She paused and looked round. Seeing that she held their attention, she continued: ‘We had a lot of information, many strands, and I knew that all the strands wound their way back to this abbey. That was not only because of the death of Cinaed but because someone here had to give instructions to Olcan about the six stone polishers leaving the abbey for the pilgrimage.’
Abbot Erc interrupted with an impatient wave of his hand.
‘I followed your argument on that yesterday.’
Brother Cu Mara added: ‘I think the abbot means — how did you come to suspect Sister Buan? She had been in this abbey for years and no one suspected that she was Eoganan’s daughter.’
‘I will come to that. I was looking for the motive. When I accepted that Uaman was dead there were two possibilities. Either the person imitating Uaman was doing so because of the fear that his reputation instilled or because they were preparing the way for the reinstatement of the dynasty. Olcan made a remark in his cell which implied that Uaman was dead and that Eoganan had more than two sons. There was another who could claim to be his heir. Conri pointed out the answer lay in the genealogy of the Ui Fidgente. And after we saw Olcan, Conri asked the librarian for a copy…’
‘Buan was standing next to him when I asked,’ Conri recalled excitedly.
To his surprise Fidelma shook her head.
‘She had already eliminated it some time before. It was when Cinaed was beginning to suspect her that he had borrowed the genealogy. She had cut her name Uallach from the book. But what she did suspect was that Conr
’s question meant that Olcan was boastful and could not be trusted. So she returned that night and stabbed him in his cell.’
There was a silence. Then Brother Cu Mara asked: ‘If the name in the genealogy was deleted how could you tell the identity of the heir?’
‘Buan had told some truth about her background. Her mother ran off with a young man, and her father sent her away to be fostered by a chieftain of the Corco Duibhne. Who would that be but Slebene? Caeth, the smith, who had been fostered by Slebene, told us that Slebene had fostered a daughter of a noble from the east. Her name was Uallach.’
Conr smiled apologetically to Sister Uallann.
‘I mistakenly thought that Uallach was you. The similarity of the name.’
The physician cast a glance of dislike at him but made no comment.
‘I pointed out that anyone disguising his or her name would not simply change a syllable,’ Fidelma explained. ‘Anyway, although we heard that Uallach was arrogant, any ambition was killed by Eoganan’s rejection of her. So she came to Ard Fhearta and entered the abbey. After her father was killed and her brothers also, she realised that she could now claim to be a banchomarbae — a female heir — and strike out to claim the leadership of the Ui Fidgente. She sought and gained support from her brother’s right-hand man, Olcan, and from her foster father Slebene.’
‘What I don’t understand is that if she was a princess of the Ui Fidgente,’ broke in the abbot, ‘why was she not acknowledged as such? Why did she enter this abbey under an assumed name.’
‘Uallach herself gave the answer. Her father rejected her when her mother left him, and sent her to fosterage with Slebene. She had little to do with her father nor her half-brothers. Buan admitted the bitterness she felt when I first spoke to her. That bitterness now made her ambition the greater.’
‘But why did she marry the Venerable Cinaed?’ demanded Brother Cu Mara. ‘He was surely everything she detested both as a man and for his views about the Ui Fidgente.’
Fidelma assumed a wry expression.
‘In that matter, we must accept she spoke the truth. She needed Cinaed’s authority and protection within the abbey. It was Cinaed, of course, who helped her. And remember this was a few years before she began to develop her ambition. But it was Cinaed who eventually began to suspect his wife. She did not love him and he found romance with Sister Sinnchene.’
‘He had not realised her connection-’ Eadulf suddenly saw the warning glance that Fidelma gave him. He had been going to mention that Olcan was her father, and he compressed his lips firmly.
‘Eadulf was going to say that Cinaed gave her a necklet.’
Eadulf drew out the necklet that he had borrowed from Sister Sinnchene and laid it on the table.
‘Cinaed gave her this and told her to keep it safe, to let no one see it. It is evidence, he said. In fact, it was symbolic evidence because Buan had been travelling on behalf of the abbey selling the precious stones that were produced here. She had realised that this was the great source of wealth through which she could purchase, through Olcan and Slebene, armed mercenaries to place her in power. The freedom to travel and to trade allowed her to maintain contact with Olcan.
‘Cinaed had already begun to suspect that Uallach, or Buan as we know her, was involved in the precious stone business but for her own ends. I am not sure the exact evidence the necklet was to be but I am sure he found it among Buan’s things. That should have made me think about the book he had written on the sordid trade in local precious stones. He had handed that to Brother Faolchair to be copied.’
‘Ah, Cinaed’s books,’ muttered Abbot Erc. ‘All his books were destroyed. What have you to say about that?’
‘Cinaed had already written a book arguing against Eoganan’s reasons for making war on Cashel. It was destroyed in the Venerable Mac Faosma’s rooms. It was Buan who destroyed it because she realised that her husband had seen the genealogy and mentioned Eoganan’s third child. She found the genealogy in his rooms and so she cut her name from it
‘But Buan was unsure later whether Cinaed had made references in other books. That concern grew as I began to take an interest in his writings. I was talking to Buan when I realised that I had been concentrating on clues in the wrong book. I had thought the secrets lay in Cinaed’s denouncement of Eoganan’s regime, the book she had destroyed in Mac Faosma’s chamber. It was much later that I came to realise that the book on the gem trade was more important. Eadulf and I had mentioned the
‘I believe that not everything had come together in the Venerable Cinaed’s mind until Abbess Faife was murdered and the six gem polishers had been abducted. Then he knew Buan must have been involved. Buan also realised that he had made the connection. So he had to be killed. She lured him to the oratory with a false message from Sister Sinnchene. She hoped that this would be evidence against Sinnchene but Cinaed was astute enough to try to burn it. She handed the remains over to the abbot hoping for suspicion to fall on Sinnchene. She went out of her way to incriminate Sinnchene to Eadulf and me. Buan waited in the chapel and bludgeoned her husband to death.’
Eadulf was nodding in agreement.
‘We did suspect Sister Sinnchene for a while,’ he admitted. ‘Only she knew that we were going to be in the workroom where they polished the stones at the time the attempt on Fidelma’s life was made.’
Abbot Erc was astonished.
‘How was this?’
Fidelma quickly explained the circumstances.
‘I think that Buan was becoming increasingly fearful and knew that I suspected her. The previous evening she had asked me to come to her chamber on the pretext of discussing her rights, which she knew anyway. I think that she was going to arrange my death there. However, Eadulf arrived and she had to abandon her plan. So the next day she attempted to push a stone on my head as we were leaving the workroom.’
‘But if only Sister Sinnchene knew you were going to be there, at the stone polishers’ workshop, how did Sister Buan find out?’ demanded Brother Cu Mara.
‘You told her,’ Fidelma smiled.
The young steward’s eyes widened.
‘I told no one,’ he denied hotly.
‘Not directly,’ agreed Fidelma in a mild voice.
‘I remember that morning,’ interrupted Sister Uallann. ‘Sister Sinnchene was delivering washing. I was standing with Brother Cu Mara and Sister Buan. Brother Cu Mara felt he had been too abrasive to you and felt he should apologise. He asked Sister Sinnchene if she knew where you were.
‘So Buan was able to get through the dormitories to the roof of the workshop in a matter of moments, pry
