She led Steiger and Delaney down one of several corridors branching off from the main chamber. They passed a number of women heading the other way, carrying trays of food. All were young and beautiful and very fit. She stopped before a door and beckoned them inside. It was a bath chamber, filled with steam and fragrant smells from the scented water and the burning braziers. The tiled sunken bath filled most of the room and Andre sat within it, being bathed by two beautiful young women.
"Do you believe this?" Delaney asked, speaking in English. "We get chained and thrown into a cold cell while Cleopatra here gets the red carpet treatment."
"Apparently there are some advantages to being a woman around here," Andre said. "Come on in and get your backs scrubbed."
"You don't have to ask me twice," said Delaney, shucking his chiton and sandals. He got in and one of the women smilingly moved over and began to scrub him gently with a soft-cloth.
Steiger sat down cross-legged on the floor. "Would it be too much trouble to ask just what in hell is happening here?"
Delaney reclined into the woman's arms and sighed. "Right this minute, I'm in no particular hurry to find out."
A woman bent down over Steiger and smiled, gesturing toward the bath, but he shook his head.
"I could force myself to stay here for a while," Delaney said, grinning.
Steiger frowned. "What did you tell Queen What's-her-name?"
"Hypsipyle," Andre said. "She thought I was being kept by the crew against my will, sort of a ship's concubine. I told her I was part of the crew, voluntarily, and we were on a voyage to Colchis to bring back the golden fleece. She thought the Argonauts were pirates. She seems to have a tendency to think the worst of men."
"Have you seen any men here at all?" said Steiger.
"Not a one. No old people or children, either."
"How did Hypsipyle account for that?"
"She said the men were away at war and the children were being kept with the old people on another part of the island, for their protection."
"And none of the men stayed behind to provide this protection?"
"The women seem quite capable of looking after themselves," said Andre, "which makes me wonder why none of them went to war with the men. I spent more time answering questions that asking them. Hypsipyle said you were all being kept in another part of the palace until she could determine whether or not you were a threat. I wasn't sure of my ground, so I didn't want to press her. Apparently, she's decided we're welcome to stay, so long as our stay is brief. Her story is obviously thin, but it matches the events of the myth."
"I know and I don't buy it."
"You sure you don't want a scrub?" Delaney asked.
"Delaney, doesn't any of this seem a little unusual to you?"
"Sure. But that doesn't mean I can't enjoy myself while I think about it. I do my best thinking when I'm relaxed." He looked up at the woman in whose arms he reclined and smiled. "And this sure is relaxing."
Steiger spoke to her in Greek. "Where are all the old people? Where are the children?"
She smiled at him vacuously and shook her head, as if she didn't understand. She beckoned him into the tub.
"No thanks. I'm old enough to wash myself." He got to his feet and switched back to English. "We're obviously not going to get anything out of them. I'm going to take a look around. Something about this mission has to start making sense, sooner or later."
"I thought he said he didn't get tense," said Delaney, after Steiger had left.
"He's right, you know," said Andre. "There's something very peculiar about these women. With the exception of Hypsipyle, they all seem stunted in their development. Childlike. It's as if they were all stamped out of the same mold. They're all young and beautiful, yet somehow asexual."
Delaney reached out and touched the naked breast of the woman bathing him. She made no response. "You think maybe they're just not interested in men?" he said.
"No one's made a pass at me," said Andre. "I've tried communicating with them, but you see what they're like. They don't really seem interested in us at all. We're speaking in a foreign language that they've never heard before and they're not in the least bit curious. I've spoken with Hypsipyle, but nothing I say gets more than a smile out of any of the others. I haven't even heard any of them converse among themselves."
"Interesting," said Delaney, looking thoughtful. "No men, no children and apparently no one over the age of twenty-five. They're all young, all beautiful, and they all act somehow retarded, except in direct response to Hypsipyle. And they only seem capable of limited reactions."
As if in play, Delaney threw his arms around one of the women, then suddenly bit down hard on the flesh of her upper arm.
"Finn!" Andre shouted, shocked by his action.