Giving him a shy glance, Elissa straightened, and from her lap tumbled the wolf cub that she had been playing with over the last few days. ‘It’s just … I think his mother’s dead, and there’s nobody at home to look after him, and he’ll be really helpful …’

The wolf cub pawed joyfully at Silvius. Blaze whinnied, but soon settled. Elissa looked so contrite, and the wolf cub’s eyes were glinting so brightly in the moonlight that Silvius was moved. ‘Well, all right then. But we have to get going now.’

Elissa put the wolf cub back in her pack with his little head poking out, and Silvius dug his heels into the stallion.

Soon they were galloping, and the thrill of it rushed through Silvius’s body.

He would be away from Aeneas, from Lavinia, from Iulus and Brutus. He was going to be without his family for the first time in his life.

Elissa whooped with excitement, her hair rushing backwards in the flow. The stallion’s hooves pounded the flagstones so loudly that Silvius began to fear that they would be heard back in Lavinium.

But there was no pursuit, nothing, only the silvery road stretching ahead.

Soon, Silvius reined in Blaze. In the moonlight they could see the port ahead, a small collection of wooden buildings where the river Numicus met the sea. Here the Etruscans from the north traded across to the Achaean colonists in the south of Italia, and here also came ships from all over the Middle Sea. It was not as busy as Ostium, further north, but they were still likely to find passage quickly.

They dismounted, and Silvius led Blaze to a nearby rivulet which fed into the Numicus, where the horse gulped deep draughts of water, snorting through his whiskery muzzle. Elissa released the wolf cub, and he also slurped thirstily from the edge of the bank. When they’d finished, Silvius took Blaze, turned him in the direction of Lavinium, patted him sharply on the right flank, and the horse galloped off homewards.

Silvius gazed at Elissa for a moment, the stars glittering above them, the waves of the sea tugging at the shoreline nearby. In his friend’s dark eyes, Silvius saw his own excitement reflected back.

Had he made the right choice, bringing Elissa with him? He remembered his vision. The power of the snakes, and the terrible pull of Python; then Apollo’s soft voice intruding, and that tantalising glimpse of light he’d had, and longed for again. It was right. They had both seen the god.

Elissa enticed the wolf cub to her hands, and hefted him up into her arms. Now they had to find a boat. First, Silvius opened his pouch to show Elissa the things he’d brought to trade: a silver amulet and a few silver pieces.

Elissa laughed, the sound piercing the wash of the tide. ‘Do you want to get caught?’