It was decided. They stood in a line, Tisamenos and Silvius on either side of Elissa, facing the statue of Apollo. Each of them clasped the quiver’s cover, fingers touching. Elissa spoke. ‘Apollo, Lord of Light. We bring you the Arrow that laid Python low. We need the Bow that can shoot it. We need your help.’ As one, they lifted the cover of the quiver.

For a moment, there was nothing. Then Elissa felt the quiver shaking, and a great golden light issued from it.

The force of it was so powerful that it pushed the three of them backwards. Silvius and Tisamenos let go, but Elissa held on to it, until she could do so no longer.

The arrow shot out from the quiver. Elissa watched in astonishment as it trailed a bright stream of light, which spread out into a wide bridge, leading towards the statue, where the arrow lodged.

The bridge of light remained.

‘It’s for us!’ Elissa called. ‘Apollo is showing us the way …’

Elissa was about to step on it, when Silvius shoved past her, and began to walk. He called excitedly to his friends, ‘Come on!’

Elissa sprang up after him. The bridge was solid, though it seemed to be constructed from light beams, woven together like a tapestry. With a few excited bounds, Silvius reached the end of the bridge, and jumped off, landing at the feet of Apollo’s statue.

Elissa landed confidently behind Silvius, and Tisamenos a little more tentatively. As soon as they’d done so, the bridge of light disappeared. Looking back, Elissa saw the entrance to the temple now vanish into shadows.

‘It’s gone – the entrance. We can’t go back that other way.’

Silvius grasped the Arrow, and pulled it out from where it had stuck into the statue’s pedestal, placing it back in Elissa’s quiver.

‘Now what?’

Elissa cast around. There was only the statue, and a ledge above it. A gleam of something golden alerted her.

‘I think that’s it – up there!’

‘Can you climb up and get it?’

‘I think so …’ She attempted to get a grip on the statue. There were many holds, but it was slippery. Tisamenos came to help her.

Then a hissing sound made Elissa jump.

‘It can’t be … I killed the Last Gorgon … I have her head …’ Tisamenos was clutching the sack, trembling with fear.

A huge shape slithered out from behind the statue, as long as a man, its fangs dripping venom. A snake.

‘Python? Here?’ It was Silvius, and Elissa saw that he too was overcome with terror. She begged Apollo for an answer.

‘It is not Python,’ came a voice. A young, curly-haired man was there, leaning casually against the folds of the statue’s robe. Hermes. Delight coursed through Elissa. He reached up and took the Bow from the ledge, and looked along its length as if appraising it. ‘But you must still fight it.’