Peter Tremayne - Suffer Little Children

‘She is not guilty of any of the misdeeds attributed to me,’ he said quietly. ‘Let her go.’

‘Yet Sister Grella was your lover, wasn’t she, Salbach?’

‘I have admitted that.’

‘It was either your cousin, Scandlán, or you — it matters not where the idea came from — who suggested that Grella might use her position as librarian to look through the genealogical books of Osraige, which are kept at the abbey, in an attempt to find Illan’s heir. Isn’t that true?’

‘You are bound to reply,’ instructed the Chief Brehon as Salbach hesitated.

‘It is true.’

‘Then came a coincidence. Grella told you, probably duringyour pillow talk, that her former husband, Dacán, had arrived at Ros Ailithir for exactly the same purpose. He, too, was searching for Illan’s heir. Knowing him to be the better scholar, Grella persuaded him to work closely with her so that she could then inform you how he was proceeding. Isn’t that so? You wanted to know who the heir of Illan was as much as Dacan did. But whereas Dacán was interested in finding them to use him to serve Laigin’s purpose, you wanted to find him to destroy the last of the family of native kings. That would forever safeguard the dynasty of the Corco Loígde in Osraige.’

There was a tense silence. No one spoke. All eyes were on Salbach. It was Sister Grella who broke the silence with a wail of fear as, for the first time, she finally realised the enormity of what had been done.

‘But it is not true … I did not know that Salbach … I did not know he wanted to kill them … I am not responsible for the death of all those innocent children … I am not.’

Salbach turned and snapped at her to be silent.

‘When Dacán discovered the whereabouts of the heir of Illan,’ Fidelma went on remorselessly, ‘Grella ran to tell you. It was the day before Dacán’s death. He had found that the Father Superior of Sceilig Mhichil, the monastery of Michael the Archangel, was a cousin of Illan. He had discovered that Illan’s heir had been taken there for safety. He wrote of his news and announced that he was about to set out for Sceilig Mhichil. He was killed before he did so.’

‘How did he discover this information? Surely the records placed here would not announce the hiding place of Illan’s heirs?’ demanded the Chief Brehon.

‘Curiously enough, they did. Dacán found Illan’s will on some rods of the poets. The irony of this tale is that when Scandlán killed Illan, he seized his fortress and goods. Illan’s library was also seized. In that library was his will, which he had specifically chosen to write in Ogham on rods of the poets.The irony was that Scandlán, unable to read it, had sent it, with other books, as a gift to this abbey, the chief abbey of the Corco Loígde.’

‘Even so,’ protested Barrán, ‘surely any reasonable scholar could have read the Ogham of the will and ultimately deciphered the information?’

‘Illan was obviously a literary man, for the will was coded. I found a wand from the will in Dacán’s chamber where he had carelessly left it. It went unnoticed by his murderer. I have only an extract from one rod. The others had been destroyed.’

She turned and retrieved the small piece of burnt stick which she had taken from the sepulchre the previous night.

‘Only this piece now remains. This says “the resolve of the honourable one determines the fosterage of my children”.’

‘That sounds gibberish,’ laughed Forbassach.

‘Not if you know the code and the full text. The piece that I recall from the wand I found in Dacán’s chamber stated: “let my sweet cousin care for my sons on the rock of Michael as my honourable cousin shall dictate”.’

‘Even more gibberish!’ sneered Forbassach.

‘Dacán did not think so. He knew that the rock of Michael was Sceilig Mhichil. It was easy to learn that the Father Superior was named Mel. The meaning of that name is “sweet”. Mel was, therefore, Illan’s “sweet” cousin!’

‘You make the interpretation of the puzzle sound easy,’ observed the Chief Brehon.

‘Then allow me to return to it later. Sufficient to know at this time that Dacán deciphered the will’s puzzle and wrote a report of his finding. Sister Grella saw that report and informed Salbach. Salbach dispatched Intat immediately to “the rock of Michael”. But Illan’s sons were no longer there. Indeed, Intat learnt that there were two sons of Illan on that rock but they had been removed by a religieux. This religieux was a cousin of Father Mel.

‘It is then that Grella entered the picture again to provideinformation to Salbach. Grella had become soul-friend to Sister Eisten at Rae na Scríne. Eisten, by one of those apparent coincidences which are all too common in life, was the very person to whom the young sons of Illan had been given for safekeeping after their removal from Sceilig Mhichil. They had been sent to her orphanage at Rae na Scríne. Sister Eisten made the biggest mistake of her life. She confessed the intrigue to her soul-friend, Sister Grella.

‘Grella triumphantly informed Salbach. He thought he would lay a trap by inviting Eisten and her orphans to his fortress. Once he was able to identify her charges … well, Eisten accompanied Grella but did not take her children. There was plague in the village and she did not want to move the children unnecessarily. It was a decision which actually saved the lives of the sons of Illan but which cost the village its existence.

‘In desperation, Salbach told Intat to go to Rae na Scríne and destroy the children. The trouble was that Intat had no means to identify them. He decided, brutal man that he was, to destroy the entire village. When I and Cass came along, Intat tried to disguise the true nature of this crime by claiming that there was plague in the village and presenting himself and his men as frightened neighbouring villagers burning out the plague. Sister Eisten and some of her children survived.

‘Eisten was shocked. I thought she was shocked by the death of the people and especially by the death of a baby she tried to save. However, in reality she was shocked because she had worked out the real reason for the killings. She even knew who had betrayed her. She asked me if a soul-friend could betray a confidence. I should have listened to her more closely for then she might not have been killed. I might have saved her. Do you follow the events so far, Salbach?’

Salbach’s mouth was pressed tight. He was clearly shocked at the extent of her awareness and knew that there was little he could say in the face of Fidelma’s remorseless knowledge except to resort to truth.

‘You have a brilliant mind, Fidelma. I knew that I should not underestimate you. Yes, you are right. I accept your knowledge.’

‘When you came to this abbey and found that Sister Eisten had survived with several of her children, you could not dare allow that to pass. Intat, doubtless on your orders, managed to waylay Sister Eisten while she was down at the harbour. He tortured her to find out where the sons of Illan had been taken. She would not reply and so he killed her, dumping her body in the waters of the inlet.

‘Grella came to your aid once more, eventually discovering that some children from Rae na Scríne had been taken to the house of Molua. The bodies of four religious and twenty children and the charred ruins of their houses are the mute testament to Intat’s visit.’

‘I will deny nothing. But let me take oath that my cousin, Scandlán of Osraige, did not know my plans to safeguard the kingship of Osraige for our family. Neither did Grella. She is innocent of the blood that I have spilt.’

Fidelma regarded Salbach with an expression of undisguised revulsion. She found it difficult to accept that a man could admit responsibility for such death and destruction but could seek to protect others with a twisted concept of honour and love. But then it was a strange world and humankind were the strangest creatures in it.