And Silvius, bowing deeply, backed away, fearing that at any moment Orestes might change his mind. He reached the door, turned and stepped out into the corridor.

As soon as he had done so, he ran. He did not think he could stand Electra any longer.

The moon was a pale disc hanging low in the darkening sky. Among the shadows of the beehive tombs, Silvius stopped to wait, turning everything over in his mind.

He had been alone with his thoughts for quite some time now. Would the plan work? Would Elissa be successful with Erigone?

More than ever he missed Lavinium; its clean newness, and the forest glades of his early life. He wanted to wake up and see the sun dappling through soft green leaves, and hear the pounding of his brother’s horse nearby, not this terrible black stone citadel.

A low whistle made him look up. Instinctively he put his hand to his dagger. A figure approached that resolved itself into the familiar shape of Elissa, and he relaxed. She threw herself down next to him.

‘Erigone is not an easy woman,’ she said, and hugged herself. ‘I wish I had Ruffler here.’

‘Was she suspicious?’ asked Silvius.

In the moonlight he could make out her furrowed brow. Elissa tossed her hair back from her forehead, and shook her head. He was very pleased to see her.

‘I don’t know, but I told her how important it was to be secret – she said she would be here at the appointed time.’ She sighed once more, the air blowing away some strands from her face. ‘And how was he?’ The way she intoned ‘he’ made it very clear that she meant Orestes.

Silvius did not want to tell her what he had experienced. The terror of death, the strangeness of Electra and the ancient power of that royal house. He had felt the blood feuds between them, and also the lines that bound them across the years and generations like a huge web.

If you pulled at one strand, it might threaten to catch you in it too.

So he simply nodded, and said, ‘I told him what I had to. Now we have to wait, and hope that all goes as Tisamenos planned.’

‘It will.’ That flinty voice, coming from nowhere, startled them. Tisamenos appeared slowly from behind a rock. He took his place slightly apart. ‘That, I promise you.’

They sat in silence as the moon rose and silvered the tombs.

They heard the watchman cry out the fourth watch; and then their moods became more tense. Silvius kept drumming his hands on his knees, whilst Elissa looked up sharply at every movement. Only Tisamenos was still; eerily so. It made Silvius uncomfortable.

Every rustle, every sound, might be someone approaching. It occurred to Silvius that either Erigone or Orestes might bring guards, and they might be discovered very quickly.