Divine Sacrifice, The (17 page)

“Patrick!” I stood aghast, the only thoughts running through my head those of a husband who has seen a wife so ravaged. Perhaps the church was right, perhaps a man
with such a past had no place in Hibernia. I dropped my head and shook it. “
Episcopus,
I have a hard time reconciling the man before me with the monster that could force himself on a
child!”

For his part, Patrick did not beat his breast or bray at the world. He said simply, “We were all children then.”

Something in the simple way he said it told me much about how long and how deeply his transgression had haunted him. Rather than dwell on the deeds of decades past, I tried to focus on the here
and now.

“And this Tremayne is now the man who has betrayed you to the church fathers?”

“He kept that secret for many years. What circumstances occasioned this betrayal, I do not know. He too has had his difficulties with the church over the years.”

I thought Patrick was being a little too understanding and I said so.

“It is how I am, Malgwyn. But Tremayne’s betrayal was just a fraction of my own. I betrayed my friendship with Addiena and Elafius. And that betrayal is far worse than any visited
upon me by Tremayne. Just a few months later, I was taken by Scotti raiders and sold into slavery in Hibernia. I often wonder if Tremayne would have kept his silence so long had I not been taken. I
was six years under the control of my Scotti masters. By the time I escaped and made my way home, too much time had passed and Tremayne had left home to find his way in the world. Elafius was
already in the Christ’s service.”

Then it was my turn to look off across the land, its curves still shrouded in mist. “I have, in my time, traveled to Bannaventa and the surrounding countryside, Patrick. Nowhere in my
travels have I heard of a man named Tremayne. Where does he live now?”

And Patrick smiled. “He entered the Christ’s service before I did, after studying in Gaul, but he changed his name as so many do when they enter into such a life. I strongly doubt
that he has any involvement in the present affair here. He was a headstrong youth and angered the church fathers greatly. His has not been an easy life, and I know not what has become of him, or
even if he be still alive.”

“Why come here to apologize to Elafius now? Surely it would have been better had you done it much earlier.”

Patrick shrugged. “In truth, I was not sure where he was. He studied some little bit in Gaul, but I always suspected that he would return here, to his homeland. His letter about
Pelagianism gave me a reason that even Dubricius could not find fault with. Bishops are very protective of their territory. And I have drawn their wrath before when I chastised a
tyrannus
here who raided into Hibernia and killed Christians.”

“Then why would Dubricius not complain now? Of this Pelagianism.”

“I believe that Dubricius has always been a secret follower of Pelagius. But Pelagianism is so overwhelmingly opposite to what the church believes that Dubricius does not dare to appear to
support it. Remember that they sent Germanus to combat Pelagianism twice, once with Lupus and once with Severus. And I happen to know that Severus is in Britannia now. Indeed, Malgwyn, it is
Severus who is leveling these charges against me. He is a driven man. It would take little to get him to wage a new crusade against Pelagianism. He was the darling of the church when he stood with
Germanus. I suspect that now he seeks to regain some of that glory. Dubricius cannot be sure who else Elafius wrote to, so it behooves him to suffer my presence here, thus allowing him to give the
appearance of fighting Pelagianism while, in actuality, ignoring it himself.”

I studied the old
episcopus
carefully. “Affairs between lords are treacherous, my new friend. But I never dreamed that they could be as devious and duplicitous within the
church.”

Patrick stood, smoothing his robe. “Then you have much education ahead of you, Malgwyn. Come, let us begin our day’s work.”

“A moment,
episcopus
. Why did you tell me all of that? You had no need. I am no one, just a simple man, counselor to a king who cannot claim that his household is as one on any
issue. A man you had never met before yesterday.”

“Because I sense in you a man in whom trust can be placed. Because after I leave here, I shall appear at a special commission at Castellum Marcus before Dubricius and Severus and others,
where my continuance as
episcopus
of Hibernia will be decided.” He stopped then and turned to me. “I have a
confessio
written out, and I wish you to take it should
something happen to me.”

“But Patrick, choose one of the
monachi
who wait on you. You know them, and they are of your faith.”

“That is why, Master Malgwyn, I have chosen you. Do not worry. I do not plan on missing the meeting at Castellum Marcus. But, were something to happen to me . . .” He reached down
into a bag, retrieving something. “Take this scroll,” he said, handing it across to me. “It is my
confessio,
much as I have given it to you already.” I took it
without eagerness.

Patrick stopped for a moment and looked around our Ynys-witrin. “Should God visit my death on me here, this would be a pleasant place for my earthly body to await the resurrection. But put
no marker for me, no sign of where these old bones lie. That will suit me best. I have attracted enough attention in life to satisfy one in death.”

All I could do was nod. And we continued to navigate the remainder of the path up to Coroticus’s hall where we would hold court that day. “Tell me something, Malgwyn,” Patrick
asked after a moment. “Did Elafius suffer much?”

I thought of the hands and fingers that held him, those that gripped his jaws and forced them open. And then I lied. “No,
episcopus
. His was a quiet passing.”

Patrick nodded absently. “I am glad. As a child, Elafius was a giving, caring person. He knew no strangers, and he would give them anything they asked. Why do you think he was
murdered?”

