The Council of the Cursed by Peter Tremayne Read Free Book Online Page A

before turning to help Fidelma alight.
    ‘We thank you for the journey, Brother,’ he said. ‘And the pleasantness of your company, as well as the knowledge and advice that you have imparted.’
    Brother Budnouen responded with his almost perpetual smile.
    ‘I shall be in Autun for a week or so. Doubtless our paths will cross before I depart. Should you wish to journey back to Nebirnum with me, just ask the steward here and he will find me. I wish you luck in your stay, although you may not find the attitude of the religious here to your liking…’ He shrugged. ‘“What went you out into the wilderness for to see? A reed shaken with the wind…a man clothed in soft raiment?”’
    ‘We are well aware of scripture, my friend,’ Fidelma replied, without humour. ‘We have come to this country with no preconceptions. However, we are much indebted to you, Brother.’
    Brother Budnouen raised a hand in parting and edged his cart closer through the large wagonway between the buildings. Eadulf, shouldering the bags, began to move off over the stone-paved square towards the door that the Gaul had indicated. Fidelma fell in step alongside.
    ‘I am not impressed,’ Eadulf remarked quietly to her, glancing round. ‘Preconception or no.’
    She gave him an amused sideways look. ‘What–not impressed with one of the great cities of Christendom?’
    He shook his head firmly. ‘Give me the mountains, rivers and forests any day in preference to the confines of a city. It is like a prison with walls all around. And these grey, grim heights…’ he indicated the abbey with a jerk of his head. ‘There is something forbidding about the place.’
    ‘The buildings are quite intimidating, I agree,’ Fidelma replied, glancing upwards. ‘I am not a city dweller. I also hate the idea of being confined. But we have to admit that such buildings have a curiously impressive quality of their own. So absorb the experience even if you cannot enjoy it. Now let us face the next ordeal…we must find out who has been killed here. Pray God it is not our old friend, Ségdae.’
    They were some way off the steward’s office when the door opened and a religieux exited. Eadulf hailed him and asked if this was where the steward of the abbey was to be found.
    The man examined him for a moment and then frowned at Fidelma.
    ‘Women go to the Domus Femini , the house of women,’ he said in accented and guttural Latin, pointing along the side of the building. ‘You are not welcome here.’
    Eadulf stared at him in bewilderment. ‘This is the abbey of Autun, isn’t it?’ he asked. ‘We seek the steward here.’
    A scowl settled on the man’s dark features.
    ‘Women are not welcome here,’ he repeated. ‘Go!’
    Fidelma’s lips thinned and her eyes grew dangerously bright.
    ‘We demand to see the steward! she said, her words slow and clear. ‘Where do we find him?’
    The man was about to respond further when a familiar figure suddenly appeared in the doorway behind him. It was Abbot Ségdae. He looked grey and ill but he came swiftly towards them, hands outstretched in welcome.
    ‘Fidelma! Eadulf! Thank God you have come at last!’

Chapter Three
    ‘It is good to see you well, Ségdae,’ Fidelma said warmly. The Abbot of Imleach had drawn them into the anticum , the antechamber of the abbey, but not before a sharp exchange with the religieux who had tried to prevent their entrance. The man finally shrugged and moved off. Now they were seated on wooden benches in a large hall with vaulted roof. There was no one else about.
    ‘It is a relief that you have arrived.’ The abbot was clearly in a state of agitation.
    ‘It is obvious something disturbs you, Ségdae,’ Fidelma observed.
    ‘We heard that an abbot of the five kingdoms had been killed,’ Eadulf went on. ‘We were at Nebirnum and hastened here. Who was it?’
    ‘Dabhóc, a kindly man who was attending here on behalf of the bishop of Ard Macha.’
    ‘I do not know him,’