MEDUSA

For my god-daughters, Florence and Elsa

J.B.
For
O.L.G.

BLOOMSBURY YA
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First published in Great Britain in 2021 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

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Illustrations copyright © Olivia Lomenech Gill, 2021

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ISBN: HB: 978-1-4088-8693-9; TPB: 978-1-5266-3779-6; eBook: 978-1-4088-8692-2

J E S S I E BU RTO N
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I L L U S T R AT E D B Y
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Books by Jessie Burton

The Restless Girls

Medusa
 CHAPTER ONE

I
f I told you that I’d killed a man with a glance, would you wait
to hear the rest? The why, the how, what happened next? Or
would you run from me, this mottled mirror, this body of unusual
flesh? I know you. I know you won’t leave, but let me start with
this instead: a girl, on the edge, a cliff, her strange hair blowing
backwards in the wind. A boy, down below, on his boat. Let them
spill themselves out to each other, their story older than time itself.
Let them reveal themselves until they reveal too much.
Let me start on my rocky island.
We’d been there four years, my older sisters and me, an eternal
banishment we’d chosen for ourselves. And in almost all things,
the place suited my needs perfectly, being deserted, beautiful,
inhospitable. But forever is a long time and there were days when
I thought I might go mad – that in fact, I already had.
Yes, we’d escaped, yes, we’d survived – but ours was a half-
life, hiding in caves and shadows. My dog, Argentus, my sisters,
me: my name sometimes whispered on the breeze.

1
 Medusa, Medusa, Medusa – in repetition and decisions A lovely back. The way he dropped his anchor in my waters.
made, my life, my truths, my quieter days, the thoughts that Then, as he straightened up, the outline of his head. A perfect
formed, had fallen all away. And what was left? These jagged head! Turning round, his face tipped up towards my island.
outcrops, an arrogant girl justly punished, a tale of snakes. He looked, but he did not see.
Outrageous reality: I’d never known a change that wasn’t I know a lot about beauty. Too much, in fact. But I’d never
monstrous. And here was another truth: I was lonely and I was seen anything like him.
angry, and rage and loneliness can end up tasting the same. He was around my age, tall and in proportion although a
Four years stuck on an island is a long time to think about little underweight, as if he’d been travelling far in that boat of
everything that’s gone wrong in your life. The things people did his and hadn’t known how to fish. The sunlight loved his head,
to you that were out of your control. Four years alone like that making diamonds in the water to crown it. His chest was a
sharpens the hunger for friendship and it bloats your dreams of drum on which the world beat a rhythm, and his mouth the
love. So you stand on the top of a cliff, hiding yourself behind a music to dance above it.
rock. The wind slaps a sail, and the barking of a stranger’s dog To look at that boy was painful, yet I could not turn away.
starts up. Then a boy appears, and you feel that your dreams I wanted to eat him up like honey cake. It might have been
might soon become reality. Except this time, life won’t be desire, it might have been dread: I think it might have been
outrageous. This time, it will be good and happy. both. I wanted him to see me, and was frightened that he might.
My heart astonished me like a new bruise that wanted pressing.
The first thing I saw of this boy – me on that cliff edge, He seemed to be gauging the scale and insurmountability
peering down, him on the boat, unseeing – was his back. of my rocks. A dog, source of the bark that brought me to my

2 3
lookout in the first place, dashed on the boat deck like a ball
of light.
‘Orado!’ the boy called to this ball of light. ‘For the love of
Zeus, calm down!’
He sounded stressed, but his voice was clear. He had a
strange accent, so I assumed he’d come from far away. Orado
the dog sat down on his rump, and wagged his tail. My bruised
heart lifted as I watched this creature. A friend for Argentus?
I asked myself, thinking how lonely my dog had been for his
own species.
But you know what I was really thinking: A friend for me.

5
 C H A P T E R T WO

T
his young man pulled himself on to a rock, and sat with
his legs dangling in the water, doing nothing except
patting Orado on the head. His hunched pose gave me the
impression that he didn’t want to be here, and also that he
was completely lost. He looked ready to jump back on to his
deck, unfurl his sails and leave.
Do it, I urged him, silently, from my hideout. Leave this
place. It’ll be better for both of us. My cliffs are too high for
a reason.
Just as these thoughts bloomed in my head like unwanted
flowers, so too came another. Come, come up here. Come up
and see me!
But he could never see me. Medusa, I said to myself.
Imagine the moment. No way. For what would he see – a girl or
a monster? Or both at the same time? As if sensing my agitation,
my head began to writhe. I reached up my hands and heard a
gentle hiss.

