Thomas got Missy ready to go as quickly as he could, the task a good distraction from his thoughts. According to Father Colm’s charts, it was safe to cross until about an hour after noon, so he needed to get to Lindisfarne without delay if he was to return this day.
Yesterday’s sun had disappeared behind a low bank of clouds. A few raindrops spat down as he rode towards the tidal island. Its rocky outcrop, twin to the one at Bebbanburg, soon loomed ahead, a black silhouette against the grey clouds.
He did his best to keep his mind on the task at hand, avoiding the yawning black hole inside him that sought to draw him in and rip him apart. Blackness that whispered to him of his failures, his inadequacies. Of Odda and Nona, his father and his mother. Those whom he had lost.
He recited th
