Mac Tire � Son of the Earth

Part 28 � Unravelling

After he had left his chambers so hurriedly, Dom was not sure where to go. He thought of going to the kitchens for some hot broth, but knew many of the staff slept there, warm by the fire, so he abandoned that idea. He did not wish to wake the hard-working people who served the keep. He decided he needed fresh air, and wandered along the deserted corridors until he came to the door which led to Lij's little roof garden. He badly needed some contact however tenuous with his love, so he opened the door and climbed the stairs.

Coming out into the cool night air, he shivered and drew his warm cloak closely around him, and walked to where he knew Lij had placed a wooden bench so that he could sit there and admire the fruits of his handiwork. Dom knew from long experience that Lij was proud of his gardening skills, learned during long hours with Meri-Hep and her husband at their river home by the blue Nile.

As he walked, he stumbled over something soft blocking his way, and as the full moon came out from behind a cloud Dom saw with dismay that Lij's little garden had been uprooted and scattered to the four winds. Dom had no difficulty deciding who had committed such a desecration on harmless living things.

�Curse you, woman,� he whispered, �What right have you to deal out death to even the smallest?�

He gathered up the little plantlings and moved them carefully against the wall, and seeing Lij's wooden pail and the tools resting within it, decided that he would try to salvage some of it in memory of his lost love. He would lock it when he retrieved the key; no-one but he would have access here.

He picked up several plants that had been trampled under foot, and placed them in the compost corner, but found many that were unharmed. Having no skill or inclination towards gardening, he tried to think what Lij would have done. It gave him both pain and pleasure thinking of Lij pottering about in the soil, a smudge of dirt on his face, and, as he worked, he smiled at the memories and then prayed to any spirits that would listen to keep his beloved safe.

But long before dawn his task was completed, and when the moon went in, he had nothing else to do but sit on the bench and draw his cloak more closely around him.

Why had he been reminded of Lij so forcibly when Ede was touching him? He was used to giving up his body for her use. His mind wandered across the sea to the warm desert sand. Lij riding his white stallion across the desert. Lij with Jed and Titi in the animal garden with the cats. Lij bathing in the river, his slim body naked and beautiful. He wished for his spouse - for so he still thought him - happiness in the future, and peace. It was more than Dom would have, tied by vows of duty to that bitch.

Fare well, my Lij. You take my love with you wherever you go.

Dom sighed. It would soon be dawn, then he could safely go in and go about his business. He had never known Ede to bring her anger with her into public scrutiny.

Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye he saw a figure standing darkly against the ramparts. The shadow detached itself from the wall. Dom sat up and stared, his heart pounding within him. He recognised this figure from countless paintings on sun-kissed walls, from hundreds of statues great and small - but it could not be. Perhaps this was a dream but no, the dark figure raised an arm and pointed at him, sending a shudder like piercing flame through his body.

He spoke aloud, his voice trembling in awe. " Great Anubis; what do you require of me?" But Anubis just stood there, staring at him, his hand raised, his glowing eyes red in the gathering dawn.

"What is it? Why have you come?" The jackal headed god took one step closer, and Dom felt the chill emanating from the dark body as it pierced his soul replacing fire with deadly cold. "Speak!" Dom begged in a soft voice made breathless by terror. But still the god kept silent.

Dom felt as if the air was being dragged out of his lungs, his terror was so complete. The god transfixed his gaze. The dog face showed no emotion, but the eyes, dear gods - the eyes! They were angry, yet pleading. Suddenly the connection between them, whatever it had been, snapped as the sun rose over the horizon, And Anubis walked backwards until he faded from Dom's view.

Dom started, his eyes opened. Had he been asleep? It seemed so real, his vision. Lij ...Lij needed his help somehow. He would find his friends and hold council with them.

*

Dom strode along the corridor until he came to the kitchens. His mouth was very dry and he badly needed a drink. Once there he asked a servant to find Cass for him. Dom sat down and the servants, unused to kings in their kitchens, gathered in a corner, hesitant and stressed.

One of the older women, a cook, detached herself from the group and standing before him made a deep curtsey.

"May I bring you something, Ard-Ri? Some mead or...or...?"Dom looked up at her, torn from his abstraction by the soft country lilt in her voice.