6
 Four years previously, I’d had lovely hair. No – I should say: No one in the world has a head like mine. At least, I don’t
four years previously, everything had been different, and the think they do: I could be wrong. There could be women all over the
very least of it was that I’d had lovely hair. But seeing as I’ve world with snakes instead of hair. My sister Euryale thought they
been accused of vanity enough times by people who nevertheless were a gift from the gods. While she had a point – it was literally
thought it their right to ogle me, I might as well tell you: my the goddess Athena who did this to me – I begged to disagree.
hair was lovely. I wore it long and unbound, except when fishing My creel of eels, my needy puppies; a head of fangs, excitable. Why
with my sisters, because you don’t want hair in your eyes when would a young woman trying to get through her life want that?
you’re trying to catch a squid. It was dark brown, it waved down When I breathed I felt the snakes breathing too, and when
my back, and my sisters would scent it with thyme oil. I tensed my muscles they rose to strike. Euryale said that they
I’d never thought about it much. It was just my hair. But I were intelligent because I was, varied in colour and disposition
would come to miss it. because I was. They were unwieldy because I was, and, at times,
These days – from the nape of my neck, over the crown and disciplined because I was. Yet we were not quite in symbiosis,
right up to my forehead – my skull’s a home for snakes. That’s because despite all that, I couldn’t always predict how they would
right. Snakes. Not a single strand of human hair, but yellow behave. Four years together and I was still not entirely their
snakes and red snakes, green and blue and black snakes, snakes mistress. They scared me.
with spots on and snakes with stripes. A snake the colour of I closed my eyes and tried not to think about Athena and her
coral. Another one of silver. Three or four of brilliant gold. I’m awful warning before we fled our home: Woe betide any man fool
a woman whose head hisses: quite the conversation starter, if enough to look upon you now! Athena hadn’t hung around to
there was anyone around to have a conversation. explain herself further; shocked and sorrowful, we had fled soon

8 9
after. I was still in the dark about what kind of woe she’d meant. It was Argentus and Orado who started it for us; our canine
Anyway, it wasn’t that I wanted anyone to look at me. I Cupids. My dog caught the scent of the boy’s dog on the breeze,
was so tired of being stared at my whole life, and now, with the and before I could stop him, Argentus had rushed from our cave,
snakes, the only thing I wanted to do was hide. They made me feel making a long-legged skitter down the hairpin bends of the rock
hideous, which I suspect was entirely Athena’s intention. face towards the shore.
I felt a twitch from the small serpent I’d called Echo. Orado, for his part, jumped off the promontory and loped
Echo was pink in colour, with emerald bands all up her body, towards my looming wolfhound like an emperor greeting his
and actually, she was sweet of nature. I turned in the direction island ambassador. I hardly dared to breathe as our animals circled
that Echo was straining, and something snagged my eye. A tip each other. The boy rose to his feet with a puzzled expression,
of a sword, glinting on the deck of the boy’s boat, under a sheet looking up again at the sheer rock as if trying to work out how
of goatskin. Not just any old weather-beaten sword, covered in on earth Argentus had appeared. He turned back towards the
nicks and rust-coloured blood, like other men’s. No. This was a deck of his boat, to where the sword lay partially exposed. To
brand-new number, and its point gleamed. my relief, he left the weapon where it was.
Never been used, I was sure. ‘Hello, you,’ I heard the boy say to Argentus.
Echo hissed, but I closed my mind to her warning. I’d been At the sound of his voice, even up on the cliff edge, my snakes
without company my own age for four long years, and the boy recoiled, curling into themselves so that my head was a nest of
was so beautiful. I’d risk the sword if it meant I could keep snail shells. Argentus began to growl. Hush, I told my snakes.
looking. Watch. The young man crouched to pat Argentus on the head,
but Argentus backed away.

