This was how Aeneas had spent so much of his life, Silvius realised. This was why his room was so bare. Perhaps this ship nymph had been the same one that had carried him from Troy. Away from the burning city, away from everything that he had known, into a world of monsters and war. He had seen so much, and now he was trying to build a new home for his people. And Silvius wanted, more than anything, to prove to his father that he could be a hero too.

A Latin lullaby Lavinia used to sing to him drifted through his mind.

Lulla lulla

Sleep, my child

Lulla lulla lay …

And he was soon asleep. He slept lightly, though. He dreamed. The rope coiled in the corner of the cabin began to uncurl by itself, and it slithered towards him, turning and turning in ever widening circles, and he realised with a sickening lurch that it was no rope but a great snake, revealing its smooth pointed head, its enormous dripping fangs, and those two glowing red eyes.

‘I know what you have …’ hissed the snake. It was slithering towards him, longer than a man.

‘You have felt, it, haven’t you …’

‘I don’t want it.’

‘You saw what the Arrowhead can do. Think what you could do with it! Imagine, no Iulus – you could rule Lavinium and all of Italia.’ The snake was nearing him, the teeth gleaming. ‘You can learn how to use it, so that it does not harm you. The centaur was stupid.’

It was true. He could go back now, and with the Arrowhead he would be the most powerful person there; more so than his father, than Iulus, than Latinus … The snake’s red eyes glowed, and Silvius shook himself.

‘I don’t want it. I’ve sworn to destroy you …’ Suddenly the snake was around him, the grip so tight he felt it was squeezing the life out of him.

A shout woke him. He sat upright in the berth, gripping the Arrowhead. He looked down. He was all tangled up in rope. Terrified, he pushed it off him. There was a red mark on his belly.

Python. He’d come to him in a dream, had somehow caused the rope to wrap itself around him.

‘Silvius! Come up! Now!’

A second later he was scrambling up onto the deck. ‘What is it?’

Elissa was pointing out to sea. The boat was much nearer.

There were two people in it, rowing steadily, and apparently gaining on them. Now they were close enough to see that these people had the glowing red eyes of those controlled by the Enemy.

A frightening thought flashed through Silvius’s head. Had they taken Iulus? Perhaps it was Iulus, himself possessed. If it was, would he have to face up to the thought of killing his own brother? His dream came back to him.