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Back The Arrow of Apollo
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

Tisamenos’s sword was reeking with gore. His long blond hair was stuck to the sides of his head, his skin stinging with acid venom. With his mutilated hand hanging by his side, he waited in the stuttering torchlight for the Last Gorgon to die.

Eleven

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At the Port

LAVINIUM, ITALIA: HOUSE OF THE WOLF

Silvius and Elissa were lucky. Perhaps, even in the sharp moonlight, it was hard to see the black stallion and the two cloaked figures seated upon it; or perhaps the guard on that section of the wall of Lavinium had dozed off. Either way, they managed to cross the narrow plain towards the woods without any sign that they had been noticed.

Once they were under cover, Silvius pressed his ankles gently up into the stallion’s hot flanks, and they began to trot down the goat path that led into the forest. They would go the long way round, to confuse anyone who might be following them, and to avoid the marshes to the south as well.

Blaze went well, finding his way without mishap, snorting occasionally and flicking his ears back but generally keeping in good temper.

The forest had a spectral quality to it as the moon silvered the branches of the trees and the undergrowth. Silvius found that he liked the quiet, and that his ears were becoming attuned to the sounds around him. It was cool, and he loved feeling the rush of the breeze through his hair and over his face.

Elissa had one arm tightly grasping Silvius; with the other she was carefully keeping her pack to her breast.

‘This is the first time I’ve been in the woods!’ she whispered, as if awed by the darkness. ‘Keep him steady. I don’t want to drop my pack.’

‘What have you got in there?’ Silvius asked again.

‘Oh, just some useful things,’ she said airily. ‘Keep going!’

Soon they came to the end of the goat path through the forest and were at the edge of the road, which stretched out to Lavinium’s small port along the coastline from the south. It was a new, paved road that Aeneas had built, and it ran straight.

‘Now remember, we’re just travellers now,’ said Silvius, and he uncloaked himself. Elissa did the same, but in doing so she dropped her pack, and there was a sudden confusion as the bag came to life and began to run round in circles. The stallion reared, and Silvius, taken unawares, came off, as did Elissa. Silvius managed to grab the reins; he whispered in the horse’s ear as he’d seen Elissa do until he was calm.

Elissa meanwhile had jumped on the pack and seemed to be hiding something.

‘What have you done?’ asked Silvius, when Blaze was gentle once more.