"Mead? No, I think not. Water from the spring, yes...that will I have. Thank you, you are very kind." She stood her ground. "Will you have anything to eat now? It is time to break your fast."

Dom pondered. He felt like nothing after his encounter with dark Anubis. His stomach was knotted within him...something was very wrong. But he needed his wits about him this day, if nothing else.

"Some bread and cheese and...an apple. Thank you." The woman bustled away, cross at having to bring something as ordinary as bread and cheese to her king. "Get on with your tasks!" she ordered the gawping group. "The Ard-Ri requires breakfast, that is all," she said, as if a king eating breakfast in her kitchens was an everyday occurrence.

Dom found he did not want to eat the food that was brought to him; but as the cook was smiling at him from across the room he felt he had to try. He was just slicing an apple when Cass hurried through the door.

"You sent for me, lord king?" he said in a voice audible to all in the room. Dom gestured for Cass to sit down, which he did reluctantly, waiting for Dom to come to the point of his summons.

"We have to be very careful, Cass," Dom said in a low voice. "Something has happened, but we cannot talk here. I need you to fetch Brian and Cormac and meet me somewhere safe, a place where we will not be observed. Where can you suggest?"

Cass thought carefully. "My room is of no use. If you were seen, what would you be doing there? You would send for me as you just did, not come to find me yourself. Cormac's chambers are best. Ede is no longer lodged nearby. I will fetch Brian and we will meet you there. Cormac is not likely to have risen yet, as it is barely dawn."

Dom nodded. "Then go quickly," he said quietly, then in a louder voice, "that is very well, Cass. See to it immediately."

He ate a few mouthfuls of the freshly baked bread and the cheese, and when he could eat no more was pleased to discover he had managed more than half of his portion. The people would be upset if he left his food, and he was a careful master.

He thanked the cook gravely, and she beamed and bobbed her thanks to him, glowing with pride. Not for the first time Dom wondered why some people needed to be cruel or rude to servants when a smile and a thank you gave such pleasure and brought from them increased efforts to please.

Cormac opened his own door, and let in Dom . "I have sent the servants away. I told them I needed no breakfast, which is a sacrifice I hope will not be in vain." He scanned Dom's pale face carefully. "What is it? I see that something is wrong."

Dom sighed and sat in the chair offered to him. He rubbed his hands over his tired face. "I do not doubt that you'll think my mind has gone, friends. Do you know anything of Anubis?"

The three men said they had not. "He is a god, serving the great god of the Otherworld, Osiris. Lij has seen him on several occasions, in his dreams. He is a very powerful and imposing figure. Last night, or rather just before dawn, he came to me, on the ramparts, in Lij's garden...in what was left of Lij's garden."

The men listened intently. A god visiting men, even in their dreams, was very significant.

Dom shivered at the recollection. "His eyes were like living coals, his flesh as flame. He said nothing, he just stared at me. It seemed for a moment his eyes were heavy with compassion, but then they grew hard. It was as if he was trying to force them into my mind. To warn me. But about what - or for whom, but Lij? Why else would he come? I do not understand, but feel in my bones that something is wrong. Something...Lij....I..."

He faltered, not knowing what to do next; his mind confused by weariness and dread.

Cormac slapped his knee. "We can no longer wait for that man of Lij's to recover from his whipping. We must question him now!"

Cass stared in puzzlement at Cormac. "Do you mean the Phoenician?"

Cormac nodded. "Yes...Ede told us she had him whipped when Lij sneaked away..." His voice trailed off as he saw confusion in both the guards' faces.

Brian answered quietly. "That is not true. I saw the man yesterday, prowling about below stairs. He did not see me, but I saw his back as he entered the door that leads to the old dungeons. He was dressed as usual, in the red skirt with the gold fringes - bare chested as is their fashion, now the weather is warmer. He had not been beaten. I am sure of it!"

Dom raised his eyes to his friends. "Lij is still here. Anubis would not have come to me if he were not watching over him...Ede...!"

"...has him in the dungeons." Brian finished, baldly. "But it is a rabbit warren down there! We could search for days and find nothing. Or, in searching, be seen, and Lij killed for spite. I am sorry, Cormac," Brian glanced over at the young man, pity in his eyes, "but she is a murdering bitch."

