Sacrifice
Page 12
When I returned home, my grandmother took the cat and told me everything was ready. She took the body outside to the butchering table and cut its flesh into thin strips. She could have used a pig or dog, but she had never liked cats, so I wasn’t surprised that she had asked me to find one. She took some of the flesh inside the hut and, with her palms turned downward, began chanting over it. After an hour or so, she placed the meat on a rock behind her door. She had once explained to me the reason for this peculiar practice, but I couldn’t remember at the moment. I was too busy praying to Brigid and all the saints that this would work.
She prayed once more with her hands over the meat:
Strength of sky, light of sun, brilliance of moon,
burning of fire, speed of lightning, swiftness of wind,
depth of sea, firmness of earth, hardness of rock.
It was an ancient Irish incantation calling on the hidden powers of the world to help her see beyond her mortal sight. Patrick had taken this prayer and changed it into a beautiful hymn, just as Christians borrowed so much from the old religions of Greece and Rome. I used to think this was cheating, but I see now that the nourishing flow across boundaries of faith is a good thing. God knows, the druids borrowed much from the old ones who came before us.
It was starting to grow dark outside. After more prayers, my grandmother turned her palms slowly upward and walked to her bed. Carefully holding her hands in front of her, she lay down on the straw mattress and placed her palms against her cheeks, then closed her eyes. I took her thick wool blanket and spread it over her as she began to drift off into sleep.
I sat next to her the whole night, dozing in my chair and rising only occasionally to place another log on the fire. I knew that sometimes druids would lie in bed for two or three days until a vision came to them. I also knew that sometimes they would awaken after only a few minutes. I was terribly worried, but encouraged that she remained still until sunrise.
When the first light peeked beneath the front door, Grandmother began to shake. Her breathing became heavy and I could feel her heart racing in her chest. I would have tried to awaken her, but I was afraid I would break the spell and she would be lost forever. Suddenly she screamed. I had never been so frightened.
At last she opened her eyes with a strange look on her face.
“Grandmother, are you all right? Are you here with me?”
She wiped her eyes.
“Of course I am, child. Where else would I be?”
She motioned for me to bring her a cup of water and drank it deliberately as I waited quietly.
“I’m fine, Deirdre, though I don’t want to go through that again.”
“What did you see?”
“It was a most peculiar dream,” she said at last. “I was standing on the edge of a dark river in what seemed to be a vast cavern. Around me were hundreds—perhaps thousands—of people, pale and dead, though they could move and speak. An old man in a boat was coming toward us, and the crowd was crying to him with outstretched hands. As he reached the shore, they surged forward, but he beat them back with his paddle, allowing only a few at a time to climb into his little craft after he had examined them closely.
“I looked again at the shore, and there were five women standing beside the boat. They wore the veils of nuns. The strange man looked at them and motioned to them to board the boat. I recognized one as Grainne and called out to her. She turned and gave me a look of great sadness, then climbed into the boat with the others.
“I looked again and suddenly there were two more nuns standing next to me. I couldn’t see their faces. Then a tall figure dressed in black came up behind us, wearing a mask. The face on the mask was beautiful, like the paintings of one of your angels at the church. The dark figure then pierced both of the nuns through the chest with a sword. I screamed and tried to stop him but was unable to move. It was as if my feet were fixed to the ground. The two women didn’t call out or collapse; they just walked to the boat, climbed in, and sailed away.
“I turned to the person in black and tried to tear the mask away. At last I got my fingers underneath the edge and ripped it off. I had never seen such a face as lay beneath. I can’t even begin to describe it. I can only say that it was a monster. That was when I woke up.”
She finished the cup of water.
“Grandmother, didn’t you recognize any features beneath the mask?”
“No, my child. I’m sorry. I’m afraid the ritual has failed. All I can say is that the nuns of Kildare are still in grave danger.”
Chapter Twenty
I had hardly slept in days, but there was no time to waste in bed. After the imbas forosnai ritual was over that morning, I left my grandmother’s house to go to the monastery. Along the way, I thought about what the images in her dream meant. In spite of the fact that Grandmother had never heard the story from Greek mythology, the man in the boat was obviously Charon, transporting dead souls across the river of death. The five nuns who boarded the boat first were those who had already been killed. The two who were stabbed by the dark figure were the victims yet to come. Did that mean that their fate was already sealed, or could I stop the murders from happening? And who was the dark man? My grandmother said he was tall, but I knew that images in dreams were often symbols not to be taken literally. Most perplexing was the fact that he wore a beautiful mask, but underneath was the face of a monster. Did that mean he was physically handsome, or something else entirely? I needed to talk with Cáma, the interpreter of dreams. I would have to find the time to see her as soon as possible.
The king’s guards were at the front gate of the monastery and bowed as they let me through. I hadn’t been inside Kildare since I had been expelled, but I felt I needed to report to Sister Anna what was happening, though I wasn’t sure that she would even see me. It was still early in the morning, and the yard was empty with only a few cattle moving about in the pen at the far side of the barn. I went to the hut of the abbess and knocked on the door. I knew she would be awake.
