‘Be watchful,’ Céin exhorted Caol and Gormán as he halted at a point on the pathway and peered quickly around at the undergrowth. Then he moved along a single path through the undergrowth and halted in a small clearing. There, to their surprise, he started to lift back some loose branches, which revealed a dark opening into the ground. Fidelma and Eadulf saw at once that it was manmade and not a natural cave.
Brother Céin took the oil lamp and held it above the hole in the ground.
‘The bishop found this several weeks ago by accident,’ he said to Fidelma. ‘Brother Diomasach and Bishop Luachan had spotted a strange cairn over there,’ he pointed to a rise behind them. ‘It was overgrown with creepers and almost invisible to the eye. In going to discover what it was, Bishop Luachan almost fell down into the entrance. It seemed that he only noticed the cairn because a stag had rubbed its antlers against it and torn away the growth that surrounded it. All these details I received from Bishop Luachan afterwards. Initially, only he and Brother Diomasach made and shared the discovery.’
‘What is it, an uaimh?’ muttered Eadulf, staring down the hole.
‘One might think so, Brother Eadulf,’ replied Céin. ‘This one leads into a passage which runs along two levels and terminates in a beehive-shapedchamber. From this entrance you move north along it and you have to be careful as the floor of the passage drops to the second level.’
‘Is it ancient?’ asked Fidelma.
‘It is difficult to estimate the true age. It was completely overgrown as well, according to the bishop. The roof of the first level of the passage consists of large flat lintels. There are similar large lintels on the second level of the passage. The floor is spread with clay that has been hardened over the centuries. The chamber at the end is constructed with dry stone walls with a corbel roof with caps of two flat lintels. It is about three metres in diameter. The interesting thing about the chamber is that there are no air vents, which would be necessary if used for food storage — an uaimh, as you say — or even for a place of refuge in extreme threatening times.’
Fidelma was thoughtful. ‘I will take your word for all this. You have gone into interesting detail. But what does it signify? What are you telling us?’
‘I know the details only because the ancient buildings and their construction fascinated Bishop Luachan. When he discovered this particular underground chamber he was especially thrilled, as there are no known dwellings here before our little community was built. It was because of the deserted nature of this place that we chose to establish our hermitage here. That means there was no memory of a community that would want such an adjunct as an uaimh built here. He argued that these were very ancient-both the cairn and the uaimh.’
‘When did Bishop Luachan tell you about it?’
‘Not until after we found the body of Brother Diomasach.’
Fidelma began to see why the stocky steward was showing them these remains.
‘You mean that Bishop Luachan felt there was some connection between this discovery and Brother Diomasach’s death?’
‘He did. You see, it was in the chamber down there that Bishop Luachan and Brother Diomasach made another discovery.’ He paused as if waiting expectantly for a question to be put but when no one spoke he went on: ‘Have you ever heard of the Roth Fáil?’
Fidelma started abruptly and then quickly controlled herself. The reaction was not lost on Eadulf.
‘There are many legends about it,’ she said. ‘Why do you ask?’
Her mind was already thinking of the circular object that BishopLuachan gave to Sechnussach. She tried not to race ahead of what the man was telling her.
Brother Céin seemed pleased by her initial reaction.
‘Bishop Luachan found something circular in the chamber. He brought it in secret back to our little abbey. He examined it and then the very next morning he despatched Brother Diomasach with a message for the High King Sechnussach at Tara. When Brother Diomasach returned, he spent some time with Bishop Luachan but refused to tell any of the brethren why he had been sent to Tara or what had transpired there. Also, after he returned, within a day or so, an important warrior from Tara arrived here. Bishop Luachan told us that he would be gone only a few days, and rode off with him. It was observed that he carried this circular object wrapped in cloth in his saddlebag and allowed no one else to see it. When he returned, he was without the object.’
‘So this find was obviously the gift that he gave to the High King,’ Eadulf observed thoughtfully.
‘Did he really offer no explanation at all about what he had discovered and why he had sent news of it to the High King?’ asked Fidelma.
‘Not at the time,’ Brother Céin said. ‘It was afterwards, after poor Brother Diomasach’s death, that he took me into his confidence and told me that he had discovered in the chamber a circle of silver metal, intricately worked. It had the ancient symbol of the sun in the centre and was surrounded by twenty heads around the edge.’
‘It was a relatively small disk by all accounts, and now you say it was made of silver?’ Fidelma queried. ‘The stories about the wheel of destiny — the Roth Fáil, if ever it existed — would not place it so small, and it would have to be a great wheel of gold. Is it not also referred to as the Roth Gréine — the great celestial wheel? So are you telling me that Bishop Luachan thought this small object was the Roth Fáil?’
‘You leap to the wrong conclusion, Sister Fidelma,’ Brother Céin reproached her. ‘Bishop Luachan merely believed it was the key to the Roth Fáil, and without this key the Roth Fáil could not be deciphered. That was why he felt that he should give it to the High King.’
‘If it were a key, where is the object it opens?’ Eadulf wanted to know.
Brother Céin shrugged. ‘That is the mystery — and a mystery that no Christian would seek the answer to, for we are taught that the Roth Fáil is an engine of destruction that will destroy the Christian world.’ He paused.‘That is the belief, anyway,’ he added firmly, as if embarrassed at expressing the idea.
‘Well, let us deal with facts, not legends,’ Eadulf said, practical as ever. ‘Bishop Luachan was implying that Brother Diomasach was killed because of this find. But it had already been given to the High King … ’
‘Who has also been slain,’ pointed out Brother Céin. ‘And you tell me that the disk is now missing?’
Fidelma was thoughtful. ‘As is Bishop Luachan,’ she said. ‘Did he tell you nothing else about this matter? Why would he believe that the disk had a connection with the legend?’
‘All he told me was that an evil was loose in the world and that the disk was the key. It brought death in its wake. He had hoped that Sechnussach would order it to be melted down, for only he had the authority to do so. With the news of the death of Sechnussach, he said that we must constantly be on our guard. When we found poor Brother Diomasach slain, he said that our enemies were near and told me the story.’
‘Did he identify those enemies?’
‘No. He just said that they were people who wanted to destroy the Faith of Christ in this land.’
‘He never mentioned names? Did he not speculate on their identity?’
‘He did not say. But he felt they were close by. As I said, there are indications that many isolated communities have been attacked and these attacks are now increasing. He thought the attackers were growing in strength and that they were being helped by some of the clan chiefs.’
‘Such as Dubh Duin of the Cinél Cairpre?’ she queried.
‘Dubh Duin was certainly mentioned. He seemed to cling to the old ways but Bishop Luachan felt that within his clan, he kept his views in check.’