Chapter 22

Diana knew where to find Circe's temple; one time in the years before the war it had been her prison. The Amazon Queen had her theories on who and how Circe was freed, centring mainly on Orm and Pentisilla using Mera as a pawn before deciding her use was done and it was time she made the ultimate sacrifice to their cause.

The island would be guarded, but Diana wasn't sure by whom or what, though she was prepared to face some of Circe's more talented champions. Her mother hadn't told her much about the rival for Ares' love, but she had learned much from her aunt, who at the time seemed to be keeping a close eye on the sorceress. Circe had claimed the souls of many of the most handsome, strongest heroes of legend and antiquity, not only of the Greek and Roman tradition, but it was rumoured she had Saxon, Norse, Celt and Gaels among her lovers as well.

And now she had Arthur, Diana thought to herself, her feet landing on the lush ground. Circe's island appeared, to Diana, to be magical, much like her own, with flora and fauna much like that which had been on her island prior to the sinking of Themyscira. It was beautiful, almost painfully so; it was like Circe had taken every aspect of the life Diana should have been living for her own.

Unbidden, her hand clenched the trident and the corners of her mouth turned down.

No, the Queen corrected herself as she looked up to the top of the mountain side where Diana could see the purple drapes of Circe's self-indulgent shrine was erected fluttering in the wind. She could try to take what was Diana's, just as she had tried to take the attention of the God of War from her mother, but she would not succeed.

She must not succeed.

Diana set off into the forest, heading towards the foothills of the mountain.

A long, serpentine tail, slithered behind her, the head and body long disappeared into the underbrush. It was a forest, though, a decidedly tropical one at that, and as such, the Amazon did not pay any special note to a snake in the grass.

Foolish child of Aphrodite and Athena, the Gorgon known as Medusa thought to herself. You go to rescue the hero of Poseidon, and the benevolent Circe gives my sisters and I a chance to reclaim our past indignities in one foul swoop.

"Hush sister," Stheno, the eldest of the three sisters said. "You will be avenged, but we mustn't be hasty. Athena forbid us to harm women, we must made the attack look as if she attacked us first." Stheno was the most independent, and aggressive when it came to killing men, of the sisters, but she also was one of the least comfortable with the plan. Being so independent minded, she was wary of trusting Circe, known for being manipulative.

"Pox on Athena's wishes!" said Medusa. "I begged and prayed for her protection and for a sin not of my own doing or cause she turned all of us into these creatures!" Medusa had been defiled, raped, on the floor of Athena's temple by the sea god Poseidon, and when she begged the Goddess to protect her, Athena was disgusted with what had happened and turned Medusa, along with her sisters who had watched helpless as their youngest companion had been defiled, into the Gorgon monsters. Adding insult to injury, the hero Perseus had killed Medusa, and given the head to Athena to put on her shield! It was not until Circe came to Hades and revived the youngest sister that the three were united again, and taken from the desecrated temple they had once been charged with "protecting," and given refuge in the lush paradise of Circe's island.

There was, of course, a catch. There was always a catch in the world of Greek myth. The catch in this case was that they would have to recant their promise, their vow, to never harm a woman should any Amazon enter the island, especially if the Amazon was the Queen, Diana. The special caveat was allowed, as the Amazons were servants of, not only Aphrodite who had struck the lust for Medusa in the heart of Poseidon, but also Athena, who punished not only the girl, but her sisters, for the sins of the Goddess' own brother. To learn the reason Diana was coming to Circe's temple was to save her former lover and fiancé, the Champion of the hated Poseidon, was even better.

"Patience," urged the middle sister, the most even minded of the group. Even before the transformation Euryale had been the most gentle, though not nearly as beautiful as her sisters. Of all the sisters, she had urged modesty and been the most devout follower of the Goddess Athena, though she never complained when her fate was the same as her sisters. Instead she put her immortality and her challenge to protect to good use. "The sweetest kills are the ones that are waited on."

The trio set out after the Queen, following at a distance and waiting. There was a clearing coming shortly, and along the edge the woods got thick to the point it would slow Diana down, The sisters knew she would not use her power of flight, doing so would expose and announce her presence to Circe immediately. Instead she would have to work her way through the thick underbrush on foot, and without her powerful sword. In its place, it appeared, she was wielding the weapon of Poseidon, the mythical trident used by his champions. The sisters inferred that it was from Arthur, that it was part of a previous alliance with the king, knowing nothing of the first half of Circe's plan, reuniting the lovers by using Poseidon's most powerful and aggressive son, an enemy to both Arthur and Diana.

They knew only what they needed to know to be useful to the sorceress. They knew Diana worshiped Athena as the Queen of the Amazons. They knew Arthur was the Champion of Poseidon as King of Atlantis, and they knew that the two were madly in love and had wronged Circe, not that the details of that part mattered much to the sisters.

Diana hesitated as the woods started to get thicker, slowing her pace down. Something wasn't right in her mind; she felt like she was being herded in a specific direction. Her blue eyes peered around, trying to use her peripheral vision to get more information on her surroundings, but it was useless; her vision was impeded too much by the dense foliage, as her hearing was distracted by the calls of birds and the slithering of snakes.

Snakes…? Diana thought on this for a moment, she had heard a snake, and seen the long tail of one previously.