voice. Perseus stumbled back, barely avoiding becoming mystery meat on a spit.
Note to self, he thought. Invisibility doesn’t work on blind people.
Uglies No. 1 and No. 2 knocked heads, fell down and started wrestling. Ugly No. 3 tripped into the cooking fire and rolled out shrieking, trying to smother her burning clothes.
Perseus circled the perimeter of the camp. ‘If you want your eye and tooth back, you’d better behave yourselves.’
‘They’re our property!’ wailed Ugly No. 1.
‘They’re our precious!’ cried Ugly No. 3.
‘Wrong story, you idiot!’ snapped Ugly No. 2.
The three sisters got to their feet. They looked creepy in the firelight – shadows dancing across their hollow eye sockets, knife blades glinting red.
Perseus stepped on a twig. The sisters all turned towards him, hissing like cats.
Perseus tried to steady his nerves. ‘Attack me again,’ he warned, ‘and I’ll squish your eye right now.’
He gave the slimy orb a gentle squeeze. The Grey Sisters shrieked, clawing at their empty sockets.
‘All right!’ wailed Ugly No. 1. ‘What do you want?’
‘First, directions to the lair of Medusa.’
Ugly No. 3 made a sound like a rat being stepped on. ‘We can’t tell you that! We promised to guard the Gorgons’ secret!’
‘And to guard the weapons of the prophecy!’ added Ugly No. 2.
‘Right,’ Perseus said. ‘I’ll also need those weapons of the prophecy.’
The sisters wailed some more and slapped one another upside the head.
‘We can’t give you the weapons!’ said Ugly No. 3. ‘The Gorgons are counting on us! They’ll hunt us down and kill us!’
‘I thought you were immortal,’ Perseus said.
‘Well … true,’ Ugly No. 1 conceded. ‘But you don’t know the Gorgons! They’ll torture us and call us bad names and –’
‘If you don’t help me,’ Perseus said, ‘no tooth and no eye – ever again.’
He squeezed the eyeball a little harder.
‘All right!’ Ugly No. 1 relented. ‘Give us the tooth and the eye, and we’ll help you.’
‘Help me first,’ Perseus said, ‘and I promise I’ll release your eye and tooth immediately.’
(Which was an easy promise to make, because those things were disgusting.)
‘The cave of the Gorgons lies to the east,’ said Ugly No. 2. ‘Another three days as the crow flies. When you reach the mainland, you will see a high cliff rising from the sea. The cave is right in the middle, five hundred feet up. A tiny ledge is the only approach. You will know the place. Just look for the statues.’
‘The statues,’ Perseus repeated.
‘Yes!’ said Ugly No. 3. ‘Now, give us our property!’
‘Not so fast,’ Perseus said. ‘What about those weapons you mentioned?’
Ugly No. 3 howled in frustration. She lunged at Perseus. He dodged easily, and she ran face first into a tree. ‘Owww!’
‘The weapons?’ Perseus asked again, applying more pressure to the community eyeball.
‘Fine!’ Ugly No. 1 cried. ‘A mile south of here is a huge dead oak tree. The weapons are buried between the two largest roots. But don’t tell Medusa we gave them to you!’
‘I won’t,’ Perseus promised. ‘I’ll be too busy killing her.’
‘The eye!’ said Ugly No. 2. ‘The tooth!’
‘Yep.’ Perseus threw them both into the scum-green lake. ‘I promised I’d release them immediately, but I can’t have you following me for revenge. You’d better start diving before some fish decides that eyeball looks tasty.’
The Grey Sisters s
creamed and hobbled blindly towards the water. They dived in like a pack of raggedy walruses.
Perseus wiped his hands on his shirt. Eyeball slime. Gross. He started up his sandals and flew south through the forest.
He found the dead oak tree with no problem. Perseus dug between the two biggest roots and unearthed something like a manhole cover wrapped in a leather blanket. He unwrapped the oiled leather and was immediately blinded by the shininess of a round bronze shield. Its surface was polished like a mirror. Even in the gloomy forest, it reflected enough light to cause a traffic accident.
Perseus peered into the hole he’d dug. There was something else down there – something long and narrow, also swathed in oiled leather. He pulled it out and unwrapped a sweet-looking sword: black leather scabbard, bronze and leather hilt. He unsheathed it and grinned. The blade was perfectly weighted. The edge looked razor sharp.
