The Council of the Cursed

Chapter Eleven

They entered the scriptorium to find Brother Sigeric ready and waiting for them in the darkness. They stood together without speaking for a long while, listening until they were assured that slumber had overtaken the brethren of the abbey and all was quiet. Then Brother Sigeric lit a lantern.

‘Do you have the plan of the Domus Femini?’ Fidelma asked, keeping her voice to a whisper.

The young scribe nodded and produced the piece of papyrus, which he spread on the table. He quickly explained to Fidelma how to follow the route to what had been Sister Valretrade’s quarters.

‘The plan is as accurate as I can make it,’ Brother Sigeric went on. ‘I told you that Valretrade’s chamber was across the courtyard almost opposite mine and we used to signal one another by candlelight. In order to help you, I have left a candle alight in my window. You can check that, and when you are directly opposite then you should be in Valretrade’s chamber. Now, come with me and I will show you the entrance to the Domus Femini.’

‘A moment, Brother,’ intervened Eadulf as a thought occurred to him. ‘You say this passage is used by the members of the women’s community to come to the chapel?’

‘Don’t worry.’ Brother Sigeric understood what was on his mind. ‘No one will be about now. Anyway, it is not really a passage, as you shall see. It is a way through a maze of underground vaults. There are plenty of areas where one could hide if anyone did come along unexpectedly.’

‘It is too late to start worrying about discovery now,’ Fidelma told Eadulf. ‘Let us go.’

Brother Sigeric extinguished his lantern. From the scriptorium they went out into the moonlit courtyard which separated the main abbey building from the chapel. Crossing the courtyard, the moon was bright enough to guide them. It was obvious that Brother Sigeric knew the way and at one stage Fidelma whispered to him not to proceed so quickly. Inside the chapel, he paused. There was a small light burning by the door which was always left alight as a symbol of the eternal spirit. Brother Sigeric simply took the candle from his lantern and lit it again before proceeding to a door at the rear of the chapel. He pulled back a bolt, swiftly and silently. The door opened onto a flight of wooden steps, which plunged into utter blackness below. Here he bade Fidelma and Eadulf halt while he moved down into the darkness. They could hear him descend until they saw only a wisp of light. A few moments later, he returned with the comforting glow of the lantern.

‘All is clear-come on.’ Holding the lantern high, Brother Sigeric motioned them to follow him downwards but not before asking Eadulf to draw the door closed behind him.

At the foot of the stairs they paused.

The smell was of that curious mixture of earth and decay that Fidelma associated with the catacombs of Rome where she had been lucky to survive. It was very cold and damp.

‘They say that before the abbey was built, this was an old necropolis of Augustodunum, the burial place of the Romans,’ explained Brother Sigeric in a whisper.

The area was not completely dark. In the gloom they could see arches and pillars spreading every few metres, supporting the vaulted roof above them. Among these were tombs, some made of marble and others of stone.

‘How far does this underground world spread?’ asked Eadulf with a shiver.

‘It seems to spread under the whole abbey,’ replied Brother Sigeric. ‘Come, follow me.’

He set off through the maze of arches and tombs, moving with confidence, having trodden the path many times, and appeared unconcerned at the various deceptive side turns and byways. Fidelma quickly realised that if they did not have a guide, they would be hopelessly lost in moments.

‘Are there only two entrances and exits from this dark maze?’ she asked. ‘I have never seen the like of this outside the catacombs of Rome.’

‘There is a third exit, but that is all,’ Brother Sigeric said.

‘Where does that lead? Is it still part of the abbey?’

‘It leads to a small tunnel under the walls of the city itself; an exit to the south west. In the old days, when all the nobles lived in the city, it used to be an escape route south to the great forests if the city was under attack.’

‘Is it still used?’

‘Not since I have been in the abbey. I have seen it, of course. All the bolts are on the inner side of the doors so that no one can enter without having someone with foreknowledge on this side of the door.’

Eadulf looked apprehensively around into the gloom. There seemed a faint light emanating from somewhere but he could not locate it. Brother Sigeric saw his wandering gaze and realised what he was looking for.

‘There is a faint light that issues through the vaults. It seems to come from some of the rocks that were in the roof of the original caverns. A sort of phosphorus, I think.’

‘And was Sister Valretrade ever concerned about coming alone to a place such as this to meet with you?’ Eadulf demanded, awe-struck at the magnitude of the vast vaults.

‘She knew the route well, so she was not worried. However, it was simpler for me to meet with her on the far side, which I will show you shortly.’

