The Poseidon Girls

Chapter 16 ~ Fighting To Their Deaths (CASS)

Piper, Coral, and I cornered Medea as Katherine and the boys went off to check out the living fur coats.
"You want them shopping for their deaths?" Piper demanded.
"Mmm." Medea blew dust off a display case filled with swords. "I'm a seer, my dear. I know your little secret. But we don't want to dwell on that, do we? Katherine and the boys are having so much fun." Little secret? I glanced at Piper to see what Medea meant by that, but she just shook her head at me.

Leo laughed as he tried on a hat that seemed to be made from enchanted racoon fur. Its ringed tail twitched, and its little legs wiggled frantically as Leo walked. Jason was looking at the men's sportswear, and Katherine was laughing along with Leo. Boys interested in clothes shopping? A clear sign they were under some sort of spell. Piper glared at Medea.
"Who are you?"
"I told you, my dear. I'm the princess of Colchis."
"Where's Colchis?" Coral demanded. Medea's expression turned sad.
"Where was Colchis, you mean. My father ruled the far shores of the Black Sea, as far to the east as a Greek ship could sail in those days." As far as a Greek ship could sail in those days. Medea was starting to let her true self slip. "But Colchis is no more - lost eons ago."
"Eons?" I questioned, hoping to make Medea slip up and reveal who she really was. "How old are you?" Medea laughed.
"A lady should avoid asking or answering that question. Let's just say the, ah, immigration process to enter your country took quite a while."
"Not so long that the fall of your own country was eons ago." Coral said.
"Ah, not everything is as easy as it is for you, my dear."
"Nothing's easy for me." Coral muttered. Either Medea didn't hear her, or she chose to ignore her.
"Anyway, my patron finally brought me through. She made all this possible." Medea swept her hand around the department store.
"Your patron..." Piper began.
"Oh, yes, she doesn't bring just anyone through, mind you - only those who have special talents, such as the me. And really, she insists on so little - a store entrance that must be underground so she can, ah, monitor my clientele; and a favour now and then. In exchange for a new life? Really, it was the best bargain I'd made in centuries." I was about to call her out on that, too, but Jason spoke first.
"Hey, check it out!" From a rack labelled, 'Distressed Clothing', he held up a purple T-shirt like the one he'd worn the first day he'd met us. Except this one had apparently been clawed by tigers. Jason frowned. "Why does this look so familiar?"
"Jason, it's like yours," Piper reminded him.
"Okay, now we seriously have to get out of here." I declared. I wasn't even sure I could be heard over Medea's powerful charmspeak.
"Nonsense," Medea told me. "Katherine and the boys aren't done yet, are they? And yes, my dear. Those shirts are very popular - trade-ins from previous customers. It suits you." Leo picked up an orange Camp Half-Blood tee with a hole through the middle, as if it had been pierced by a javelin. Next to that was a dented bronze breastplate pitted with corrosion, perhaps from acid, and a Roman toga slashed to pieces and stained with something that, disturbingly, reminded me of dried blood.
"Your Highness," Piper sounded surprisingly calm. "Why don't you tell Katherine and the boys how you betrayed your family?"
"Yeah, I'm sure they'd love to hear that story!" I added. Our words had no effect on Medea, of course, but Katherine and the boys turned to us, suddenly interested.
"More story?" Leo asked.
"I like more story!" Katherine and Jason agreed. Medea flashed Piper and I an irritated look. Oh well, serves her right.
"Oh, one will do strange things for love, Piper. You should know that. I fell for that young hero, in fact, because your mother Aphrodite had me under a spell. If it wasn't for her - but I can't hold a grudge against a goddess, can I?" Medea's tone made her meaning clear: I can take it out on you.
"But that hero took you with him when he fled Colchis," Piper remembered. "Didn't he, Your Highness?"
"Yeah, he married you, just like he promised he would." I added. But then I remembered something else. "Oh wait, he didn't..." The look in Medea's eyes almost made me apologise, but there was no way I'd ever apologise to someone like her.
"At first," Medea admitted, "it seemed he would keep his word. But even after I helped him steal my father's treasure, he still needed my help. As we fled, my brother's fleet came after us. He would have destroyed us, but I convinced him to come aboard our ship first and talk under a flag of truce. And he trusted me."
"But then you killed him," I reminded her. "You killed your own brother."