‘I am sorry,’ Agariste said more gently. ‘But there’s nothing we can do for him now. I don’t like all these bodies, Pericles. Come away now.’

He rose to his feet, looking down on the slumped figure of the drowned dog. Conis had got himself lost on the quayside crowds in the midst of the evacuation, then leaped into the sea to follow his master’s ship. For the first time, Agariste felt a pang of sadness at the thought of telling her husband his dog was dead. It seemed trivial in the midst of death and destruction, with everything they knew as the stake, yet she felt tears springing to her own eyes, beyond explanation.

Strangely, the sight of her weeping seemed to calm Pericles. He took her hand and they walked back to their place on the dunes, climbing up as a family. No one else had claimed that spot, Agariste noticed. She had status, still, even with sand clinging to her dress and her stomach empty.

When they were settled, Pericles stood once again on the edge, though she did not rebuke him for it. The air was clean and tasted of salt. They could all see the brown smudge of the dog, drawn up from the rest of the dead like driftwood below.

Her gaze drifted to the column of smoke, where Athens still burned. ‘Perhaps it all ends here,’ she whispered to herself. She did not mean to be overheard, but somehow Pericles caught her words. He shook his head.

‘No,’ he said. ‘Our crews and hoplites will break the Persians. They will not fail. They are Athenian.’

He stared at her, daring her to disagree. In response, Agariste only nodded once.

In the distance, Persian ship formations began to change subtly. The movement was different from the tides of war and it was hard to understand at first. Galleys that had been ready to join the fight suddenly rowed away, after a long time in one place. From so far off, it looked like a drift of sand washed by the sea, or a colony of bees breaking apart.

Agariste fell silent, wondering what it could mean. Slowly, she rose to her feet with the women and children of Athens, watching ships row clear of the strait, beating the waves white. Eleni and Pericles looked to her for answers, but she had none. Agariste could only shake her head and bite her lip as almost half the Persian fleet broke off and headed around the island of Salamis.

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