“I am no child,” Revna replied, and there was a dreadful sadness in the words. “But I am not lost yet. And your man is right. There is no time for this. Take those two and put them inside.” She nodded to the shadowed shapes of two men who lay slumped near the entrance to the hut. I had not noticed them before, for they were quite still.

“Are they dead?” I asked.

“No,” she replied, “and they will not remain silent for long. More guards will be sent soon, and they will raise the alarm. We must get to the boats.” There was fear in her voice, but she did not allow it to control her. Her steely determination reminded me of her father.

Beorn and Gwawrddur dragged the limp guards into the hut. I wondered what Aelfwyn and Revna had done to incapacitate them, but now was not the moment for questions.

Aelfwyn freed herself at last from Eadmaer’s grasp and embraced me.

“You came for me,” she whispered. As well as gratitude, her tone carried awe. She must have been certain that she would never see me or anyone she knew ever again. I held her tightly, making sure that she was really there and not a spectre from a dream.

“You are kin,” I said, simply.

She stepped back and looked me up and down in the pale light of the moon.

“You no longer wear the tonsure,” she said.

My face grew hot in the darkness. I was garbed in the linen robe and nothing more. My feet were yet bare, my toes encased in drying mud and shit from the hut’s squelching floor.

“ I am a monk no more,” I said. “Much has changed since last we met.”

She let out a long breath. Both of our lives had been ripped apart in this last year. I could scarcely recall what life had been like before the Norse came to Lindisfarnae.

“We have many stories to tell, I am sure, cousin,” she said, her tone tight with sorrow and memories that were best left for the daylight. But for that, I thought, we would have to survive beyond the dawn.

“Wait there,” said Revna, her voice not much louder than the passing of an owl in the night. She slipped away and was instantly lost in the shadows. Still, there was no sound from the settlement, but my skin prickled with the feeling of being in the open. It could only be a matter of time before we were spotted and all would be lost.

“Where is she going?” asked Gersine, pointing with his chin into the gloom after Revna. He had hobbled out of our cell and now stood leaning against Drosten.

Nobody answered him and we stood in tense silence, listening for any sound. A scuffed footfall close by startled me. It was Beorn and Gwawrddur stepping out of the hut.