Silvius was upright and staring straight ahead. He looked so slender, so lonely, and Elissa felt a surge of sympathy for him. She could not get the horror of the Enemy, their glowing red eyes and their relentless power, out of her mind, and she could see it in his eyes too, in his trembling hands.

The light of Apollo would destroy Python. And she had seen it. There was no question about it. He would need her.

She scrambled up and jogged to join Silvius, the wolf cub scampering at her heels. He grasped her hand gratefully.

‘Aeneas!’ she interrupted the leader, tugging on his sleeve. ‘You’ve got to let us go.’

Silvius looked shocked at her boldness, but she pressed on. ‘Please!’

All at once, Aeneas broke away from his conversation, and said, powerfully, ‘You can’t. It’s too dangerous. You are too young, and know nothing of what lurks in the wilds. You have never even been on a ship. The Arrowhead may have sent you both visions, but we don’t know if we can trust it.’

Silvius took a long breath. ‘You let a vision build this city,’ he said. ‘When you came here, you followed a white sow and her piglets, and built your foundations where she settled.’

‘That was different,’ said Aeneas, slowly. ‘It was a true prophecy, from one of our own – my cousin, Helenus.’

‘He has a point,’ Iulus cut in suddenly. ‘Why not believe this one?’ Elissa saw a coolness in Iulus’s gaze. He was trying to get at Aeneas, she knew. She saw the grateful look that Silvius shot him, and how downcast he was when Iulus didn’t return it.

Aeneas replied, ‘These are difficult times. Silvius represents the union of the Trojans and the Latins. We cannot lose him. I cannot lose my son.’ He picked up the casket, hung it around his own neck and stalked away.

And what do I represent? thought Elissa. Her Carthaginian mother, long dead. Her father, who joined her in the Underworld soon afterwards. The Trojans did not care for the Carthaginians.

She was clearly not as important.

The meeting in the forum broke up. Elissa had no duties, so she went with Silvius, on his way to his guard duty on the wall. They walked in silence for a while. A litter of piglets ran squealing in front of them, followed by their ungainly mother.

Then they reached the blacksmith’s, and Silvius, face a little flushed, stopped. ‘I just need to go in here,’ he said to Elissa. ‘Come with me if you like.’

She nodded, and followed him into the heat of the forge. ‘I’m sorry I took the sword,’ he was saying, holding it out to Blaeso.

The blacksmith merely smiled. ‘Keep it,’ he said. ‘You’ll need it, whatever comes. Now go, and be strong.’