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Back A Night of Flames
Chapters (76)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise forMATTHEW HARFFY
  3. BY MATTHEW HARFFY
  4. Title Page
  5. Copyright
  6. Dedication
  7. Maps
  8. Epigraph
  9. Contents
  10. Place Names
  11. One
  12. Two
  13. Three
  14. Four
  15. Five
  16. Six
  17. Seven
  18. Eight
  19. Nine
  20. Ten
  21. Eleven
  22. Twelve
  23. Thirteen
  24. Fourteen
  25. Fifteen
  26. Sixteen
  27. Seventeen
  28. Eighteen
  29. Nineteen
  30. Twenty
  31. Twenty-One
  32. Twenty-Two
  33. Twenty-Three
  34. Twenty-Four
  35. Twenty-Five
  36. Twenty-Six
  37. Twenty-Seven
  38. Twenty-Eight
  39. Twenty-Nine
  40. Thirty
  41. Thirty-One
  42. Thirty-Two
  43. Thirty-Three
  44. Thirty-Four
  45. Thirty-Five
  46. Thirty-Six
  47. Thirty-Seven
  48. Thirty-Eight
  49. Thirty-Nine
  50. Forty
  51. Forty-One
  52. Forty-Two
  53. Forty-Three
  54. Forty-Four
  55. Forty-Five
  56. Forty-Six
  57. Forty-Seven
  58. Forty-Eight
  59. Forty-Nine
  60. Fifty
  61. Fifty-One
  62. Fifty-Two
  63. Fifty-Three
  64. Fifty-Four
  65. Fifty-Five
  66. Fifty-Six
  67. Fifty-Seven
  68. Fifty-Eight
  69. Fifty-Nine
  70. Sixty
  71. Sixty-One
  72. Sixty-Two
  73. Author’s Note
  74. Acknowledgements
  75. About the Author
  76. An Invitation from the Publisher

We cleared a headland, leaving the towering rock and the cliffs behind. Sunlight glared from the sea, as if from burnished steel. I squinted, the blaze of light turning my mind to other concerns. To the strange name that Torfi had uttered just before his death.

“I pray that we do find her,” I said, choosing not to mention my worries, or Ljósberari.

“With God’s grace, we will find all that we seek,” Leofstan said, patting my arm. His face was bright in the afternoon sun, his eyes narrowed to slits as he stared at the land sliding past us on the port side of the ship. I wondered if he too was thinking about Ljósberari. Whenever my mind turned to the name, I felt as though cold claws scratched along my spine. If I was uncertain about finding Aelfwyn, I felt an unnatural fear of coming face-to-face with the one known as the bearer of light. There had been a horror in Torfi’s voice when he spoke of him, and such fear was hard to ignore.

For a time that afternoon, we were followed by several dolphins. They leapt and cavorted all around Brymsteda, flying high into the air over the steerboard’s white-churned wake, and then seeming to race us, the wooden sea-steed pitted against the creatures of the surf. The dolphins would often rise close to the surface as they swam, their faces visible just beneath the waves, and I could not shake the impression that they were staring directly at me. The men whooped and shouted at the animals, jeering and cajoling them. The sleek denizens of the deep appeared to respond to the goading, for they effortlessly sped past us, showing us that our timber horse was no match for their lithe, shining sinew and muscle.

The dolphins, seemingly content with their demonstration of superiority, disappeared as quickly as they had arrived. Briefly, I caught a glimpse of them far out to sea, leaping above the waves, and then they were gone. The animals, with their intelligent eyes and smiling faces, had filled me with a sense of wellbeing and now that they had vanished, a strange feeling of loss washed over me.

As the sun was lowering in the sky, we put into a small, sheltered cove. The beach was in shadow from the raised land that encircled it. As we waded ashore, before darkness enveloped the world, I thought I saw faces looking down at us from the marram grass that grew thick in the dunes. I mentioned it to Runolf, who nodded.

“I saw them too,” he said.