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Chapters (52)
  1. Cover
  2. Title
  3. About the Author
  4. Dedication
  5. By the Same Author
  6. Author’s Note
  7. Map
  8. Domus Libris
  9. House of the Wolf
  10. The House of the Wolf
  11. One
  12. Two
  13. Three
  14. Four
  15. Five
  16. Six
  17. Seven
  18. Eight
  19. Nine
  20. Ten
  21. Eleven
  22. Twelve
  23. Thirteen
  24. Fourteen
  25. Fifteen
  26. Sixteen
  27. Seventeen
  28. Eighteen
  29. Nineteen
  30. Twenty
  31. Twenty-One
  32. Twenty-Two
  33. Twenty-Three
  34. Twenty-Four
  35. Twenty-Five
  36. Twenty-Six
  37. Twenty-Seven
  38. Twenty-Eight
  39. Twenty-Nine
  40. Thirty
  41. Thirty-One
  42. Thirty-Two
  43. Thirty-Three
  44. Thirty-Four
  45. Thirty-Five
  46. Thirty-Six
  47. Thirty-Seven
  48. Thirty-Eight
  49. Timeline of the Trojan Cycle
  50. Further Reading
  51. Acknowledgements
  52. Supporters

‘We’ll have to sneak out. It’s the only way.’ It would be easier for her to do than for Silvius. His rooms were in the most closely guarded quarters, whilst hers were nearer the latrines.

Silvius nodded slowly. ‘If I get up at midnight, I can take the casket from Aeneas’s room whilst he’s asleep. It will be stealing …’

‘But you have to do it. Think of it not as stealing, but borrowing.’

‘Yes,’ he answered, nodding seriously now. ‘You’re right.’

‘Then we both go to the stables. We take a couple of Aeneas’s horses, and ride to the port. It’s not far.’

‘There’ll be traders there. Someone who can guide us.’ A sunbeam played across his outstretched hand. The touch of Apollo, perhaps, thought Elissa.

‘We’ll need coins,’ said Elissa. ‘You know I don’t have any of those.’

Silvius scratched his nose. ‘I’ve got some. And some things we could sell.’

‘We could even find a Carthaginian!’ continued Elissa. ‘There’ll be more of them than Achaeans. Or even,’ and here her voice grew more excited, ‘a Phoenician!’

Her family, before they had gone to Carthage, had come from Tyre, a city on the coast of Phoenicia, and Elissa had always wanted to go to that city, and was eager for news of it.

‘You must promise not to tell anyone this, not even the slightest breath of it.’ Worry showed in Silvius’s drawn brows.

Elissa’s eyes glowed. She put her fingers to her lips.

‘I promise.’

Their planning was broken off by a call from Lavinia, who was glancing anxiously across at them. The women had returned from washing, and they were singing a mournful lay about two parted lovers.

‘What are you two plotting?’ Lavinia approached. She was smiling. But there was a tension in her poise, basket at her hip.

‘Just telling Elissa about the … bird’s nest I found, near the guard’s hut – there are some lovely blue eggs. I thought she might like one.’

‘Your patrol’s over. Come home with us. Your father needs you.’

Elissa said goodbye. Again, she felt a stab of jealousy. Nobody wanted her, or needed her. She watched as Silvius left, marching straight but small by the side of his mother.

He would need all the help he could get.

And she would do her best to give it to him.

Eight

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Into the Cave

MYKENAI, ACHAEA: KINGHOUSE OF THE LION

The bridal party had now become a celebration of the birth of Penthilos, and it was still in full riot as Tisamenos returned to the kinghouse. Avoiding the men lolling drunkenly, and stepping over the prone bodies of a few revellers who’d overindulged, he sneaked back to his chambers, and settled on the soft silk-covered couch in his anteroom. The kinghouse servants were, as ever, busy about him.