‘Yes, yes, yes,’ cried the child. ‘Are we going riding? Are we?’
‘Yes, we are,’ answered Fidelma. She fussed over the boy, making sure he had the right clothes and cloak and then she and Eadulf led their son down to the courtyard.
Gormán was already there with the horses. There was a small piebald pony for Alchú, and Eadulf’s roan-coloured cob, which he had actually come to enjoy riding, though still admitting that he was not a good rider. Fidelma preferred her short-necked, ancient breed from Gaul, which she called Aonbharr, the ‘supreme one’, after the horse ridden by the Ocean God, Mannanán Mac Lir. Gormán was accompanying them on his cob.
‘Where are we off to?’ asked the boy again. He sat on his pony with ease and without fear, much to Eadulf’s quiet admiration.
‘We are going eastward a little way, towards a place called the rath of Ordan,’ Fidelma replied with a smile.
‘What’s a rath?’
‘It can be many things. It can be goods, chattels, property that is given as surety in law …’
The boy looked blank and Fidelma realised that the lawyer in her was speaking. It was Gormán who explained.
‘A rath is also the ramparts that surround a chieftain’s residence; it can be his fortress.’
‘Oh.’ Alchú was excited. ‘Are we going to see a fortress?’
‘Except Rathordan is no fortress,’ muttered Gormán. ‘It is just a pretend chieftain’s residence, for Ordan is certainly no chief.’
Alchú either didn’t hear or had lost interest as he guided his little mount out of the courtyard between his parents on their horses. Gormán brought up the rear.
They had descended from the Rock to the road that led towards the eastern hills when they saw a man walking up in the direction of the palace. He was elderly and dressed in clothes that easily identified him as a shepherd. It was Muirgen’s husband.
‘Hello, Nessán,’ called Fidelma.
Little Alchú smiled broadly and waved a tiny hand, ‘Nees-awn, Nees-awn!’ he chanted.
The shepherd touched his forehead nervously at the party. He always appeared uneasy in the presence of Fidelma and Eadulf even though his wife was nurse to young Alchú. He could never forget that when the boy had been kidnapped as a baby, he and his wife had been given the child to raise as a shepherd by the kidnapper, the evil Uaman, lord of the Passes. The motive of the kidnap was vengeance. Nessán and Muirgen were to have taken in and hidden the child without them knowing whose son he really was. Fidelma and Eadulf had tracked down their son and, instead of punishing the elderly couple for their unwitting role, they had invited Muirgen to be Alchú’s nurse at Cashel while her husband had been employed to look after Colgú’s sheep.
Nessán cleared his throat. ‘There is great sorrow on me at the news of the attack on your brother, lady. Is there better news of his health?’
‘He is doing as well as can be expected.’
‘He is in my prayers, lady.’
‘Thank you, Nessán. It is good that we should meet you on this road. Perhaps you can help us?’
‘If I can, lady.’
‘Were you abroad early this morning?’
‘As you know, I attend your brother’s sheep in the northern rough pasture, behind the Rock. But I was up late last night, lady. I am afraid I went to Rumann’s tavern in the town and so it was after dawn that I left to tend the sheep today.’
‘At An Screagán – I know the place.’ Fidelma was disappointed because Della’s homestead lay on the other side of the township. Then a further thought occurred. ‘Do you know any of the other shepherds around the township? Those that pasture their flocks to the west of the town?’
‘I dare say, lady. I meet with them on lambing days and when the time comes to shear the flocks. And when there is no work in common, we gather in Rumann’s inn.’
‘Do you know anyone who would be going to the fields to the west, just beyond Della’s homestead, very early this morning? You see, I am trying to find a man, a shepherd, who was abroad before dawn and said he was going to tend his sheep. Would you know who that was?’
The shepherd replied almost at once.
‘Well, that might be Spelán. Doesn’t he have a flock along the road of rocks to the west of her place? I met him in the tavern only last night, and he was complaining about trouble with one of his ewes. That might have caused him to stir early this morning. He was truly concerned.’
‘Spelán, I don’t think I know him.’ Fidelma glanced at Gormán, and the young warrior nodded quickly.