The Secret of Kells by Eithne Massey Read Free Book Online Page A

fears. There is something stopping you from doing that, but if you do, you will be able to make something that will indeed be the work of angels.’
    He paused.
    ‘Of course you will need something to help you. You will need another eye. Colmcille’s Eye. Colmcille instructed that it should never be used unless the work was worthy of it. It has not been used since Iona. But I am sure that he would want it to go to you.’

    ‘What?’ said Brendan, ‘The eye? Colmcille’s eye? So it is true he had a third eye? I thought it was just a story, like the one about him having a third hand with twelve fingers!’
    ‘I can assure you Colmcille had only two hands and the normal number of fingers. And the Eye isn’t a real eye. At least it isn’t a human eye. It is an eye of a very special kind,’ said Aidan, starting to fumble in his satchel. ‘It’s called a crystal. It is the most beautiful and wonderful thing, wherever it’s got to.’ He paused and scrabbled a bit more in the satchel, looking more and more worried as he did so.
    ‘But the power of the crystal is not just in its beauty. When you look through it, you can see details that even the sharpest-eyed person in the world could not see without it. It is amazing. You can see even down to the pattern on a bee’s wing. That is how Colmcille managed to make suchintricate designs. He kept the Eye hidden. Only a few monks, the ones closest to him, knew about it at all. That was partly to keep it safe, and partly because there are those who might have been afraid of it. They might have argued that it was not the Lord’s will to see too closely. But Colmcille always said that there was nothing the Lord created that could not be used for the good or evil, and it was the choice of man to decide what way to use it. So the good or evil was in the man or woman using the thing, not the thing itself. And the Eye of Colmcille was always used to create beautiful things. When Colmcille lay dying, the Eye dropped from his hand. And since then it has been kept safe in the monastery. When Iona was attacked those were the two treasures entrusted to me by the other monks … the Book and the Eye. But …’
    Suddenly, Aidan put his hands to his head in despair.
    ‘I have lost it, and we cannot make the Book without it! It’s lost! It’s all lost!’
    Brendan had never seen Aidan like this and it scared him.
    ‘Where did you last have it?’ he asked.
    Aidan shook his head. He looked desperately unhappy.
    ‘I have no idea,’ he said. ‘I can’t think what might have happened. I so was sure it was safe in the satchel. That’s why I didn’t even bother to look for it before now. But now that I think of it, it must have been when I fled from Iona. There was that time when I was getting onto the boat, with the Northmen right behind me. I have a vague memory of dropping the satchel and something falling then; it must have been the Eye. It could be anywhere now, anywhere between here and Scotland. Crushed by the Northmen or lost at the bottom of the sea … I have failed, Brendan. Failed in the task my brothers gave me.’
    ‘Where did the Eye come from?’ asked Brendan. ‘Maybe we can get another one?’
    Aidan shook his head.
    ‘No, I’m afraid that is impossible. The story is that the Eye was captured by Colmcille himself. He fought a great battle with a deadly serpent, one of the Old Ones, in order to win it. He nearly died in the battle, but in the end, he was victorious andsent the wicked snake howling and yowling deep into its lair under the waters of Lough Ness. Didn’t I tell you our founder was a great warrior as well as a monk? While they fought, he pulled one of the monster’s eyes from its head. He brought it to Iona.’
    Aidan sat down heavily at the Scriptorium table and buried his head in his hands.
    Pangur came up to him and rubbed her body against his arms, trying to comfort him. Aidan continued:
    ‘Some say that before the crystal became known as the Eye