“Come in.”
She was sitting behind her desk as usual. I could see that she was adding figures on an abacus. She looked up and didn’t seem surprised to see me, though she didn’t look pleased either. I prepared myself to be yelled at and thrown out of the hut, but she motioned for me to sit in the chair facing her.
“Sister Anna, thank you for seeing me. I know that I’m no longer welcome here, but, as you know, the king has placed me in charge of finding the killer and I thought I should let you know what I have done.”
“Proceed,” she said.
I told her about the three druids I had questioned and detained in the barn under guard. I told her about my discussion of suspects with my grandmother. I even told her about the imbas forosnai and what my grandmother had seen. She was silent when I finished. After a few moments, I got up to leave.
“Thank you for listening, Sister Anna. If you’ll excuse me now, I should continue my work.”
“One moment,” she said. She set the abacus aside and folded her hands together on the desk.
“Yes, Sister Anna?”
“I would like for you to thank your grandmother for me. I do not approve of the imbas forosnai ritual, but I know she put herself at great risk to perform it. I only wish it had been successful.”
“Thank you, Sister Anna. Is there anything else you would like me to tell her?”
She hesitated for a moment before speaking.
“No. You are dismissed.”
I bowed and left her hut to walk back to the gate. I wanted to see Dari and Father Ailbe, but thought it best to leave the monastery before the monks and nuns were up for morning prayers. I was almost at the gate when I heard someone call my name.
“Deirdre, wait!”
It was my cousin Riona. She came running up to me from the barn with a frightened look on her face.
“What’s wrong, Riona?”
“I need to talk with you, Deirdre. Can we step outside the gate?”
“What is it, Riona? Are you all right?”
“Yes. No. I mean, I’m not sure.”
“Did someone hurt you? What’s wrong?”
“I’m fine, but I think I saw something I should tell you about.”
“What is it?”
“I couldn’t sleep well last night,” she said. “I haven’t since I got here. I’m grateful to the king’s guards for keeping us safe, but I feel trapped in here. I’m used to being on my own with lots of room. I’m also worried about my sheep. Anyway, I got up at maybe three in the morning to take a walk around the yard. The moon was just rising in the east. I walked over to the cattle pens, then went to the shed near the back gate and climbed the ladder so I could look out over the walls. I guess I just wanted to see something beside the inside of this monastery. It was a lovely evening and I could hear sheep bleating in the distance—my own, I think.”
“Go on, Riona.”
“Well, maybe it was just my imagination, but I saw someone moving away from the monastery. It was too dark to see clearly, but it looked like a tall figure at the edge of the woods to the west, beyond the graveyard. I thought maybe it was one of the guards on patrol, but they always go out in pairs.”
“What did this figure look like?”
“He was tall and seemed to be wearing some kind of a dark cloak. I couldn’t see a face since he was walking away from me, but just before it reached the woods, he turned to look back. I’m not sure, but he seemed to be a man with a long white beard. I swear he saw me standing there and smiled. I know this sounds crazy, but for a moment I had the feeling it was my grandfather.”
“What did you do then?”
“I thought about alerting the guards, but I looked again and the figure was gone. I thought I must have imagined the whole thing. The guards are grumpy enough about having to spend their days watching a bunch of women, I didn’t want to wake them to chase after a phantom.”
“Take me to the place where you saw this man,” I said.
We walked to the west side of the monastery near the edge of the woods. There were tracks on the ground, but the path was often used and there were too many to distinguish the prints of any one person. We searched around the area, but we found nothing.
“I’m sorry to have bothered you, Deirdre,” she sighed. “I must have imagined the whole thing. I’m going to lose my mind if I don’t get out of this monastery soon.”
“It’s all right, Riona. We’re all on edge lately. Maybe you did see someone. Sometimes hunters are out in the woods at night.”
“I doubt it. The moon wasn’t bright enough for hunting. I feel so stupid. Let’s forget the whole thing. I need to get to morning prayers.”
We started to walk back up the path to the monastery. I could hear the noise of doors closing as people left the sleeping quarters to make their way to the church. Riona and I reached the gate.
“Deirdre, do you want to come to prayers with us?”
“I wish I could, but I don’t think it’s a good idea. I’ve already seen Sister Anna this morning and it would be pushing my luck to show up at the church. I don’t think some of the sisters would be happy to see me anyway.”
Riona smiled.
“Such as Eithne? That woman hates me too, probably because I’m your cousin—but I don’t care. I’m thinking of loosening the straps on her bed so that they come undone when she lies down tonight.”
“Don’t pick a fight with her, Riona. She isn’t worth the trouble.”
“You’re probably right. Well, good luck with your search, Deirdre. Please let me know if there’s anything I can do to help. And would you go check on my sheep?”
I said I would and kissed her on the cheek, then turned to walk away. Suddenly there was a piercing scream inside the monastery yard. I recognized it as Dari’s voice. I rushed inside the gate and saw people running to the church.
