Harndall speaks a prayer
17th November 1102
She lay before him, her face soft and peaceful as in sleep. She looked newly dead, the last vestiges of life draining from her pallid skin. He knew better.
Beneath the ruins
17th November 1102
“Bring the torch closer so I can see”, barked Lochan.
Obligingly Noah knelt, the flickering light of the flare casting eery shadows over the weathered tiles.
They go down below
17th November 1102
Tiny flakes of snow swirled through the chill air netting themselves in the heavy weave of Harndall’s cloak which was already sodden with their melting bodies. Behind them the hollow shell of the ruined church loomed, blackened arches curving upwards like the ribcage of some giant rotting creature.
All around him were men, men with swords, their sharp edges menacingly slicing through the soft forms of the unfortunate snowflakes whose suicidal trajectories intersected them.
Kelgar feels the weight
17th November 1102
Kelgar squinted into the darkness that engulfed the cavernous castle kitchen. Polina had told him Illewen was usually here quite early.
He had left her helping Osras put on his armour. Her nimble fingers would fasten the buckles that later that evening, god willing she would pull open again, her mouth pressed against his brother’s. She would take down his brother’s sword, balancing it in her sturdy hands and sliding it deftly into the sheath at his side. As she worked, tugging at leather straps, adjusting carefully the tunic that would protect his brother’s brawny chest her hands would linger for long moments on his forearm, brushing against the sensitive skin of his throat. Perhaps he would steal a kiss and she would scold him with a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth though her heart was heavy.
Kelgar finds Igrayne
31st October 1102
She hadn’t gone far. Kelgar could just make out her figure in the darkness, a small, hunched silhouette against the soft glow of the moonlit sea. The waves were slowly rolling up onto the shore, sending up a fine mist of droplets that hung suspended, glittering in the faint light before they sank back into the ocean. The sea blurred at the horizon, milky blue merging with the deeper dark, framed by the hulking bodies of rock.