He swung it at a thick oak branch, just to be sure. The blade went through the branch, then through the trunk, cutting the whole tree in half like it was made of Play-Doh. If you’d seen a demonstration like that on the Demigod Shopping Network, you totally would’ve ordered the sword for $19.99 plus shipping and handling.
‘Oh, yeah,’ Perseus said. ‘This’ll work.’
‘Be careful with that,’ said a woman’s voice.
Perseus spun and nearly decapitated the goddess Athena.
He recognized her right away. He’d grown up in her temple, with its many Athena statues, banners, coffee mugs and drink coasters. She wore a long white sleeveless dress. A tall war helmet crowned her long black hair. In her hands she held a spear and a rectangular shield, both glowing with magic, and her face was beautiful but a little scary, the way a warrior goddess should look. Her storm-grey eyes – unlike all the other grey stuff on this island – were bright and full of fierce energy.
‘Athena!’ Perseus knelt and lowered his head. ‘Sorry about almost cutting your head off!’
‘It’s cool,’ said the goddess. ‘Rise, my hero.’
Perseus got up. His sandals’ little dove wings fluttered nervously around his ankles. ‘Are these … are these weapons for me?’
‘I hope so,’ Athena said. ‘I put the sword and shield here, knowing that some day a great hero would come along – someone worthy of ending Medusa’s curse. I hope you are that hero. I think Medusa has suffered long enough, don’t you?’
‘So, you mean … Wait, I’m confused. You’re going to change her back into a human?’
‘No. I’m going to let you chop her head off.’
‘Oh. That’s fair.’
‘Yes, I thought so. Here’s the deal: you will sneak into the Gorgons’ cave during the day while they’re asleep. That sword is sharp enough to cut through Medusa’s neck, which is as thick as elephant hide.’
‘And the shield?’ Perseus’s eyes lit up. ‘Oh! I get it! I use it like a mirror! I look at Medusa’s reflection rather than looking at her directly, so she can’t turn me to stone.’
Athena smiled. ‘Very good. You have learned some wisdom in my temple.’
‘And also from playing God of War,’ Perseus said. ‘There’s this one level –’
‘Whatever,’ the goddess said. ‘Be careful, Perseus! Even after Medusa is dead, her face will still have the power to petrify mortals. Keep it safely in that leather sack, and don’t show it to anyone unless you want to turn them into solid marble.’
Perseus nodded, mentally storing away that safety tip. ‘What about Medusa’s sisters, the other two Gorgons?’
‘I wouldn’t worry too much about them. They’re sound sleepers. If you’re lucky, you’ll be out of there before they wake up. Besides, you couldn’t kill them even if you tried. Unlike Medusa, the other two Gorgons are immortal.’
‘Why is that?’
‘Heck, I don’t know. Just roll with it. The point is, if they wake up, get out of there. Fast.’
Perseus must have looked pretty terrified.
Athena raised her arms in blessing. ‘You can do this, Perseus. Bring honour to me, and Hermes, and our father, Zeus. Your name will live forever! Just don’t screw up.’
‘Thank you, great goddess!’ Perseus was so overwhelmed, he tried to give Athena a hug, but she backed away.
‘Whoa, there, big boy. No touchy the goddess.’
‘Sorry – I just –’
‘You’re welcome. Now, get going! Good hunting, Perseus!’
The goddess disappeared in a shimmer of light.
In the distance, Perseus heard the Grey Sisters screaming something about murder, and he decided it was time to leave.
Medusa’s lair was having a clearance sale on lawn statuary.
Just as the Grey Sisters had described, the cave sat halfway up a steep cliff overlooking the sea. The mouth of the cavern and the narrow trail leading up to it were decorated with life-size marble warriors. Some had swords raised. Others cowered behind their shields. One dude was crouched with his pants around his ankles, which was a really a bad way to be frozen for all time. All the would-be heroes had one thing in common: an expression of absolute horror.
As the sun rose over the cliffs, shadows moved across the statues, making them look alive. That didn’t help Perseus’s nerves.
Since he was flying, he didn’t have to worry about the treacherous path. Since he was invisible, he didn’t have to worry about being seen.
Still … he was super tense. He looked at the dozens of mortals who’d tried to do what he was about to do. Each of them had been brave enough to come here. Each had been determined to kill Medusa.
