The Secret of Kells by Eithne Massey

understand. No more excursions, no more Scriptorium, and no more Brother Aidan!’
    The Abbot started to walk away from Brendan.
    Brendan looked at his back and said quietly, ‘No.’
    The Abbot turned around and Brendan looked stubbornly at the ground. It had cost him all of his courage to say that one small word to his uncle.
    ‘What did you say?’ The Abbot’s voice was as cold as winter.
    ‘I can’t do that. I can’t give up the Book.’ Brendan could feel tears coming to his eyes but he kept talking. ‘If you would only look at it, at one page of it, you would know why I have to keep making it. It’s so beautiful.’
    He paused. For a moment, he thought his uncle was going to relent. He continued eagerly, ‘You must realise how important it is; it’s much more important than the wall. You used to make artyourself … Brother Aidan said you were an illuminator once …’
    But Brendan had gone too far and the Abbot lost patience. ‘That’s enough!’ he said sharply. He grabbed Brendan by the arm and pulled him down the stairs to the little cell in the bottom of the tower, where he banged the door behind him and locked him in. ‘If I can’t trust you to stay out of harm’s way, you will have to remain here until you see sense.’
    He sighed, and said more quietly, ‘I don’t want to do this, believe me. But it’s a hard and dangerous world, Brendan. Making pretty drawings is not going to save you from all the bad things that can happen. I wish you could realise that. I’m going to Brother Aidan now, to get that accursed book from him and lock it away somewhere. Somewhere where it won’t take everyone’s mind off the work they are supposed to be doing. Every monk in the place is distracted and Aidan is the cause of it all. That man has caused nothing but trouble since he came here … And as for you, you can stay there until you learn a bit of respect and obedience. Until then, I washmy hands of you.’
    He began to make his way upstairs. Brendan was left listening to the angry swish of his cloak on the stone as he walked quickly up the steps.

7 The Rescue
    B rendan looked around him. The cell was damp and bare. There was very little furniture: just a wooden table, a three-legged stool, and a straw pallet to sleep on. There wasn’t even a fireplace. Brendan’s only company appeared to be a nest of baby mice and a very busy spider, intent on creating a web between the rafters. Brendan examined every corner, but he could not find any way out of the cell. Faint light came in from a tiny barred window high up on one wall. He pulled over the stool and climbed onto it, peering out. The window looked out at ground level so all he could see were the monks’ feet passing by. They had started the day’s work on the wall. Brendan recognised Brother Jacques’s bony toes and called out to him, but he did not stop. All the monks knew that the Abbot was in a terrible mood today and were going about their tasks as quickly as possible.
    Watching the passing feet, the mouse family and the spider and wondering how he could get out was Brendan’s only entertainment all day. In the evening, Brother Tang came to the door with a meal of soup and oatcakes and buttermilk for him. Tang was sympathetic, but said to Brendan, ‘It’s more than my life is worth to let you out, my child. The Abbot is like a demon today. He is pushing himself – and all of us – to work on the wall as if there were no tomorrow. I’m telling you, he will end up killing himself if he keeps going like this. And he has had a dreadful row with Brother Aidan. We have never seen anything like it in Kells. He tried to take the Book from him! But Brother Aidan just spoke very quietly and said to Abbot Cellach that the Book had been put in his keeping. That minding it was a sacred task given to him by the dead brothers of Iona. So in the end Abbot Cellach left it with him. But he told Aidan he would have to leave Kells when the first thaw of spring