22
Ravenclan
February 23, AD 643, near Wurthingas
Thomas reined in Missy and squinted through the rain at the path. They had travelled for two days in the sunshine, but the next day as he left Brorda’s holding after dawn, the rains had returned, and the land around him was now cloaked in a gloomy, soggy mist. Brorda had told him to follow the path eastward through the hills. He estimated the bridge where Matthew waited would be about a half day’s journey away. If his Teacher was correct, he had about an hour to go.
Here, west of Bebbanburg, the hills rose sharply around him, dotted with peaks that held some dustings of snow in the morning. The wind blew in gusts through the valleys, where rivulets of water tumbled against the hills’ rocky banks.
It was a beautiful country, wild and em