Now all of them were dead. Or were they dead? Maybe they stayed conscious after they were turned to stone, which would be even worse. Perseus imagined standing frozen forever, no matter how much your nose itched, waiting until you cracked and crumbled into pieces.
This time will be different, Perseus told himself. These guys didn’t have two gods helping them out.
But he wasn’t sure about that, either. What if he was only the latest in a long line of godly experiments? Maybe Hermes and Athena were sitting up on Mount Olympus, watching his progress, and if he failed they’d be like, Well, that didn’t work. Send in the next guy.
He landed at the entrance of the cave. He crept inside, his shield raised, his sword unsheathed.
The interior was dark and crowded with even more marble heroes. Perseus navigated around a spear-wielding guy in full armour, an archer with a cracked stone bow and a hairy, pot-bellied guy wearing only a loincloth who was completely unarmed. Apparently the guy’s plan had been to surprise Medusa by running in, yelling, waving his arms and being even more ugly than the Gorgons. It hadn’t worked.
The further Perseus went into the cave, the darker it got. Frozen heroes stared at him from contorted faces. Stone blades poked him in uncomfortable spots.
At last he heard a chorus of soft hissing from the back of the room … the sound of hundreds of tiny snakes.
His mouth tasted like battery acid. He raised the polished surface of his shield and saw the reflection of a woman sleeping on a cot about fifty feet away. As she lay on her back with her arms folded over her face, she seemed almost human. She wore a simple white chiton, and her belly looked unusually swollen.
Wait …
Medusa was pregnant?
Suddenly Perseus remembered how Medusa had been cursed in the first place. She’d been playing hanky-panky with Poseidon in Athena’s temple. Did that mean … oh, gods. Ever since Medusa had been turned into a monster, she’d been pregnant with Poseidon’s offspring, unable to give birth because … well, who knew why? Maybe that was part of the curse.
Perseus’s courage faltered. Killing a monster was one thing. Killing a pregnant mother? Uh-uh. That was completely different.
Medusa turned in her sleep and faced him. Behind her, one of her gold wings unfolded against the cave wall. Her arms dropped, revealing sharp brass talons on her fingers. Her hair writhed – a nest of slithering green vipers. How could an
yone sleep with all those little tongues flicking across her scalp?
And her face …
Perseus almost glanced over to make sure he was seeing it correctly in the reflection. Tusks like a wild boar’s jutted from her mouth. Her lips curled in a permanent sneer. Her eyes bulged, making her look vaguely amphibian. But what really made her ugly was how her features were so misshapen and disproportionate. The nose, the eyes, the chin, the brow – taken all together, the face was so wrong, it didn’t make sense.
You know those optical-illusion pictures that make you dizzy and nauseous if you stare at them too long? Medusa’s face was like that, except a thousand times worse.
Perseus kept his eyes on the reflection in the shield. His hand was so sweaty he could barely hold his sword. The reptilian smell of Medusa’s hair filled his nostrils and made him want to gag. Despite the fact that he was invisible, the vipers must have sensed something was wrong. As he got closer, they hissed and bared their tiny fangs.
Perseus couldn’t see the other two Gorgons. Maybe they were sleeping in another part of the cave. Maybe they were out shopping for snake-friendly hair products.
He inched closer until he was standing right over Medusa, but he wasn’t sure he could kill her.
She was still a pregnant whatever-she-was. Her ugliness just made him feel pity … not anger. He should be cutting off King Polydectes’s head instead. But Perseus had made an oath. If he lost his nerve and backed out now, he doubted he’d ever get a second chance.
Then Medusa made up his mind for him.
She must have sensed his presence. Maybe her snake hairdo warned her. Maybe she smelled the scent of demigod. (I’ve been told we smell like buttered toast to monsters, but I can’t vouch for that.)
Her bugged-out eyes snapped open. Her talons curled. She shrieked like an electrocuted jackal and lunged, ready to slash Perseus to ribbons.
Blindly, Perseus swung his sword.
Ka-flump.
Medusa fell backwards, collapsing across her cot.
Bump, bump, bump. Something warm and wet rolled to a stop next to Perseus’s foot.
Eww …
It took all his nerve not to look, not to scream like a pre-schooler and run away. Little dying viper heads tugged at the laces of his sandals.