Hemlock at Vespers sf-9

by Peter Tremayne

  God give me a wall of tears

  my sins to hide;

  for I remain, while no tears fall,

  unsanctified.

  She looked across to Lorcán in surprise.

  “Do you know whose cell this was?” she demanded.

  “Assuredly,” came the prompt reply. “Selbach shared this cell with his dominus-Spelán. The cell we placed Spelán in, the one nearest the oratory, belongs to two other members of the community.”

  “Do you know what sort of man Selbach was? Was he a man who was authoritarian, who liked to inflict punishment? Was the Rule of his community a harsh one?”

  Lorcán shrugged.

  “That I would not know. I did not know the community that well.”

  “There is evidence of pain and punishment in this place.” Fi-delma sensed a cold tingle against her spine. “I do not understand it.”

  She paused, noticing a shelf on which stood several jars and bottles. She moved to them and began to examine the contents of each jar, sniffing its odors or wetting the tip of her finger from the concoctions before cautiously tasting it. Then she reached into her marsupium and took the wooden cup she had retrieved from the floor of the oratory. It had recently been used for the wood still showed the dampness of its contents. She sniffed at it. A curious mixture of pungent odors came to her nostrils. Then she turned back to the shelf and examined the jars and bottles of herbs again. She could identify the dried heads of red clover, dried horse-chestnut leaves and mullein among the jars of herbs.

  Lorcán stood watching her impatiently.

  “Spelán uses this as the community’s apothecary,” he said. “On one of my trips here I cut my hand and it was Spelán who gave me a poultice of herbs to heal it.”

  Fidelma sighed a little as she gave a final look around.

  Finally she left the cell, followed by an unhappy Lorcán, and began to examine the other cells again but this time more carefully. There was evidence in one or two of them that some personal items and articles of clothing had been hurriedly removed but not enough to support the idea of the community being attacked and robbed by an outside force.

  Fidelma emerged into the quadrangle feeling confused.

  Lorcán, at her side, was gazing up at the sky, a worried expression on his face.

  Fidelma knew that he was still concerned about the approaching weather but it was no time to retreat from this mystery. Someone had killed the Abbot of the community and a young Brother, knocked the dominus unconscious and made ten further members of the brotherhood disappear.

  “Didn’t you say that the community had their own boat?” she asked abruptly.

  Lorcán nodded unhappily.

  “It was not in the cove when we landed,” Fidelma pointed out.

  “No, it wouldn’t be,” replied the boatman. “They kept their boat further along the shore in a sheltered spot. There is a small shingled strand around the headland where a boat can be beached.”

  “Show me,” Fidelma instructed. “There is nothing else to do until Spelán recovers consciousness and we may learn his story.”

  Somewhat reluctantly, with another glance at the western sky, Lorcán led the way along the pathway towards the cove but then broke away along another path which led down on the other side of a great rocky outcrop which served as a headland separating them from the cove in which they had landed.

  Fidelma knew something was wrong when they reached a knoll before the path twisted and turned through granite pillars toward the distant pounding sea. Her eyes caught the flash of black in the sky circling over something on the shore below.

  They were black-backed gulls. Of all gulls, these were birds to be respected. They frequently nested on rocky islands such as Inis Chloichreán. It was a carrion-eater, a fierce predator given to taking mammals even as large as cats. They had obviously found something down on the beach. Fidelma could see that even the crows could not compete with their larger brethren. There were several pairs of crows above the melee, circling and waiting their chance.

  Fidelma compressed her lips firmly.

  Lorcán continued to lead the way down between the rocks. The area was full of nesting birds. May was a month in which the black-backed gulls, along with many another species, laid their eggs. The rocky cliffs of the island were ideal sites for birds. The females screamed furiously as they entered the area but Lorcán ignored their threatening displays. Fidelma did not pretend that she was unconcerned.

  “The Brothers kept their boat just here…” began Lorcán, reaching a large platform of rocky land about twelve feet above a short pebbly beach. He halted and stared.

