Dubán nodded gravely.
‘This is true, sister. There is no man I would have rather killed. The motivation for returning here and seeking service with the chieftain of Araglin was to eventually find out what happened to Tomnat and punish him if I could. If that makes me suspect, Fidelma, then I am suspect and willingly so. Treat me as you will. Though I would prefer that you discover the truth.’
‘Do you deny that you killed Eber?’
‘As much as I admit to seeking vengeance and weeping no tears of remorse when I heard the news of Eber’s death, I confess that mine was not the hand that struck down that foul man. Nor had I reason to kill Teafa, who had been an honourable lady.’
‘Could Eber not have reformed his personality? Especially after Tomnat disappeared?’
Dubán almost spat.
‘Reformed? Once a wolf always a wolf. They cannot change their natures.’
‘You have changed your nature,’ Fidelma pointed out.
‘I do not understand.’ Dubán was bewildered.
‘You have transferred your love for the long lost Tomnat to Eber’s daughter Crón.’
‘I do not deny that either.’ The warrior was defensive. ‘One cannot love a memory forever. It is true that when I came here, I came to seek vengeance for a lost love but I discovered another.’
‘So are you telling me that twenty years and more has assuaged your hatred for Eber?’
‘No. I do not tell you that. I merely say that in Eber’s daughter I have found a new love. I can assure you that I did not kill Eber. And if I did not, and that poor deaf, dumb and blind idiot did not, then someone else did. And that someone might be one who also knew the truth about Eber’s real character. Find the person whohid in the gloom of the cave with Menma and I think you will find the murderer.’
Fidelma was silent for a while and then she finally said: ‘Perhaps you are right, Dubán. Eber has paid the price for his evil deeds and God forgive him.’
‘God may forgive him, but I shall not,’ declared Dubán in an uncompromising tone.
‘But you truly thought that Móen was guilty when the murder was discovered?’
‘I had no reason to believe otherwise. God moves in mysterious ways, sister. I truly believed that God used the unfortunate creature as an instrument of His greater vengeance.’
‘It has become obvious that Menma was also somehow involved in this. Do you agree that he was an instrument of someone more powerful than he was?’
Dubán nodded agreement immediately.
‘Menma was ambitious but he was a simple man. He took orders; he did not give them. So it was the person in the cave who was giving Menma orders. It was that person who wrote the vellum and is manipulating the evil that spreads in this valley.’
‘That is the truth of it,’ agreed Fidelma. ‘On no account tell anyone yet at the rath of how you dealt with Menma nor of what we have discussed.’
They were getting quite close to the rath now. The guard dogs began to howl as they sensed the approach of Fidelma and her companion.
Chapter Nineteen
Fidelma left Dubán at the stables having unsaddled and seen to her horse’s wants before making her way as quickly as she could to the guests’ hostel.
Gadra was waiting by the door. She tried to guess whether the news was good or bad from his solemn expression.
‘I think he is over the worst of it,’ he greeted her.
Fidelma shut her eyes, swaying a moment, and then let out a deep sigh.
Gadra went on impervious to her reaction: ‘He is asleep now. He has passed through the sickness and fever. I believe that your God guided you to seek my cure at an early stage. We have been able to purge the poison from him.’
‘Will he be all right?’ she demanded.
‘I believe so. But he needs rest now.’
‘Can I see him?’
‘Do not wake him. Sleep is always a great healer.’
‘I shall not.’
Gadra stood aside and she went into the guests’ hostel. Eadulf was lying on his back on his mattress, his features pale but relaxed in a natural sleep of exhaustion. Fidelma moved forward and knelt beside his bed, raising her slim hand to gently touch his brow. It was still fairly warm; doubtless the fever had only just subsided. She felt a sudden tender feeling for the Saxon which she could not define. She had come near to losing him. She closed her eyes and uttered a silent prayer of gratitude.
A moment or so later she rose and found Gadra in the main room of the hostel.
‘How can I ever thank you?’
The old man examined her with his ancient pale eyes.
‘The young girl, Grella, helped a lot. I have only just sent her to her bed. Give your thanks to her.’
‘But without you …’ protested Fidelma.
‘If you would give me thanks, make sure that the truth prevails in this place.’
Fidelma inclined her head slightly.
‘I am near to the truth, old one. One question to bring me nearer. Was Tomnat the mother of Móen?’
Gadra’s expression remained inscrutable.
‘Truly, you have a perceptive mind, child.’
Fidelma allowed herself to smile.
‘Then the truth shall prevail.’
When Gadra had gone, Fidelma went into the fialtech to wash and prepare herself for a night’s repose.
Tomorrow was going to be a busy day.
Fidelma was alone in the forest.
Alone and afraid.
Around her mysterious shapes slunk through the woods on either side, the undergrowth rustled and quivered. Everything was dark.
She was calling. She was not sure to whom she was calling. Her father? Yes, she must be calling to her father. He had brought her to the forest and now he had deserted her. She was only a child. Alone and lost in the forest.
Somehow, somehow in her reasoning mind, she realised that this could not be so. Her father had died when she was a baby. Why should he have brought her here and left her?
She stumbled on through the threatening darkness of the forest. Pushing her way forward. But the forest trees seemed to grow closer and closer the more she moved forward. Finally, she could not move at all and she paused and peered up.
It was strange how the trees resembled the stems of mushrooms,giant mushrooms, great fungi towering above her.
The threatening shapes were pressing closer and closer.
She called out.
It was then she realised that it was not her father who had brought her here and deserted her.
It was Eadulf to whom she was calling.
Eadulf!
She started forward, stretching out a hand …
She groaned as bright flickering sunlight greeted her open eyes.
She found herself stretching forward on her bed, one hand held out before her.
She blinked rapidly and gathered her thoughts.
It was well past dawn and she was in her bed in the guests’ hostel.
She heard a movement in the adjacent cubicle.
She swung out of her bed and drew on her robe.
Gadra was seated outside. He smiled as she joined him.
‘A good morning, sister.’
‘Is it so?’ she queried, glancing toward’s Eadulf’s cubicle.
The old man nodded solemnly.
‘It is so.’
Fidelma immediately went inside. Eadulf was still lying down but his eyes were open. He remained pale, and there were little wrinkles of pain around the corners of his mouth. But the dark eyes were clear and untroubled.
‘Fidelma!’ he greeted in a croaking voice that was weak with exhaustion. ‘I thought that I might not see another dawn.’
She knelt beside the bed, smiling reassuringly.
‘You should not give up so easily on life, Eadulf.’
‘It was a struggle,’ he admitted. ‘One I have no wish to repeat.’
‘Dignait is dead,’ she announced.