The water seeming brighter than the sky, as if it were the source of light. Wide channel, widening still into the greater sea. Calm and mirroring, long thin tracks of seabirds. No sign of her father’s ship, and now she’ll never know what became of him. She had expected to meet him here or at Ilium. The Argo will vanish into these islands and a larger world, unreachable.

They must have passed him in darkness. It’s the only explanation, because he would have pursued, and they were delayed so long with Cyzicus he must have gone ahead. He wasn’t waiting at Ilium, so he had to have been anchored somewhere else in the channel, not expecting them to row through the night.

Medea searches the waters behind, keeps expecting to see a mast or wake, but all is calm. Hekate, she calls out, loud enough for the men to hear. You have protected us in night. Medea chants to Hekate, low and soft, claiming safe passage so the men will know, but she thinks only of Nute.

The men rowing for home now. Iolcus not far, perhaps no more than a few days’ sail. Wives and children and land and whatever it is they do when not on a reckless voyage. Telling lies. This is what Medea imagines, each of the Argonauts sitting by a fire at night with all his kinsmen and every other man within a day’s walk, every last shepherd, telling tales of great giants made of stone ripping trees from the earth and using them as clubs. Each Argonaut at the center, his shipmates no more than shadow as he throws a giant to the ground, plunges his fist and pulls a heart of blood from stone.

Each Argonaut will have been the personal guest of kings, feasted and offered land and women and goats, but each will have chosen to return, a loyalty enough to have every kinsman kissing native soil.

No one will question one hide with a bit of gold dust. No one will ask where the other gifts are from these kings, rare objects from foreign lands. In truth, only Medea has been brought back. She is the only prize. But she might say anything, so she will not be brought to these fires. She will be hoarded away in Jason’s home, if he has any sort of home at all. A would-be king denied his patrimony, and to think this one golden fleece is going to change that seems like only a wish. Pelias will not go so easily.

Medea is Jason’s best weapon. Alliance through her with another kingdom. That might be worth something. Heirs royal on both sides, even if Aeetes is betrayed and filled with rage now. Someday Aeetes will be gone, and when the heirs are old enough, someone else will rule Colchis, related by blood.