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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

No. Pushing all those things away from him, he grabbed Elissa by the elbow.

‘I could try the Arrowhead, divert the force or something.’ Guiltily he remembered what Python had said.

‘No! You’ll kill us both!’ Elissa was shocked.

‘Is there nothing else on the ship? No other weapon?’ They only had their bows; they could not afford to lose too many arrows in the sea.

‘Let’s look.’

They searched it thoroughly, but there were only ropes and a pair of oars. It was as if they were not in a ship at all. Again Silvius was struck by the strange grey texture of the ship’s surface.

The Enemy’s boat was now near enough for Silvius and Elissa to be able to see who was rowing it. One was a squat, middle-aged woman; the other was a young man, not much older than Silvius himself. The red glow from their eyes lit up the boat, and as he looked, the two hunched figures seemed to be the coils of a serpent rippling in the water.

Their ship was rocking.

The ship nymph’s voice moaned in wild anguish. Silvius and Elissa were thrown from side to side, a flap of wet sail hitting Silvius in the face.

‘The Enemy!’ he shouted. ‘It must be hurting her.’

‘What shall we do?’ Elissa yelled, as waves crashed over and drenched them.

‘Try to shoot them in the head.’

His eyes stinging, Silvius scrambled around for his weapons.

They strung their bows with great difficulty, balancing on the slippery deck, though it was tilting violently.

Silvius managed to notch an arrow and took aim. It was impossible – he was swinging wildly, his targets moving too. At least the Enemy boat was travelling in a straight line. He would have to try his best.

Their ship listed sideways. ‘Silvius!’ Elissa called, dark eyes alive with fear, and suddenly she was diving across him, landing on Ruffler, only just preventing the wolf cub from being hurled overboard. As their ship heaved, Silvius fell too, dropping his bow and arrows.

The Enemy boat approached, relentless as the tide itself.

Fourteen

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Electra

MYKENAI, ACHAEA: KINGHOUSE OF THE LION

The knowledge of his mother’s killer smouldered inside Tisamenos like an ember.

Erigone.

Erigone.

Erigone.

The name echoed in his skull. Erigone had killed his mother Hermione, so that she could marry Orestes. She had done it in revenge for the murder of her own father Aegisthos.

And that meant that now his half-brother Penthilos had been born, both Tisamenos and Orestes were in danger. She had a son, a claimant to the throne. She could kill Orestes and exile Tisamenos.

Or kill them both.