The Shapeshifter's Lair

by Peter Tremayne

  Dicuil Dóna shook his head sadly. ‘So you blame me for the way Scáth has turned on me?’

  Fidelma shrugged. ‘You are his father. He should have had justice when he was a child. But you have a young daughter – you must now ensure she has a just father and that father is worthy.’

  ‘Did Aithrigid think that he could overthrow Tuaim Snámha so easily and get himself accepted as Prince of Osraige?’ Eadulf asked when they were alone.

  ‘He was of a noble house of Osraige and there are always some who believe everything can be resolved by force or the threat of force,’ Fidelma replied sadly.

  ‘To me the worst crime was that of Teimel – whether he killed his mother or the conspirators did so, he fled afterwards. Will he be caught? He could vanish for ever among these mountains.’

  ‘Then he will have to live with the shadow of his murdered mother. If his mother’s belief is right, the Aos Sí, the Cumachtae, whatever we call the shadows that haunt us, are unforgiving in their vengeance.’

  A week later Fidelma, riding alongside Princess Gelgéis, with Eadulf, Enda, and Spealáin, still with his shoulder bandaged, slightly behind them, halted their horses on the north-western ridge of the Sliabh Ardach hills and looked across the plain.

  ‘Durlus Éile!’ Princess Gelgéis smiled, pointing, as she cast her gaze to the distant buildings. Her fortress towered on the rise, dominating the town. ‘That is one place that I thought I might never see again during these last few weeks.’

  She glanced encouragingly to Spealáin, who was looking slightly pale; his shoulder and arm were still giving him pain. The steward smiled and shook his head weakly.

  ‘I shall be glad to rest in a familiar place this night, lady,’ he admitted.

  Fidelma gave Princess Gelgéis one of her mischievous smiles. ‘If all goes well, you will not be long there. You will be in Cashel and, within a few weeks, married to my brother.’

  Princess Gelgéis gave a brief nod. ‘If I know your brother, he will be wearing out horses to get to Durlus Éile as soon as he hears I am there.’ She sighed. ‘And you? I suppose you will want to get back to the less demanding aspects of law rather than being dragged into dangerous paths of the like we have just experienced?’

  ‘The trouble is, in my experience, law does not seem to concern itself with petty matters,’ Fidelma replied. ‘I suppose that is what makes my life so exciting. Perhaps I should try to welcome boredom. Law has a habit of drawing me into one adventure after another.’

  Eadulf coughed loudly. There was a cynical tone in the sound. ‘I thought you declared that you were bored with law,’ he observed.

  ‘When did I say that?’ Fidelma demanded defensively.

  ‘Oh, just before we heard the news of the disappearance of Princess Gelgéis and set off to The Cuala to find her.’ He turned to Gelgéis with a wry grimace. ‘To be honest, I believe that Fidelma could not exist without, now and then, having to tackle such boredom as the problem you have presented her with!’

  Prince Gelgéis saw the outrage on Fidelma’s face and burst out laughing. Then Fidelma realised the incongruity of the words she remembered uttering in Cashel.

  ‘Tomorrow, Eadulf, you will also be eating your own words,’ she declared.

  ‘Which were?’ he frowned.

  ‘You said that it was going to be a long time before we saw Cashel again and, here we are. Hardly any time has passed at all.’