‘You don’t look well. Sit yourself.’ Fidelma turned and pointed to a wooden chair facing away from the corpse.

  ‘It was a shock to be awakened with this news,’ the elderly woman agreed, sitting. ‘It seems an age since Colgú said he would send for you, and all the time I have been sitting with … with …’ She indicated the corpse on the bench.

  ‘We’ll try not to keep you long.’ Fidelma glanced across to Eadulf with a silent question. He looked up with an eloquent shrug. There was, in fact, little he could say other than to confirm that the girl’s throat had been cut by some sharp blade. Fidelma thought that Cera had undoubtedly been an attractive girl in life. In fact, she recalled that Dar Luga had once referred to Cera as being of ‘the age of long tresses’, a colloquial expression that implied the girl had barely reached the age of choice, although it was obvious to Fidelma that she was more the age of twenty.

  ‘A very bloody and brutal attack,’ Eadulf announced. ‘The incisive drawing of a blade across the throat was done by no amateur but someone who knew precisely what they were doing.’ Then he frowned. ‘One thing bothers me.’

  ‘One thing only?’ Fidelma was in dry, black humour. But she noticed that he had thrown an almost furtive look at Enda and Luan, so she turned to them.

  ‘Perhaps it will save time if you two start a more detailed examination of the rooms in this sanctuary to see if there is anywhere an intruder could hide?’

  ‘But we have already …’ began Luan, before catching Enda’s eye. Then he shrugged. He and Enda left on their task. Fidelma turned back and motioned Eadulf to continue.

  ‘I was going to say something about the method of the killing,’ he explained. ‘The wound demonstrates that the killer knew what they were about. Death would have been produced, if not immediately, then within moments.’

  ‘Are you saying that she was killed by … a professional? Like a martial arts expert?’

  ‘There is another thing that occurred to me. Don’t forget this girl was not just a personal attendant to Princess Gelgéis but a member of the Daughters of the Storm, the professional guards to the princess. That means she was well trained both in the martial arts and unarmed combat. Yet, from the way the blade was used, it is clear she was attacked from behind and died without a struggle.’

  Fidelma realised that Eadulf was spelling out exactly what Luan had been suggesting to her. Cera’s assailant was also proficient in martial arts and had managed to overcome her defences in this way.

  ‘There are plenty of people with well-trained skills in martial arts in the fortress,’ she murmured, not even realising it was some automatic defence for the thought that Luan had put into her head.

  Eadulf glanced up at her as though reading her mind. He tried not to show a reaction but turned quickly back to his task, becoming absorbed in his examination.

  The embarrassment of the moment was interrupted by a low moan from Dar Luga. Fidelma had entirely forgotten that the stewardess appeared ill and was sitting in a corner of the room. Fidelma turned to regard the matronly stewardess with concern.

  ‘Let us find somewhere more comfortable for you to be seated before I ask you the few questions that are necessary. Then you must do something about this ague that has afflicted you.’

  ‘I am sorry, lady,’ the woman said. ‘I have been feeling something coming upon me since I first woke up. We can go to my chamber.’

  Fidelma helped the elderly woman to her feet and towards the door. Outside the bathroom, Fidelma led Dar Luga to the room she occupied opposite the main bedroom.

  Once in her small chamber, the stewardess lowered herself on to the bed and helped herself to a glass of water, which stood nearby, next to a small jug. She took a sip and screwed her face in an expression of distaste.

  ‘Water does not taste well after it has been left standing in a warm room overnight,’ she explained, putting it back on the table. She seemed to misjudge placing it, because it immediately tipped over and smashed on the floor.

  At once Dar Luga tried to rise and was apologising, but Fidelma calmed her.

  ‘Leave it for the time being. I just want to ask a question or two and then you should go down to the kitchen and see if you have something for this ague.’

  Dar Luga seated herself again, while Fidelma was peering round the small room.

  ‘Surely it is unusual for you to spend the night here? I thought you had an apartment on the far side of the fortress.’

