![]() Next to him a fat man lay on his back, snoring gently. Nobody could tell what he was thinking, not even his son, who knew him better than anyone.Įssa sat up, shrugging the blanket away from his shoulders. Cai had quick black eyes, like the pieces of obsidian he'd once sold to the High King in Northumbria. "And not a moment too soon." Cai had held up their old rug so that Essa could see sunlight streaming through the holes. The blanket had been given to them in exchange for a song only a few days before. He stretched out an arm, working it free of the blue blanket drawn too close around his neck and chin. ![]() Essa sometimes wished they might stay in a place long enough for him to make friends, but they never did. If Da wants to ride out today, we'll get wet. His name was Essa, he was nine summers old, and when he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was the red dawn waiting. A streak of pale light swung across the floorboards to touch the head of a sleeping boy with hair like a lick of fire in the dark. Shafts of brilliance swept into the hall through a side door left ajar the previous night. HE SUN rose above the flatlands, spreading a bloody glow across the mere. ![]() Middle Anglia, eastern Britain, late summer, AD 631 ![]()
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