Anne Perry - The Scroll

A cloud of crows flung high in the air like jagged pieces of shadow, thousands of them, tens of thousands, all shouting their hoarse cries into the night.

“Did anybody else get out?” Hank asked, his voice shaking.

“No,” Monty answered with certainty.

“He thought the scroll was in my case,” Hank said. “The bishop. I’ve had that case for years.”

“What was in it?” Monty asked.

“Nothing,” Hank replied. “He would have destroyed the scroll.”

“And the scholar would have published it, no matter whose faith it broke,” Monty replied. “People need their dreams, right or wrong. You have to give them a new one before you break the old.”

“What about Garrett?” Hank asked, pain in his voice as if he dreaded the answer.

“He’s all right,” Monty said, absolutely sure that it was the truth.

Hank stared at him, then at the burning house. “He’s in there!”

“No, he isn’t, not now. He’s all right, Hank.”

“And the child?”

“Gone. I think he’s free of her … it.”

“Do you have any idea what you’re talking about?” Hank asked, not with doubt but with hope.

“Oh, yes, yes, I think so. I’m talking about sacrifice and redemption, about faith, about hope being stronger than even the demons who dog you with memory and tales of hatred, and who tempt you to justify yourself, at all costs.”

“And the scroll? What are you going to do with it now?”

“I think when we go and look, we’ll find it’s gone,” Monty replied. “We aren’t ready for it yet.”

Hank smiled and together they turned to walk away towards the darkness ahead, no more than the soft folds of the night, with sunrise beyond.

The end.

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

copyright © 2011 by Anne Perry

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