21
Something Dark
February 21, AD 643, Bebbanburg
Thomas stood beside Celyn in the church, pressed on all sides by the villagers, all of them there to see the moment when Torht’s wounds were revealed. Hilda stood beside him, a faint quiver running through her from time to time. Father Paulus droned a prayer, which Thomas paid only half-hearted attention to, drowned out as it was by the fevered litany of Please, God that kept running through his mind.
Torht would be found innocent; he wasn’t worried about that. Nona was sure the Healing had gone well, and he had no reason to doubt her, other than his own skepticism about her Fey Gift. But there were other factors that could cause the outcome to be very bad.
One of them was Raedmund. The thegn scowled at Torht, fairly vibrating with ten
