22
The next day dawned bright and clear, the rains gone. After an early morning breakfast at the hall, Thomas and Celyn started along the path that led towards the monastery. Lindisfarne sat on a tidal island, which meant the tides released it from its isolation from the mainland twice a day. According to the tides table Father Colm consulted, the way would be clear for a couple of hours before noon.
The rain had cleared, but the sky was overcast and a cold wind blew off the ocean to their right. The beach was long and empty, but they rode along a worn trail through the marram grasses that studded the sandy soil inland of the beach, here and there skirting soggy areas where the ocean waters made a deeper incursion into the mainland.
To their left the land rose in gentle hills to the hor
