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Back A Burning Sea
Chapters (54)
  1. CAST OF CHARACTERS
  2. PART ONE
  3. CHAPTER ONE
  4. CHAPTER TWO
  5. CHAPTER THREE
  6. CHAPTER FOUR
  7. CHAPTER FIVE
  8. CHAPTER SIX
  9. CHAPTER SEVEN
  10. CHAPTER EIGHT
  11. CHAPTER NINE
  12. CHAPTER TEN
  13. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  14. CHAPTER TWELVE
  15. PART TWO
  16. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  17. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  19. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  21. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  22. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  23. CHAPTER TWENTY
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  30. PART THREE
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  42. PART FOUR
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  45. CHAPTER FORTY
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  53. HISTORICAL NOTE
  54. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

‘The steps by the Golden Hall,’ he repeated. He knew the place and next moment he was on his feet. There was a chest by the wall. He threw it open and recognizing a shawl of Lilla’s lying on top, he seized it and tore it in two. He pressed one half to Gerutha’s wound. ‘Hold it as tight as you can.’ He took her hand and put it on the shawl. ‘Keep pressure on it, like this. Now look at me, Grusha. I’ll come back for you, all right? I promise. I’ll come back for you!’

She gulped hard and nodded. Then he grabbed the rest of the shawl and unsheathed his stolen sword. ‘Aska,’ he hissed. ‘With me.’

Gerutha lay there for an age after he had gone, her whole will focused on stemming the blood leaking from her side. The wound was deep. She didn’t want to die. Her hand rose to the hollow at the base of her throat, her bloodstained fingers fumbling for the little gold cross there. She wanted to cry for help but didn’t have the strength for it. Instead her lips moved with the only word that came to her mind. ‘Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. . .’

Love is more powerful than death.

She was still murmuring His name when her eyes closed for ever.

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

Illustration

Erlan ran.

He ran though he wasn’t made to run. He ran, ignoring his aching thighs, and the cuts and bruises and everything else he’d suffered these last days and weeks. He ran along marbled colonnades, across courtyards, past fountains. Aska bounded alongside him until at last the great Golden Hall rose in front of them out of the gloom. There was the terrace, there the staircase. Erlan stopped and doubled over, his chest heaving. ‘Come here, boy.’ He caught hold of Aska’s collar and offered him the scent off Lilla’s shawl. Then he could do nothing but watch Aska hunt around, dying with each second lost, but knowing that without the hound on her scent pursuit was hopeless.

At last Aska caught something and immediately he was off along the edge of the terrace to the south, skirting the Golden Hall and loping along the colonnades that led downhill towards the Boukoleon Palace. Erlan hardly knew this part of the palace and so had to rely on Aska’s nose. When Aska stretched too far ahead, Erlan had to call him back. They ran on, down the labyrinthine pathways, under arches until his legs could carry him no further. He slowed to a halt. He had lost sight of Aska. Despair crashed in on him like a cold wave, overwhelming him. What was he doing? What was he hoping for? It was absurd. There was no hope. He put his head in his hands. . . no hope.

That was when he heard a voice.

Run on, my son, my chosen son. Run on. His father’s voice.