‘I was thinking,’ begun Eadulf, ‘as you were not there to meet her, that night when Dabhóc was killed, was there a possibility that she could have set off to come into the chapel, but that her candle blew out and she lost her way in the darkness?’

It was a grim thought but he felt it had to be voiced. However, Brother Sigeric dismissed it immediately.

‘There is no way. She knew the place too well. Also, we met by a special spot. If either of us went to that spot and the other did not turn up, then we moved a particular stone ornament so that the other might know we had been there. Then we returned to our chambers to rearrange our meeting. We had agreed never to go beyond that point.’

They had reached an area in which there seemed a series of small side rooms; in each of them was some sort of very ornate sarcophagus: Brother Sigeric halted before one of the rooms and motioned them inside.

‘This is where we met, and you see that little statuette there?’ He pointed to a miniature statuette of a little man with the legs of a goat and horns on his head, holding a set of pipes. Fidelma thought she had seen something similar before in Rome. ‘We used to place that on one side of the sarcophagus or the other to indicate that we had come here but not found the other. Of course, that did not happen often.’

He led them from the mausoleum and a short distance to where another flight of stone stairs ascended.

‘The doorway at the top leads directly into the Domus Femini,’ he told Fidelma, taking from his pocket a candle, which he handed to her. ‘You should not need this but if you do, use it only in an emergency. Valretrade told me that Abbess Audofleda allows the corridors to be lit with lanterns here and there. That can be a good thing or a bad thing. If you meet anyone…well, let us hope that they are all asleep.’

Fidelma silently admitted that she shared that hope.

‘I wish you’d let me come with you,’ Eadulf urged.

She shook her head immediately. ‘Don’t be silly. If I did run into anyone, it would be hopeless to disguise you as one of the Sisters. I will try to bluff them and hope that that works.’

Eadulf did not look convinced.

Fidelma drew out Brother Sigeric’s plan and studied it again.

‘The door above is not locked?’

‘Never to my knowledge,’ Brother Sigeric replied.

‘And it enters at this point, between the storeroom and the kitchen of the Domus Femini?’

‘It does.’

‘Then I shall delay no longer.’

‘We will wait for you here,’ Eadulf assured her.

Brother Sigeric pointed back to the meeting place that he had shown them.

‘We will make ourselves comfortable there until your return. It should not take you long to find the chamber of Inginde and Valretrade.’

Without another word, Fidelma climbed the stairs to the door. It was closed but she felt for the latch, and it opened easily. She glanced down to where the men were waiting, Brother Sigeric holding the lantern high to give her as much light as possible, then she raised her hand to them before stepping through the doorway and closing the door behind her.

She stood for a while, back against the door, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the gloom. She was determined to follow Brother Sigeric’s advice and not use the candle that she had now placed in her marsupium unless there was a need.

In fact, moonlight was filtering through a window somewhere, giving a strange soft blue light in the stone corridor before her. She moved forward determinedly, keeping the image of Brother Sigeric’s plan in her mind. The plan was, indeed, accurate for there were no surprises to confront her and, thankfully, all the corridors appeared to be deserted.

She had no problems traversing the large hall that appeared to be the women’s calefactorium. Then she had to choose the right-hand passageway, which led to a stairway going up to the next level. There Fidelma paused to examine the plan by the light of a lantern hanging from a metal arm on the corner and which lit the divergence in the passageway. According to Brother Sigeric’s directions she must bear to the right and then climb up another circular stone stairwell to the next level, before turning left. Three doors along would land her at the chamber that Sister Valretrade had shared with Sister Inginde.

Folding the map, she thrust it back into her marsupium and moved cautiously forward. The only thing that worried her was, if Sister Valretrade had truly been moved, would Sister Inginde have a new companion in her chamber? But it was a risk that she felt was worth the taking.

She reached the circular stairwell easily enough and had her foot on the bottom step when she heard a sound above her. Someone was coming down. Thankfully they were moving slowly, but the light from their candle was casting its glow downwards. Fidelma froze, her mind racing, and then she retreated, searching desperately for some place to hide from the oncoming figure. There was none-and no time to get back to the entrance of this corridor before the person reached the bottom step.

Pulling her hood over her head, she drew her robe around her and turned, pretending to be walking towards the stairwell just as the figure emerged.

The figure halted and raised the candle carried before it.

From beneath her hood Fidelma saw that it was an old woman, an elderly member of the community. The candle was held in a skeletal and shaking hand. The eyes were wide and vacant-looking, and the mouth was slack. Fidelma took a quick decision.

