Children of the Fountain Read Online Free

remained attached to the timbers.
    Coughing and covering his eyes Matthias took one last look at his sister and then jumped up and through the window frame slicing his arms and hands as he did.
    As he ran from the abbey for the cover of some nearby trees he looked back and was shocked to see most of the building on the west side now ablaze. Outside the doors were bodies and he could just make out a lone rider galloping away down the path towards the main road.
    He stared at the unholy blaze before him. The blackened skeleton of the abbey could be seen through the bright yellow flames that licked the sky. A timber on the east wing roared and gave way, swiftly followed by the rest of the chapel roof. At one point he looked around the grounds for survivors, but found none. Everybody must have been inside. In their beds, or perhaps the stranger had found them.
    How long he stood there, watching the fire slowly devouring the once great building, he didn’t know. Finally, only the glowing orange remnants of the timbers smouldered and he sat down on the grass. The sun was rising but it could barely be seen through the thick smoke that hung in the air. Eventually ash started to drift down from the sky like snow. He was alone. There was nobody else here and for the first time in his life he felt frightened.
    Rebecca was gone. Albert was gone. The other children, the nuns even Father James. Holding himself tight he thought only of his sister. He recalled her face as the man advanced on her. Why hadn’t he cried out? He should have done something, anything. But it was no use, he told himself, he would have been killed too.
    Standing up he decided his only option was to head to the local village. The smoke could be seen for miles around in the dawn’s light he guessed so no doubt some villagers would be on their way to investigate. Indeed he had only been walking for a few minutes down the hard dirt track when he came upon one such individual…or so he thought.
    The man was tall and wide as a barrel. The wind blew his long black hair out underneath a tall hat. A great coat was flapping behind him and as he drew closer Matthias saw he had a patch over his left eye. Matthias noted his dusty clothes and presumed him to be a traveller.
    “Quickly boy, I am looking for the abbey?”
    “It’s gone.”
    “Gone? Gone where?”
    “It burnt down.”
    “What? When?” his voice was heavily accented, Matthias couldn’t tell from where but it was similar to the stranger’s at the abbey. The one eyed stranger looked up and noticed the great columns of black smoke for the first time. “Good God,” he said, slowly under his breath.
    For some moments the man regarded the scene breathing deeply and then finally looking back at Matthias. “I was looking for someone.”
    “There’s nobody left. Father James, Sister Helena…they’re all gone.”
    “I was looking for a boy named Matthias. Do you know him?”
    Matthias froze but his mind raced rapidly. He’d never seen the man before, he was certain of it and the accent meant he was not from the village. Then he noticed a dagger at the stranger’s belt. Silver with a black stone set in the hilt his eyes looked at it then the man’s grizzled face, but it was too late, he’d guessed.
    “You’re Matthias aren’t you?”
    Matthias said nothing.
    “Yes you are. Of course you are. Don’t be afraid. My name is Alonso. It is a Spanish name. I am a mystic like my father before me and I’m here to help you”
     

Chapter 3
    Something in the stranger’s voice told Matthias to trust him. He started to lead the way back to the village, turning once to see if Matthias followed. As the man looked back along the track the last remnants of Matthias’s energy shifted his steps and he started to walk.
    His feet dragged, his shoulders hung but he managed to keep his eyes on the man Alonso. The village was only a mile away and normally reachable in fifteen minutes but it took them over thirty to get