The Secret of Kells by Eithne Massey Page B

to him as if he could hear the sound of singing. The singing crept into his mind, winding through it like a trail of ivy, opening pictures in his head. He could see Aisling and Pangur as they made their way to where the Abbot slept in his tower, Aisling gliding up the stone wall with Pangur clasped around her neck. There, through the gap in the shutters, he could see his uncle lying fast asleep. He was snoring a little and he had a frown on his face. On the wall beside him hung a large key. Aisling began to sing softly to the cat.

    You must go where I cannot
    Pangur Bán, Pangur Bán
    Níl sa saol seo ach ceo
    is ní bheimíd beo
    ach seal beag gearr.
    As she sang, a mist grew and swirled around Pangur. The cat seemed to lose her solid, furry form and became a creature of mist and shadows.
    And the mist cat made her way through the gap in the shutters. As the cat took the key from its place on the wall, the Abbot moaned gently in his sleep. Brendan stirred in his dream state, afraid that his uncle would wake up. But the Abbot only muttered something about a wall and Pangur came back to Aisling, the key held safe in her mouth.
    The music continued, but then another noise jerked Brendan out of his dream. It was the noise of a latch being lifted. And there was the mist Pangur, with the key of the tower in her mouth. Brendan let himself out quickly and made his way past the sleeping monastery. The mist-cat slid away back to the tower where she replaced the keybeside the sleeping abbot.
    When Brendan reached the secret entrance in the wall, he found that Aisling was waiting for him on the other side.
    Brendan was so delighted to be out of the tower that he gave Aisling a hug.
    ‘Hug Pangur if you like,’ said Aisling. ‘She’s the one who did the work. But listen, why did the Abbot lock you up?’
    ‘Because I disobeyed him. He caught me trying to go to the forest.’
    ‘Why? To come to see me?’
    ‘Not just that,’ said Brendan. ‘I wanted to go into the forest to find this.’
    He raised his hand, and Aisling leapt backwards in fear.
    ‘The Eye of Crom!’
    ‘That’s what it looks like, doesn’t it?’ said Brendan. ‘But it is actually a crystal. There was once another crystal just like it. Colmcille used it to make the most beautiful drawings in the world. It was lost on Aidan’s journey to Kells, and he says we need another one. We can’t finish the Book without it. I think there is one in the Dark One’scave. I have to go there.’
    Aisling sat down suddenly on the ground, as if her legs had given way from under her.
    ‘Fight Crom Cruach! You cannot do that! You cannot go there! The monster kills everything it touches!’
    ‘I have to, Aisling’, said Brendan. ‘I have to try, at least.’
    ‘No, Brendan, you don’t understand,’ said Aisling. ‘Crom Cruach took my people. It took my mother. It is all-powerful. Even your saints, Colmcille and Patrick, could not kill it; they could only send it deeper into hiding. It is the thing that crouches and waits in the darkness, which lies there forever, waiting to strike. It is Crom Cruach, Crom Dubh, the Black Crooked thing. You are only a little boy. You couldn’t even climb a tree before I showed you how. You have not much strength and you have no magic. Please, don’t even try to do this.’
    Brendan’s looked into Aisling’s pleading face. He felt a pain in this chest as he thought of his own mother. He was sorry to upset Aisling, but he knew what he had to do.
    ‘If we do not get the crystal, the Book will never be finished. Aidan told me that the crystal lets you see things you would never be able to see with just your own eyes. Imagine, being able to see the pattern on a greenfly’s wing or the veins on a blade of grass. I want to bring all those things to the Book, so that others can see it; and this is the only way to do it. You don’t have to come with me. Maybe it is better if you don’t. I don’t want you to get hurt. But if you