‘Bene vobis,’ she intoned hollowly as she moved past the old woman.

‘Blessings on you, Sister,’ the elderly woman mumbled in reply as she stood aside.

Heaving a deep sigh, Fidelma ascended the spiral stairs quickly and moved up into the darkness. She paused at the next floor, listening, and heard the sounds of the old woman shuffling along the corridor. There was no cry of alarm nor quickening of pace which could have meant that she had been recognised as an interloper. Fidelma waited a moment more and then peered in the gloom along the row of doors, counting them until she identified the right one.

This would now be the most dangerous moment, in her estimation.

If it was the wrong door, if Sister Inginde had been moved or if someone else had been moved in with her…If! What was the saying that she had heard once? ‘With an “if” one could place Rome in a bottle.’ No time for an ‘if’ now. Pushing back her hood, she moved quickly to the door. Pausing, she listened for a moment. All was quiet.

Reaching for the handle, she turned it slowly, scarcely daring to breathe. It opened noiselessly and she slipped inside, closing the door behind her.

The chamber was not dark; there was the soft moonlight by which she could make out distinct forms. That she must be in the right chamber was evidenced by the fact that through the window directly opposite she could see, across the courtyard, a flame flickering in a window. Brother Sigeric’s candle, lit to guide her!

She briefly glanced around. There were two beds and, thankfully, only one was occupied. There was no other person in the room.

Leaning forward, she shook the sleeping form gently by the shoulder. The girl started awake and as her mouth opened, Fidelma reached forward and placed her hand over it to stop any cry of alarm. She hoped that Brother Sigeric was right, for he had told her that the girl spoke a good Latin.

‘Quiet! I mean you no harm,’ she hissed. ‘Are you Inginde?’

The frightened girl, eyes wide above Fidelma’s hand, nodded.

‘Then I need your help. My name is Fidelma-I am a friend of Sigeric. Do you know his name?’

The girl nodded briefly again.

‘Then I am about to release my hand. Do not cry out.’ She removed her hand and went on quietly: ‘I have come to help Sigeric find Valretrade. She used to share this chamber with you, but we are told that she has decided to leave this abbey and the city.’

‘That is what is said,’ replied Sister Inginde cautiously.

‘Sigeric does not believe it.’

‘May I sit up?’ asked the girl.

Fidelma moved back and sat on the wooden bed opposite to the girl. Sister Inginde swung out of her bed and reached for a robe, which she draped round her shoulders.

‘I cannot see you well,’ she said. ‘What did you say your name was? Fidelia?’

‘No, Fidelma.’

‘An unusual name.’

‘Not in my country. You would call it Hibernia, a land to the west.’

‘Then you are not of this community?’

‘I am attending the council.’

The girl shook her head. ‘No women are allowed to attend the council…’ she began and then paused. ‘Oh, so you are the person that the bishop mentioned during evening prayers the other day. You are investigating the death of the Hibernian abbot. How is that possible?’

‘In my land I am a lawyer. Bishop Leodegar has given authority to me to investigate.’

The girl, Inginde, still seemed suspicious. ‘But if you have the bishop’s approval, what are you doing creeping into the chambers of the Sisters in the middle of the night like a thief?’

Fidelma chuckled dryly. ‘Perhaps this is the only way I can seek the truth without being thwarted by your abbatissa-Audofleda.’ The girl suddenly shivered. ‘It is she who says that Valretrade has left the Domus Femini,’ Fidelma added. ‘Is it true?’

‘Valretrade has not been here for nearly a week,’ confirmed the girl.

‘And she left of her own free will?’

‘So Abbess Audofleda tells us.’

Fidelma leaned forward, hearing caution in her tone. ‘Do you believe it?’

The girl stirred uneasily. ‘Why would I not believe it?’ she replied guardedly.

‘Let us be honest with each other,’ Fidelma urged. ‘Tell me what you know about Sister Valretrade and her disappearance from this abbey.’

Sister Inginde hesitated and then said: ‘I knew she was having an affair with Brother Sigeric.’

‘Only an affair?’ pressed Fidelma.

‘A figure of speech. They were meeting regularly, but that was no business of mine. They were discreet, but because I am sharing this cell, I could not help but observe her signal to Sigeric and his signal to her. Valretrade confessed to me about her relationship.’

‘Did anyone else in the community know of it?’

‘I don’t think so.’

‘So tell me how she came to disappear. Was it on the night Abbot Dabhóc was killed? Or did you see her afterwards?’

