Peter Tremayne - Badger's Moon

Fidelma grimaced, dismissing the fact. ‘It is more important to consider the law above all things and what this man has done is not an affront to me but to the law that I represent. That is the more serious of his crimes. There is a fixed penalty for homicide and attempted homicide, which is seven cumals irrespective of rank. But this matter goes deeper-’

‘It does go deeper,’ interrupted Brocc, his temper not yet controlled. ‘It goes deeper in that you are the guilty one in preventing the truth coming out and blame being laid where it should be. At least I struck a blow for the truth!’

Fidelma sighed and shook her head sadly. ‘You struck a blow for your own prejudice, which is eating your very soul, Brocc, so that it blinds you to the truth. The most serious offence one can commit against another person is to deprive them of their life. In some lands it is called justice to balance the taking of a life by taking another. Even those of the New Faith are beginning to say that we should adopt the way which demands “life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth”. But we are an old and wise people and we allow a killer to atone for his crime by compensation and entry into a process of rehabilitation. We have an ancient system of law that says that evidence must be gathered against a person first, then the person is allowed to answer in public and counter that evidence. Only when it is judged that the evidence is overwhelming is the person convicted.

‘I have been sent to gather the evidence and, until tonight, I have still been gathering that evidence. That you think you can stand above the law and its process, and even assassinate the appointed representative of the law system, is something I have never encountered before. All I can say is that you must be suffering from a loss of sanity — whether permanent or temporary needs to be judged at a later time.’

Brocc continued to scowl in defiance. ‘Your words are designed to disguise the truth, lawyer. All lawyers have lying tongues.’

Fidelma was sarcastic. ‘I thought it was the fact that I am a member of the religious that caused you to think I was hiding the truth?’

‘Lawyers! Religious! Black dog and white dog, both are dogs,’ snapped Brocc.

Becc looked towards Fidelma in a troubled fashion. ‘What shall we do with him, cousin?’

‘There is little to do but to confine him until tomorrow. Then we can bring a resolution to the case of the moon killings.’

The chieftain of the Cinél na Áeda sighed unhappily and motioned for Brocc to be led away. As the crowd began to disperse he said quietly: ‘We are approaching the feast of Samhain, Fidelma. It lacks only a few days. Are you sure all will be resolved tomorrow? It would certainly be best if we could see a resolution before Samhain. I would hate bad luck to be visited on our people.’

Fidelma turned towards the entrance of the chieftain’s hall. Becc and Eadulf followed her inside and Fidelma took a seat before the fire.

Becc was regarding her anxiously.

‘Are you recovered from the attack?’ he asked nervously. ‘Are you sure that you were not hurt?’

She made a negative gesture with her hand.

‘I have survived worse things,’ she said. ‘Brocc’s attack was very clumsy. However, he is a very stupid man and his stupidity makes him dangerous.’

‘What is the concern about this feast of Samhain?’ Eadulf demanded.

Becc regarded him for a moment or two and then decided to explain. ‘The significance of the feast of Samhain is that it is the one time of the year when the Otherworld becomes visible to this world. From sunset until sunrise those who have departed to the Otherworld in the preceding year can return to this one and wreak their vengeance on those who have wronged them.’

‘But that is an old pagan belief,’ said Eadulf dismissively.

‘So it might be,’ intervened Fidelma. ‘but a change in religion does not necessarily mean that people have ceased to believe in the ways of their fathers. In Rome, fifty or so years ago, Pope Boniface decreed that the old pre-Christian Roman feast of the dead, Lemuria, held in May, should be sanctified as a festival to commemorate all the martyred saints. So even Rome clings to its pagan past.’

‘It is true that the people of the Cinél na Áeda continue to celebrate the feast of Samhain with full rigour,’ added Becc. ‘They believe that the wraiths of Beccnat, Escrach and Ballgel will return and seek revenge on all the people here until justice is given to them.’

Eadulf shook his head in bewilderment. ‘Surely if such ghosts existed they would come back seeking only their killer.’

‘The belief is that the whole clan is responsible if the killer is not caught and punished. The clan is the kin and the entire kin is responsible for what one of its members does. So unless the killer is caught and punishment announced, then, on Samhain, any one or all of us might be visited by the vengeful wraiths.’

‘Well, have no fear, Becc.’ Fidelma smiled.

The chieftain looked at her expectantly.

‘When we meet at noon tomorrow in this hall, then I shall reveal the guilty to you.’

Eadulf and Fidelma had retired to their room and were preparing for bed. Eadulf was very quiet. From time to time, Fidelma glanced across at him with a worried expression.

‘You appear pensive tonight, Eadulf,’ she finally remarked. ‘Is it about tomorrow?’

He responded with a troubled sigh.

‘I have been through many such hearings, Fidelma. I have little doubt that you will be successful in this matter as you have been in the past.’

‘I fear you take too much for granted,’ she replied seriously. ‘Don’t we have a saying — the end of the day is a good prophet? You are usually interested to know how I plan to approach a hearing,’ she continued when he did not respond. ‘Yet tonight you have scarcely asked me any questions about who is the guilty party and how I will set about demonstrating it.’

Eadulf turned to her with a quick movement, his gaze fixed on her face as if examining her expression closely.

‘Have you thought any more about our discussion involving little Alchú?’ he asked brutally.

Fidelma’s face altered slightly, becoming an impassive mask.

‘Of course I have thought about it,’ she replied, terseness in her tone.

‘And?’ Eadulf delivered the word like a blow.

‘I would have thought that we had other matters to consider as of this moment,’ she responded. ‘Once we have finished, then we can…’

Eadulf rose from where he had been sitting with a shake of his head. He strode across the room and back again, his movements demonstrating his agitation. When he spoke again his voice was tense.

‘Each time I have raised the matter, you have tried to put it off. What has happened since you had our child, Fidelma? You have become almost a different person.’

Fidelma was about to launch into a scathing attack on his insensitivity at this particular time when she suddenly realised that such an outburst would be no more than camouflage on her part. She was prevaricating. She was putting off the time when she had to deal with the matter.

‘You are right, Eadulf. I do feel a different person,’ she replied quietly.

Eadulf stood still for a moment, her words suddenly deflating him, and then he reseated himself. She sounded so vulnerable.

‘Is it something I have done?’ he asked.

Fidelma shook her head, frowning. ‘I don’t think so. I don’t know. Since we returned to Cashel and I gave birth to Alchú, it seems that things have changed.’

‘In what way? All that has happened is that we now have a son. I know that you are not concerned by the likes of those who are trying to make the religious celibate. You have always denounced those ascetic religious before.’