  ‘Last night I stayed here. Colgú allows me use of this room in the sanctuary if I am working late.’

  ‘And so you were working late last night?’

  ‘I was cooking for your brother. I had to finish off some preparation in the kitchen and the first cadar had started when I retired.’

  ‘So you came to bed after midnight?’ Fidelma queried unnecessarily. ‘And you slept?’

  ‘I think that I slept immediately. I was only awoken when Colgú raised the alarm.’

  ‘Did you hear anything before Colgú raised the alarm?’ Fidelma pressed.

  Dar Luga shook her head. ‘I am afraid I tend to sleep soundly, lady,’ she replied quietly. ‘As I said, I retired late; I felt exhausted and brought water with me from the kitchen. I passed Luan at the bottom of the stairs and we exchanged a few words, but perhaps this ague had started, for I felt exhausted and I came up and slept at once. The cry for assistance awoke me, but it took me a few moments to realise it was the King shouting. I recall that I took a drink of water to wake myself. The King’s door, being directly opposite, was open. He was helping Gelgéis from the room. She was barely awake. Luan had already come up to the top of the stairs and was trying to open the passage door into the bathroom where the girl was found.’

  ‘Did Colgú explain what the alarm was about?’

  ‘It took a while to penetrate my mind. Colgú was shouting that his wife’s attendant had been killed. He shouted to Luan to look for the culprit, and was asking whether anyone had passed Luan on the stairs. No one had. I think Colgú added that the door to the passage from the bathroom been locked and I should have a spare key. That is, as stewardess. I looked, but I could not find it.’

  Dar Luga groaned a little. She raised a hand to wipe away the perspiration from her face.

  ‘You are definitely not feeling well,’ Fidelma observed. ‘You must get Eadulf to get you a potion.’

  ‘It is just an ague,’ Dar Luga protested. ‘It is probably made worse by the fact that I was late to bed. Too much talk about the new chaplain to the fortress. Then, being awoken suddenly and shocked by these events has not improved things.’

  ‘You should get Eadulf to examine you,’ Fidelma advised. ‘You should not ignore these things, for you are perspiring.’

  The plump women shook her head. ‘It will pass. I will go to the kitchens; that is, if I have your permission, lady. I have some medications there.’

  Fidelma reluctantly nodded agreement. ‘Very well. I know we are awaiting a new physician to arrive at the fortress, but remember, Eadulf can help.’ She hesitated. ‘Just one final question. Can you be certain that there was no sign of the attacker fleeing after you awoke and Colgú was creating the alarm?’

  ‘I remember Luan came and made a search. He later came back with Enda, who had access to a spare key to the bathroom. That was after the King escorted his lady down to the chamber and asked me to stay with the poor girl’s body to make sure nothing was disturbed. I was hard pressed to do so until assured no one could be hiding in the sanctuary.’

  ‘Why didn’t Luan stay with the corpse? Why were you asked?’

  ‘Luan had duties and, of course, Enda was sent to get you and Eadulf. Also … also …’ Something was puzzling her. ‘Also … there was something else. Something about a locked door? What was it? I can’t remember.’

  Dar Luga passed her hand over her forehead to wipe away the perspiration.

  ‘Very well,’ Fidelma said soothingly. ‘You go down to the kitchen and make sure you mix yourself something for this chill. Enda and Luan seem to have disappeared. If you see them when you go down, ask them to come back up.’

  Dar Luga rose slowly and began to move along the corridor. It was clear from her movements, and the difficulty with her breathing, that the plump stewardess was feeling the worst for her cold. Fidelma made a mental note to get Eadulf look in on her when he could.

  When she returned to Eadulf, she found him placing a linen sheet over the body of the girl. The early-morning light was now strong through the window, and the lamps and candles were no longer necessary. Fidelma had not previously spent any time examining her brother’s pet project, the sanctuary. Personally, she thought it a curious and unnecessary thing to build a sanctuary within a fortress like Cashel. Now she realised that the large window in the bathroom had, as she had guessed, various coloured panes of glass.

