It was silent once more. The incline was steep, the path rocky, and beside them tramped a huge figure, pushing a rock upwards, and when they reached the top of the hill, the rock rolled back down, and the figure, silent and grim, plodded back down to retrieve it.

‘Sisyphus,’ said the Sibyl.

The wicked king, still carrying out his punishment, trapped in his futile action. Tisamenos shuddered, and remembered what had befallen his ancestors. Were they still here?

The weight of the atmosphere was getting to him. He was feeling listless and strange. Elissa was drooping, and Silvius was even paler than he had been.

At the summit Tisamenos could see out across what seemed to be a black plain. In the distance were two shimmering beacons.

‘Those mark the gates. One of those leads to the ruins of Troy,’ said the Sibyl. She seemed to falter, and the light from her staff flickered.

‘What is it?’ asked Tisamenos.

She sniffed the air, as if sensing something, and whispered to the lion, which leapt forwards down the hill. At the edge of the blackness it turned back, scrambling up to join them, tail drooping and head slung low.

‘Something has changed. As Hades departs, so his world seems to shrink. There is nothing here. We cannot walk on nothing.’ The lion roared, and his roar reverberated in that vastness, vanishing into the silence.

This was the end, then. They could not stay here. But Tisamenos could not bear the thought of crossing back through the halls of the dead. And hadn’t the Sibyl said they would not be allowed again?

Something harsh sounded, distant at first. Tisamenos felt an eerie thrill of recognition.

Three huge shapes swooped down upon them, dark and stinking, three winged beasts that landed in front of them, creatures like women.

Instead of skin, however, they had scales, and leathery wings that thunderously clapped behind them. They scraped their talons on the ground and roared, eyes flashing with fire.

It was the Furies, all three of them, and they had come for him after all. Tisamenos, terrified, prepared himself to fight.

The middle Fury lifted up her head. Her eyes were yellow and bright, with huge dark pupils, and she stared right at him.

‘Peace, child. I give you my name. Tisiphone.’

Her name. Like the Gorgon, Tisamenos now had her name. And he did not like the fact that it chimed so nearly with his. Trembling, he inclined his head.

‘We have not come for you. I returned here, to my home. But I found that we are not wanted now. Our king and queen have vanished, and we cannot find the way to where they have gone.’ She flicked her tail, and it cracked like a whip. ‘This is all that remains to us, this hall of lost souls. Python will destroy even us.’

‘We have the means to destroy Python.’ Elissa spoke, though she was shaking. ‘You could help us.’