Peter Tremayne - Dancing With Demons

‘You do not ask questions. Get down in there.’

Eadulf had no option but to obey. He bent his head and moved along into the passage in a crouching position. The wicker gate swung shut behind him. He paused, expecting to be shrouded in blackness, but there was a flickering light some distance ahead at what was, presumably, the end of the passage. Cautiously he began to crawl forward. The passage was cold but it was dry and the ground easy underfoot. He had the light to guide him and it was not long before he found himself in the interior of the manmade structure.

The first thing he saw was an elderly man squatting on the floor with an oil lamp on one side of him and a clay jug on the other.

The man looked up as Eadulf emerged into the cavern. Despite his white hair and haggard features, he had a striking presence. Even with the shadows, Eadulf saw that he had once been handsome; his eyes werestill dark and his gaze penetrating. The eyes widened a little as he took in Eadulf’s clothing and tonsure.

‘And who might you be?’ he asked, not moving.

‘Eadulf of Seaxmund’s Ham,’ replied Eadulf, staring around the cavelike room in which he found himself. The light showed the interior of it to be covered in intricate carvings, which seemed vaguely familiar. He realised they were like the carvings he had seen in the man-made cave near the Abbey of Delbna Mór.

‘I welcome you, Brother Saxon. You will overlook the fact that I cannot rise. I feel my ankle was broken or sprained when they captured me.’

At once, Eadulf was concerned and bent to the old man, examining his puffy and swollen ankle by the faint light. He touched it gently.

‘You have some knowledge of the physician’s art?’ asked the old man.

‘I studied at Tuam Brecain,’ replied Eadulf, before asking the man to attempt some movement on the ankle.

He did so, wincing a little. Eadulf observed the movement with an expert eye.

‘When did it happen?’

The old man shrugged. ‘Difficult to be accurate when imprisoned without sight of the sky. Perhaps three or four days ago.’

‘Well, it’s not a break, thanks be to God. I think it is a sprain. You really need some cold compress on it. I will ask the guards.’

The old man laughed and caught him by the arm, shaking his head.

‘I don’t think you’ll find any compassion among them, Brother. They are not Christians.’

Eadulf nodded glumly. ‘That I have already discovered for myself.’

‘What brings you hither, Brother … Brother Eadulf? The name has a familiar ring.’

‘I am husband to Fidelma of Cashel.’

The old man looked at him sharply. ‘Fidelma the dálaigh? Is it so? I had heard that the High King’s Great Assembly had sent for her to attend at Tara and investigate the High King’s death.’

‘Just so,’ agreed Eadulf.

‘Then tell me how you came here?’

‘It is a story that will be long in the telling.’

The old man was amused. ‘So far as I can see, we are not pressed for time.’

Eadulf squatted down beside him. ‘So, first things first. You know who I am. What is your name?’

‘I am Luachan,’ the man replied.

‘Bishop Luachan of Delbna Mór?’ gasped Eadulf.

The man frowned. ‘I am. How do you know of me?’

‘We have been searching for you.’

‘How so?’ The old man was amazed.

‘We had a report of your visit to Sechnussach on the night before he was murdered and of the strange gift you took to him. Fidelma and I set out to speak with you at Delbna Mór, and from Brother Céin we heard that you had gone missing.’

The old man groaned. ‘You were with Fidelma? Don’t tell me that they have captured her, or killed her?’

‘They captured only me. Fidelma was on her way to see the Cinél Cairpre with two of Cashel’s best warriors while I was riding back to Delbna Mór to report that the abbey at Baile Fobhair had been attacked.’

Bishop Luachan’s face was woebegone.

‘Baile Fobhair attacked?’ He gave a deep sigh. Then he brightened a little. ‘But Fidelma is not captured? Then there is some hope for her. But tell me your story in detail.’

‘Before I do so, tell me … who are these people? I know they are raiders and hold no allegiance to the Faith.’

‘They are the cursed of the earth!’ hissed Bishop Luachan with such vehemence that even Eadulf was surprised.

‘I know they are not followers of the Christ,’ he said.

‘They are not even followers of the old religion,’ snorted Luachan. ‘They follow an aberration of the old gods that even the Druids of old had to rise up and destroy many years ago. Worse, these animals believe in sacrificing human life to this idol. I am afraid, my friend, that we are their next intended victims.’

Eadulf shuddered. ‘How long do we have?’ he asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

‘Oh, a few days yet. I have heard them talking. It is their intention to perform the sacrifice at the time of the sun-standing, the grien tairisem.’

‘Sun-standing? Oh, the solstice. Well, that gives us some time to plan an escape.’

Bishop Luachan smiled in the gloom. ‘You are optimistic, my brother in Christ.’

Eadulf grinned wryly. ‘Dum spiro, spero,’ he rejoined. The phrase translated as: while I breathe, I hope.

‘A good enough philosophy.’

‘Do you know where they plan to carry out their unholy ritual?’

‘Not here, that is for certain.’

‘Why not? From what I have seen, this seems to be some ancient pagan site.’

Bishop Luachan sniffed. ‘This is an ancient site where those of the old religion gathered and performed their rituals. But this is not part of the evil they worship. The ancients built this very chamber we are in, in order to show them the time of the geiseabhan … ’

‘The sun facing south?’ queried Eadulf, trying to translate the term that he had not heard before.

‘The time of the equal night,’ explained Luachan. ‘The equinox. That is what this complex of buildings were constructed for, not for the solstice. So I think that when the time comes for their ritual, they will have to take us to another site which will show them the appropriate time.’

Eadulf looked round and shuddered. ‘How can a dark man-built cave such as this show the time of anything?’

Brother Luachan smiled. ‘As you came through the entrance and were made to come along the passage into this chamber, you might have noticed all the strange carvings. Above the entrance is a hole through which, on the day of the equinox, at the specific time, a beam of light from the sun comes and spreads along the passage to hit the very stone I am leaning against. It lights certain things, carvings, designs on the stone, and indicates the very time. The ancient astronomers were clever.’

‘So it tells us the time of the equinox but not the time of the solstice?’ Eadulf asked.

‘There are some other constructions in the country which do,’ the bishop replied. ‘That is why I think they will move us before that time.’

‘Then we will have to ensure that we are not here to be moved,’ Eadulf said firmly.

‘That will be difficult, since there is only the one way in and out of this prison — the narrow passage whose entrance is always guarded.’

‘Tell me more about their superstition. You have said that it does not really have much to do with the old beliefs and ideas that were followed before the teachings of Christ came here. Is there something, some weakness about their superstition, that we can use against them?’

‘You have an inventive mind, my friend’, Bishop Luachan said with a sigh. ‘However, there is nothing that will put fear into these people. It is told that in the days of a High King called Tigernmas, which name means Lord of Death, the worship of a great golden idol called Crom Cróich became widespread. The people turned from their old gods and goddesses — the Children of Danú. Tigernmas approved of the worship of the idol and it was placed in Magh Slécht, which means the pain of slaughter, in the sub-kingdom of Breifne. He ordered sacrifices to be offered to the idol from the chief scions of every clan, including the firstborn of every issue. Many worshipped the idol, pouring blood around it, and their worship was frenzied and evil. Some say that Tigernmas and his priests in their worship of Crom slaughtered a third of the population.’