"I know it. What shall we do?" Cormac looked at Dom, who was thinking intently. Then he raised his eyes. "We find him. Before she kills him." He rose from his seat. "Just us four men. Brian, tell the king's guard to be ready if I call. Are they men you can trust?"

Brian shook his head. "I trust no-one but Cass. She has spies everywhere. They must be rooted out after all this is over."

Dom thought. "Then say nothing. We go alone. His life is too precious to me to be wasted for spite. We will find him. Come!"

*

Ede had eaten her breakfast and was now ready for some sport. She had had to amend her plans. Porphyry, the ever-useful, remarked to her that she could not keep Lij for long if he was supposed to have died in the forest on the day he left. Today she must kill him. Fetching a sharp knife she kept in her rooms, she made her way down to the dungeons, smiling gently.

Lij raised his head when she entered the room, the knife stuck in the belt of her soft woollen dress. He had been chained up to the wall again, and his hands were swollen and bruised. She examined him carefully, then made a decision.

"He is not bruised enough. Beat him - hard." Porphyry detached himself from the wall against which he was leaning. "With pleasure, lady."

Lij could not help but make a sound as the heavy blows landed on his already damaged body, but he said nothing, nor did he plead for mercy. He just stared at her with anger in his eyes.

Ede considered what she was going to do to him next. She came to a decision. "Leave us!" she commanded. "Leave the dungeons until I send for you to come. You then may dispose of his body as we arranged." She glanced at Lij with a smile in her eyes. "Oh, yes, little mouse - today you die!" Lij did not react. He would not give this witch one moment of satisfaction.

The Phoenician bowed and left. Ede brought a stool and sat on it in front of Lij, cocking her head to one side as she decided what she was going to say to him.

"I am going to tell you things, little Egypt, because dead men cannot talk. I am going to tell you things that Sean knows and some things he will never know. And just before I stick this knife in your belly and watch you die a slow and agonizing death for my pleasure, I shall whisper my final secret in your ear. Something that Seaneen will never know. Something...very interesting."

Lij pressed his lips together, but said nothing. He hoped he would die with dignity as befits a king and god.

"Orla is his child, you know."

Lij's eyes opened wide. "Orla is Dom's child? Yet you treated her - his child - like a slave, and you say you love him. Why?"

Ede sniffed. "Because she was not a son. Because I do not like little girls. Because he left me, and I knew it would hurt him if she was hurt. Now she is gone and you know where she is. Where is she, little man? Where may I find our child?"

Lij laughed, but it was a hollow sound. "Tell you, so that you can abuse her further? Never will I tell you, daughter of a whore!"

Ede came up to him and took the knife out of her belt. "You will tell me before you die - I will guarantee it." He stared down his nose at her. "Never!" he said, panting. He couldn�t seem to get his breath the longer he hung there. There seemed to be a heavy weight pressing on his chest and every time he breathed it was harder for him to draw in air.

She sat down again, and continued in a conversational tone. "I killed my father and my mother with less compunction than I would drown a cat. Do not think I will not exact my vengeance on your body before you die.

I shall tell you how I killed Connor, shall I? It makes interesting listening. Do you know how I did it? You are such a clever man - have you not yet worked it out ? How can one poison people sitting at a table with different poisons, yet all eat from the same dishes?"

Lij's eyes flickered with comprehension. "You poison the plates.�

Ede grinned. "I did! My silver is unique as you know. Every plate has an unique design etched upon it. It was easy. I put poison on Connor's and emetics on the others, then I placed the plates in the places where everyone usually sat. If anyone had moved to a different seat, I would have had the plate removed and scoured, complaining it was not clean.

Primrose is very good for promoting a voiding of the bowels. I kept painting the stuff on the inside of Sean's jug. I wanted to keep him in bed whilst I organised a few things. It was easy, once he had given in to my demands for him to marry me again, to stop painting the silver."

"He only did it, you know, to keep you safe. I gave my word that you would be - he would never have agreed otherwise."

"Then you are forsworn, bitch! For you never meant to keep to your promise!"

Lij shifted on his feet, panting from the exertion, and the pain. His lungs were on fire, his head was full of pain, but still he challenged her. If he could enrage her it may be that she would, in losing her temper, kill him quickly. He had no mind to suffer any further. It was time to die.