  Fidelma saw the wooden trestles, on which the boat had apparently been set. There was no vessel resting on them now.

  “They used to store the boat here,” explained Lorcán, “placed upside down to protect it against the weather.”

  It was the gathering further down on the pebbly strand, an area of beach no more than three yards in width and perhaps ten yards long, that caused Fidelma to exclaim sharply. She realized what the confusion of birds was about. A dozen or more large gulls were gathered, screaming and fighting each other, while forming an outer circle were several other birds who seemed to be interested spectators to the affair. Here and there a jet-black carrion crow perched, black eyes watching intently for its chance, while others circled overhead. They were clustering around something which lay on the pebbles. Fidelma suspected what it was.

  “Come on!” she cried, and climbed hastily down to the pebbly strand. Then she halted and picked up several large pebbles and began to hurl them at the host of carrion-eaters. The scavengers let forth screaming cries of anger and flapped their great wings. Lorcán joined her, picking up stones and throwing them with all his strength.

  It was not long before the wheeling mass of birds had dispersed from the object over which they had been fighting. But Fidelma saw that they had not retreated far. They swirled high in the air above them or strutted nearby, beady eyes watching and waiting.

  Nonetheless, she strode purposefully across the shingle.

  The religieux had been young, very young with fair hair.

  He lay on his back, his robes in an unseemly mess of torn and frayed wool covered in blood.

  Fidelma swallowed hard. The gulls had been allowed an hour or so of uninterrupted work. The face was pitted and bloody, an eye was missing. Part of the skull had been smashed, a pulpy mess of blood and bone. It was obvious that no bird had perpetrated that damage.

  “Can you tell who this was, Lorcán?” Fidelma asked softly.

  The boatman came over, one wary eye on the gulls. They were standing well back but with their eyes malignantly on the humans who had dared drive them from their unholy feastmg. Lorcán glanced down. He pulled a face at the sight.

  “I have seen him here in the community, Sister. Alas, I do not know his name. Sister, I am fearful. This is the third dead member of the community.”

  Fidelma did not reply but steeled herself to bend beside the corpse. The leather crumena or purse was still fastened at his belt. She forced herself to avoid the lacerated features of the youth and his one remaining bright, accusing eye, and put her hand into the purse. It was empty.

  She drew back and shook her head.

  Then a thought occurred to her.

  “Help me push the body over face down,” she instructed.

  Keeping his curiosity to himself, Lorcán did so.

  The robe was almost torn from the youth’s back by the ravages of the birds. Fidelma did not have to remove the material further to see a patch of scars, some old, some new, some which showed signs of recent bleeding, criss-cross over his back.

  “What do you make of that, Lorcán?” Fidelma invited.

  The boatman thrust out his lower lip and raised one shoulder before letting it fall in an exaggerated shrug.

  “Only that the boy has been whipped. Not once either but many times over a long period.”

  Fidelma nodded in agre
ement.

  “That’s another fact I want you to witness, Lorcán.”

  She stood up, picking up a few stones as she did so and shying them at two or three large gulls who were slowly closing the distance between them. They screamed in annoyance but removed themselves to a safer position.

  “How big was the community’s currach?” she asked abruptly.

  Lorcán understood what she meant.

  “It was big enough to carry the rest of the brethren,” he replied. “They must be long gone, by now. They could be anywhere on the islands or have even reached the mainland.” He paused and looked at her. “But did they go willingly or were they forced to go? Who could have done this?”

  Fidelma did not reply. She motioned Lorcán to help her return the body to its original position and stared at the crushed skull.

  “That was done with heavy and deliberate blow,” she observed. “This young religieux was murdered and left here on the strand.”

  Lorcán shook his head in utter bewilderment.

  “There is much evil here, Sister.”

  “With that I can agree,” Fidelma replied. “Come, let us build a cairn over his body with stones so that the gulls do not feast further on him-whoever he was. We cannot carry him back to the settlement.”

