It was Della who intervened. ‘Young girl, I do not know your troubles but I will tell you this – when the lady Fidelma says that something will be done, then it will be done.’ Her voice was vehement and, for a moment, seemed to impress Aibell. Then the girl turned away with a defensive movement of her shoulders.
Fidelma glanced at Gormán. ‘Keep an eye on our young friend here,’ she said quietly before turning to Eadulf. ‘Eadulf, come with me to the paddock. I want your advice.’
Eadulf was about to comment when he saw her expression and so followed her without demur. They walked slowly down to the paddock gate.
‘What is it?’ he asked, when they stopped. They both leaned on the wooden bar of the gate watching the two horses that still stood grazing contentedly in the field.
‘This is perplexing,’ she sighed.
Eadulf grinned. ‘It is not often that you admit to being perplexed about anything.’
Fidelma said, ‘Well, I am now. When we found this girl, I thought we would be reaching a rapid conclusion in this matter.’
‘I am not so sure that we have not,’ replied Eadulf. ‘We know the assassin came here on horseback. He arrived, put some narcotic on the meat for Della’s dog so it wouldn’t cause an alarm, and thus was able to place his horse in Della’s paddock. Then he changed into the guise of a religieux from Mungairit, leaving his clothes in the woodman’s shed, and came to the palace. His saddle-bag is branded with the symbol of the Uí Fidgente, not just any of that clan but the mark of the princely family itself. The Eóghanacht and Uí Fidgente have been blood enemies for generations … you know well enough that if there is any rebellion in the kingdom, the Uí Fidgente are usually behind it.’
‘Not always,’ objected Fidelma. ‘Not since my brother defeated them at Cnoc Áine.’
Years before, Colgú had crushed a rebellion mounted by Eoghanán, the prince of the Uí Fidgente, on the slopes of Cnoc Áine. Eoghanán’s warlike sons, Torcán and Lorcán, also met their death during the same conspiracy. And when the princedom of the Uí Fidgente passed to Donennach, son of Oengus, he had agreed a peace with Cashel; since when an unsettled calm had been maintained over the kingdom.
The cause of the friction was thus: the Uí Fidgente had long insisted that they should be in the line of the rightful rulers of the kingdom and not just the Eóghanacht, the descendants of Eóghan Mór. They claimed to be descended from Cormac Cass, the elder brother of Eóghan Mór, and sometimes called themselves the Dál gCais, descendants of Cass. But outside of their own lands, they found little support for the claim.
‘True, your brother defeated the Uí Fidgente and that could be the reason behind this attack. The assassin could have come to enact vengeance on him for defeating them in battle. Their capital is Dún Eochair Mháigh where this girl says she came from. We find her sheltering in the very hut the assassin used. She is truculent and uncooperative. What more is needed to make the connection?’
Fidelma was looking unconvinced. ‘These things make sense only superficially.’
‘Superficially?’
‘Your arguments are correct, Eadulf. But they need to be tied together by logic.’
‘I thought the logic was clear.’
‘Let us put ourselves in the place of this assassin. He has come to take revenge on my brother for some crime. We think it is something to do with a woman called Liamuin – a name that means nothing to Colgú, incidentally. The assassin appears to be a scholar rather than a warrior.’
‘Agreed.’
‘We presume that he arrives unseen on the outskirts of Cashel. Why does he come to this spot? Darkness must have fallen for it does so early at this time of year. Yet he is able to have a potent mixture at hand, ready to smear on a joint of meat to send Della’s dog to sleep. How does he even know that Della has a dog? He then unsaddles his horse and leaves it in her paddock, even though the horse is bound to be noticed, come daylight. Then he is able to find his way to that hut in the forest, which even I did not know existed, and changes his clothes to assume the guise of a religieux. He waits until the rainstorm is over and enters the palace on the pretext that he has an urgent message from the Abbey of Mungairit; once inside, he makes his attempt on my brother’s life.’
‘When you put it that way, it does throw up several questions,’ Eadulf said. ‘They could be answered by the fact that perhaps he had been here before and thus was no stranger to this area. Could that be why he was able to feed the dog with the tainted meat without the animal causing an outcry?’