Free The Secret of Kells by Eithne Massey

had fallen there was a carpet of white snowdrops on the green grass, and lying on it was his cloak. On the cloak, there was a single white flower.
    Pangur and Brendan looked at each other. Silently, the boy and the small white cat started to make their way back to the monastery. The sun was rising, lighting up the sky into red and gold and pink, and all the colours of the late summer forest seemed to be celebrating the defeat of Crom Cruach, the dark one who had kept the forest in a cage of fear for so many long years.  

9 The eye of crom
    O n his journey back to the monastery, it seemed to Brendan that he could still hear Aisling’s voice in his head. She was telling him the way back home. He could hear other voices too, and his eyes seemed to see things he had not seen before. He had somehow come closer to being part of the forest. He could feel the life it had lived for the thousands of years during which its trees had grown and died into the earth and grown again. Faces peered through the branches, but they did not frighten him, as they might once have done. They reminded him of Aisling. She was all around him. He saw a white raven with green eyes. It was Aisling. In a pool in the stream, a silver salmon swam and caught the nuts that fell from the branch above. By the flash of its silver scales, he knew it too was Aisling. A young deer, pale as snow,disappeared between the dark trees – Aisling again.
    ‘She is still here,’ he whispered to Pangur. ‘She is still part of the forest. And the forest is safe now.’

    Finally, they reached the grey stone walls of the monastery. Everything was very still and quiet. In an hour or so, all the brothers would rise to sing in the new day, but for the moment, they all slept.
    However, not everyone was asleep. A light burned in the Scriptorium. Brendan made his way carefully up the stairs and peeped in through the door. Aidan was seated alone at the table where they had worked together. He was surrounded by inkhorns and brushes, but he was not doing anything. His head was in his hands and the Book was in front of him. It was open at a blank page. The page that he had told Brendan was to become the Chi Ro page. He was muttering quietly to himself.
    ‘Oh, I’m only an old fool. I’ve made a right mess of things with my interference. I’ll never be able for the work. I’ll make a pig’s ear of it for sure.’
    He raised his head but did not see Brendan.Pangur had come over to him, and he began to stroke her ears gently.
    ‘So you are back, are you, you wild yoke. Out on the tear all night. And now you’re soaked. What were you up to? I was worried about you. It’s a pity you can’t draw, Pangur, you would probably do a better job than me … Brendan could have done it. Brendan could have made a masterpiece. But Brendan won’t be let out by Cellach unless he promises to stop drawing … oh, I should never have interfered. Old fools should learn to keep quiet …’
    ‘Unless young fools want to listen,’ said Brendan quietly. Aidan looked up, his face full of joy.
    ‘Boy!’ he said. ‘How did you get here? How did you get out of the tower?’
    His face suddenly dropped, as if he was remembering his encounter with the Abbot.
    ‘This is not the place for you, lad. You must go back to the tower before the Abbot finds out. There is nothing for you here.’
    Brendan moved towards him.
    ‘But you are here,’ he said. ‘The Book is here,’ he continued. ‘And,’ he paused, holding out hisbundle, ‘the Eye is here!’
    Aidan took the bundle from Brendan and opened it slowly. Then his eyes widened in astonishment.
    ‘How is this possible? The Eye was destroyed.’
    ‘It’s a long story,’ said Brendan as he held the Eye up into the light, and the facets caught the glow and shone so brightly that they both blinked. But even when it was taken away from the light, the crystal still seemed to glow with a white, inner fire.
    ‘The Dark One had more than one eye,