  When they arrived back at the community, having completed their task, Maenach greeted them in the quadrangle with a look of relief.

  “Brother Spelán is coming round. The young Sister is nursing him.”

  Fidelma answered with a grim smile.

  “Now perhaps we may learn some answers to this mystery.”

  Inside the cell, the brother was lying against a pillow. He looked very drowsy and blinked several times as his dark, black eyes tried to focus on Fidelma.

  She motioned Sister Sárnat to move aside and sat on the edge of the cot by Spelán.

  “I have given him water only, Sister,” the girl said eagerly, as if expecting her approval. “The boatman,” she gestured toward Maenach, who stood at the doorway with Lorcán, “bathed and dressed the wound.”

  Fidelma smiled encouragingly at the Brother.

  “Are you Brother Spelan?”

  The man closed his eyes for a moment, his voice sounded weak.

  “I am Spelán. Who are you and what are you doing here?”

  “I am Fidelma of Kildare. I am come here to bring the Abbot Selbach a letter from Ultan of Armagh.”

  Spelán stared at her.

  “A letter from Ultan?” He sounded confused.

  “Yes. That is why we landed on the island. What has happened here? Who hit you on the head?”

  Spelán groaned and raised a hand to his forehead.

  “I recall.” His voice grew strong and commanding. “The abbot is dead, Sister. Return to Dún na Séad and ask that a Brehon be sent here for there has been a great crime committed.”

  “I will take charge of the matter, Spelán,” Fidelma said confi-dently.

  “You?” Spelán stared at her in bewilderment. “You don’t understand. It is a Brehon that is needed.”

  “I am a dálaigh of the court qualified to the level of Anruth.”

  Spelán’s eyes widened a fraction for he realized that the qualification of Anruth allowed the young religieuse to sit in judgment with kings and even with the High King himself.

  “Tell me what took place here,” Fidelma prompted.

  Spelán’s dark eyes found Sister Sárnat and motioned for her to hand him the cup of water from which he took several swallows.

  “There was evil here, Sister. An evil which grew unnoticed by me until it burst forth and enveloped us all in its maw.”

  Fidelma waited without saying anything.

  Spelán seemed to gather his thoughts for a moment or two.

  “I will start from the beginning.”

  “Always a good place for starting a tale,” Fidelma affirmed solemnly.

  “Two years ago I met Selbach who persuaded me to join him here in order to build a community which would be dedicated to isolation and meditative contemplation of the works of the Creator. I was the apothecary at an abbey on the mainland which was a sinful place-pride, gluttony and other vices were freely practiced there. In Selbach I believed that I had found a kindred spirit who shared my own views. We searched together for a while and eventually came across eleven young souls who wanted to devote themselves to our purpose.”

  “Why so young?” demanded Fidelma.

  Spelán blinked.

  “We needed youth to help our community flourish for in youth lies strength against the hardships of this place.”

  “Go on,” pressed Fidelma when the man paused.

  “With the blessing of Ultan of Armagh and the permission of the local chieftain, The Ó hEidersceoil, we came to this isolated place.”

  He paused to take another sip of water.

  “And what of this evil that grew in your midst?” encouraged Fidelma.

  “I am coining to that. There is a philosophy among some of the ascetics of the faith that physical pain, even as the Son of the Living God had to endure, pain such as the tortures of the flesh, is the way to man’s redemption, a way to salvation. Mortification and suffering are seen as the paths to spiritual salvation.”

  Fidelma sniffed in disapproval.

  “I have heard that there are such misguided fools among us.”

  Spelán blinked.

  “Not fools, Sister, not fools,” he corrected softly. “Many of our blessed saints believed in the efficacy of mortification. They held genuine belief that they must emulate the pain of Christ if they, too, would seek eternal paradise. There are many who will still wear crowns of thorns, who flagellate themselves, drive nails into their hands or pierce their sides so that they might share the suffering of Christ. No, you are too harsh, sister. They are not fools; visionaries-yes; and, perhaps, misguided in their path.”

