The Council of the Cursed

It was her self-interest that caused her flight!’

‘“Whatever you do to the least of My brethren, you do to Me”,’ Eadulf muttered audibly.

‘I have wasted enough time.’ Abbess Audofleda rose and looked across to Sister Radegund. ‘Show these… these visitors out. We have finished.’

Eadulf followed Fidelma who had said nothing further but turned to leave. He had reached the door when the abbess, unable to restrain herself, shouted after them: ‘And I will see that Bishop Leodegar knows of your insults. He has had men flogged for less.’

Fidelma hesitated, and then shook her head quickly in Eadulf’s direction, indicating that he should say nothing further.

Once outside the oak doors of the women’s community, the couple breathed deeply to release their sense of frustration. They then began to walk slowly across the courtyard towards the wagonway.

‘And this woman is the abbatissa of the community?’ Eadulf marvelled. ‘I pity the poor girls in her charge.’

‘I pity Sister Valretrade. With such a superior, I think I too would also leave,’ Fidelma replied. ‘By the way, we must tread carefully. I don’t think we should take her threats lightly.’

‘Threats? About my being flogged?’ Eadulf was unconvinced.

‘Remember that we are in a different country with different customs,’ urged Fidelma. ‘While we have dispensation to conduct this investigation, it is only because it is of a political use to Bishop Leodegar. We are without real authority and we are vulnerable.’

‘Leodegar would not dare,’ asserted Eadulf.

‘He might well. By throwing that threat at us, Audofleda has revealed that Bishop Leodegar has used this power before.’

‘But to take a religious and have them flogged for no reason…’

‘Oh, they would find a reason. I think we should make sure that Brother Sigeric is warned as well. I would not put it past Audofleda to report the matter to Leodegar.’

They halted by the blocked-up entrance halfway down the wagonway and Eadulf glanced up at the grey walls behind them.

‘I have never known a place that exudes such deep melancholy. I was thinking about what Brother Gillucán told you that he heard.’

‘What made you think of that?’

‘The fact that he was in the necessarium, one wall of which backs on to this Domus Femini. That was where he claimed he heard the sound of souls in torment. I can well believe that he heard sounds of lamentation from the poor women enclosed in that place.’

Fidelma realised that Eadulf was being darkly humourous, but her eyes suddenly widened.

‘Children!’ she exclaimed. ‘Of course!’

Eadulf looked at her in surprise.

‘Were we not told that the wives of the brethren here, and their children, were taken to live in the Domus Femini? Wives and children that the brethren were forced to put from them-that was the phrase.’

Eadulf nodded slowly.

‘Don’t you see?’ Fidelma went on. ‘If Audofleda governs so badly, perhaps Gillucán did hear those children wailing in anguish.’

‘You mean she is ill treating the children?’

Under the law of the Brehons, ill treatment of children was not merely condemned but punishable. Until the age of their maturity, the honour price of children was placed, under the laws, as the honour price of a chieftain or a bishop no matter who their parents were-that was seven cumals, the value of twenty-one cows. So such a thing seemed impossible.

‘As I have said, Eadulf, we are in a different culture here, but nonetheless I indeed to pursue this and discover the truth, even though I have recourse to no local law or authority.’

‘I can’t see how you are going to do that,’ he rejoined. ‘There is no returning through that door.’

‘Then I will have to find another way inside,’ Fidelma replied calmly.

‘You are not going back on your own.’

Fidelma was amused. ‘I hardly think you will be able to fade into the background in a house of women, Eadulf.’

He suddenly stiffened and drew her back into the shadow of the arched recess.

‘What…?’ she began to protest.

He leaned forward and whispered in her ear, ‘Sister Radegund has just left the Domus Femini. Look…but carefully!’

The tall woman was moving rapidly across the courtyard, heading towards the main square. In fact, she was moving so quickly that she was almost running, with her head-dress and robes flowing out behind her. The two watchers pressed back in the shadows, waiting until she had passed them. She had already crossed the square by the time they had emerged, and they saw her disappearing down a street towards the city buildings.

‘Where is she off to in such a hurry?’ murmured Eadulf.

‘Let’s find out,’ replied Fidelma. ‘Come on. We must not lose her.’

Before he could protest, she had set off across the square, almost trotting to keep up with the woman. There were plenty of people about, but no one seemed interested in them, so Fidelma and Eadulf hurried on down the darkened streets without challenge.

Sister Radegund seemed so intent upon her errand that she did not pause or glance backward once. That was just as well for her followers. She moved through several streets, each one a little more narrow than the last, and soon the odours that had assailed them when they first arrived in the city began to rise around them. Sewerage ran here and there, and thin feral cats and slavering dogs fought over the refuse in the gutters.

Sister Radegund suddenly ducked into a broad street. Along this street were several premises of traders. It was clearly a major thoroughfare. They saw her enter a building where clothes were hanging outside as if on display, as well as a number of animal skins.

‘It looks like a…’ Fidelma paused, trying to find the right word ‘…a place where a seamstress does her work.’

They moved cautiously towards the building and Fidelma took a quick glance through the open door. Sister Radegund was standing with her back to the door and an elderly woman was bending over a bundle of cloth. The old woman’s eyes luckily were not focused on the door. Fidelma gestured to Eadulf to follow her back a few yards to where there was a dark space between the buildings; here they could pause without being seen in the open street.

‘It seems that Sister Radegund is simply on a mission to buy some cloth,’ Fidelma said in disappointment. ‘I have obviously become too suspicious.’ Just then, she heard someone saying something along the street and then the clatter of wooden-soled shoes followed. She chanced another quick look round the corner of the building.

‘Radegund is off again. Her journey is not yet over,’ she said to Eadulf. ‘Let us stay with her.’

Head still slightly downward, Sister Radegund was continuing her journey with the same intensity as when she had left the Domus Femini. They followed at a reasonable distance but there seemed little chance of the stewardess looking back towards them. When she disappeared around the next corner, they followed and found that the broad thoroughfare had opened into a large square. In the centre was yet another ornate fountain, gushing and splashing. A few dogs were lapping around the base.

Fidelma and Eadulf halted at the entrance to the square, sheltering in the corner of a building.

Sister Radegund had hurried across the cobbles straight to the gates in a high wall that fronted a building on the far side. A giant of a man, a warrior armed with sword and spear, stood outside. While he had breast armour, he wore no hat and his head was a tousled mess of blond, almost white, curls that merged into a heavy beard which came to his chest. He nodded pleasantly to Sister Radegund as if he knew her and without a word turned and tapped upon the wooden gate with his free hand. They heard three distinct blows followed by two more rapid ones. The gate opened almost at once and Sister Radegund slipped inside. The gate closed immediately.