The Last Sin Eater by Francine Rivers

Author:Francine Rivers
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Historical, Fiction, Romance, Spirituality, Adult, Inspirational
ISBN: 9780842335713
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers
Published: 1997-12-31T22:00:00+00:00

"Don't enter in! Stand where ye be." Never one to listen much, I entered in anyway and heard a scrambling. It was a moment before my eyes adjusted to the dimness and I saw him huddled against the back wall, covered over with a worn blanket. "Ye canna come into this place, Cadi. Go back!" Edging to the right, he felt the bed and found his leather hood, snatching it beneath the blanket covering.

"I need your help, Sin Eater."

"I canna help ye, child! I told ye before. Now, go away and leave me alone!"

"Fagan's fainted. He's just down the mountain, hidden in a cleft in the rocks just past the waterfall."

"What've ye done, girl? Wait and take him back down. Neither one of ye should be here. This is the mountain of the dead."

The Spirit stirred within me. "Get up, mon! Stop cowering in the darkness! Ye will no longer sit like a pile of dry bones. You willstand up and live as you were meant to do!"

He rose, the blanket dropping away as he quickly pulled the leather hood over his face. "Are ye mad? Think what you're doing. What put it in your mind to bring

358your friend to me, knowing what I am?"

"Aye, I know what ye are. Ye're a man like all the rest!"

"Not like the rest. I've eaten sin twenty years past! I am sin now. Dunna ye understand yet? It's overtaken me. And it will overtake you if ye do not go back where ye belong."

I stepped forward, hands at my sides, chin jutting. "Have ye forgotten ye sent me to hear the word of the Lord? Well, I heard it!" I went out into the light.

Hungry and thirsty for it, he followed. "And?" he said, his very stance speaking his eagerness to receive the word of the Lord as well.

"I'll not speak to you again until Fagan's safe inside your cave."

He uttered a frustrated cry. Trouble hovers over ye like a black cloud!"

I didn't argue. I simply led him down the mountain, glad my back was to him and he couldn't see the smile on my face.

Fagan was where I'd left him, still unconscious. The sin eater did not come inside the cleft, but stood gazing in at the boy. I could see his eyes fill with compassion, but hemade no move to do anything.

"Ye'll have to carry him," I said.

360"I'll not touch the lad and bring more sorrow on him!"

"Then what? Leave him here? There's thunder in the distance. It'll be raining soon. He'll get wet. He'll get sick. Maybe

he'll die. Ye want that on your head along with everything else?"

"I thought ye said ye'd not talk to me again until I had the lad safe inside my cave."

My face grew hot and I pressed my lips together, glaring up at him.

"Easy, lass. I'll make a stretcher. Ye've only to get him on it so I can drag him the rest of the way to shelter."

359

Eighteen

Fagan came round when we were safely inside the cave.

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