"Whom do you speak of?" Jason said. "Who is it that torments you so?"
"Creatures of his poor, deluded mind, no doubt," said Argus.
"Creatures!" cried Phineus. "Yes, they are creatures, my tormentors, but not creatures of my mind! Would that they were! Listen! Listen! Did you not hear the flapping of their wings?"
Jason approached him. "There is no one, Phineus. Come, rest with us. You are hungry. We have enough to share."
"No! Stay away!"
Jason took his arm and the touch seemed to terrify
the old blind king. He shrank from it, but Jason gently led him back to join the others, where they all sat upon the floor.
"Come and sit with us," said Jason soothingly. "There is no need to be afraid. None will harm you here. We have wine and food that we shall gladly share with you."
As Orpheus passed him a leather sack which contained some of their provisions, a piercing, inhuman shriek echoed throughout the temple. Something swooped down upon them with such speed they never even saw it clearly, feeling only the wind of its passage. The sack was plucked away from Orpheus and he fell back as whatever it was came out of its impossibly fast glide and flew above them. They heard the beating of great wings, like the sounds made by a sail luffing in the wind.
Phineus let out a wail and covered his head with his hands as the Argonauts jumped to their feet.
"By the gods!" swore Theseus. "What was that?"
Hercules strung his bow and nocked an arrow. He stared into the gloom above, seeking a target. All was silent in the temple once again, save for the whimpering noises made by the old man.
"Will they never cease?" he cried. "How long can a man live without food? They will not let me eat, nor sleep, nor leave this cursed place! They will see me starve to death in my wretched exile, an old blind king whose people had no further use for him!"
"What manner of birds are these, Phineus?" asked Jason. "I have never heard tell of birds who tormented men in such a manner!"
"Not birds, but harpies," Phineus said. "They are demons! They are the very Furies, themselves, sent by the gods to plague me for my sins!"
"Hercules, behind you!" shouted Argus.
They saw a huge, birdlike shape plummeting down out of the darkness. Even as Hercules spun around, it struck, clipping him with its wings and tearing the bow out of his grasp. They caught a quick glimpse of a large, avian body, about the size of a man's torso, with huge talons and a leathery wing-spread of at least twenty or thirty feet.
They heard another feral cry and felt the rush of wind as huge wings passed overhead. Hercules cursed at the loss of his bow. Delaney brought up his own bow and let fly an arrow, but he missed and they heard it strike the ceiling.
"Fast as hell for something that big," he said.
"How many of them are there?" asked Jason.
"I count at least three," said Theseus.
They stood with weapons drawn, waiting for the next attack. It came quickly. They heard the whoosh of something moving with incredible speed and Andre cried out as talons sank into her shoulders, lifting her off the ground. She twisted in the creature's grasp as it bore her up and struck at it repeatedly with her sword. It screeched, a sound somewhere between a woman's scream and an eagle's cry and a moment later, a tangled shape fell out of the air and struck the floor of the temple with an audible impact. They rushed over and found Andre lying on top of the creature. Its body had cushioned her fall, but there were large bloody wounds in her shoulders where the hooked talons had pierced the skin and she was stunned from the shock of the impact.
"Stay by me, boy," said Idmon, putting a protective arm around Hylas and glancing up fearfully.
"By Zeus, look at that!" said Theseus. "Have you ever seen such a creature? The old man spoke the truth. They are demons, indeed!"
The harpy had the body of a giant hawk, with disproportionately large talons and huge, batlike, jointed wings. Its face was that of a woman, but a woman only superficially. The eyes were vulture's eyes, dull yellow and filmed, with a ridge of feathers where the eyebrows should have been. The jaw was outsized, hinged like a snake's, and two sharp, curving fangs protruded from the dead monster's open mouth.
"Are you all right?" said Steiger.
Andre gasped for breath and nodded her head. "I will be as soon as my heart stops fibrillating." She touched her shoulder and winced with pain.
"Well, demons or not, we have downed one of them," said Theseus. "And I, for one, shall not rest until we have accounted for the others! Who attacks one of us attacks us all!"
"Come on then!" Jason cried, his voice echoing off the temple walls. "Show yourselves! Let us see what you can do with men who are not old and blind and weak!"
Steiger bent down over the body of the harpy, examining it carefully. It was bloody where Andre had hacked it with her sword. Steiger dipped his fingers in the blood and sniffed them.