Chapters (52)
- Cover
- Title
- About the Author
- Dedication
- By the Same Author
- Author’s Note
- Map
- Domus Libris
- House of the Wolf
- The House of the Wolf
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Timeline of the Trojan Cycle
- Further Reading
- Acknowledgements
- Supporters
Who else was there? Nobody in the whole kinghouse, in the whole city of Mykenai, could help him now. Revenge … it’s natural! Electra’s words pulsed through his head.
He ran, bewildered, through the corridors, ever pursued by that mocking laugh, which was joining now with the tapping noise in his head, booming louder and louder.
He bumped into a secretary as he rounded a corner; he knocked a stone jug from a maid’s hand, and milk spilled all over the corridor. He ran, until he was outside in the dusty streets among the goats and the pigs and the dirt, and then he continued running, blindly, until he was at the massive stone wall on the edge of the citadel. The Lion Gate loomed above him, vast, the two carved lions facing each other.
Here, under the shadow of the gate, with nobody looking on, he threw himself down into the dust, and wept, until he could weep no more.
Through the confusion of his mind loomed Orestes, stroking Erigone’s cheek, holding Penthilos in the crook of his arm, saying, ‘I see myself in him.’ And Electra, raving, twisted by her single-minded purpose, stretching out those terrible hands, those long white fingers.
Even when the sun went down, he did not notice the cold.
Fifteen
Python
THE TYRRHENIAN SEA
Tilting, the ship was creaking alarmingly. Elissa grabbed Ruffler and managed to squash him, squealing, into a pouch slung around her neck. She steadied herself. What was the matter with Silvius? He wasn’t moving. He’d dropped his bow and arrow. Hers were too far away to reach.
‘Silvius! Get up!’ He seemed distant, glazed.
A wave crashed and drenched him. Spluttering, he gripped the side of the ship and pulled himself up, acknowledging Elissa as if he’d only just realised she was there.
‘They’re nearly on us!’
The Enemy were now only a few boat lengths away. The red glow from their eyes was tingeing the sea, making it seem like they were forging through a lake of blood. If it wasn’t for that, they would have resembled a woman and her son out for a fishing trip.
Trembling, Elissa leaped forwards and grabbed the fallen bow. It was like an eel in her hands. Cursing, she managed to fit the arrow to the string.
She remembered shooting deer and birds in the forest outside Lavinium, and pretended to herself that she was on dry land; that made it easier to stand firm.
She sighted along the arrow. She needed to aim a little nearer to the ship, as the rowing boat was moving so fast.