That was a question I had been pondering much. “He knew something that was important enough for men to kill him. Now, whether this same information was important to you or to Arthur, I do
not know.”

“Why not important to the abbot?”

“He could be as easily murdered as Elafius. The person that needed Elafius silenced was not afraid of Coroticus. What Elafius knew or what he represented was far more dangerous; his secret
has implications far beyond Ynys-witrin.”

Patrick stopped in his tracks and spun around. “How know you this?”

I halted before him. “Think,
episcopus,
your arrival has been heralded here since you set foot on the coast. Swift runners brought news within hours that you were headed this way.
Arthur’s arrival has been common knowledge even longer.”

“So. What does this tell you?”

“Elafius was murdered suddenly, in somewhat of a hurry. He needed to be eliminated and something he had in his possession had to be taken.”

“You can read minds, it seems?”

“No, his cell had been searched hastily by the time I arrived here. Someone was looking for something and they did not have the time to be pretty about it.

“My guess is that it was your arrival that hastened Elafius’s death.”

“Why say you so?”

“The Rigotamus has been scheduled to visit for more than one moon. Your visit was only known for certain a few days hence. The search of his cell was something done in extreme haste. No
plan had been laid beforehand.”

“What brings this talent to you?” Patrick asked. “It is a valuable one and one that you should cherish.”

“I have no idea,
episcopus,
but it is with me.” I stopped and held the door to Coroticus’s hall open to him.

He laid his hand on my shoulder as he passed through. “It is a special gift, but one that may make you the mark of assassins.”

“I have harbored such thoughts myself,” I grumbled in his wake.

“I will defer to you in this matter, Malgwyn. Your experience is better suited to an inquiry of this sort. Rooting out Pelagianism is one thing. But this is now a murder inquest, and that
is more properly your territory.”

He was right, but I was surprised at his willingness to cede authority. Though I knew that finding Elafius’s killer was unlikely to preserve his bishopric, Patrick did not seem a man
willing to cede any authority for any reason.

W
e arranged ourselves at the front of the hall. I turned to the four soldiers left by Arthur for my use. They were common soldiers, not officers,
and each carried a small round shield, a spear, and a cloak rolled into a bundle and wrapped across his body from shoulder to hip, a hip that universally held a dagger. “Bring us the woman
Rhiannon,” I instructed one of the men. Two of them saluted and headed out of the hall.

“Shall we begin with this woman, this Rhiannon?” Patrick asked.

“Yes,
episcopus,
” I said. “There is much of this affair wrapped around religion, it seems. I have taken her measure as a person. I would hear your thoughts of her as a
person of God.”

Patrick nodded. Now that his secrets were revealed, he was still as devout in his beliefs, but I sensed an ease with me that had been missing before. The soldiers gone, Patrick turned to me.
“Your anger was not at Arthur, my new friend. Your anger was at all the killing you had done, but which had not wiped away the anguish from your soul. You had killed and killed Saxons and yet
they came. Your men lay around you dead and still your beloved wife had not risen from the grave. You wished to die. And Arthur kept you from that, but your anger was at yourself for all the
killing you had caused.” He spoke softly, without a hint of chastisement.

“You are a very, very perceptive man, Patrick. But I have come a long way along the road that you have laid out.”

“But you have not come to the Christ. He can take your burdens from you.”

“Please,
episcopus,
I have the greatest respect for those who have chosen that way. But I am not one of them.”

“Yet,” he added with a smile.

I returned the smile, feeling comfortable before the old
episcopus
as I had not before. “Not yet.”

“Then perhaps I should take this time to work on that.”

I rolled my eyes as he began.

Rhiannon was just as fetching today as the day before. Her long hair flew violently about her shoulders, and her robe seemed to stay on only by God’s mercy, so excitedly
did she cast her arms about.

“Do you think that I have nothing else to do but answer your summons?” she asked me, quite unabashed. She stopped long enough to cast her eyes up and down Patrick. “For a great
episcopus,
he seems harmless.”

“The same might be said of you.”

The look she shot my way could have pierced the toughest iron, and she moved with a firm step to a wooden chair set in front of the abbot’s dais. “Ask your questions! I have work to
be about.” I was more taken with her than before. I knew she was of my age, maybe a bit younger, but her monastic life had kept many of the lines of age from her face that marked those of her
contemporaries. Her eyes fired like nothing I’d seen, and I could readily understand how Coroticus would be tempted.

I kept my eyes averted from Patrick.

“You will be silent, woman!” The impatience was thick in Patrick’s voice.

“I know you’re an ancient man, but are you so bored that you brought me here just to look at?”

This time even the soldiers chuckled. Coroticus had had some small snacks laid out and she helped herself to some oysters without asking.

“I think you take liberties.” I said, trying to bring myself to the task at hand.

Her hand paused on its journey to her lips, but then continued. “Are these your oysters, Master Malgwyn?”

“They are God’s oysters,” Patrick pointed out. “And He gives us dominion over them.”

“Then I am exercising my dominion.” She sat back in her chair, smoothing her gown. I was not positive, but I sensed a tremor of concern in her manner. This confrontation caused her
greater fear than her first, and she covered for it by her cockiness and lack of respect, and I wondered at the cause. She seemed younger today, and that was odd, but I could not say why I believed
it so.