Peter Tremayne - Badger's Moon

‘I thank you for your concern, Fidelma of Cashel,’ he replied, now using Greek. ‘The God of Solomon will watch over me. I do not fear.’

Fidelma looped the reins of her horse around a small shrub, turned to one of the stones which lay lengthwise and seated herself. The tall Aksumite resumed his previous position and regarded her without curiosity.

‘The abbot gave me assurance that you would not wander abroad from the abbey so that your safety would be guaranteed until this matter was resolved.’ she said irritably.

‘Is it solely in concern for my safety that you have come seeking me?’ he asked. There was a faint smile on his lips, which seemed to imply a hidden knowledge. For a moment, Fidelma felt awkward. Her eyes suddenly focused on his white woollen robe.

‘You are not wearing your beautiful silver crucifix today,’ she observed.

Brother Dangila’s hand went immediately to his neck. He hesitated and then he nodded gravely. ‘I must have left it in the dormitory. Have no fear. It will be safe, for I believe I know where I left it. As I said, is it concern for me that has brought you hither?’

‘It is true that I wanted to speak to you anyway. So much was left unsaid when we last spoke.’

An eyebrow lifted in interrogation was the only motion of the man’s features that indicated a reaction.

‘Are these the stones called the Ring of Pigs?’ she asked.

‘I believe that is the local name for them,’ replied the other gravely. ‘The stones do look like a litter of piglets around a sow.’

‘And this is where…?’ She left the question unfinished.

‘So I am told.’

She waited a few moments and when the man did not speak she asked: ‘Do you often come to sit on this hillside and meditate?’

‘It is in the nature of my people to contemplate the works of the God of Solomon from whose seed my people descended,’ replied Brother Dangila. ‘Is it not written in the Book of Psalms — “When I look up at Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars set in their place by Thee, what is man that Thou should remember him?”?’

The words of the psalm sounded beautiful in his Greek.

‘So you come at night to look upon the moon and the stars?’ she countered quickly, trying not to get diverted.

Brother Dangila glanced at her with a smile. ‘You have a quick mind, Fidelma of Cashel.’

‘I presume that you were the one seen by Brocc that night?’

‘Have I admitted as much? Whoever Brocc saw, he must identify. Until he does, there is no more to be said.’

‘He is not able. You know that as well as I. What troubles me is that Escrach’s body was found close by here the next day, and before that the body of a girl called Beccnat.’

‘I give you my word that I did not kill them,’ came the quiet tone of the other.

‘Let us make a hypothesis then.’

‘Which is?’

‘Brocc concludes that someone sitting looking up at the night sky was probably doing so for a sinister purpose, especially on the night of the full moon, and especially on the night when a young girl, his niece, was killed.’

‘What stirs this man Brocc’s thoughts is that which is within him,’ replied Brother Dangila. ‘I am not responsible for what thoughts he has.’

‘You might contend, though, that there is another, innocent explanation. Let us continue to hypothesise and see what innocent explanation there can be.’

The Aksumite reflected for a moment in silence and then shrugged. ‘Let us say that the man might have been someone like myself, sitting gazing at God’s creation, and measuring the stars in their journeying across the heavens. His concern was what happened in the sky and not what happened on the earth. He might argue that he heard and saw nothing and, after a while, he went his way — in innocent ignorance of any evil-doing.’

‘You and your comrades are much concerned with the passage of the stars across the heavens?’

‘It is an ancient science, Fidelma of Cashel. Your people are adept at it, or so we have discovered. It may be — and we shall continue to hypothesise,’ he interspered with a smile, ‘it may be that what we have read in your ancient books, we might like to check with the practicality of the star map that God provides at night.’

‘Were you always a contemplative religieux?’ she asked abruptly.

For the first time the features of the Aksumite dissolved in a broad grin.

‘I was thirty when I decided to join the religieux and thirty-three when I was enslaved and sent to Rome.’

‘What were you before?’

‘I worked in the great gold mines — King Solomon’s mines.’

‘Gold mines?’

‘In the shadow of Ras Dashen, our highest peak,’ confirmed Brother Dangila. ‘It was from Aksum that the great treasure temples of Solomon were supplied and King Solomon’s fabulous wealth was accumulated. Menellk, the son of Solomon by the Queen of Sheba, became our ruler. Our mines still supply the wealth of Aksum. My father was a mineworker and I followed him in his work. But I was not satisfied, and from one of the Holy Fathers who lived on the slopes of Ras Dashen I learnt more than how to spot a rich vein of gold or copper. I learnt Greek and a few words of Latin and I read some of the holy texts. I left the mountains and went to Adulis and the rest I have told you.’

Fidelma was thoughtful, ‘I would like to know exactly how all three of you decided to come to the abbey of Finnbarr.’

‘I thought I had told you. The answer is simple. The abbey holds the works of your scholar Aibhistín and we wanted to study them, having seen references to his work in other tracts.’

‘Indeed, you have told me this before. How did you know that they were here?’

‘At the house of Molaga we learnt much about your culture and the fact that you, too, were fascinated by the courses of the stars in the heavens. Exactly as I say, we saw references to Aibhistín’s work. By some happy coincidence, a man from this place was staying in the house of Molaga and we spoke with him. It was he who persuaded us to come to the abbey.’

‘Oh? Was it one of the religious from the abbey?’ She decided to test out what Brother Túan had told her.

‘It was not,’ Brother Dangila said at once. ‘It was the young man…the prince, I forget what you call him in your own language. Accobrán is his name.’

‘He told you that the works of Aibhistín were held in the abbey?’

‘He did. We owe him much for that information. They are fascinating works, especially the tables on the moon and the tides. I have never seen another treatise that concisely explains the tides in relationship to the phases of the moon.’

Fidelma exhaled softly.

‘You seemed troubled, lady,’ remarked Brother Dangila astutely.

‘If young girls had been slaughtered in your land, Brother Dangila, in the way they have been slaughtered here, would you not also be troubled?’

The tall man inclined his head.

‘It is of little use to you, lady, but I would take an oath by the power of the Ark of the Covenant, which shelters in the nameless holy place of my land…I would take an oath that my comrades and I had nothing to do with these terrible killings in this place. Yet I would say that in my own land, we, too, would be suspicious of strangers in similar circumstances.’

‘An oath is of little use. While I might believe you the people here do not.’

‘They are fearful because the colour of our skin is different.’

‘More important, it is because you are strangers to this place and people are afraid of strangers. Are your own people, in Aksum, not afraid of strangers?’

‘Perhaps some are. Aksum stands at a crossroads of many cultures and many religions, lady. We have learnt to live in harmony with most of our neighbours whatever they look like and whatever language they speak or whatever god or gods they follow.’