10 11
 ‘Who are you?’ I called down. I spoke in panic, worried that would have happened. We think, for example, that Perseus would
Argentus’s suspicion of this new arrival would drive him to his have sailed on his way, with his sword and Zeus knows what else
boat at any moment. And I spoke in hope: it felt of utmost underneath that goatskin, and I wouldn’t be talking to you like
importance that this boy should stay on my island – for a day, a this. I might still be waiting on that island, even today. I certainly
week, a month. Maybe longer. A change in fortune was coming. wouldn’t be here.
I wasn’t going to let it slip. But it didn’t happen like that. And the simpler path has never
Startled, the boy looked up, but I knew he couldn’t see me: I’d been for me.
become an expert at hiding in plain sight.
‘My name is Perseus!’ he called back. Perseus began pacing back and forth beneath the scree that led
Perseus. Just like that, as if the clouds should know his name. directly to where I was hiding. ‘Who are you?’ he said.
No hiding. Oh, nobody. Just a girl who took a one-way ticket to an island
Oh, gods. Perseus. Even now, his name sends a shiver snaking with her weird sisters and her dog. Nothing to look at here …
up my spine. ‘Stay where you are,’ I shouted, for he had begun to look for a
space in the rocks to climb up.
Maybe if Argentus hadn’t snarled? Perseus stepped back and looked at the desolate promontory.
Maybe if I wasn’t lonely? ‘What – here?’
Maybe if I hadn’t spoken? ‘There a problem?’ I sounded cockier than I felt.
Maybe, maybe, maybe; why do we mortals always look back ‘Who are you? I can’t see you.’ He made to move to where
and imagine there was a simpler path? We think none of this Argentus had emerged.

14 15
 ‘You can’t come up!’ I cried. Perseus ran a hand through his hair, and my heart weakened
‘Do you have anything to eat?’ he shouted back. ‘I’m – I mean, like yolk in a pan. Come here, a voice within me urged. Come
my dog’s quite hungry.’ close and let me see you.
‘Sea’s behind you. You could catch a fish.’ And then, that other voice: Woe betide any man fool enough
‘Not my strong point.’ to look upon you now!
‘Can’t handle a rod?’ ‘I was sent on a mission,’ Perseus said. ‘The wind’s blown me
Perseus laughed, a sound to make cracks in my resolve, a off course.’
sound even now to be found in my soul. So here was a boy who ‘A mission?’
could laugh at himself. Rare. ‘I can’t really talk about it. I certainly don’t want to shout
‘Please,’ he said. ‘I promise I won’t bother you for long.’ about it up a rock.’
‘Where’ve you got to be?’ I called down. ‘Didn’t your mother teach you not to speak to strangers?’
Perseus spun round, taking in the water’s endless blue. I said.
‘Perhaps I’m here already,’ he said. He spread his arms wide, ‘You could be anyone,’ he replied.
turning back to the red of the rocks that towered to the sun. I ‘Exactly. You shouldn’t be here, Mr Perseus.’
wondered what would happen if I jumped off, tumbling down; ‘I agree entirely,’ he said. ‘But when a king decides to ruin
whether he would catch me. your life, you don’t have much say in the matter.’ Perseus kicked a
‘All right,’ he went on. ‘I’ll admit it. I’m lost.’ rock and stubbed his toe, but kept his wincing silent.
‘He can’t fish, and he can’t read the stars,’ I said. ‘Anything What king was he talking about? And why had he clammed
he can do?’ up when I mentioned his mother? I wanted to know. I wanted

16 17
stories, company, closeness. But I was in an agony of self-doubt.
Perseus should be left down there; I knew that. Argentus knew it.
My snakes knew it. It would be better to ignore him, to tell him to
get on his boat and go back to wherever he came from.
But when put together, the ache of loneliness and the bitter
soup of boredom are more dangerous than any snake venom. And
by the sounds of it, Perseus had powerful men interfering in his
happiness. So: already we had something in common.
I looked out to the horizon. Nearly dusk. Stheno and Euryale,
my sisters, would be back soon. What would Perseus say when he
saw them looming from the sky – and what would they make of
him? We could have a dead boy on our hands. I was going to have
to make a decision, fast.
‘I’ve just grilled a couple of fishes,’ I said. (Epic words.) ‘You
can have some, if you like. There’s a cove round to the left, with a
concealed entrance. You can moor your boat in there.’
This was the most I’d ever said to a boy in my entire life,
and when Perseus grinned, my heart began to sting. A matter of
minutes and my life was changed. And, briefly, I will say it: happy.

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