Stone Blind(34)

The one on the left said nothing.

‘He looks young,’ said the one in the middle.

‘Could we eat him?’ asked the one on the right.

Perseus was holding his sword, but he could feel his hands shaking.

‘No, not that young,’ said the middle one. ‘Perhaps if we boiled him, but I don’t think so.’

The one on the left suddenly delivered a sharp blow to the middle one. There was a howl of pain and a flurry of cloaks and then suddenly the middle one went silent.

‘Why don’t you come closer?’ asked the one on the left. Perseus grew cold, and tried to convince himself it was sweat from his climb that was making his back clammy and his hair damp. He took a small step nearer to the huddled bodies. ‘That’s it,’ she continued. ‘So I can see you.’

‘Does Enyo have the eye?’ asked the one on the right. ‘Have you let her have it when it was my turn?’

The one in the middle hissed at her. ‘I didn’t let her. She took it. You heard her taking it.’

‘But it was my turn,’ repeated the one on the right.

‘Be quiet, Pemphredo,’ said the one on the left. ‘You can have your turn later.’

‘You always say that,’ she wailed. ‘I want to see now. Deino always lets you get your own way. It isn’t fair.’

‘She stole it from me,’ said the middle one, whom Perseus presumed must be Deino. ‘It was still my turn and it would have been yours next, if she hadn’t stolen it.’

Perseus had no idea what to say. These strange old women, who could agree on nothing, were supposed to help him? The gods must have been playing a cruel trick.

‘Well, you weren’t telling us what was going on,’ said Enyo. ‘I needed to see for myself. You don’t deserve to have the eye if you don’t use it properly. No, Pemphredo, we can’t eat him. He’s a man, almost. What do you want?’

‘The gods told me you could help me,’ Perseus said.

‘Help you with what?’ said Pemphredo, her mood seemingly unimproved by the confirmation that their guest was not edible.

‘Which gods?’ asked Deino.

‘Ones we like, or ones we don’t?’ said Enyo.

‘Hermes,’ Perseus said. ‘And Athene.’

‘Oh, I see,’ said Deino. She turned to Pemphredo. ‘Well, you like her, don’t you?’

Pemphredo shrugged. ‘She’s not the worst of them, I suppose.’

‘I don’t like Hermes,’ said Enyo. ‘But of course you never remember that.’

‘Why don’t you like him?’ asked Deino.

‘Because he’s a liar and a thief,’ said Pemphredo. ‘You shouldn’t like him either.’

Perseus looked from one to another, and wondered who he should be addressing.

‘They sent me to seek your help,’ he said into the space between them. ‘With my quest.’

Deino threw back her ancient head and laughed. The other two women joined in. Perseus wondered if mocking him was the only thing the old hags agreed on.

‘With your quest?’ said Enyo. ‘What kind of quest would that be?’

Perseus straightened his shoulders. ‘I seek the head of a Gorgon,’ he replied.

All sounds of merriment ceased.

‘The head of a Gorgon?’ said Deino. ‘Now what made the gods think we would help you with that?’

‘I have to take it back to Polydectes,’ Perseus said, in case they thought he was just greedy. ‘Otherwise he demands that my mother marry him.’

‘And why would we care about your mother’s marital plans?’ asked Enyo.

‘She wants to stay with Dictys,’ said Perseus, but he could feel his voice getting smaller.

‘It doesn’t matter what she wants if we don’t care about her,’ said Pemphredo. ‘Mortals are all the same,’ she said to her sisters. ‘They think their concerns are everyone’s concerns.’

‘So you don’t want to help me?’ Perseus asked.

It was Enyo who replied. ‘Why would we? What’s in it for us?’

‘What do you want? I could get it for you.’ Perseus had no idea how he could get anything for these old women, not least because he didn’t know how he could get away from their cliff or get back here with whatever it was they asked for.

‘What do we want?’ asked Deino. ‘That’s a good question. What do we want?’ The three sisters muttered to each other for a moment and Perseus waited, hoping they might want something that was just outside the cave.

‘Another eye,’ said Pemphredo.

‘Two more eyes,’ corrected Deino.

‘Each,’ said Enyo.

‘I’m sorry?’

‘We want more eyes,’ Enyo repeated. ‘We share one.’

‘I don’t understand,’ said Perseus. ‘What do you mean, you share one?’

‘It isn’t difficult,’ said Pemphredo. ‘We only have one eye, and we have to share it. Some of us get less of a share than others.’

‘How do you share it?’ he asked, staring into the darkness. He had assumed that their eye sockets were wrinkled because they were old, but now that he knew he was looking at empty space, he could see it. ‘One of you just tells the others what she can see? Is that right?’