Pushing Aelfwyn out of my mind with a great effort, I cleared my thoughts and began to mutter the words of Prime, the first office, quietly to myself. I would praise the Lord for our safe arrival in these strange lands. With His grace, Aelfwyn would be safe and I would find her, however impossible that might seem as I shivered in the cold wind blowing in from the sun-sparkled sea. The familiar Latin liturgy soothed my mind, and my tiredness slipped away, like melting snow. I wondered if the brethren at Werceworthe, Lindisfarnae and Uuiremutha were even at that moment reciting the same prayers?

A footfall made me turn. Leofstan was standing there, his lined face flushed in the morning light, his eyes filled with the fire of the sun.

“Can I join you?” he asked.

I inclined my head, pleased to have his company.

Together we prayed and recited the office of Prime, keeping our voices low, so as not to disturb those who still slept. All the while, I scoured the horizon, not forgetting that I was on guard duty. Nothing but seabirds moved out on the sparkling waves.

When we had finished praying, we stood in silence for a time. The smell of smoke drifted to us as the wind shifted. On the beach behind us, the men were stirring. Someone had placed some tinder and the remaining logs on the fire, prodding the embers to life.

“He must have the book,” said Leofstan, without warning.

I did not ask to whom he was referring.

“It truly has such power?” I asked. “Just words, you said. Besides, even if this thrall has The Treasure of Life, merely to possess it would mean nothing, surely. You cannot believe it has power beyond the words on its pages. And what thrall knows how to read?”

Leofstan shook his head.

“I know not the answers to these questions. But you feel it too, do you not? The book we seek, this man has it. I am sure of it. The name he goes by, this talk of the battle between light and darkness within each of us. These are from the teachings of Mani.”

“If so, the teachings have unleashed a great evil.”

“Which is why we must retrieve that book. It cannot be allowed to remain in the possession of this Ljósberari.”

I glanced back at the shattered remnants of Skorri’s hall.

“If he indeed possesses it, I do not think he will give it up easily.”

“No. I think you are right.” Leofstan scratched at the stubble that had grown on his shaved pate. “But if Aelfwyn yet lives, she might be with him too. It seems to me that each of the paths we follow lead after Ljósberari and his horde of thralls. God has led us both here.”