Read Hereward 03 - End of Days for Free Online

from the unpatched holes in the barn’s roof. The abbot strode to the far end and kicked aside the dry straw that covered the floor in that area. Most of the ground was packed earth, but Alric glimpsed a wooden trap. With a length of hemp rope, Thurstan pulled up the hatch. He lowered himself into the hole that had been revealed.
    Following, Alric found himself in a dank chamber cut out of the earth. When his eyes grew accustomed to the half-light, he gasped. Treasure was heaped against the far wall. Gold plate, silver chalices, books and reliquaries encrusted with jewels. He snatched up a familiar gold bowl and turned it over in his hands. ‘This is from the church in Ely.’ His voice was dulled in the enclosed space.
    Thurstan took a gold plate and a goblet from the sack he hadcarried from his pony and laid them carefully on the pile. ‘All of it, now.’
    ‘But when …’
    ‘One or two pieces at a time, brought out of Ely hidden in sacks or tucked inside Jaruman’s tunic when he came to us in the guise of a merchant.’
    ‘Why, it must have taken weeks,’ Alric marvelled. ‘And yet not a word was said.’
    ‘Our brothers think it hidden for safe keeping under the church. Only a handful know the truth.’
    Alric looked over the riches. ‘Father, I fail to understand. Surely this gold and silver is safer in Ely than here. This ceorl …’
    ‘Jaruman fears God’s judgement more than he desires any earthly reward. I have known him since he was a boy, and he would die rather than betray this trust placed in him.’
    Alric replaced the bowl. His thoughts raced. ‘You fear Ely will fall. You have hidden the church’s gold here to prevent it tumbling into the king’s hands.’
    Thurstan nodded, caring little for the note of judgement he heard in the other man’s voice. ‘My duty is to God, and the church we have built, above all else. I must prepare for what may never come to pass, or risk failing the Lord. You know full well what the king thinks of the English church. He takes our gold for his own coffers. He steals our land. He replaces good English abbots with his own loyal Norman priests. William the Bastard would like nothing more than to sack Ely, and to smite us low for the aid we have given to the last of the English. But should he ever set foot within Ely’s walls, he will find little joy.’
    ‘Why have you brought me here?’
    Thurstan hesitated before putting on a smile and taking the younger man’s arm. ‘I sit among Hereward’s men when plans are made and I hear all. But there will come a time, in days darker than now, when news may be thin on the ground. I know, whatever your friendship with Hereward, yourallegiance is to God above all. You are in my trust here. I would be in yours, if there is benefit to the church.’
    ‘You would have me betray the trust of men I call friends?’
    ‘I would have you be true to God, and your vows.’ Thurstan peered at him, stern and unflinching.
    Alric took a deep breath. How could he fault the abbot? With Hereward missing, surely it was only good sense to prepare for the worst. ‘I will do what I can.’
    The abbot smiled. ‘Good. Then we are in agreement.’
    They climbed out of the loamy atmosphere and stepped out of the barn. Jaruman waited, his hands clasped in front of him.
    ‘You must not take the same road home,’ he said in a voice so low it was almost lost beneath the clucking of the hens. ‘My brother has come with news – he waits by my hearth now. This morning the Normans rode out of Grentabrige in force. They are everywhere, like flies on a dead dog. All who travel towards Ely are being stopped and turned back, or worse.’
    Alric eyed Thurstan. They did not need to speak to share their concerns. It was not yet winter, but the wolves were drawing closer. What had prompted this new approach?
    ‘There is another way,’ Jaruman said. He gave directions to a secret track that only the ceorls of Angerhale knew. It would take them east,