The Monk Who Vanished

the main story. The ambitious young Prince now awaited help from Ailech. His messenger to Ailech was the man we know as the archer, Saigteóir. To Armagh, and to the Comarb of Patrick, he set Samradan. The archer was, of course,the man who tried to assassinate Colgú. What his real name was is only known to the chief conspirator. It was this chief conspirator, the ambitious young rigdomna, who gave the archer the emblem of the Golden Chain with instructions to leave it when he escaped after the assassination.

‘The archer had come back to Muman with Brother Baoill. Baoill had been sent by the Comarb of Patrick from Armagh because he knew about Baoill’s relationship with Mochta. Baoill tried to hide his tonsure of St Peter by letting his hair grow. But there was not time enough to completely hide it. Brother Mochta was contacted at Imleach. At first, Baoill tried to sound out his brother to see if he could be persuaded to join the conspiracy. When he did not, Baoill attempted to get the Holy Relics by guile and then by force. He succeeded only in getting Ailbe’s crucifix.

‘Brother Mochta was wounded in that affair and, having told the story to his companion Brother Bardan, and realising that there was some conspiracy afoot, it was decided that Mochta would go into hiding with the remaining Holy Relics until such time as Bardan could find someone to trust and confide in.’

‘Why not confide in his abbot?’ demanded the Brehon Dathal.

‘As he told me, the abbot was an honest man and would insist that the Relics be returned to the chapel. Mochta and Bardán realised, from what Baoill had threatened, that warriors would be sent to attack the abbey to get hold of the Relics. If Mochta and the Relics had disappeared then, they believed, there would be no reason for any attack on Imleach.’

‘But an attack did take place,’ interposed the Brehon Rumann.

‘Yes, but not on the abbey itself. Baoill and his archer companion had already set an alternative plan in motion. Don’t forget the main purpose of these actions was to cause dismay and alarm among the people of Muman, so that the kingdom would split. The attack to cut down and destroy the sacred yew-tree of the Eóghanacht would be equally devastating to Muman. Once it was known that the Holy Relics and Mochta had disappeared from the abbey, the great yew-tree became the obvious target. It was the only other thing which would cause such dismay and alarm in Muman.’

The Brehon Fachtna intervened for the first time in this recital. ‘You tell an interesting story, Fidelma of Cashel. You have exonerated the Prince of the Uí Fidgente from this matter. Your story will become more interesting if you tell us who your chief conspirator is. Who is behind this conspiracy?’

‘It was a driver of Samradan who first put my feet on the right track.’

Brehon Dathal frowned. ‘Samradán the merchant? You say he was a messenger to Armagh, to the Comarb of Patrick?’

‘He actually told me that he had been twice to Armagh during the last two months. He was so guileless that I realised that he probably did not even know what he was involved in. He was only concerned about his illegal activities.’

‘His illegal activities?’ queried the Brehon Rumann. ‘Is the man in this court?’

‘No. He was murdered the night before last. He was killed because it was thought that he might lead me back to the chief conspirator.’

There was an audible ripple of surprised voices through the Great Hall.

‘Samradán was a merchant who was mainly engaged in illegal trade. He and his men had found a small silver mine close by Imleach. The land was part of the abbey lands. The silver mine was not Samradán’s to mine. As he was under the patronage of our chief conspirator — remember he is a powerful noble- that same Prince encouraged him to mine it and took a percentage of the spoils. There was another person in that mining conspiracy …’

Nion the bó-aire of Imleach was trying to leave the hall surreptitiously.

‘Capa!’ called Fidelma, pointing to the smith.

The burly captain of the bodyguard of Colgú held the smith with a surprising force, forcing him by the shoulder to halt.

‘Bring him here into the court,’ instructed Brehon Rumann.

Nion was pale. ‘I had nothing to do with the conspiracy to overthrow Cashel,’ he gasped.

‘Do you admit you were involved with this … this merchant, Samradan?’ inquired the Brehon Rumann.

‘I do not deny that. I dealt only with him because he brought me the ore from the mine. I extracted the silver and sometimes worked it.’

Fidelma was nodding. ‘Yes. I believe that you sometimes made excellent little solar-symbol brooches with it. Unfortunately the raiders destroyed your forge so that, on the day following the raid, Samradán had to leave the mine taking only one sack of silver which you had extracted but also a sack of unprocessed ore.’

‘My forge could not deal with it,’ agreed Nion.

‘Did you ever see Samradán’s patron?’

‘Never. I was not involved in any plan to overthrow Cashel …’

Fidelma turned to the judges. ‘There was my confusion,’ she admitted. ‘For a while I thought that Samradan and his illegal mining were the key to the problem. Especially when I found that the mine was in the same complex of tunnels in which Brother Mochta andthe Holy Relics were hidden. It was merely coincidence that Brother Bardan, while going to find Mochta, stumbled onto Samradán’s mining operation and was taken prisoner by him and brought to Cashel. Samradán could not take responsibility for the death of a Brother, so he hid Bardán. beneath his warehouse, waiting for his patron to make a decision. That Prince decided that both Samradan and Brother Bardan would have to be killed. He suspected that they would lead me to him. Samradán was dead when I reached him. Luckily, I’d already released Bardan from the warehouse. He is in the court as a witness.’

‘You said, however, it was Samradan who set you on the right track. Yet you say he was dead when you reached him. How could a dead man speak?’ asked the Brehon Rumann.

‘No, I mentioned Samradán’s driver,’ corrected Fidelma. ‘This driver was coming to see me to give me some information about the archer and Baoill. You see, the driver, whose name we never knew, had no knowledge about his master’s involvement in the affair nor, even, that his master had a patron. Samradán thought he was coming to betray the illegal mining operation for I had stupidly alerted Samradan that I knew he was involved in such an activity. I had asked him whether he dealt in silver and he denied that he did. Samradán mortally wounded the driver. Before he died, the man was able to tell me, in front of the witness of Brother Eadulf-’ she nodded towards where Eadulf was sitting — ‘certain things, which led me to Brother Mochta. More importantly, he told me of the time when the archer, who was staying at the same inn, had met with a man he could not identify. A young man, in a cloak. It was night time.’

‘If he could not identify the man, how could that lead in any meaningful direction?’ inquired the Brehon Fachtna.

‘The archer addressed the man as rigdomna — Prince — giving an indication of the rank of the man. This was the chief conspirator. Brother Bardán heard the raiders speaking to Samradan and he also heard that this rígdomna was conspiring with a Comarb.’

Fidelma looked to where Nion was still standing with Capa keeping a close watch on him. Then she swung round to where Finguine, the Prince of Cnoc Aine was sitting.

‘Let Finguine come to stand before the judges,’ she called softly.

A new wave of whispering echoed round the great hall.

Finguine stood up, his features suddenly creased in anxiety. He hesitated.

‘Come forward,’ rumbled the Brehon Rumann. ‘Come forward, Finguine.’

The young Prince of Cnoc Aine came slowly forward.

‘You arrived at Imleach just after the attack on it?’ asked Fidelma.

‘I did.’

‘At that time, you were certain it was an attack by the Uí Fidgente?’

‘Yes. Nion believed so. There was also the carving on the tree and the fact that the raiders went north after the attack. Everything pointed to the Uf Fidgente.’

‘As it was meant to,’ agreed Fidelma. ‘With, of course, one exception. The raider we had captured.’

‘Yes. But he had been killed before we could identify who he was …’ began Finguine.