‘We have invited your best sculptors and artists to work with our own – we have given you every facility. And when it is done, you understand, we will offer you the statue of your god – together with the bones of His Mother, which treasure has been saved from Northland and the ice.’

‘I have heard of this,’ Angulli said. ‘It is an extraordinary gesture. On behalf of my people, of my god, I thank you for this.’

‘When He is complete, Jesus Sharruma can lead you to your new home.’

Hastayar said restlessly, ‘It’s easy to say that. But where are we to go? We had no plans beyond the conquest of your city, I admit.’

Carthalo said, ‘We are not monsters. We will take your sick, your young, your old, all those who cannot walk, even though our own resources are strained. The rest of you must go.’

‘But, I say again, where? I don’t imagine you’d welcome it if we marched east into Egypt, your breadbasket.’

Carthalo glanced at Pyxeas, who stepped forward. ‘Not east,’ the scholar said. ‘West. Go west from here, along the coast—’

Himuili snapped, ‘Until we run out of land and find ourselves facing the ocean. Then what?’

‘Then go west again,’ Pyxeas said. ‘Take ships across the ocean.’

‘We will help you,’ Carthalo said.

Pyxeas smiled. ‘Though I’ve never made the journey myself, we Northlanders have been crossing the Western Ocean for millennia. We will guide you.’

Hastayar seemed baffled. ‘And when we have crossed the ocean – what then?’

‘There are new lands waiting for you,’ Carthalo said. ‘Whole continents, where you can build your next Hattusa.’

Himuili scowled. ‘Lands with people in them already, that’s what I’ve heard.’

‘But with room for more,’ Pyxeas insisted.

And Nelo, looking at him, wondered if that was the first time he had ever heard his great-uncle tell a flat lie.

At length the group walked on, heading for the great buildings at the summit of the Byrsa, and the formal sessions.

Nelo walked with Pyxeas. ‘You didn’t tell the truth,’ he said accusingly. ‘You told the Hatti that the western continents have room. No, they don’t. Especially now the winters are taking their grip, for they must be suffering over there as we are over here.’

‘Well, true, that was a lie I told the Hatti. But I balanced it by telling the Carthaginians a lie too.’

‘What lie?’

‘That the Hatti will never have the secrets of the fire drug. As soon as their great fleet of ships is ready to sail, I intend that they should be given the secrets of the drug. With that advantage none of the peoples of the western lands will be able to resist them.’

Nelo stared, shocked. ‘Why would you do such a thing?’