Chapter 35‘Father.’ Aeneas walked up the bank toward him.
‘Boy.’ Ankhises set the lyre down and got up from the rock, then came down to meet Aeneas halfway. Aeneas’s mouth fell open at his father’s appearance. Ankhises’s hair and beard were auburn, his shoulders muscular. His face was unlined and smiling, his eyes alight with vigour. He was in better humour than Aeneas had ever seen him in life and it took a moment to realise the cause. Father no longer walked with a limp. No grimace of pain on his face.
At last Ankhises drew up alongside Aeneas so they were on equal ground. He gave his son an appraising look. ‘So you’ve come at last. I was starting to wonder. For a while I thought Karkhedon and its queen might be our undoing. Sidestepped that one neatly, didn’t you?’
Irritation flared
