Free The Book of Beasts by John Barrowman

that was trickling down the cave wall, and mixed a poultice of moss, mud and a powder she took from a pouch under her tunic, before caking the mixture liberally on her blistered hand.
    As Solon tossed more kindling on the fire, thick grey smoke rapidly filled the small cave. Matt started to cough, doing his best to clear the haze building up around him.
    Solon grinned. ‘All will be well, Matt. Be patient.’
    He ducked to the corner of the cave and retrieved a tube made from a hollowed-out branch and coated on the inside with a black tar that glimmered in the firelight. Placed over the fire, the branch created a chimney that carried the smoke up and away, forcing it out through small fissures in the rock.
    When the fire was blazing and the smoke under control, Solon pulled a leather pouch from his vest. Like Carik’s, it was full of dried plants and herbs. He broke off a chunk of what looked to Matt like a ginger root and handed it to him.
    â€˜This will help dull the pain in your head.’
    Matt was about to chew the root up when Solon slapped it from his hand. It landed, popping and sparking, in the fire.
    â€˜It is to be put on your wound !’ said Solon, shaking his head in disbelief.
    Carik burst out laughing at Matt’s ignorance. Matt couldn’t help himself and began to laugh too. He took another slice of the root. This time he did as instructed.
    Minutes after applying the gooey substance from the inside of the root, he felt the deep cut on his forehead slowly go numb.
    â€˜What happened to the white peryton?’ he asked at last, getting as close to the fire as possible without burning himself. He was soaking wet, freezing cold and every bone felt bruised from being tossed around in the raft. ‘The last I saw of her, you two were flying her over the wave.’
    â€˜She brought us to safety above the waterline, and vanished,’ said Solon. ‘I’m not sure where she goes, deep into the island somewhere. Brother Renard and I unbound her from the island, to help save the village from the Norse attack.’
    â€˜The Norsemen who attacked the monastery,’ said Matt, turning to Carik who was gathering more wood at the mouth of the cave. ‘Were they your people? Vikings?’
    Carik still wasn’t doing a very good job at stifling her curiosity. Like the damp of the cave and the stink of their bodies, it continued washing over Matt in waves.
    â€˜They were not my people,’ she said fiercely. ‘I was their slave. They took my mother as spoils of one of their victories when they conquered the islands north of Skye, when I was still at her breast.’
    She tossed the wood into the fire, causing sparks to explode near Matt’s feet. He jumped back.
    â€˜We need to find where your father has imprisoned my master Brother Renard,’ said Solon.
    â€˜And where he’s taken Jeannie,’ added Matt.
    â€˜Who exactly is this Jeannie?’ asked Carik.
    â€˜She’s our—’
    Matt stopped, not sure of how to explain who Jeannie was, and what she meant to him and everyone at the Abbey. He wasn’t entirely sure who she was now anyway. Not after everything that had happened that day.
    â€˜She was the one who created the wave,’ he said finally. ‘She’s from my time, in the future. I think she is connected to the islands in some enchanted way. Maybe like the peryton is.’
    Solon studied the fire. ‘We saw the destruction of the wave from the peryton. It surged through the monastery walls and destroyed the outer buildings, including our scriptorium.’ A shadow passed over his face. ‘Many manuscripts will have been destroyed.’
    Matt could only guess at how long a single manuscript would have taken these monks to illuminate. One more thing to feel guilty about.
    A thought struck him.
    â€˜Solon,’ he said suddenly, ‘was The Book of Beasts kept in the scriptorium?’
    Solon’s gaze