Then he swung round, determined, and marched on with Elissa. Tisamenos dawdled. What was home now? Had the kinghouse been razed to the ground? Had his father and Electra been slaughtered? And if he did return to Mykenai, what would the Swallows want with him?

They followed the Simois until it reached the sea, and they found there a dark ship, and a small group standing in front of it.

Dark-skinned and in shining robes, they bowed, and spoke in a language that Tisamenos had not heard before. But Elissa gasped in amazement, before running towards them as fast as she could.

She was almost jumping up and down with excitement. She spoke a few words to them, and they answered her with delight, and then she embraced each of them in turn, and they kissed her on the cheek and smiled and teased her as if she were their own daughter. She called back to Tisamenos and Silvius, and said, ‘Phoenicians. They’re from Tyre, and Chryses has asked them to take us back to Achaea. They have a cargo of silks they want to sell, but they will give us free passage.’

‘We know of this Python,’ said one of the Phoenicians, a tall man with a long handsome nose, and hair that gleamed with oil. He had gold on his arms and a quick smile, and his name was Batnoam. ‘We call him Lotan, the serpent. The priests sent to us that you were coming. You are of great importance, and it is an honour for us to carry you.’

‘Thank you,’ Elissa was saying, and then she clambered on board, as if she had always been with them. Silvius nodded and shook their hands, whilst Tisamenos followed more stiffly afterwards, noting that the traders looked at his bag with curiosity. He kept it close to his body.

‘Come!’ Another tall, smiling man beckoned to Tisamenos and Silvius, and led them to a cabin. A large bronze bath stood in the centre of it, filled with hot scented water.

Tisamenos glanced at Silvius, and then they were both tearing off their dusty, dirty clothes, and racing to get in first.

It was big enough for both of them, and they washed and splashed until Tisamenos had almost forgotten about the horror of the snake, and his other worries were melting away too.

The tall man brought hot sweet drinks, and Tisamenos barely noticed the boat leaving the river and entering the open sea.

‘In Lavinium we don’t have baths like this,’ said Silvius. ‘We wash in cold water, or the river.’

Tisamenos blushed, thinking of his nurse and the servants who would attend him whilst he had a bath. But all of that was behind him now, and he would go with Elissa and find somewhere new.

‘Do you think your city has survived?’ he asked.