said, her voice smooth as silk.
her gaze, and how Perseus destroyed her with a
mirrored shield.
“Don’t look her in the eyes!” Anansi suddenly
screamed telepathically. He almost didn’t say it in
time.
“I am the monster,” She said, her voice dripping with
venom. Out of the corner of his eye, Gabriel saw a
woman come out of the shadows and into view. One
moment later, and he would have looked at her
squarely. Instead, he looked several feet to the side of
her, taking in her form using his peripheral vision. She
was tall as a man, a bit taller than Gabriel from what
he could tell, and she wore a ragged red dress that
came almost to the ground. Rather than legs, Gabriel
saw a mass of writhing snakes skimming along the
ground. She tried to dart directly into Gabriel’s view,
faster than he expected, but he dropped his eyes fully
to the ground. Her arms gleamed a brilliant, shining
gold color, and reflected light from Prime’s shoulder
lamps all around the cave. Gabriel wondered if her
hair was made of venomous snakes like the stories
told, but he didn’t chance looking up near her face.
“Why do you look away, Gabriel? Why do you not
meet my gaze? Am I not beautiful?” Ptolema asked,
almost pouting.
“No thanks. I’d rather not turn to stone today,”
Gabriel said, his voice shaking. He remembered the
stories of Medusa, how she turned men to stone with
“There are worse ways to die,” Ptolema said, all the
playfulness, seduction, and beauty suddenly gone
from her voice. She was deadly serious. And then she
was moving. She was fast, so much faster than
Gabriel could have imagined. He leapt out of her way,
but only just in time. He felt the wind move past him
and smelled her, a waft of rotting flesh and dry
snakeskin.
Gabriel scrabbled along the cave floor to get away
from the horrifying woman. Tiny snake heads
snapped at the air behind his heels. He looked all
around for something, anything to fight with, to hide
behind, anything.
“Oh, get up, little man. Die on your feet,” Ptolema
balked, and then laughed at him, but only briefly. A
massive shadow suddenly came over Gabriel,
blocking out the light from Prime’s lamps. Fearful of
looking up, he looked around and saw a massive paw,
like one belonging to a lion that was three times larger
than it should have been. A deafening roar filled his
ears and Gabriel crawled out from under the creature,
seemingly unnoticed. It was almost a giant lion,
except it had two equally huge red feathered wings
and the tail of a scorpion, its stinger poised to strike
some thirty feet up in the air.
Page 37