The Bone Quill by Carole E. Barrowman, John Barrowman Read Free Book Online

that tangled mass?
    The peryton pounded its hoofs on the ground and raised its wings high into the air. But the creature did not lift up into the heavens. Instead, Solon had to jump out of its path as it trotted forward, the light radiating from its body revealing a narrow opening through the jagged thorns that Solon would swear had not been there a moment ago.
    The peryton had created a path for him.
    Solon inched forward. When he reached the opening in the thorn bushes, he placed his hand on the peryton’s flank with his heart pounding in his own ears. Creature and boy walked together into the narrow gap, the darkness a weight on Solon’s head and shoulders.

SIXTEEN
     
    T he landscape changed in an instant, the ground softening and the air thickening. When Solon felt the dry undergrowth shift to swamp under his feet, he noticed that the peryton was no longer next to him. The creature had stopped at the perimeter of the bog, holding its head high and keeping a blanket of light on the desolate landscape.
    Stepping out of the twisted brambles, Solon suddenly plunged to his knees into the putrid muck of Skinner’s Bog. His leggings caked with thick black silt, Solon felt himself being pulled into complete darkness. He could no longer see the peryton, or its light. Terrified, he turned around. More darkness.
    Panic and bile bubbled in his gut. Then he saw the light, and sensed the peryton’s steadfastness. It was helping him, projecting its strength to him.
    Solon touched the leather pouch fastened round his waist and took two more steps forward. He had to keep his bearings. If he could make it to the centre of the bog and find the rowan tree, Brother Cornelius would be able to heal those who were still suffering.
    That way
, he thought, shifting a little to his left.
    But then he stopped. To go in that direction would take him away from the centre.
    It was so dark that Solon couldn’t tell any more which way was forward. The peryton calmed the young novice, suffusing him with a fresh wave of understanding. Now Solon knew that he had to move to his right.
    Each lunging step he took drained Solon’s will to continue. But the peryton’s light filled his mind and buoyed him to take the next step, and the next. The darkness had become so heavy that the boy was hunching over as he walked.
    A gust of fetid air and a long, low howl suddenly blasted Solon on to his back. He could feel himself sinking, his arms and legs being sucked into the bog. Hauling himself out of the muck, he focused on the horrible howling. It was impossible to fix the direction it was coming from.
    His breath caught in his throat as a shadow rose out of the darkness in front of him. Not a bear, but close in shape and size, with red-hot slits for eyes. The creature was oozing from every part of its body, dark essence dripping to the bog like tar. And the
smell
. It was as if someone had desecrated a grave.
    Solon wanted to run, but his feet were stuck. He wanted to yell, but his voice was frozen in his throat.
    There was the sound of a splash at the edge of the bog. The Grendel turned its burning eyes away from Solon, the sound distracting its attention. The boy trembled as the monster’s feral howling changed to a snapping of jaws: slobbering, slurping, chewing. The howling began again, but from deeper in the bog now.
    Solon forced himself to move. Brother Cornelius was depending on him to return.
    Solon had taken two more steps forward when something heavy and wet hit his hand. Lunging sideways, Solon saw the bloodied carcass of a sheep. In a moment of sickening awareness, he realized that the sheep had saved his life.
    Solon shivered at the sight of the massive jaw marks visible on the flayed animal’s neck. In a moment of grim humour, he realized that when he returned to the monastery, he would no longer need to ask the Abbot how Skinner’s Bog got its name.

SEVENTEEN
     
    S olon was almost ready to give up and return without the precious berries