Running past the blacksmith’s shop, Silvius saw that it was empty. Blaeso must already be fighting. Even the boy wasn’t there. Waiting on a side table was his new sword, with its beautiful decoration of stags and boars. Without hesitating, he lifted it up.

It felt good in his hands.

He sprinted towards the sound of the fray as fast as he could.

At first he could not believe what he saw.

Aeneas and his soldiers were clashing with a small band of armed men, women, and even about a dozen children.

But there was something very different about them.

Something very wrong.

Spilling out from their eyes was a crimson glow, as if they were lit from inside. And they were strong, too. A young boy was battling hand to hand with a man three times his size, and getting the better of him.

‘What in the name of the Underworld are we fighting?’ shouted someone.

‘Demons!’ The answer tore through the air.

Aeneas was right in the thickest place of the action, in combat with a tall, leering woman who seemed to have the strength of ten. Silvius hovered at the edge. Aeneas caught sight of him. ‘Back! Get back, now!’

And then someone was on Silvius. A man, middle-aged, heavy, one whole eye glowing red, the other just a socket, crimson light pouring out of it, his mouth full of yellowing, half-blackened teeth.

He hurled himself at Silvius, who ducked only just in time, with enough presence of mind to jab with his sword sideways, slicing at the back of his opponent’s legs.

Most men would topple.

This one didn’t.

Silvius had never fought like this, not with people he knew being cut down all around him. The groans of the injured, the stabbed and the dying filled the air. There was a hissing noise, as if a thousand snakes’ tongues were flickering.

The red glow of his enemy pressed in on him. His new sword was heavy in his sweating hands and, attempting to ready himself, he accidentally dropped it.

The one-eyed man was about to slice Silvius through but he gurgled, choked, grabbing at his neck, and fell forwards, an arrow sticking out of his back. Powerful arms lifted Silvius off the ground, and suddenly he was astride Stargazer’s back.

The centaur hurled him up onto a flat roof where Elissa was sitting with two bows, and quivers full of arrows. She gave him a bow, and, breathing heavily, he collected himself and began to shoot. His first arrow hit home.

‘Who are they?’ gasped Silvius.

‘The Enemy,’ answered Elissa. ‘They are Python’s people. It’s what Stargazer was warning about.’

Stargazer stormed through the melee with a sword, slashing about him at the Enemy, running people down with his hooves. His eyes were rolling into the back of his head; the madness of battle was on him. Silvius was glad that Stargazer was on their side.