‘We were told at morning prayers about the abbot. And I was told that Valretrade had left while we were on our way to morning prayers.’

‘Tell me what happened.’

‘Well, there is not much to it, really. That night, Valretrade put a candle on the windowledge there,’ she indicated with her head, ‘which was what she did whenever she arranged to meet Brother Sigeric. When she saw the answering candle in his chamber window, across the courtyard…’ The girl paused and frowned as she glanced out of the window. ‘Why, there is a candle burning across there now-in Brother Sigeric’s cell. What does that mean?’

‘That is to guide me to the right room,’ explained Fidelma. ‘Go on.’

‘I saw his candle alight that night,’ continued the girl. ‘Valretrade put on her robe and left to meet him.’

‘She didn’t return?’

Sister Inginde shook her head.

‘She left her clothes and belongings here?’

‘That was a curious thing. They were here when I went down to the wash house first thing in that morning. I was wondering why she was so late back. When I returned-they were gone. I presumed that she had come back while I was at my ablutions and had taken them.’

‘And she departed from the Domus Femini without saying goodbye to you but finding time to write a note to the abbess?’ Fidelma spoke in a tone of disbelief.

Sister Inginde shrugged. ‘What else could I think?’

‘When were you told that she had left the community for good?’

‘At the midday meal. That was when Sister Radegund told me that Valretrade had left a note and gone.’

‘How long had you known Valretrade?’

‘Since I came here a year ago.’

‘And you had always shared this chamber with her?’

‘Since my arrival,’ confirmed the other.

‘Therefore, you must have thought it odd that she had left without a word to you. Also, didn’t you think it strange that it was at the same time as the abbot was killed?’

‘From what we were told, the abbot’s death had nothing to do with Valretrade.’

‘Did Sister Radegund show you this note that Valretrade had written?’

Again came the shake of the head.

‘Did you ask to see it?’

Sister Inginde chuckled softly. ‘You don’t ask questions of Sister Radegund and certainly not of Abbess Audofleda.’

Fidelma could agree with the girl’s statement.

‘Did she give any indication of why she wanted to see Sigeric that night?’

‘Surely that much is obvious, Sister? They were lovers.’

‘Nothing else? There was no other concern?’ She noticed the slight hesitation. ‘Go on,’ she urged. ‘There was something then?’

‘It was just her attitude,’ replied the other. ‘I think there was some air of excitement when she came to the chamber that evening, something on her mind. I am sure that she had heard or seen something that had…I suppose “upset” is the word I am looking for. Yes, that had upset her. I asked her what the matter was but she refused to say.’

‘Would you agree that if she was leaving the abbey of her own free will, she would have mentioned it to you or spoken to Sigeric?’

‘So far as I suspected, she had met up with Sigeric and they had run off together. I did not know that she hadn’t until Sigeric came to the community a few days later to enquire where she was.’

Fidelma frowned. ‘I thought Sister Radegund was the only one who knew that?’

‘I was near the doors and overheard him speaking to her.’

‘Didn’t it make you suspicious?’

The girl shrugged. ‘Valretrade was from Autun. She had a blood sister living here. I thought she might have gone there and waited for a time when she could have contacted Sigeric. I know nothing else.’

Fidelma sat silently for a while, turning the information over in her mind. She felt that there was nothing more to be gathered from Sister Inginde. It was disappointing. There seemed no obvious link between the death and disappearance that she could see.

‘Thank you, Sister Inginde,’ Fidelma said, rising. ‘There is no need to tell you that this matter must be kept strictly between ourselves.’

‘Are you going to try to find Valretrade?’ asked the girl softly.

‘Yes, I shall try,’ Fidelma replied grimly. ‘I promised Sigeric that I would do what I could.’

‘I hope you may be successful. Remember, Abbess Audofleda is powerful. I would be careful of her.’

‘I intend to be,’ Fidelma replied as she moved towards the door. ‘If you need to contact me urgently, the only way I can think of is by the same method that Valretrade used-the candle in the window.’

‘I shall remember. But only if it is urgent.’

‘Thank you, Sister Inginde. You have been very helpful.’

Fidelma turned out of the chamber and moved back to the stairwell. The Domus Femini was silent. Nothing stirred. She returned to the door to the vaults without incident. As soon as she came down the stairs and entered the vaults, Eadulf and Brother Sigeric came forward anxiously.

‘Did you see her? Did you see Sister Inginde?’ demanded Brother Sigeric immediately.

