Peter Tremayne - Penance of the Damned

Brehon Faolchair leaned forward with a quick motion. ‘Are you saying that Nannid told the truth about his encounter with Glaed?’ he asked incredulously. ‘He intended to meet Brother Feradach but Glaed had arrived there by chance?’

‘Sometimes even a liar will tell the truth,’ Fidelma replied. ‘He actually intended to pay the reparation to Mungairit so that he could declare himself free of constraints, should Mungairit raise questions as to what he was doing here. Brother Feradach, however, saw Glaed encamped on the hill and, wisely, decided not to proceed. Nannid did meet Glaed by chance and saw that he held Gorman as a prisoner. It was then that his fanaticism overtook his long-term ambition: Nannid’s zeal to show his new power by keeping his promise to execute Gorman overcame his desire to pay off the reparation to Brother Feradach, who was waiting to take it to Mungairit.’

‘But why would Glaed hand his prisoner to him? Just for the gold? He could have killed Gorman and taken the gold anyway.’

‘Because one of Glaed’s men, the very man who had been a guard here and was involved in this conspiracy, had probably drawn Glaed’s attention to the fact that the execution of Gorman for the murder of Abbot Segdae was an essential part of starting the unrest that would topple Prince Donennach. It was a key element of the plan of the noble who was employing Glaed as a mercenary in the plot.’

‘This doesn’t make sense. Are you arguing that this conspirator helped Gorman escape the first time and then wanted him recaptured the next?’

‘When Gorman escaped with Aibell, it was intended to emphasise his guilt. But it was anticipated that he would be swiftly recaptured and brought back. Gorman was to be the focus of the conflict.’

‘You say that the money Nannid paid Glaed for giving Gorman to him was money he intended to give to Mungairit in payment of fines?’

‘It was money falsely raised from the community of Nechta,’ affirmed Fidelma. ‘We should thank Deogaire that the money will now be returned to the community.’

‘It will be returned to me!’ cried Nannid, standing up. ‘I am still Abbot of Nechta.’

‘I doubt that you will even be that when this matter is known,’ Fidelma pointed out coldly. ‘You imposed yourself on the community by virtue of an office you no longer held. Now you are neither more nor less than an ordinary member of the community. You know how office is awarded. The derbhfine or council of the community must meet and elect its leader. Judging from what I hear, I doubt whether it will be worth you or your steward even attempting to put yourself forward for the office after Brother Eladach has summoned the council of the community.’

‘My voice is still powerful among the Ui Fidgente. I will ensure that they obey me,’ Nannid blustered.

Socht left his position and actually placed a hand on Nannid’s shoulder. ‘Your voice will fall silent, Nannid, especially a voice which conspires against his prince.’ His voice was firm and authoritative and Nannid found himself sitting down, blinking.

‘But you were saying that Nannid was too obvious as a conspirator,’ Brehon Faolchair prompted Fidelma. ‘Do you say that he was not in this conspiracy?’

‘You have my exact meaning,’ affirmed Fidelma. ‘I will say that as pedantic as Nannid is, with his rigid ideas and adherence to alien religious concepts and laws, he was not one of the conspirators. However, he was actually used in this conspiracy. His character was assessed accurately by the conspirators and he was manipulated so that it would deflect suspicion from them as the real culprits.’

‘I confess, Fidelma, I am now finding this hard to follow.’ The Brehon was shaking his head.

‘It is simple. Ambition, power and the need for revenge on Mungairit played a dominant role in Nannid’s intentions. He and his steward were exiled from Mungairit and came here hoping to open an abbey in the principal township of the Ui Fidgente. He wanted to claim the abbacy of this community and make it as powerful as Mungairit. It sounds impossible, but stranger things have happened. However, the community here was an intrinsic part of the township: it was not what they call a cenobium or closed community. So Nannid had to fall back on the authority of Mungairit – which he no longer had – when he ordered walls to be built around it and make it into a close community, as well as fraudulently demanding gold from them.’

‘So Nannid was simply being manipulated. But by whom?’ demanded Brehon Faolchair.

‘I have said it is a complicated plot and one that sadly led to several deaths, beginning with that of Abbot Segdae. Nannid had been persuaded to invite Abbot Segdae here by those conspiratorial interests. It had probably been suggested to him that if he invited Abbot Segdae here, it would help assure his prestige. In short, Abbot Segdae was lured here to his death.’

‘You are saying that Nannid was merely a tool, used to bring Abbot Segdae here. So he was as much a victim as Gorman.’ Brehon Faolchair sighed. ‘It is a story that is hard to digest, let alone believe.’

‘I trust that I shall lead you into the belief,’ Fidelma replied solemnly.

‘You have to account for the deaths of Ciarnat and Brother Mael Anfaid,’ Prince Donennach interposed for the first time. ‘You also have to account for the false story that Ciarnat told her friend Aibell, which was passed on to Gorman and then caused them to engineer Gorman’s escape – which confirmed, in most of our eyes, that he was guilty.’

‘That I shall do,’ Fidelma said. ‘False stories are easily spread. It is a human weakness that untruth is more readily believable than truth. Brother Mael Anfaid was told the story by someone he trusted and whose word he believed implicitly. He was informed that I had decided to abandon the defence of Gorman. He repeated this to Ciarnat who, as it was expected, immediately told her close friend Aibell.’ Fidelma smiled encouragingly across at the girl. ‘Aibell is a person of quiet determination, and when it was also whispered that the guard was susceptible to bribery, she seized the chance to seek his help – the irony being that he was in fact part of the conspiracy and had already been ordered to engineer the escape of Gorman from his prison.

‘This is where our conspirators became clever again; perhaps too clever. They guessed that I might be able to track down this line of false stories to its source, as they knew that I had already shown that one false story that had been spread was untrue. The false story was that Prince Donennach had dismissed Gorman’s warning and that Gorman had gone in a rage to see Abbot Segdae to protest.’

Brehon Faolchair rubbed his chin thoughtfully for a moment. ‘Ciarnat was the innocent instrument of causing Aibell and Gorman to panic and leave this fortress so that we might assume Gorman was guilty,’ he said. ‘How were the conspirators too clever in this?’

‘It was what followed. They no doubt assumed that Ciarnat would flee with Aibell and Gorman. However, the care of her elderly mother kept her here – and that was to be the poor girl’s death sentence. I think our conspirators first killed Brother Mael Anfaid, who alone could identify the real source of the story. He was walking by the river when he was killed and his loman , his corded belt, was taken. It was a new style adopted by him and Brother Mac Raith and so easily identifiable. The killer then paid attention to Ciarnat, who staying under the protection of Airmid, your tanaise . Ciarnat was killed by a blow on the head and then hanged from a roof beam with the stolen loman . This was the clever piece – initially it was made to look like suicide.