Riona and I hurried to the open door. A crowd had gathered, blocking the entrance, but I pushed them away to get inside. Dari was standing in the center aisle, next to the low partition separating the sections for the monks and nuns. She was staring at the front of the church in horror.
There, nailed by her hands to a wooden beam on the front wall of the church and tied with ropes a dozen feet in the air, was the body of Sister Coleen, her throat cut and her arms outstretched as if nailed to a cross.
Chapter Twenty-One
How did he get inside the monastery? How?” demanded Sister Anna.
She was facing the captain of the guard inside the church. We had lowered the body of Sister Coleen from the rafters and taken it to the infirmary. Several of the brothers and sisters were trying to clean up the blood.
The captain was an experienced warrior and a giant of a man named Brogan, who stood about two feet taller than the abbess, but he looked very small at that moment.
“I don’t know, Sister Anna,” he sputtered. “My men were everywhere guarding the walls and gates. I had two patrols out all night in the surrounding woods. I don’t see how anyone could have gotten through.”
“Well, someone did and now another of my nuns is dead,” she said. “Maybe I should tell the king to send some of his serving girls to replace you, because I’m beginning to think they would have done a better job.”
“I’ll send a messenger to the king at once and get more men,” he said, hanging his head as he spoke. “I’ll send out fresh patrols into the woods to track this man down. He won’t get away, I promise.”
“Spare me your promises, Brogan. Get out and do your job.”
The abbess turned and motioned for me to follow her. We left the church and went together to the infirmary. Father Ailbe was bent over the table, examining the body of Sister Coleen.
“Is it the same as with the others, Father?” she asked.
“Yes, Sister Anna. Her stomach contents reveal that Coleen consumed mistletoe before she was killed. Her throat was cut deeply with a single stroke of a very sharp knife while she was unconscious. The lack of bruising on her arms where the ropes held her indicate that she was hauled up after she was already dead.”
Sister Anna walked over to the wall near the foot of the table and pounded her hand repeatedly on the post supporting the roof. Tears were running down her cheeks. I had never seen her lose control before, and I didn’t know if I should comfort her or leave the room. In the end, I did nothing.
It was only a minute later that she wiped away her tears and turned to me with a face of stone.
“Deirdre, does this fit the order of sacrifices carved onto the body of Sister Saoirse?”
“Yes, Sister Anna.”
“I suppose,” she said, “the murderer was mocking us by killing his latest victim in our church.”
“I suppose so, Sister Anna,” I said.
“Six murdered women and seven sacrifices,” Father Ailbe said. “One more death yet to come.”
“Yes, Abba.”
“I don’t think this monastery can survive another death,” the abbess said. “How on earth could the killer have gotten in? I was in the church at midnight, praying, and at sunrise Sister Coleen is found there, dead. I saw the guards posted at the gates and walking the perimeter of the walls last night and this morning. In spite of what I said in anger to Brogan, the king’s men are vigilant and capable. And how in heaven’s name did the killer get her to drink mistletoe?”
“Sister Anna,” I said, “Riona thinks she saw something strange last night.”
“What did she see?”
“She couldn’t sleep well last night, so about three in the morning she was by the back gate, standing on the ladder looking out over the walls. She said she may have seen a figure near the woods who looked like he was dressed in black, walking away from the monastery. It was dark, b
ut she said she thought he had a long white beard. She knows it’s impossible, but she wonders if it could have been her grandfather.”
“The druid sacrificer?” the abbess asked.
“Yes. Did you know him?”
“I knew him. Why didn’t she tell the guards? Why didn’t she come to me immediately?”
“Because she wasn’t sure she had seen anything real.”
The abbess stood still for a moment, then grabbed me by the robe and pulled me roughly to Sister Coleen’s body.
“Does this look real to you, Deirdre? Does the gaping hole across her throat look real?”
I didn’t know what to say.
“Come with me.”
I followed the abbess out of the infirmary and across the yard to the back gate. When they had first arrived, the king’s men had nailed it shut from the inside with a sturdy oak plank so there would be only one point of entry to the monastery. Sister Anna bent to examine the gate closely. She then struck the plank lightly with her palm. It fell to the ground with a thud.
“Look at these,” she said, pointing to the dirt beneath us.
I bent down and picked up six nails. The two still in the wood had been only loosely fixed there. Someone had carefully pushed the nails inward, then somehow lowered the plank to the ground silently and opened the back passage into the monastery. When he left, he had fixed the board so that two nails were barely holding it in place.
“That’s how he got in,” I said.
“Thank you, Deirdre,” the abbess said. “A brilliant observation. I’m so glad the king put you in charge of this investigation. I’ll certainly sleep better tonight knowing you’re on the job.”
“Sister Anna, I—”
“Go, find this phantom. Tell the captain what Sister Riona thinks she saw. I don’t care if it’s unlikely. And tell your druid friends to keep their eyes open for a tall and very evil man. You might also tell them to lock their doors. Sister Coleen was from the same eastern clan as Sister Saoirse. They are going to be out for blood after this.”