*

Porphyry, leaving the kitchens after a substantial breakfast, saw Dom and his companions enter the door to the dungeons. He judged it a good time to leave the keep. If they were to find Ede and Lij down there it would go badly for him. He raced to his room, grabbed a few treasures and slipping out of a side door, made for the stables. A few moments later he was heading down the High Road to safety.

*

Dom led the group into the dark passages of the lower keep. "I have known this keep since my early childhood, I think I know where he may be..." he began, but his voice was cut off by a loud scream. "Lij!" he whispered, and ran towards the sound.

*

"I will enjoy seeing Sean's face when he finds your naked body, little mouse. He will be sore upset to see you lying there with your cock cut off! Now, let's see if I can make you scream again, shall we?"

The knife came down and Lij screamed. Ede laughed. "What a pleasant sound! Look!" Her bloody hand held a small lump of skin. It was Lij's foreskin.

Ede triumphantly gloated over his bleeding body. "Little by little I shall cut them off. First each ball, then the cock. I shall let you see them before you die. I will like that!"

"Ede." A quiet voice came from the doorway, and she spun around the bloodied knife held fast in her hand. Dom glanced at his love, then turned his gaze on his wife standing menacingly before him, hefting the knife. She saw Brian and Cass enter the room behind him, and Cormac, who was staring at Lij with a shocked look of disbelief and rage.

"Ede...stop..." Dom's voice faltered. He heard the slow and painful breathing fill the sudden silence and knew Lij was at the limit of his endurance. "Ah, no! Do not hurt...I will not allow..."

Ede laughed and turned to face Lij again, a hint of instability in her low pitched voice. "And who will stop me? You, Seaneen? You who have never even raised your voice to me, never mind a hand? No...stand back, you men! See, I have the knife at his belly. One thrust and he is a dead man."

Cass and Brian stopped in their tracks. Cormac said quietly, "Please...you cannot do this" but she did not hear him, all her madness was concentrated on Dom and Lij. Dom had come to stand at Lij's side, and she did not stop him.

"I will kill him, Seaneen, if you raise one finger to me, or try to take the knife. I'm warning you." The knife trembled in her hand, and Dom, terrified of what she might do, sank to his knees.

"Anything you want, Ede...anything...to the end of my mortal days, if you let him live. I promise you anything..." His eyes were fixed on the quivering knife, its blade touching the bruised skin of Lij's belly.

"Anything? Oh, Sean-Adomnan, you are such a noble man..."

She took her eyes off Lij and stared down at her husband prostrating himself at her feet, her hand moved to play with the fair tresses of his hair.

Swiftly, whilst her attention was engaged by Dom, Cormac rushed forward and grabbed the hand holding the knife. Cass leapt for the other arm. She was held fast.

She growled like a trapped tiger, and writhed within their strong grip. "Let me go, you worms...", but the men held her close.

Dom rose to his feet, and looking once into his beloved Lij's eyes, turned his full attention on Ede, who had been forced to her knees by the two men now holding her. She glanced round wildly looking for some escape but but there was none.

Dom took a deep breath. �Brian, free my beloved from his prison. The keys are on the bitch�s belt.�

Brian wasted no time in freeing Lij, but in spite of his urging Lij would not sit down, but clung onto him, eyes closed in pain.

Dom�s face was empty of all anger, all grief. It was a pitiless mask of the Ard-Ri seeking vengeance for great wrongs done to those he loved as king and as a man.

"Ede, daughter of Brogan, avowed black witch and murderess confessed, as the highest authority in the land, I pass sentence of death upon you. Make your peace with your evil gods, for now you die!"

Lij opened his bloodshot eyes, and looked at Ede in contempt, as she stared up at Dom in disbelief. "That was your fatal mistake, you spawn of evil." Lij said, clearly, despite his weakness. "Sean-Adomnan is not only a noble man - he is also a king!

As Lij spoke, and Ede's attention fixed upon him, Dom reached quickly for Ede, and with a swift twist of his strong hands, snapped her neck.

"Thus perish all traitors to this fair land and to its anointed king." said Cormac in a shaken voice.