  Fidelma stood and gazed at the windows thoughtfully. She recognised that the glass was quite purified – what was called glóine. It was far superior to the standard glass that was more commonly used. Glass, with its variations of colours and density, had been well known in the five kingdoms from the time beyond time. But it seemed that her brother had chosen the purest form, which was opaque rather than totally pellucid. She remembered that Colgú had told her that Rodaige, his master builder, had been on a journey to Ailech, the new fortress of Ferg mac Crundmail of the northern Uí Néill. It was called ‘the sun palace’, for the window features allowed light to bathe the entire building.

  From behind her, Eadulf observed her examination. ‘They are nice windows,’ he said. ‘Whoever made them must be gifted. Apart from a small air panel, which a man’s head could hardly fit through, the panes do not open. I checked. Even if they could open, they are eight or more metres from the ground outside, and also within sight of the sentinels walking the battlements opposite.’

  ‘So, you are saying that no one can get in through the windows?’

  ‘Not unless they could climb up unobserved, and their shoulder width is the size of a small person’s head. And, of course, the other possible entry route, from the roof, can be dismissed.’

  Eadulf was gazing up at the sloping roof. Fidelma followed his eyes and saw, to her surprise, that there was a forlés, a round skylight, set high in the roof.

  ‘Each of these rooms has one,’ Eadulf informed her. ‘I took the chance to have a quick look in the main bedroom. It has the same window in the wall and the same skylight.’

  Fidelma was not surprised. Forlés had become popular in the palaces of many nobles.

  ‘Unless one is an acrobat,’ she said, gauging the distance from floor to the skylight, which was about four metres, ‘there is no entrance or exit by that means.’

  She knew that, had anyone possessed the agility to descend on to the sloping tiled roof of the extension from the outside, they would have had to have exceptional acrobatic powers to enter through one of the round skylights and drop down into the room without making a tremendous noise, even if they had landed on the bed to cushion their fall.

  ‘What about that hatchway?’ she suddenly asked. She had noticed it near the stone-built area, in which a fire could be made to heat water for the bath. There was a hatch, secured with bolts, in the wooden wall surround.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Eadulf admitted. ‘I’ve just seen it. But from the pile of logs and wood, I would say it is where wood and water must be drawn up from the ground to this level.’

  ‘Hauled up eight metres from the ground level?’ Fidelma snorted. ‘Very impractical. Why not a bathroom on the ground floor? And a spark from the fire could easily catch the building alight.’

  At that moment, Luan re-entered the room.

  ‘Do you know how this operates?’ demanded Fidelma before he could say anything.

  ‘It is for the wood and the bathwater,’ confirmed the warrior. ‘However, as you see, it is always secured from inside this room. The arrangement is that at certain times the hatch is opened and, by means of a rope and pulley, a basket of wood, logs, is hauled up ready for the fire. The same system pulls up water for the evening bath. Of course, this is only used by the King and his lady. It is not accessible from the outside. Someone in this room has to open the bolts.’

  ‘And the wooden screens there?’

  ‘That is for their … er … the fúalatech and er …’ Luan flushed and it was clear he was pointing out this was a toilet.

  ‘Very impractical,’ repeated Fidelma in disapproval. ‘A bathing room and such should be on the ground and not up in the air! I’ll look more into that as it is a weakness.’ Then she turned her frown on him. ‘Where is Enda?’

  ‘You asked us to leave while you questioned Dar Luga,’ the warrior replied.

  This produced a scowl.

  ‘I suggested you both make a more careful search of the rooms and cupboards. Have you done that?’

  Luan looked lost. ‘I beg your pardon, lady. I thought you used that as an excuse to do your questioning in private.’

  Fidelma’s mouth tightened. ‘So now it seems that people can read my thoughts when I ask them to perform a task for me?’

