Hemlock at Vespers

and death over her. That is the judgment prescribed by law.”

Sister Fidelma knew well the penalty for extreme cases of murder.

“Only if she is found guilty,” she added softly.

Irnan let out a sharp bray of laughter.

“There is little doubt of that.”

She turned and swept from the room, leaving Rathend gazing in unhappy confusion after her.

The two women broke apart from their embrace. Fidelma’s eyes were troubled as she gazed at the face of her friend. Liadin was shorter than Fidelma, with a shock of chestnut hair, pale skin and dark brown eyes that seemed almost black from a distance. Her face was strained, the flesh under the eyes was dark with worry, the skin almost bloodless and etched with lines.

“Fidelma! Praise the saints that you have come at last. I had given you up. I did not kill Scoriath, nor my son Cunobel.”

“No need to convince me,” Fidelma replied quickly. “I have succeeded in getting a postponement of your trial for twenty-four hours. You must now tell me everything so that I will know best how to defend you.”

Liadin let out a small sob.

“My mind has not worked since I heard the terrible news of Scoriath’s death. I have been numbed with shock and could not believe that I was being accused. Somehow I thought I would awake from all this… that…”

Fidelma squeezed her friend’s hand as her voice trailed off.

“I will do your thinking for you. Simply tell me the facts as you know them.”

Liadin wiped her tears and forced a smile.

“I feel such hope now. But I know so little.”

“When we last met, you told me you were very happy with Scoriath. Had anything changed since then?”

Liadin shook her head vehemently. “We were blest with contentment and a fine child.”

“Was Scoriath still commander of the bodyguard of the chief-tainess of the Uí Dróna?”

“Yes. Even, when Irnan succeeded her father Drón as chieftain-ess of the clan a month ago, Scoriath continued as her commander. But he was considering giving up war and simply working his own land.”

Fidelma pursed her lips. She could not help but recall the hostility which Irnan had displayed toward Liadin.

“Was there any conflict of personality? What of the Tanist? Was there enmity with the heir-elect?”

“Conn? No, there was no animosity between Scoriath and Conn.”

“Very well. So let us turn to the facts of the death of Scoriath and your son.” Time enough to commiserate with her friend later.

“It happened a week ago. I was not here at the time.”

“Explain. If you were not here, on what grounds are you accused of carrying out the dead? Start at the beginning.”

Liadin made a little gesture of helplessness.

“On the day it happened I had left Scoriath and the child here and had ridden to visit a sick relative, my aunt Flidais. The illness was minor and when I reached her dwelling I found her past any danger and almost entirely well. It had been nothing but a slight chill. So I returned here, reaching the fortress in the late evening, about an hour after sunset. As I made my way to our chambers, Conn came out of our apartments and seized me.”

“Seized you? Why?”

“It is all so hazy now. He was shouting that Scoriath was slain along with my son. I could not believe it. He seemed to be accusing me.

“For what reason?”

“He had found a bloodstained knife and clothing, my clothes, hidden in my private chamber. Scoriath and my son had been found in our chambers-stabbed to death.”

“You immediately denied responsibility?”

Liadin nodded fiercely. “How could anyone think a mother could slaughter her own child?”

Fidelma pursed her lips and shrugged. “Alas, it has been known, Liadin. We have to look at things as logically as we can. Did they have any other grounds to accuse you?”

Liadin hesitated a moment.

“There came another witness against me. A house servant, Branar, came forward and said she had witnessed Scoriath and me in argument that very day.”

“Witnessed? And had she?”

“Of course not. I had not seen Branar that day.”

“So she lied? How could she claim to have seen this argument then?”

“She said that she had heard it,” corrected Liadin after a moment’s thought. “She said that she was passing our bedchamber door and she heard our voices raised in angry exchanges. She then thought it prudent to depart. I denied it but no one would believe me.”

“Who brought you the news of your aunt’s illness?”

“A monk from the monastery of the Blessed Moling, which is not far from here. A Brother named Suathar.”

“And who saw you leave the rath to visit your aunt?”

“Many people. It was midday when I left.”

“So it was well known that you had left the rath to visit your aunt?”

“I suppose so.”

“And who saw you arrive back that night?”

“Conn, of course, when he seized me.”

Fldelma frowned slightly.

“He saw you arrive through the gate, you mean? And then seized you later?”

Liadin shook her head in bewilderment.

“No. I meant that he saw me at the time he seized me at the door of my chambers.”

“So no one saw you actually arrive back? So far as people were concerned, you could have come back much earlier that evening. You traveled on horse. How about the stable boys?”

Liadin looked worried.

“Ah, I see what you mean. No one was about in the stable at the time. I unsaddled my own horse. I am afraid that no one saw me arrive back.”

“But your aunt will witness the time that you left her?”

“My aunt has come here already to testify but Rathend says this matters little. No one disputes that I went to see my aunt, nor that I returned that evening. They say, however, that I could have arrived back earlier, that I went straight to Scoriath, slew him, and then my child, and was going to sneak back out into the night to feign a later arrival hoping that the bodies would have been found before my return.”

Fidelma chewed her lower lip in thought.

“It seems, indeed, that Branar is then central to the argument of your guilt, for she presents us with a motive: the motive being that your relationship with Scoriath was not what you claimed it to be. If the quarrel was not between Scoriath and yourself then either Branar is mistaken, or lying. Was Scoriath seen by anyone after this alleged quarrel?”

“Of course,” Liadin said at once. “Cunobel was with Branar all afternoon while Scoriath was attending Irnan at the assembly of the clan and while I was away from the rath. The assembly rose at sunset. But what of the knife and bloodied clothes in my chamber?”

“Anyone can plant such evidence. And there is an obvious contradiction there. You would hardly leave such evidence in your chamber and be sneaking back out into the night to gain an alibi, would you?”

Liadin paused to reflect on the logic and then she nodded with a faint smile.

“I hadn’t thought of that.”

Fidelma gave her an encouraging grin.

“You see? Already we find a lack of logic in the arguments against you. The case against you seems so