The monastery was silent, itstumbledown buildings held in quiet sunlight.It was like a futurevision of itself—moss beginning to take hold among the ruins, thepride of human life that had built her long vanished, sleepingbeneath the hawthorn graves.Cai and Fen dragged the boat ashore,then climbed the steep path up the cliff face without meetinganother soul.At the top they came to a halt, looking around them.Cai hadn’t expected to be missed, for anyone to be watching orwaiting on their return, but this was a better opportunity thanhe’d anticipated.He turned to Fen.
“This could be a goodmoment, you know.For you to go, if you wish.”
“I…I could still have yourhorse?”
“Yes.I told you.If youwanted.”
“And what if I didn’twant?”
“The horse, or...”
“To go.”Fen evaded Cai’slook.He was surveying the barns, the fields and the infirmarybuilding that had been his prison for so long.He still slept inthe quarantine cell, Aelfric having forbidden him to join theothers in the dormitory barn.He was still locked away fromcompline to matins, though Cai knew he could make short work of thewindow and the ivy beneath it if he wished.
“You’re strong now.I can’tbelieve you’d want to stay.”
“Would you come withme?”
What a wild, strange thought.It senta shiver down Cai’s spine and he briefly closed his eyes to savourit.He’d been on the verge of departure when Benedict had come tocling to him, renewing for a time his sense of a place here, anobligation.But whatever Ben had needed, whatever guiding light orrock, Cai hadn’t been able to provide.No—he hadn’t been expectinga lookout, much less a welcome party for his return.For the placeto be this quiet, all his brethren must have gone about their usualdaily tasks.“The waters close over our heads, don’tthey?”
“Not over yours.Not if Ican help it.”
Blindly Cai put out a hand.Fen tookit immediately this time.“No.You didn’t let me drown, did you?Ilike to lie with you.I think you’re a dangerous, bloodthirstynutcase, but…I see in colour again when I’m with you.”
“So?”
“So… Yes.I willgo.”
He didn’t have a thing to pack.All hehad to do was walk with Fen down to the armoury, collect a fewweapons—Broc’s sword, Fen’s ancestral head-splitter—and help himpull the chariot out into the yard.He could see Eldra from here.The only living creature to remark their arrival, she at leastseemed pleased to see them, trotting the length of her paddock withher head held high.Cai had no right to either of Fara’s ponies,but Eldra was his, and between the shafts of the chariot she wouldtake them anywhere.South, perhaps.There were cities down there,places where if Leof’s gentle god was long dead, Aelfric’smonstrous one was not yet in the ascendant—Roman towns, where forevery Christian you met you would find five who still bowed to theancient shrines of Jupiter and Mars.Zoroastrian cults too,followers of the soldier’s god Mithras, Broc’s particularfavourite.The world was large.
Yes, large.But all the voices of thislittle one were rising from the timber church.Cai drew Fen to ahalt as it came into view.They stood together, wordlesslylistening.The church doors were wide open.Only this way could thebuilding accommodate the full complement of monks.It seldom wasrequired to, even when Aelfric made Eyulf ring the bell and stoodeagle-eyed with his great black staff, counting his flock throughthe doors.There were always tasks to be done that Aelfric stillrecognised as essential, or at any rate didn’t dare yet deny.Buteveryone was there today, the stragglers crowding on the stepsoutside.
Fen was still holding Cai’s hand.“What’s going on?”he asked softly.“Is it a holy day?Some saint’smiserable, pointless bloody death to be celebrated?”
“I don’t think so.”Caifound he was grinning.He didn’t see things quite the way Fendid—not yet, anyway—but he’d come to appreciate the external pointof view.Men like Aelfric could hammer down a black iron bowlacross the whole world, and so far God hadn’t seen fit to helpthose trapped underneath.Poor Ben… “I don’t know.It’s not even aprayer hour.”
“Well, it’s good timing forus, whatever the fools are about.”
Cai hesitated.If Aelfric had herded hisbrethren together for another dose of hellfire, didn’t Cai, theirphysician, owe them whatever antidote he could give?Then again,he’d learned to his cost that he could only doctor their bodies,not their souls, and sporadically at that.Whatever Danan had saidto Addy about his skills, really he was only the hit-and-miss quackshe had called him to his face.He rubbed his thumb gently over thetop of Fen’s hand.“You’re right.Come on.”
Eyulf was perched on the tower, thedinner bell laid neatly in his lap so he wouldn’t forget it or whatit was for.As soon as Cai noticed him, he sprang to his feet,sending the bell flying, dislodging stones in a terrifying scatter.He let go one yell of mixed joy and fear, slithered to his backsideand began to fall.
Cai ran.Fen was on his heels, and Caihad a moment to reflect on the strangeness of that—as far as thepoor Viking was concerned, this flight was in the wrong direction.But there he was, a shadow, then a force that took substance andshot right past him, far faster than Cai could hope to run, and soit was that Eyulf tumbled down into the most unlikely salvation ofall—the arms of a Viking, who went down quite gracefully beneathhis weight and rolled them both out of danger, shielding thehowling lad’s body with his own from the last few plummetingrocks.
Coming to a halt, Cai let thelaughter building in him surface.The danger was over, and Eyulfclearly didn’t appreciate his rescuer—had recoiled from him as soonas Fen had let him go, and now they were both on their feet, wascircling him, face contracted in the hideous scowl thatmeantViking.Cai went and stopped the boy, brushing dust out of hisrobes.Eyulf stood on tiptoe in his agitation, attempting toreproduce Fen’s height and prowling walk, pointing frantically athim over Cai’s shoulder, as if Cai hadn’t noticed he wasthere.
“I know,” Cai said.“Itseems odd to me too.But he’s…” He paused, long enough to meetFen’s eyes.“A good Viking.Sometimes.”
“It was instinct,” Fengrowled.“Next time I will let him fall.Cai, you idiot—we’vemissed our chance.”
Cai whipped round.All his survivingbrethren were standing in the sunlight, staring at him as if he andnot Eyulf had just dropped down from the sky.Wilf the goatherd wasin the front line.A handful of others were still emerging from thechurch, among them Oslaf, pale as death, supported between Garethand Demetrios.
Cai spread his hands.“What’s wrong?”Still Wilfrid just gawped.“Where is Aelfric?Has he got you allhere to listen to more of his ranting?Gareth—that boy should be inbed.Who made you bring him down here?”
“He wanted to come,” Wilfanswered at last.“No one made us.The storm, Cai—we thought it hadtaken you.And Fenrir went after you—the only one who dared.Wethought you were both lost to us.We came here to pray for yoursouls.”
Cai pushed his fringe back.Hecouldn’t take this in.Not so many faces breaking into astonishedgrins, not for such a reason.“And… And Aelfric allowedyou?”
“No.But he couldn’t stopus.He can’t, can he…?”Wilf paused, as if realising this for thefirst time.“Not if it’s all of us.”He stepped forwards andsuddenly enveloped Cai in a painful embrace, redolent of thebarnyard and warm goat.“You came home.”