‘She confirms that Valretrade vanished last week,’ Fidelma said. ‘She says that she did not return that night, having set off to meet you.’

‘Did not return?’ Brother Sigeric was aghast. ‘But the signal was made that she had been at our meeting place and was returning to her chamber.’

‘I think we should return to the scriptorium where we may discuss things more comfortably,’ Fidelma advised. ‘It is better than discussing it here.’

Brother Sigeric reluctantly picked up the lantern and led the way back out of the abbey’s catacombs.

Once in the scriptorium they seated themselves in a corner while Fidelma recounted the conversation she had had with Sister Inginde.

‘So, according to what Sister Inginde was told by Sister Radegund, Valretrade was supposed to have left a note with Abbess Audofleda explaining that she was leaving Autun,’ she concluded.

Brother Sigeric’s reaction was immediate.

‘Lies!’ he snapped. ‘I swear she must be a prisoner in the Domus Femini. It is some fiendish punishment of that woman Audofleda.’

‘We can ask to see this note,’ Eadulf suggested. ‘I suppose Valretrade had the capability of writing it?’

Brother Sigeric frowned. ‘Of course she could write.’

‘Ah yes.’ Eadulf suddenly remembered. ‘I am sorry. You told us that she had worked in the scriptorium with you. So, would we recognise her handwriting?’

‘All scribes write with their own peculiarities,’ Sigeric said. ‘She wrote with a distinctive hand, and with the letters “b” and “d” she had a tendency to put a short diagonal line across their stem.’

‘Very well,’ said Fidelma, ‘we must remember that and see if we can have sight of this letter.’

‘Letter or not, she would not leave without communicating with me. I insist that she did not leave of her own accord.’

‘Are you saying that she was abducted?’ Eadulf asked.

‘That is precisely what I am saying. There are rumours…about other women and their children…’

‘Rumours?’ demanded Fidelma. ‘What do you mean?’

‘They say that wives and children have disappeared from the Domus Femini.’

‘You mean the wives and children of some of the brethren here?’

Brother Sigeric nodded and Fidelma exhaled in irritation.

‘Why was I not told before? Never mind! When did you hear such rumours?’ she asked.

Brother Sigeric ran the fingers of one hand through his hair as if the motion would spark off memory.

‘I am not sure. They began during the last two or three weeks. Some of the brethren were speaking of it. Valretrade once mentioned that some of the married women had decided to leave.’

‘Can you remember her precise words?’

Brother Sigeric thought for a moment. ‘Not really-I’m sorry.’

‘Did she know of any reasons for their leaving? What did these women say?’

‘They were gone before any of the community knew they were leaving so she never spoke to any of them.’

Fidelma’s eyes narrowed. ‘Do you mean that they disappeared from the Domus Femini in the same manner as Valretrade?’

The young scribe stared at her, trying to read a meaning in the question.

‘Disappeared?’ he echoed.

‘How many married women and children are, or were, in the community?’

‘Brother Chilperic would know the correct number,’ began the scribe.

‘An estimate,’ snapped Fidelma. ‘You can surely give us that.’

‘I suppose about thirty or more of the brethren had liaisons or were married, and there were about a dozen children.’

‘And these brethren-have they left here?’

He shook his head. ‘No, the brethren are still here in the abbey. They were mainly the ones who decided to obey Bishop Leodegar and divorce their wives-like Brother Chilperic.’

‘So, how many of their wives and children were still left in the Domus Femini? Fidelma’s jaw had tightened and she banged her fist on the nearby table, startling them both. ‘Information! Sine scientia ars nihil est!’ Without knowledge, skill is nothing.

‘I don’t understand,’ ventured Brother Sigeric.

‘I cannot conduct an investigation without information. Had I known about these stories of wives and children being missing, then I could have asked relevant questions.’

‘But it was just rumours,’ protested Brother Sigeric. ‘Except…’

‘Except what?’ demanded Fidelma.

‘One of the brethren was speaking to a merchant from the city. The man was buying some of our surplus farm produce. He said that he saw three of the female religious with a foreign man. He was surprised because he knew them to be from the Domus Femini and formerly married to some of the brethren before…’ He ended with a gesture.

‘And when were they seen?’

‘Just over a week ago.’

‘Where? In the city?’

‘They were seen entering Lady Beretrude’s villa.’

Fidelma did not comment for a while and then she said: ‘I should have known this so that I could verify it. If stories of the disappearances are true…’ she blinked tiredly, ‘then there are many questions to be asked.’