Dom looked at his new friend and said quietly, �By rights, you could hold this against me for generations. I ask you now, do you condemn me and mine to a blood price?�

Cormac shook his head. "She has come by her end justly, my king. Do not fear my anger, because I have none. You have dealt fairly with her, and showed her more mercy than she showed him..." He could not continue, his voice choked with pain.

Dom nodded and moved to catch Lij who was leaning against Brian, his head lolling ominously. He took the weight of him and his breath caught as the familiar presence of the beloved body in his arms became mixed with the smell of his blood.

Lij's blood dripped onto his face as he did so, but he hardly noticed.

"Dom..." Lij croaked, raising his head. "Orla...she told... me... Orla is your... daughter..." he managed before his head fell against Dom's arm. Cormac and Dom looked at each other in stunned amazement but there was no time to be lost.

"Give me your cloak," Dom breathed, and Cormac unfastened it placing it gently around Lij's bruised shoulders.

Dom placed Lij gently in Cormac's arms. "Take him to a bed - not to his room, it is too far, and not to mine. Take him to the nearest suitable chamber you can find, and cherish him, my friend. I have business to finish here. Go!" he said, detaining Cass and Brian with a gesture.

As Cormac left the room with Lij, the two guards stood silently, awaiting their kings orders.

"You are my witnesses, and sworn to record my words and actions this day, so the Feis may be informed. Do you agree? " Both men nodded. "We do, lord king."

"Very well," Dom said in a low voice. "Listen and mark my words, for my duty is clear and must be seen to be done, and you will speak for me at the councils in heaven and on earth for it."

Dom reached down and picked up the knife so lately grasped in Ede's hand, Lij's blood still staining the blade, and moved over to her body. He cut the gown away from her neck, and stood up, and stared at Ede's dead form with a coldness that sent shivers down both men's spines. In a commanding voice that caused the hair on their necks to rise, he said...

"By the authority vested in me as Ard-Ri, the highest judge of the courts in this land, and as priest of the order of the Children of Light, I call upon the good earth as my witness, and the sky and the waters, and the wind upon the heath to mark what I now do for the sake of the land and its peoples.

I consign Ede the daughter of Brogan to outer darkness, her shade to wander the night, never to find entrance into the halls of the just. I do this for the people she has tortured and slain, for the innocent children she has murdered and ravished and for the blight she has caused to fall on this our fair land." He looked down and spoke to Ede as if she was still living, his voice shaking with emotion, but strong and pure.

"For the life of your father, you are condemned..."

He made a small cut in the shape of an x on her chest. "For your mother's life, however evil she was...you are condemned. "For Connor, your husband...

For Colm and his wife and their seven innocent children, you are condemned..."

For each person as he named them, another cut was made.

"For the land and its people..." the knife moved swiftly, "and lastly, for Pen-Nekeb who was innocent - as were all the others you foully murdered - of any crime against you, and for my spouse, Egypt, who bore his suffering at your hands with such nobility, I condemn you."

He made a last cut on her brow, saying, in a voice breaking with emotion, "O, fair Hounds of Ulla, Guardians of the Gates, when you meet her in the bright dawn, and find the markings of the murderer upon her breast and brow - may you tear her soul to shreds so that never in heaven or on earth shall a remnant of her remain! I have done."

Dom pulled the gown across Ede's pale chest and stood upright.

"You are my witnesses that I did my duty. The people will expect it and I have done it. Tell no-one the words I used. Her crimes shall be remembered and recorded, but not her life or the details of her ending."

Dom looked at Cass and Brian standing drawn and silent before him.

"Captain, take her and burn her body. Let no atom of it rest upon the soil of Erin. Cassawn, fetch her clothing and belongings - every scrap she wore or handled - burn it with her. Her furniture, her chattels, her loom, her bed - all burned, and have the room scoured and purified.

Let the silver be cleansed by water and prayer and proclaimed across the land so it may be returned to those from whom she stole it, or to the poor, if the owners cannot be found. Let none be saved. The dawlee of the courts may assign it where it is most needed. You will find me with my love. Report to me when this is done."

Both men saluted him, hand upon breast, and bowed. "We will do as you command, Ard-Ri."

Dom nodded to them and left the room without another word.




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