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Back The Arrow of Apollo
Chapters (52)
  1. Cover
  2. Title
  3. About the Author
  4. Dedication
  5. By the Same Author
  6. Author’s Note
  7. Map
  8. Domus Libris
  9. House of the Wolf
  10. The House of the Wolf
  11. One
  12. Two
  13. Three
  14. Four
  15. Five
  16. Six
  17. Seven
  18. Eight
  19. Nine
  20. Ten
  21. Eleven
  22. Twelve
  23. Thirteen
  24. Fourteen
  25. Fifteen
  26. Sixteen
  27. Seventeen
  28. Eighteen
  29. Nineteen
  30. Twenty
  31. Twenty-One
  32. Twenty-Two
  33. Twenty-Three
  34. Twenty-Four
  35. Twenty-Five
  36. Twenty-Six
  37. Twenty-Seven
  38. Twenty-Eight
  39. Twenty-Nine
  40. Thirty
  41. Thirty-One
  42. Thirty-Two
  43. Thirty-Three
  44. Thirty-Four
  45. Thirty-Five
  46. Thirty-Six
  47. Thirty-Seven
  48. Thirty-Eight
  49. Timeline of the Trojan Cycle
  50. Further Reading
  51. Acknowledgements
  52. Supporters

‘I must start at the beginning.’ The centaur cleared his throat, and took a long gulp of water. ‘Not long ago the great Skyfather called us together. He had found a place for us, on a different world. There, he said, we would be safe from men, and from what men would do to us soon enough. He opened a way for us into the heavens. I watched all my brothers and sisters, one by one, mount the wide road of light. Beyond it I saw the great grassy plain where we could be for evermore. I saw the shade of great trees, and I saw lakes and freshwater streams. I watched my kind all go. My youngest sister was the last. She held out her arms to me. But I could not follow her.’

‘Why not?’ asked Aeneas, gently.

‘I had sworn an oath, a long time ago. It was in penance for a terrible deed. I killed one of your kind, in madness. When I was well again, I swore to keep watch over you, for as long as I was able. And I was entrusted with a task.’ He took another gulp, the droplets running down his chin. The torches crackled in their brackets. ‘At first, I sensed a presence in the mountains. A great dark mind, reaching out, trying to break into mine, into others’. I fought its tendrils as hard as I could. One morning, as I wandered the woods, I came upon one of yours. A girl, not much older than this one.’ He indicated Elissa. ‘I approached her, to warn her away. She simply smirked, and then I saw. Her eyes were lit from inside with red fire. She drew an arrow, notched it, shot – and I ran.’

Iulus snorted, mockingly. ‘You ran from a girl?’

The centaur, his voice still calm, said, ‘I ran from the most powerful enemy this world has ever known.’ The musty smell of his body filled the room, and he shifted on his hooves.

Lavinia offered him some rabbit and fennel stew, which he sniffed delicately before tipping it into his mouth and chewing, surprisingly daintily. The centaur did not speak for a moment. Then he sighed, and said, ‘I feared to find out what this creature was. But yet I looked into the stars for knowledge. And I saw there signs, unmistakeable signs. The oldest one. The beast, the snake, born from night itself. He had been laid low by Apollo, thousands of years ago, so that man could live. But now Python rises once more.’ The name shivered through Elissa. One of the dark, old beings of the world that had their domain before the new gods defeated them.