The Du Lac Princess: (Book 3 of The Du Lac Chronicles) by Mary Anne Yarde

Author:Mary Anne Yarde [Yarde, Mary Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-10-09T16:00:00+00:00

22

Holywell Priory, Londinium.

Alan paused outside the large wooden gates of the Priory. It had been so long since he was last in Londinium, too many years had passed by, it was strange that he had not noticed the time march on. He had expected things to of changed, to be different, but he had not been prepared for this. Londinium was no more. She was a ruin. A skeleton left to rot outside in the cold for the scavengers to argue over.

The place where he grew up was unrecognisable. What had once been a thriving community was now left to the ghosts and the spirits. These ghosts crept in and out of the buildings that were still standing, and wept and wailed for the ones that were not. There was no one here — no one alive anyway. The inhabitants had moved on when the Saxons came. After the Battle of Crecganford, there had been nothing left to stay for — unless it was disease and starvation that you desired. Only a few brave souls had remained, his father being one of them. But now looking around, Alan couldn’t understand why his father would choose to stay.

Surprisingly while Londinium burned, the Priory of Holywell, on the outskirts of the town, had been spared. No one knew why the Saxons left the Priory untouched and no one was brave enough to ask any questions. It was enough that they had left this sacred site alone.

There was a long rope attached to a bell, hanging from the wall and Alan cautiously pulled it. The bell rang, the sound conspicuous in the bleakness and silence of the landscape. Alan had a strange fancy that this tolling bell was calling the mourners to the cemetery and the ghosts to the graves. There was a finality to the sound. An end. He regretted ringing it, and the hairs on the back of his neck rose. He looked about him, but he could see no one. It was deserted. He felt a strange fancy that he was the last man left alive. He shivered at the thought.

Alan waited for what seemed like an eternity for someone to answer his summons. He pulled the furs tighter around his shoulders and shuffled from one foot to the other in a bid to stay warm. The horse he had loaned from a livery in Sussex nudged him in the back several times until Alan absentmindedly began to pet the animal. For the love of everything Holy, what was taking them so long? Was the Priory as abandoned as Londinium’s streets? He was of a mind to leave when the door opened.

There standing in front of him was a woman, her robes a nondescript grey, her hair was covered with a coif. Around her eyes and her mouth were many fine-lined wrinkles, which told him that she laughed often and smiled much. She had kind eyes, blue ones, and he instantly felt at ease in her presence. The nun smiled at him in welcome; she didn’t speak, but he could see questions in her eyes.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.