‘I am sorry.’ Fidelma smiled. ‘I should say that the Bretha Crolige, one of our central law texts, says that you can go before a Brehon and be assessed by that judge in proportion to your miad, that is a legal term meaning your “dignity” or worth, rather like an honour-price. In other words, you can claim compensation. In fact, as a religieuse you are better off than a lay person. Your rank as a lay person, from what you say, would be a lesser rank than that of the Venerable Cinaed. But here, in the abbey, as a religieuse you are recognised as being part of a marriage of equals. Therefore the division of inheritable assets, the dibad, means that you inherit two-thirds of the assets of Cinaed while one-third has to go to the abbey.’
Sister Buan smiled broadly.
‘It is so kind of you to have taken this trouble for me, Sister. I have been really worried. The law can be very frightening.’
‘Dura lex sed lex,’ intoned Eadulf solemnly.
‘Exactly so,’ agreed Sister Buan with a smile of relief. ‘It is good to know that I have a legal right to retain something.’
Fidelma rose and Eadulf with her.
‘I am only too glad to be of some help.’
‘Are you any the closer to finding out who killed Cinaed?’ asked Sister Buan as they were crossing the threshold. ‘It is frightening to think that someone in this abbey is his killer and not yet discovered.’
‘You need have no fear,’ Fidelma replied with assurance. ‘I am
They left Sister Buan and made their way back to the hospitium as the abbey bell began tolling the hour of the final prayers of the evening.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
After they had eaten the next morning, Fidelma asked Sister Easdan to show her and Eadulf to the workroom where she and her companions plied their art. Sister Sinnchene, who seemed in a slightly more agreeable mood, came to tidy the hospitium and asked if there was anything else that was required of her that morning as she had to distribute the robes that she had washed the previous day to members of the community. Fidelma had not forgotten that one of Sister Sinnchene’s chores at present was running the tech-nigid or washing room of the abbey.
‘I think not,’ Fidelma replied. ‘If anyone wants us we shall be at the workshop where Sister Easdan and her companions worked.’
It was an isolated two-storey building with a flat roof, situated on the southern side of the abbey complex, sticking out at right angles to the main dormitory building but separated from it by a narrow passageway. It had been built on the south side, Sister Easdan explained, so that it caught the maximum amount of sun. Light was precious to the task of cutting and polishing the stones. The workroom contained a long central table or workbench, access to water and, along one side, a series of cupboards and other benches with all manner of implements and tools.
Fidelma stood still on the threshold, casting her eye about the place. ‘What is it that you wish to see, lady?’ asked Sister Easdan. ‘The place looks exactly as we left it.’
‘You and your companions were all known as experts in this art, that of stone polishing?’
‘Known only within the abbey,’ the girl corrected pedantically. ‘We were, indeed.’
‘But surely your names and reputation were known outside the abbey?’
‘The abbey was well known for our work but Abbot Erc insisted that we should not be known by name outside the abbey.’
‘Why was that?’
‘Because he wanted the reputation for the abbey, I suppose, and not for individuals. He wanted to avoid personal vanity.’
‘You and your companions have all done this work for some time?’
‘I started my training as soon as I came to the abbey, which was just after I reached the age of choice. Most of the others have worked about ten years or so at the art.’
Eadulf pointed to some implements on a bench.
‘Are those bows?’ he asked curiously. ‘In what manner would you use those?’
Sister Easdan smiled easily.
‘They are what we call bow lathes, Brother. We work the stone with them and drill holes in the stones with them so that we may string necklaces. It takes a long time to prepare a single necklace, including the cutting and polishing of the stones. Sometimes we have to use special liquids to lubricate the crystals for the grinding and polishing.’
Fidelma was silent for a while, looking at the range of work tools.
‘If the expertise of you and your companions was not known outside the abbey, how do you think it came to the ears of those who abducted you?’ asked Fidelma.
Sister Easdan considered the matter silently for a while and then she said: ‘I suppose the only answer is that the information came from inside the abbey. Or, of course, the merchant Mugron would have known.’
‘But the information would have had to be specific,’ Fidelma said thoughtfully. ‘Your abductors would have had to know that you were all travelling with Abbess Faife on your way to Breanainn’s mount, and to know exactly by what road and the day on which you would be passing the spot where you were attacked.’
‘Only a few people would have known that.’
‘Did Sister Sinnchene know it?’
‘There is no reason why she should.’
‘Did you know that she asked Abbess Faife if she could join you?’
As the girl was shaking her head, something caught Fidelma’s eye, flickering in the rays of the sun, something that sparkled and flashed in a thousand little points of light on the workbench.
She moved to it and ran a finger over it and then, with a pinching
‘What exactly is this?’ she asked.
Sister Easdan peered at the granular crystals and then grimaced.
‘It is only powdered stone.’
‘Corundum?’ Eadulf intervened.
‘Exactly so,’ Sister Easdan replied. ‘We use it in the grinding process of the precious stones. We choose a particular crystallised rock, crystal we know is especially hard. The crystals are almost opaque and we have to smash them until they fragment into little pieces, just as you see there. We sort them until we find splinters that we can use with the bow lathe to drill holes into those stones we wish to string together. Other particles, the finer ones, we use to grind against the stones to produce the shapes which are required. The process is called lec- geraigid.’
Fidelma’s eyes suddenly widened. A look of triumph began to spread across her features but she swiftly controlled it.
‘You said once that the Venerable Cinaed visited here?’
Sister Easdan made an affirmative gesture.
‘When was this?’
‘Some time ago.’
‘Months?’
‘About two months, only a short time before we left. Why?’
‘He came to this workshop and talked to you and your companions, you said. Remind me, about what?’
Sister Easdan shrugged.
‘Just generally about our work, the techniques. Although, now I think of it, he was especially interested in where the stones were found, their type and value… I think he was especially interested in their value.’
Fidelma smiled at Eadulf.
‘I think I am beginning to see the connection,’ she said with some relief in her tone. ‘I think I finally see where the Venerable Cinaed may be involved in all this.’
‘I don’t understand,’ replied Eadulf in bewilderment.
‘We were concerned with a book that the Venerable Cinaed had written. We were concentrating on his political work. Don’t you remember? We should have been thinking about his new work — De ars sordida gemmae, a critical tract on the local trade in these gemstones.’
‘Do you mean that he was murdered because of a book he wrote on our work?’ gasped Sister Easdan.
‘We must find out some more,’ Fidelma replied. ‘It is a pity that book was destroyed but I believe we can guess the reason now.’ She gave a last glance around the workshop and sighed. ‘I have seen all that I need to see.’
They moved through the door and paused while Sister Easdan turned to lock it.