  “Very well. We will not argue the matter at this stage, Spelán.

  What is this to do with what has happened here?”

  “Do not mistake my meaning, Sister,” replied Selbach contritely. “I am not an advocate for the gortaigid, those who seek the infliction of such pain. I, too, condemn them as you do. But I accept that their desire to experience pain is a genuine desire to share the pain of the Messiah through which he sought man’s redemption. I would not call them fools. However, let me continue. For a while we were a happy community. It did not cross my mind that one among us felt that pain was his path to salvation.”

  “There was a gortaigid among you?”

  The dominus nodded.

  “I will spare the events that led to it but will simply reveal that it was none other than the venerable Abbot Selbach himself. But Selbach was not of those who simply inflicted pain and punishment upon himself. He persuaded the youthful brothers we had gathered here to submit to scourgings and whippings in order to satiate his desire to inflict pain and injury so that, he argued, they might approach a sharing of Christ’s great suffering. He practiced these abominations in secret and swore others to keep that secret on pain of their immortal souls.”

  “When was this discovered?” demanded Fidelma, slightly horrified.

  Spelán bit his Up a moment.

  “For certain? Only this morning. I knew nothing. I swear it. It was early this morning that the body of our youngest neophyte, Sacán, was found. He was fourteen years old. The Brothers found him and it was known that Selbach had taken him to a special place at the far end of the island last night to ritually scourge the boy. So fierce did he lash the youth that he died of shock and pain.”

  The dominus genuflected.

  Fidelma’s mouth tightened.

  “Go on. How were you, the dominus of this community, unaware of the abbot’s actions before this morning?”

  “He was cunning,” replied Spelán immediately. “He made the young brothers take oath each time not to reveal the ritual scourg-ings to anyone else. He took one young brother at a time to the far end of the
island. A shroud of silence enveloped the community. I dwelt in blissful ignorance.”

  “Go on.”

  “Selbach had tried to hide his guilt by throwing the poor boy’s body over the cliffs last night but the tide washed the body along the rocky barrier that is our shore. It washed ashore early this morning at a point where two of our brethren were fishing for our daily meal.”

  He paused and sought another sip of water.

  Behind her Lorcán said quietly: “Indeed, the tide from the head-land would wash the body along to the pebble beach.”

  “I was asleep when I heard the noise. When I left my cell the Brothers’ anger had erupted and they had seized Selbach and lashed him to the quadrangle tree. One of the Brothers was flogging him with his own whip, tearing at his flesh…”

  The dominus paused again before continuing.

  “And did you attempt to stop them?” inquired Fidelma.

  “Of course I tried to stop them,” Spelán replied indignantly. “I tried to remonstrate, as did another young Brother, Snagaide, who told them they could not take the law into their own hands nor punish Selbach. They must take their complaint to Dún na Séad and place it before the Brehon of the Ó hEidersceoil. But the young Brothers were so enraged that they would not listen. Instead, they seized Snagaide and myself and held us, ignoring our pleas, while they flogged Selbach. Their rage was great. And then, before I knew it, someone had thrust his knife into the back of Selbach. I did not see who it was.

  “I cried to them that not only a crime had been done but now great sacrilege. I demanded that they surrender themselves to me and to Brother Snagaide. I promised that I would take them to Dún na Séad where they must answer for their deed but I would speak on their behalf.”

  Spelán paused and touched the wound on the side of his head once more with a grimace of pain.

  “They argued among themselves then but, God forgive them, they found a determined spokesman in a Brother named Fogach who said that they should not be punished for doing what was right and just in the eyes of God. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, they argued. It was right for Selbach to have met his death in compensation for the death of young Brother Sacán. He demanded that I should swear an oath not to betray the events on the island, recording the deaths as accidents. If I protested then they would take the currach and seek a place where they could live in peace and freedom, leaving me and Snagaide on the island until visited by Lorcán or some other boatman from the mainland.”