Medusa seemed calm in spite of the menacing blade touching her throat.
“Don’t yield to this blackmail, Beorf, don’t tell him anything!” she said. “If you save me, you will imperil many other people! Let him kill me! He’ll kill us anyway once he gets the pendant. Save your life and keep quiet!”
Beorf did not know what to do.
“Decide quickly!” Karmakas said, pushing the blade against the skin of the young gorgon.
Medusa howled in pain.
Unable to see his friend suffer, Beorf shouted, “All right, let her live and I’ll give you the pendant. Swear that you won’t hurt her!”
“I swear,” the naga answered. “I’ll wait for you here, ssss, with her, ssss, to be sure that you come back. Retrieve my, ssss, pendant and hurry. My patience is running, ssss, thin.”
Beorf morphed into his bear form and left the cavern in one leap. He ran as fast as he could to Bratel-la-Grande’s cemetery. On his way, he tried to come up with a solution, a way to outsmart the sorcerer. If only Amos were here! he thought. He would find a way to keep the pendant and save Medusa. One thing was clear to him: the gorgon had to be saved, and he would do all he could to keep her alive-and close to him. He was ready to sacrifice his own life to rescue her.
Once in the cemetery, Beorf approached a vault belonging to a prominent family in the city. He moved one of the stones that had become loose over the years and recovered the pendant quickly. The beorite breathed a little easier with the precious object between his paws. His thoughts were confused and his fear of losing Medusa was torturing him. He was trapped! There was no reason for the naga to spare their lives once he got the pendant back. Beorf had done everything he could to keep the pendant from falling into the sorcerer’s hands. Now he had no choice: he had to face death with dignity, hoping for Karmakas’s mercy. With these somber thoughts, he walked back holding the pendant between his teeth.
When he reached the cavern, Beorf took his human form again. He was perspiring.
“Here is your pendant!” he told the sorcerer, who was still threatening Medusa with his weapon. “Now, spare us. If you really have to kill someone to satisfy your anger, take my life, but let Medusa live. She has nothing to do with this. It’s between you and me!”
Karmakas grabbed the pendant. He let out a monstrous laugh. “Very well, ssss, I will take your life and, ssss, let Medusa live. You agree, ssss, to this?”
Resigned, Beorf took a deep breath. “Yes, my life for hers!” he said solemnly.
The naga seemed to enjoy Beorf’s predicament. He put his dagger aside and removed the hood from Medusa’s head.
“You see, ssss, my beautiful child,” he said, addressing the young gorgon whose back faced Beorf, “how, ssss, everything ends well for you!”
Medusa hugged Karmakas and kissed his cheek.
“You told me once that beorites were stupid and sentimental,” she said. “You were right! It was easy to make him talk. So easy. Thank you for believing in me, Father. I think I played my part rather well.”
Beorf stared at them openmouthed. He could not believe his ears or his eyes. Karmakas looked at him smugly.
“Let me introduce my, ssss, daughter Medusa,” he said. “Every gorgon is, ssss, my child. We are, ssss, a large family!”
Medusa brought her hood down over her eyes and turned toward Beorf.
“Did you really believe that you had become my friend?” she said to him. “I hate hairy creatures. They disgust me! You stink like a wild beast and I find you repulsive. I don’t like you. In fact, I hate you. If you used your mind more often than your stomach, you’d have understood that I was not sincere. It was so simple to make you believe that I was your friend. I don’t deserve my father’s praise. You are stupid, Beorf!”
Beorf held back tears. “I really loved you, Medusa,” he said. “And even if I know now that you lied and that I’m going to die, I’ll never regret the time I spent with you. They were the best moments of my life.”
“Be quiet!” cried the gorgon. “You’re pitiful. But I will do something for you. In exchange for the stupid doll that you made me, I’ll grant one of your wishes. I’ll let you see my eyes. They will be the last thing you see before turning to stone. It would be a pity to deprive you of them!”
Beorf’s desire to see Medusa’s eyes was so strong that when she pulled up her hood, Beorf did not even think of turning his head away. He saw that her eyes were bloodred. At the center of each pupil a light flickered like a blazing fire. He was suddenly unable to move. He felt his skin harden. A wave of cold invaded his body. But just before he turned to stone, Beorf spoke.
“You have the most beautiful eyes in the world, Medusa,” he said tenderly.
15 THE NEW MISSION
For almost a week, Medusa had returned every day to the cavern where Beorf stood petrified and lifeless. She studied his honest face, now frozen in stone. The gorgon could not get his last words out of her mind: You have the most beautiful eyes in the world, Medusa. Right until the end, Beorf had not wavered. He had proven that his feelings for her were true.
Medusa did not understand his behavior. Love did not exist among gorgons. It was a feeling to be avoided, a weakness attributed to other races. Love and friendship were ridiculed. Having real friends was unheard of in Medusa’s country. It was only to survive that the weakest united with the strongest ones. At home, daily life was a constant struggle to gain power, to lead clans, to find food, and to secure a place to sleep.
Since her childhood, Medusa had known only the cruelty of her fellow gorgons. The only being who had given her something similar to affection was her father. Karmakas took in the weakest gorgons and looked after them. From then on, they had to serve him without balking. This was the way he had created a powerful army. Each gorgon knew his power and nobody dared to defy him. He wanted to be called Father and promoted his best soldiers. All the highest-ranking gorgons were called Mother. The magician had thus managed to create a false sense of family.
Beorf had told Medusa a lot about his own parents, but she had been unable to understand that sort of relationship. At home, there were no males. Gorgons were all women. Legend said that the first gorgon-the gorgon who had been transformed by Ceto-reproduced herself each time a drop of her blood fell on the ground. In fact, gorgons reproduced by means of their hair. A new gorgon was born out of each snake-hair. After reaching maturity, the reptile fell on the ground and in time became a gorgon. Therefore, Medusa had never known a close family structure. It was each gorgon for herself. To help the youngest ones, or to take care of the eldest, was out of the question. Life was difficult, and only the strongest, most cunning, and most vicious managed to survive.
Medusa had not lied to Beorf when she told him that Karmakas was in control of her snake-hairs through his magic. When a gorgon did not obey the sorcerer’s orders, the reptiles bit the gorgon’s face and shoulders pitilessly. The pain was so intense that it destroyed any desire for revolt or independence.
When Karmakas had realized that the humanimal refused to talk in spite of his hunger, he had decided to ensnare him. Karmakas ordered Medusa to free Beorf and make him believe that she was his friend. He then listened to every conversation that the gorgon and man-bear had in the cavern through the intermediary of the golden snakes of the gorgon’s hair. The heart of a beorite was as big as its stomach. The sorcerer’s ruse had proven successful.
Now Karmakas had the pendant, and he remained locked inside Bratel-la-Grande’s castle. He had decreed that no one was to leave the capital. But Medusa knew Beorf’s secret passage and refused to obey the sorcerer. Every day, she slipped out of the city through the secret tunnel and went to be with the young humanimal.
There was something fascinating about this boy. Looking at him, the young gorgon felt a new feeling grow inside of her-a sense of emptiness that she had never known before. She wanted to take him in her arms, to watch him stuff himself with nuts, to listen to his chatter, and to feel the warmth of his back against hers. The feeling that was growing slowly within her gave her increasing pain. It wasn’t like the pain from a snakebite or a wound received in battle. It was more acute, deeper and more serious.