  ‘Enda did say that he was going to the roof of the main building in order to look down at the sloping roof here to see if there was any way it could be reached from the main roof.’

  Fidelma grimaced and she glanced up at the forlés. So Enda was thinking about the skylights as well.

  ‘If there is, I doubt if anyone could get through those skylights,’ she said. ‘Anyway, we would have heard him if he had managed to get into the room above us.’

  ‘I have not seen Enda since then,’ Luan admitted. Then he added quietly, ‘Did you think any more about what I said, lady?’

  ‘I understand what you suggest, Luan,’ she replied sharply. ‘All movements, and the movements of all, will be investigated. You may be assured of that. One thing I do think that you should think about. You realise that Enda was more than a friend to the girl? That much is obvious.’

  ‘I was trying to be observant,’ Luan protested. ‘I was speculating.’

  ‘No speculation without information,’ muttered Eadulf.

  Fidelma grimaced irritably at his ironic use of one of her frequent sayings. She turned back to Luan.

  ‘Don’t misunderstand me. I accept what you are saying. You have observed well. Behaviour that is not the usual is always worth observing.’

  She was aware of Eadulf beginning to move around the chamber, peering at various items. He saw that she turned in curiosity to him.

  ‘I am just wondering if we have overlooked anything,’ he said. ‘Our mystery is how the killer entered and left the chamber.’

  ‘The easy way is this ridiculous arrangement for hauling up wood and water,’ Fidelma said. ‘I did not realise it existed.’

  ‘But the hatch there is locked, and the rope to the basket is kept secured by the pulley, which means the pulley can not be used unless someone inside the sanctuary is controlling it. And even if it was being used in the night, the sound of it would have disturbed people.’

  Fidelma turned back to the door. ‘If the key to that door was missing, how was it opened?’

  ‘A spare key had to be sent for, lady,’ Luan reminded her. ‘Enda knew where it was and came and opened the door.’

  ‘So where did the assassin go when he locked the door almost in Colgú’s face?’

  ‘No one came down the stairway. I can swear to that. He had to leave by one of the other rooms.’

  Fidelma went across to the window in the wall. Looking through this, she saw, a short distance away, the tall limestone south-western wall of the fortress. It rose higher than Colgú’s tech-termonn. On top of this wall, she could see a sentinel on his patrol.

  Fidelma sighed deeply. ‘Well, we can say with certainty that the intruder could not get in by these windows. And there are no windows in the other chambers?’

  ‘Those rooms have no windows because they are built against the major walls of the rest of the residence building,’ Luan confirmed. ‘These rooms have the only windows in this residence. However, all four rooms have the skylights.’

  Fidelma ignored his determination to bring the skylights up again.

  ‘It looks as if the assailant must have come up the stairway or had been hidden in one of the rooms before the night guard started,’ she countered. ‘He killed Cera here after he emerged from hiding.’

  Eadulf was trying to visualise what Fidelma described.

  ‘When your brother entered here from his bedroom, the killer was leaving by that door,’ he reflected. ‘Or had left moments before when he heard Colgú coming to the room. The killer had time to take the key, close the door behind him and lock it. Now, the question: had he already been in this room when the girl arrived? Or had he entered with the girl?’

  ‘Even more puzzling is that, once in the small passage, where did he go? Even if he was able to get in through the wood hatch, how did he get out and leave the hatch locked after him from this side?’ Fidelma stood looking round thoughtfully for a moment into the passage. ‘It seems to pose more questions than the ideas answer,’ she said.

  Eadulf glanced around the bathroom, this time more slowly than before.

  ‘So, if we exclude the forlés, there are only three possible ways the killer could have entered this room. The first is the door from the passage. The killer could not have passed Luan on the stairs, so they had to have been hiding in the chamber of either Dar Luga or Cera herself all the time. But then they would have been there when you and Enda searched earlier. Finally, we are back to the hatch for wood and water.’