Falconer's Crusade by Ian Morson — Read

There was no sound from the rest of Bonham's house, so Thomas edged along the passageway to the door at the end. It led straight into a small room lit red by the dying glow of a fire. Deep shadows were cast on the walls by a small stool and rickety table. The Master led a frugal life. A heavy wooden cupboard dominated one end of the tiny cell. Each shelf was stacked with books and papers. Thomas groaned at the thought of trying to find Margaret's book in such a heap, but it was the best place to start. He felt sure the book, so recently acquired, would not be at the bottom of a stack, so he scanned the top few spines of each pile. Some were texts even Thomas knew - Donatus' Ars minor, Pliny and Solinus - others were more anonymous items and seemed to be attributed to foreigners with names like Mondino and Berbuccio. Curious, Thomas took one from the top of the pile. The pages fell open naturally at the sketchy drawing of a naked male figure with text all around it. Lines led from the text to parts of the drawing, particularly the face. This was drawn in much more detail than the body, with a halo of hair. Horribly, the face was flayed of flesh as after some awful battle. The eyeballs were pulled out of their sockets and the mouth was nothing but leering teeth bereft of flesh. Thomas shuddered at such horror, and he became even more convinced of the murderous intent of the quiet little Master. He dropped the book back on the pile and continued his search. Unfortunately, the book he was seeking was not amongst these well-thumbed texts. He felt his way to the table by the fire. Perhaps the Master had been reading the book when he was called away. He looked down at the book lying open on the table and sighed in disappointment. It was too large to be the lost book. It appeared to be a book of recipes or cures. Thomas turned back to the beginning and mouthed the jumble of letters making up the title, Meddygon Myddfai.

Again it was meaningless to him - it was not even in Latin.