Oslaf had pushed back his hood.Hispain-filled gaze was fixed not on Aelfric but on Benedict.“Weendure because it passes.And…” He paused, focussing for an instanton Cai, a faint smile flickering.“And, in truth, we do haveCaius.”
“I forbid further mentionof Caius.”Aelfric took another step towards the congregation.Thetorchlight cast his shadow up across the ceiling until he was talland thin as a storm-blasted ash, and his outstretched fingerssprouted long, clasping claws.“We endure because it passes.Yes.But I am here to tell you this—in hell, there is no such mercy asthe earthly passage of time.You are pinned like an insect upon themost terrible moment of your agony, and…it will lastforever.”
A sound like a low-moaning wind filledthe church.The light of the torches remained steady, though.Aftera moment Cai identified the source of the keening.Laban and theother clerics had drawn close, heads together, faces invisiblebeneath their hoods.
“Forever,” Aelfricrepeated, and their voices rose.
Cai went cold with disgust.Surely menwho had been taught by Theo to think for themselves could neverfall prey to such theatrics.He began to get up.He would take hisbrethren with him out of here and into the clean night.Vikings anddarkness were less to be feared than these lies.
But Ben was moaning too.His sound wasdeep and real, full of grief-stricken terror.Cai took hold of hiswrist beneath the sleeve of his cassock.“Come with me,” hewhispered.“It’s all right.”
“No!I can’t move.Don’tleave me.”
Cai knelt still.Aelfric’s shadow-armsextended, up and across the raftered ceiling, enclosing the wholecongregation.“Brother Benedict knows,” he intoned.“He knows thesins that plunge the soul into hellfire.Worst among them all isimpure love.What is impure love, Brother Benedict?”
“All love of the flesh isimpure,” Ben gasped out.This was a lesson he’d clearly learnedwell.Rocking, clutching Cai’s hand, he began to recite.“Allfleshly love is lust, a perversion of God’s love.Our bodies aresacred to Christ.To lie with a woman condemns our soul.To liewith one another as with women impales us like insects in thehellfire.Forever.Forever.”
Cai had had enough.He tore his handout of Benedict’s and stood up, ready to take on Aelfric barehandedif he had to.Anything to stop this.
But Aelfric was already on the move.His face was calm and satisfied, as if he’d achieved his goal.Theclerics had stopped keening and formed up into a protective phalanxaround him.Together, like a river of black pitch through the veryfirelit hell Aelfric had created with his words, they swept out ofthe church.
Benedict sprang up to follow.Caitried to stop him, and Oslaf, pale as death, made a helpless grabfor his sleeve, but Ben left at a run, clumsy, a broken-down pieceof machinery shambling in his master’s wake.
The rest of the brethren gatheredtogether like frightened sheep.They too began to move, Oslaf intheir midst.They bumped against Cai, who was rooted where hestood, jostling him blindly.Only Oslaf seemed to see him.Theyexchanged one glance, and then Oslaf too was gone, melting with theothers into the night.A gust of wind rushed through the open door,extinguishing the last torch, and Cai was alone in thedark.
No.Not quite alone.At his feet,Brother Martin gave a twitch and woke himself with one mightysnore.He looked up peaceably at Cai.“Ah.I was sleeping.Is itover, then?”
Cai picked him up carefully, waitingtill his legs were steady under him before letting him go.Hebrushed the dust and cobwebs off his robes.“Yes.Yes, it’sover.”
“You’re in a bad fettlethis morning, monk.”
Cai looked up from the cabinet ofherbs and potions he was rearranging.He had plenty of everything,having seen Danan the week before, but he felt a restless need torattle bottles and slam doors.Just now there was little else forhim to do.He had arrived in Fen’s cell that morning to find hispatient on his feet, voluntarily washing his face and limbs with acloth and a bucket of water.He had already fastened a clean linenstrip round his loins.He had stayed still when bidden for Cai tocheck his wound, and dressed himself without complaint in a freshcassock.
He was healing well.Cai, squintingfiercely into a bottle of willow salve, tried to forget the sightof him in morning light, splashing water into his face, thedroplets in a rainbow aura round his head.How he had looked as hehad straightened to greet him, something like a smile touching hiselegant face.He could stand up properly now, not leaning to favourhis side.For once Cai’s ward was empty, and he hadn’t objectedwhen Fen had followed him out of the cell, seated himself on one ofthe bunks and watched him begin his routine.
“What is it?Has thescarecrow been after you to shave your head again?”
“No.”
“Good.Because…”
Cai tried to analyse the silencebehind him.It was warm, he decided.Warm and getting tighter…Before he could turn, Fen’s hand was on his shoulder.Cai wouldhave to remember how quietly he could move.The hand passedbriefly, gently, through his hair.
“Because that would be ashame.”
Cai almost dropped the jar of valerianroot powder he’d uncorked.“Careful!Do you know how long thisstuff takes to grind?”
“It stinks of mouse.”Fenhad calmly retreated to the window ledge, as if his caressing touchhad never happened.“What does it do?”
“It soothes troubledspirits and promotes the health generally, as its namesuggests.”
Fen gave this a moment’sthought.“Valetudo,” he said.“Yes, I see.You look as if you could use adose of it yourself.What’s happened to trouble your spirits,then?”
“Apart from you?”Caifirmly corked the jar and set it back in the cabinet.He’d barelyslept in the few hours between midnight office and matins.He’dcome as a novice to Fara with every intent to become a goodChristian.Much of the doctrine—subjugation of earthly desire—hadbeen strange to him, but between Leof and Theo he had learned tosee the beauty of it too.Aelfric’s version was completely alien tohim.With his lover and his teacher gone, why should he stay, tosee his friends tortured by threats of eternal damnation?“Nothing.I’m busy, that’s all, and I can’t concentrate with you asking meall these questions.”
“You’re thinking ofleaving.”
Cai repressed a twitch.How had Fenplucked that newborn thought from his head?“I’m thinking ofremedies for constipation.You’ll see why, after a few moreservings of Brother Hengist’s egg bread.”
