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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

She gave the bridle to Silvius, and jumped onto the horse’s back, holding onto its mane.

Blaze stamped his foreleg once.

Silvius waited to mount, ashamed that he had not been able to quiet his father’s steed. ‘I can ride better than you. I’ll take the reins.’ Elissa shuffled backwards, being very careful with her pack, settling it in her lap. ‘Are you ready?’

He was on, and her arms were around his waist, her breath hot on his neck.

‘What have you got in there?’ He peered over his shoulder.

‘Nothing,’ she said, avoiding his eye.

The guard on the floor groaned, reminding Silvius that there was no time to spare. This was it. They had to leave. If he went home now, he would have to face punishment for stealing and disobedience. It would be a lot worse than the lashes. And so he clicked his tongue softly, and they left the stables.

The wicker gate stood wide open to the cool night, the stars spotting the dark sky. Orion the hunter was above the horizon.

But still they could not run. A wall guard might see them, and then they would be chased, and caught, and all would be over. They would walk to the woods, and only then would they gallop.

‘Gently now,’ whispered Silvius, and, nostrils flaring, the stallion stepped out.

Ten

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The Last Gorgon

MYKENAI, ACHAEA: KINGHOUSE OF THE LION

In horror, Tisamenos swung away from the Last Gorgon as she slid over the wet cave floor towards him.

He was now facing the dimly outlined entrance to the cave. A hissing, murmuring laughter made him shiver with terror.

‘Nobody has ever escaped me,’ she called, and he heard her slithering over the sodden ground. ‘Your father Orestes came rampaging here with many men before you were born. Clearing the countryside of monsters, he said. He dared to call me a monster – I, the most beautiful of all!’ Tisamenos felt a stinging sensation on his bare arm, and jumped with shock. ‘We struck a deal, he and I. I did not kill him, and he let me stay here, undisturbed.’

The thought that his father had bargained with this creature made Tisamenos shudder even more. He took a step nearer to the cave entrance. He could still escape, with the shield stuck to his arm until he could smash it off.

Escape, and be nothing.

But what else could he do? His sword was the only weapon he had. That and the two torches. He could only tell where the Last Gorgon was by the sound of the snakes hissing. He guessed she was about twenty paces away from him, in the gloom of the cave, near the second torch. The echoes made it difficult to judge exactly where she was.

That was his only hope. To get to the torch and fling it at her, so that her robes might catch fire.