‘Silvius!’ choked Elissa. ‘I know this man! He’s from the villages … Do you recognise him?’

The curly hair, the pale cheeks. Yes, Silvius realised, he had seen him, in Lavinium.

‘I think his name is Cai!’

There was a flicker in the red glow.

‘Cai.’ Silvius kept his voice calm, though he was trembling all over. ‘Do you remember Elissa?’

‘You came to Lavinium,’ she took over, ‘a few months ago now, when the winter was hard. You had some pottery with you – your father had made it. I asked you how you drew the wood god, and you showed me, with your fine paintbrush.’

Something seemed to shift inside Cai. A glimpse of blue-grey eyes behind the red. ‘Elissa …’

‘Yes.’ Silvius swallowed. ‘And I’m Silvius.’

Cai’s grip loosened.

‘Elissa … Silvius …’

‘Yes, that’s right …’

‘Elissssa … Sssilviusss …’ Their names began to shade into the hissing of a snake. A change came over Cai’s face. His features hardened, his mouth set into a harsh line. ‘Python is here … and Python rises,’ roared the Enemy, and he lunged for the casket, as Silvius went for Elissa’s right hand, dodging out of the way.

The Enemy grinned, and suddenly his face was no longer the same. He was a man, still, but his skin was scaled, as if some hidden snake part of him was coming to the surface, and his eyes were yellow with a black slit of a pupil. A flickering forked tongue appeared between his sharp white teeth.

‘My enemy’s weapon,’ he hissed. ‘Give it to me. The Oracle will be mine again. And I will reclaim my own!’ There was exultation in his voice, and now his whole body was stretching into a long, thin snake, curling powerfully, the size of a man, yet with human hands, one still grasping Elissa.

There were two forces tugging at Silvius. Perhaps he should yield. How could they hope, he and Elissa, to destroy this creature? They were so small, and Python’s powers were so vast.

Then he caught sight of Elissa’s pale face. She was pulling as hard as she could against those unrelenting fingers.

‘No!’ he shouted. The Enemy hissed, and cast Elissa aside. She fell, sprawling, to the floor.

The casket was glowing brightly, and already giving out heat. A horrible smell filled Silvius’s nostrils and he looked down to see the Enemy’s fingers blackening. ‘You will not keep it from me, boy.’

Silvius, terrified, grasped the chain. Though it was searing into his skin, he dulled the pain with an effort of willpower.