Peter Tremayne - Our Lady of Darkness

He punctuated his sentences with a short, sharp rabbit punch which made Eadulf double over and retch at the pain.

‘Brother!’ cried Brother Martan in disgust. ‘Forbear to use violence on a bound man, a man of the Faith at that!’

It was then that Eadulf heard a familiar voice.

‘The Saxon has lost whatever Faith he adheres to, Father Martan. However, you are right to admonish Brother Cett. You need not treat a dying man so harshly, Brother. God will punish him before the day is out.’

Eadulf twisted round to see the sallow face of Abbot Noé swim into view. Realising the futility of his position, Eadulf forced a pain-racked grin at the dour religieux.

‘Your Christian charity does you credit,’ he gasped, trying to recover his breath.

Abbot Noé took a step forward and examined him carefully but his thin features were expressionless.

‘There is no escape from the fires of hell, Saxon.’ His voice was solemn.

‘So I am told. We all eventually have to answer for our misdeeds; kings and bishops … even abbots.’

Abbot Noé simply smiled, turned and left the cell.

The young King Fianamail was impatient. He looked across the cell to the window and saw the diminishing darkness. It would be dawn within the hour. Brother Martan observed his restless glance.

‘Will you leave at once for Fearna?’ he asked. ‘Or return first to your hunting lodge?’

‘We will wait here until dawn and then ride directly for Fearna,’ the King replied.

‘Regretfully, we have no extra horse for your prisoner,’ apologised the Father Superior.

Fianamail looked grim.

‘The Saxon will not need one. There is a good strong tree outside the gates here. He has escaped our justice twice. He will not escape a third time. We will hang him before we depart.’

Eadulf felt a cold sensation in his stomach but he did his best not to show his feelings to those around him. He forced a smile. After all, death had to come to everyone, did it not? He had been facing death these last few weeks, although he had hoped that, with Fidelma’s arrival, there might be some chance that the truth would be discovered. Fidelma! Where was she? He wished he could see her one more time in this world.

‘Can that be within the law?’ Brother Martan was staring askance at his King.

Fianamail turned on the man with a frown of displeasure.

‘The law?’ His voice was threatening. ‘The man has had his trial. He was about to be hanged when he escaped. Of course it is legal! I act as representative of that law. Brother Cett will see to the arrangements and if you have moral qualms, Brother Martan, I suggest you consult the abbot.’

Brother Cett grinned sourly at Eadulf as Brother Martan left the cell.

‘Now,’ continued Fianamail, ‘let me breakfast for the day is chill and I am hungry. To be awakened before dawn and have to come chasing outlaws is a tiring business.’ He hesitated as if he had just thought of something. ‘By the way, we will also take the two young girls with us to Fearna. In the circumstances, they will have a better chance of life inthe abbey there than returning home or wandering the countryside.’

Brother Cett’s sadistic expression broadened. ‘It shall be as you say.’

The cell door slammed as Fianamail and the burly Brother Cett left Eadulf alone to watch the arrival of his last dawn.

The horses were trotting in a column, two abreast, towards Fearna. Dego was riding beside Fidelma while behind them rode Coba and Enda and behind them came Fial mounted on the same horse as Mel who, in turn, rode with Abbess Fainder. Bishop Forbassach was behind. In the front and at the rear came warriors of King Fianamail’s guard. It was cold and dark but the leading horsemen seemed to know the road from Cam Eolaing to Fearna well and did not hesitate in keeping up a steady pace.

Dego finally glanced at Fidelma.

‘Why did you persuade Coba to surrender, lady?’ He demanded. His tone was slightly querulous. The question had been on his mind since Fidelma had urged the bó-aire not to resist the warriors whom Forbassach had brought with him. It was the first time since those hectic moments that Dego had been able to pose the question and he did so in a low voice, not wishing to be heard by the guards. ‘We could have fought this bishop and his men.’

Fidelma returned his look in the gloom.

‘And then what?’ she asked gently. ‘Taken satisfaction in making a futile stand or, had we been lucky enough to drive off Bishop Forbassach, the Brehon of Laigin and the King’s warriors, would we have had satisfaction in bringing down a bloody conflict on both kingdoms in which truth and justice would have been entirely forgotten?’

‘I don’t understand, lady.’

‘Say that Coba had refused to surrender? Bishop Forbassach is Brehon of this kingdom and has a legitimate right to demand the surrender of people held against their will.’

Dego remained silent.

‘On what legal grounds did we have the right to refuse to surrender to the Brehon of this kingdom?’

‘I thought that we were about to discover the reason. You had already proved that Brother Eadulf had been unjustly persecuted for crimes he did not commit. You showed that the abbess must have been involved in some terrible slave trade among young girls.’

‘What I said,’ replied Fidelma slowly, ‘was that the abbey was a centre of passing young girls downriver and selling them to foreign slave ships. We had not yet gone into examining the details, far less discovering who is behind this trade.’

Dego felt bewildered.

‘But now we have no chance of discovering anything, lady. By surrendering we have given ourselves no freedom of opportunity to continue our quest. At best, Bishop Forbassach will have us thrown out of the kingdom. At worst, he will have us imprisoned for … well, for something or other. I am sure he will dream up a suitable charge.’

‘Dego, had Coba not surrendered, we might have all been slaughtered by the superior numbers of Forbassach’s warriors; or, if by some miracle we had driven Forbassach off, how long would it have been before the King himself came with an army and burnt Cam Eolaing to the ground? We had no choice.’

Dego was reluctant to admit the logic of her argument. Indeed, Fidelma herself had only just supported her own logic, for emotionally she agreed with Dego. Her first instinct had been to fight, for there was a darkness and evil which pervaded the abbey and those associated with it. Yet, examining the situation coolly, she realised that there was no choice. The problem now arose as to how she could persuade Bishop Forbassach to allow her to continue the process that she had begun in Coba’s hall. At least, she had shown that Brother Eadulf was not guilty and she now had the key witness to the event, the girl Fial.

Yet could she rely on Fial? She was young, still below the ‘age of choice’, and had already changed her version of events once. In law, her evidence was inadmissible. But that had not stopped Forbassach from finding a flimsy excuse to use it. Therefore, in an appeal, he must accept Fial’s repudiation of it. But would he? Forbassach might easily dismiss her evidence if he so wished.

Any appeal to Fianamail was almost hopeless now. He was too young, without the maturity of years, to overcome his prejudices and his excessive ambition to leave his mark on his kingdom. Abbot Noé had apparently persuaded the young man to think of himself as ‘Fianamail the Lawgiver’, the King who changed the law system of Laigin by imposing the Penitentials to make it, as he thought, a truly Christian kingdom. Her heart sank as she turned over the possibilities in her mind.

While fighting Bishop Forbassach and his warriors had not been anoption, each kilometre they drew nearer to Fearna produced no viable alternatives. At no time in her career had Fidelma felt so helpless through the lack of choice. Dego was probably right. Knowing Forbassach, the best she could hope for would be that the bishop would have her and her companions escorted to the border and expelled from Laigin. At worst he could lay charges against her for some conspiracy, for impeding justice, for false accusations, for abetting Coba in a ‘rebellion’ against the law. Forbassach was capable of all these things.