Suffer Little Children

'Are there not?' he asked in bewilderment.

'No. There are tablets which have been smoothed clean and vellum which has not been used.'

The house steward shrugged again. The gesture seemed to come naturally to him.

'It is of surprise to me. Perhaps he stored whatever he wrote in our library. However, I fail to see what this has to do with his death.'

'And you had no knowledge of what Dacan was studying?' Fidelma did not bother to reply to his implied question. 'Did anyone know why he had come in particular to Ros Ailithir?'

'It is not my business to pry into the affairs of others. Sufficient that Dacan came with the recommendation of the king of Cashel and his presence was approved of by my abbot. I tried, like others here, to be friendly with him but, as I have said, he was not a friendly man. In truth, sister, perhaps I should confess that there was no mourning in the abbey when Dacan passed into the Otherworld.'

Fidelma leaned forward with interest.

'I was led to believe, in spite of the fact that he was considered austere, that Dacan was widely beloved by the people and revered as a man of great sanctity.'

Brother Rumann pursed his lips cynically.

'I have heard that this is so—and perhaps it is… in Laigin. All I can say is that he was welcomed here at Ros Ailithir but did not reciprocate the warmth of our welcome. So he was generally left to his own devices. Why, even little Sister Necht went in fear of him.'

'She did? Why so?'

'Presumably because he was a man whose coldness inspired apprehension.'

'I thought his saintly reputation went further than Laigin. In most places, he and his brother Noe are spoken of as one would speak of Colmcille, of Brendan or of Enda.'

'One may only speak as one finds, sister. Sometimes reputations are not deserved.'

'Tell me, this dislike of Dacen…'

Brother Rumann shook his head in interruption.

'Indifference, sister. Indifference, not dislike, for there were no grounds to promote such a positive response as dislike.'

Fidelma bowed her head in acknowledgment of the point.

'Very well. Indifference, if you like. In your estimation you do not think it was enough to promote a feeling in someone here to kill him?'

The eyes of the steward narrowed in his fleshy face.

'Someone here? Are you suggesting that one of our brethren in Ros Ailithir killed him?'

'Perhaps even one of his students who disliked his manner? That has been known.'

'Well, I have never heard of such a thing. A student respects his master.'

'In ordinary circumstances,' she agreed. 'Yet we are investigating an extraordinary circumstance. Murder, for that is what we have established, is a most unnatural crime. Whatever path we follow we have to agree that someone in this community must have perpetrated this act. Someone in this community,' she repeated with emphasis.

Brother Rumann regarded her with a solemn face and tight mouth.

'I cannot say further than I have. All I was asked to do, all I did, was investigate the circumstance of his death. What else could I have done? I have not the skills of a dalaigh.'

Fidelma spread her hands in a pacifying gesture.

'I imply no criticism, Brother Rumann. You have your office and I have mine. We are faced with a delicate situation, not merely in terms of solving this crime but in seeking to prevent a war.'

Brother Rumann sniffed loudly.

'If you ask my opinion, I would not put it past Laigin to have engineered this whole matter. They have appealed time and time again to the High King's assembly at Tara for the return of Osraige. Each time, it has been ruled that Osraige was lawfully part of Muman. Now this.' He stabbed with his hand into the air.

Fidelma examined the steward with interest.

'Just when did you come to such an opinion, Brother Rumann?' she questioned gently.

'I am of the Corco Lofgde, a man of Muman. When I heard of the honor price that young Fianamail of Laigin was demanding for Dacan's death, I suspected a plot. You were right in the first place.'

Fidelma raised an eyebrow at Rumann's angry features.

'Right? In what respect?'

'That I should have been suspicious of the merchant, Assi'd. He was probably the assassin and I let him go!'

She gazed at him for a moment then said: 'One thing more, brother. How did you come to know what the demands of Laigin are?'

Rumann blinked. 'How? Why the abbot has spoken of nothing else for days.'

After Brother Rumann had left, Fidelma sat for a while in silence. Then she realized that Cass was still seated waiting for her to speak. She turned and gave him a tired smile.

'Call Sister Necht, Cass.'

A moment later the enthusiastic young sister entered in answer to the ringing of the handbell. It was clear that she had been in the process of scrubbing the floors of the hostel but welcomed the interruption.

'I hear that you went in apprehension of the Venerable Dacan,' Fidelma stated without preamble.

The blood seemed to drain momentarily from Necht's face. She shivered.

'I did,' she admitted.

'Why?'

'My duties as a novice in the abbey are to tend to the guests' hostel and take care of the wants of the guests. The Venerable Dacan treated me like a bondservant. I even asked Brother Rumann if I could be removed from the duties at the hostel for the period that Dacan was staying here.'

'Then you must have disliked him intensely.'

Sister Necht hung her head.

'It is against the Faith but, the truth is, I did not like him. I did not like him at all.'

'Yet you were not removed from your duties?'

Necht shook her head.

'Brother Rumann said that I must accept it as the will of God and through this adversity I would gain in strength to do the Lord's work.'

'You say that as if you do not believe it,' remarked Fidelma gently.

'I did not gain any strength. It only intensified my dislike. It was a hateful time. The Venerable Dacan would criticize my tidying of his chamber. In the end, I did not bother tidying at all. Then he would send me on errands at all times of the day and night as his fancy took him. I was a slave.'

'So when he died, you shed no tears?'

'Not I!' declared the sister vehemently. Then, realizing what she had said, she flushed. 'I meant…'

'I think I know what you meant,' Fidelma responded. 'Tell me, on the night Dacan was killed, were you on duty in the hostel?'

'I was on duty every night. Brother Rumann will have told you. It was my special duty.'

'Did you see Dacan that night?'

'Of course. He and the merchant Assi'd were the only guests here.'

'I have been told that they knew each other?' Fidelma made the observation into a question.

Sister Necht nodded.

'I do not think that they were friends though. I heard Assi'd quarrelling with Dacan after the evening meal.'

'Quarrelling?'

'Yes. Dacan had retired to his chamber. He usually took some books to study before the completa, the final service of the day. I was passing by his chamber door when I heard voices in argument.'

'Are you sure it was Assi'd?'

'Who else could it have been?' countered the girl. 'There was no one else staying here.'