Read Online Atonement of Blood by Peter Tremayne - Free Book Online

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?’
    ‘But why go to all that bother? Why not just take his horse into the woods and leave it there?’
    ‘Perhaps the man cared about his animal and didn’t want any harm to befall it. There are wolves and boars that roam the woods around here,’ Eadulf replied.
    Fidelma shook her head. ‘There are too many oddities that need answers.’
    ‘I think it is more than mere coincidence that we found the girl in the same hut the assassin chose,’ Eadulf said firmly.
    ‘Yet she has told us enough to find proof how she came there. We will have to ride out to Ordan’s place and question him, and we must make enquiries about the man she encountered who told her where the hut was. There will not be too many men on their way to the fields at that hour at this time of year.’
    ‘Perhaps she thought that we would simply take her word for that?’ Eadulf said.
    ‘Perhaps, but I do not think she is so naïve – not if her experience of life is as she says. We will take her up to the palace and keep her in safe custody while this investigation is going on.’
    ‘Do you really think that her story has merit? I mean, can you believe that her own father would sell her to this chieftain …’
    ‘Fidaig of Sliabh Luachra? Such things, while against the law, are not unknown, I’m afraid. Sliabh Luachra is a strange, brooding place. It’s the Mountains of Rushes – a marshy area among the mountains for it is not just one mountain. You may have seen the twin peaks from a distance on your journeys to the west. Those peaks mark the southern extremities of Luachra territory. They are called the Breasts of Danu, she who was the ancient mother goddess of our people before the new Faith came to us.’
    Eadulf suppressed a slight shiver.
    ‘I have seen them when I passed near those mountains tracking down Uaman, Lord of the Passes of Sliabh Mis, when he kidnapped little Alchú. I remember how a local inn-keeper told me that the ancient gods and goddesses still dwell among the marshes up there.’
    ‘Indeed. I have passed through the territory only once and had to spend a night in a small glen called the Glen of Ravens, where it was said the ancient goddesses of death and battle dwelled. It is not a place to stay if one is of a nervous disposition.’
    ‘We certainly seem to have avoided it in our travels,’ observed Eadulf, ‘and we have been to most other places in this kingdom. What of this chieftain, Fidaig?’
    ‘I know of him as a profane and evil man. He once came to Cashel