Valley of the Shadow

Uí Néill to his kingdom of Ailech. Then he wishes to claim the High Kingship and turn it from an honour alternated between the provincial kings into a single dynasty which will maintain a supreme authority over all of the five kingdoms in the manner of the Roman emperors?’

‘That is exactly what he proposes,’ confirmed Ibor.

‘Then the kings of the provinces must be warned against Mael Dúin’s ambitions. They would never stand for such a usurpation of law and morality.’

‘But there is something further.’

‘What more can there be?’ Fidelma’s expression was grim.

‘Mael Dúin has, as I say, won the support of Ultan of Armagh.’

‘I knew that Ultan has long been in favour of adopting the rules of Rome in our Church and prefers to use the title of archiepiskopos instead of Comarb. Indeed, many have, out of courtesy referred to him as such. Even I myself. I know he would wish to reorganise our Church on the model Rome has provided but not even Ultan can believe that he can change our law of kingship.’

‘Why not? If Mael Dúin of Ailech thinks he can, so can Ultan. If Mael Dúin can create a powerful High Kingship at Tara which favours Roman rite and organisation, then Armagh will also prosper being within the puruchia of the High King. Ultan plans to become the head of the Faith in Ireland just as Mael Dúin plans to become a High King with real central power.’

Fidelma was troubled as she contemplated the enormity of Ibor’s revelation.

‘This explains much of what Brother Solin was boasting about. So then Ultan will use the powerful centralised authority of Mael Dúin to exert the authority of Armagh over all other Churches of the five kingdoms?’

‘Just so.’

Eadulf intervened for the first time.

‘One thing you forget,’ he said quietly. ‘Even if this king of Ailech overcomes the southern Uí Néill, he could not be in power in Tara for long. Cashel, supported by Imleach, would be among the first to challenge such preposterous claims.’

Ibor glanced at him almost sadly.

‘So therefore Imleach and Cashel would have to be made weak,’ he pointed out.

Fidelma jerked her head up quickly; her flashing eyes sought those of Ibor.

‘You have news of such a plot?’

‘The plot has already begun here in Gleann Geis,’ he replied. ‘It is Mael Dúin and Ultan who are behind it. If the northern Uí Néill move in force then the southern Uí Néill might not long delay them. There are too many ties of kinship and blood for a serious contention between Mael Dúin and Sechnassuch. Once that happens …’ Ibor threw out his arms in a gesture of resignation.

‘But Cashel would not allow it to happen,’ Fidelma vowed. ‘Wishing Cashel to be weak does not make it so.’

‘True. It has to be made so. Cashel represents the biggest barrier to the northern Uí Néill’s ambition to take over the High Kingship. Mael Dúin has been probing for Cashel’s weakness for a while now. And where is Cashel’s greatest weakness?’

Fidelma paused for a moment’s reflection.

‘Why, among the Uí Fidgente in north-west Muman,’ she said thoughtfully. ‘And among the clans west of the Shannon. They have been the most restless clans of Muman. The Uí Fidgente have tried many times to overthrow the kings of Cashel and split the kingdom.’

‘There is the weakness of Muman — the Uí Fidgente,’ Ibor declared like a schoolmaster summing up his lesson.

‘So Brother Solin was sent here to create new dissensions between the Uí Fidgente and the Eóghanacht of Cashel? Is that what you are saying?’ Eadulf asked.

‘He was sent as Ultan’s agent and through Ultan as an emissary of Mael Dúin.’

‘And why were you sent here? To kill Brother Solin?’

‘No. I told you that I had no hand in his death. I did not kill him. But I was sent to discover the details of Mael Dúin’s plot.’

Fidelma was finding difficulty encompassing the fiendishness of what the lord of Muirthemne was revealing. She looked at Ibor directly.

‘What of the slaughter of the young men? The ritual killing?’

‘You have a reputation for working out puzzles. You came as an emissary from Cashel and Imleach and stumbled across what you thought to be a ritual killing. Who would stand to gain had you reacted as you were supposed to react?’

She stared at him in incomprehension for a moment.

‘How was I supposed to react?’ she asked uncertainly.

‘Those responsible for the slaughter simply knew that a religieuse was due to arrive at Gleann Geis. The ritual slaughter was arranged by them in the belief that such a religieuse would understand the pagan symbolism in it and then see nothing further.’

Fidelma began to understand.

‘They thought that the religieuse would panic and go riding back to Cashel and call for a religious war to exterminate the barbarians of Gleann Geis for having perpetrated such a crime?’

‘Exactly so,’ Ibor agreed. ‘Cashel would come down with all its might and fury on Gleann Geis to seek retribution. Gleann Geis would be protesting its innocence and indeed some evidence would be placed in the hands of the friends of Gleann Geis to indicate that it was Cashel’s own hand in the slaughter. The surrounding clans would be told that Cashel was the evil doer and had used the slaughter as a justification to annihilate Gleann Geis. Indignant, the clans would also rise up in support of Gleann Geis. The Uí Fidgente would be persuaded, and not with difficulty,to also rise once more against Cashel. Civil war would split the land.’

‘But most clans in this kingdom would support Cashel,’ Eadulf pointed out.

‘Possibly. But the northern Uí Néill, expressing themselves appalled by such acts,’ went on Ibor, ‘would then encourage and supply its allies to march on Cashel. Once Cashel had been destroyed, Mael Dúin would begin the process of obtaining the High Kingship and exert its will over all the kingdoms. With the Eóghanacht of Cashel destroyed, there would be no one to challenge the Uí Néill.’

Fidelma was incredulous. But she realised the grim logic of what Ibor was saying.

‘And all this might well have happened,’ she murmured.

She did not have to glance at Eadulf to make the Saxon feel uncomfortable. The Saxon lowered his head when he remembered his advice to her on the finding of the bodies and the realisation of what they symbolised. He had a feeling of growing horror.

‘Do I understand you correctly?’ he asked Ibor. ‘The slaughter of those thirty-three young men was carried out for no more reason than for our benefit? That it was a grotesque charade the purpose of which was to make us return in panic to Cashel and call for a holy war against the pagans of Gleann Geis?’

Ibor regarded the Saxon with some solemn amusement.

‘That is precisely what I have explained.’

‘And these sons of Satan were watching us all the time,’ Eadulf muttered reflectively. ‘Do you remember,’ he turned to Fidelma, ‘that we saw the sun flash on metal as we climbed to that valley? We were being watched. They must have watched our approach and knowing the path by which we were entering Gleann Geis they then arranged their terrible show along the course which we were taking, assured that we would see the bodies.’

Ibor of Muirthemne smiled grimly at Fidelma.

‘A war such as they planned might have happened had you reacted in the manner that was expected of you. But, God be praised, you did not. You kept your head and went on into Gleann Geis in search of the truth.’

There was a silence as they reflected on the quirk of fate which had prevented this carefully laid plot from coming to its hoped for fruition.

‘Sechnassuch once told me that you were an individualist, Fidelma,’ Ibor continued appreciatively. ‘Sechnassuch claimed that you were a rebel against the conservative ways of doing things.’

‘It was a plot that was well thought out,’ she admitted. ‘But, Ibor, you have not told us who was responsible for that slaughter?’