Queens Walk in the Dusk. Thomas Burnett Swann

than she said, and there was fear in her amethyst eyes. (Ascanius thought: She is talking to hide her fear. I shall look for Iarbas and bring him to her house.) “No one could rightly call it a palace, but at least it is roomier than a ship. I know about ships, you see. I love them. They brought me here with my friends. But not exactly in comfort.” She indicated a bay to the south of the town; purple waters afloat with gilded ships. “Those are my walls,” she said, “till the elephants finish their task. Those are the reason my brother, the king of Tyre, has not pursued me. His captains were my friends. I left with half of his fleet.”

      “We are both of us founders,” Aeneas said. “I too have a town to build. I can learn from you.”

      “But you must wait for your ships to regather from the storm. I will send some punts to look for them. Meanwhile, you and your son and your men can wait with me. My home is humble, but my hearth is warm.”

      Ascanius smiled his craftiest smile. Yes, she would make his father a splendid wife (and such an elegant bosom; a pillow for boys like him).

      First he must find Iarbas, the moody king.