Sacrifice

by Philip Freeman

  I wanted to cry, scream, or curse God, but it wouldn’t do any good. All I could do was sit beneath the tree and try to breathe. I had sung before kings many times about the glory of war, about Irish warriors fighting to the death in heroic combat; I had always loved the stories of Greeks slaying their enemies before the walls of Troy; but I had never seen the aftermath of a real battle with my own eyes—the dead lying in dark red mud, the broken bodies, the shattered lives. There was nothing heroic about any of it.

  I knew now that war was inevitable. The eastern clans would not forgive this attack. The king would have to side against the western clans. Word would have reached him already and he would have withdrawn his men from the monastery by now. He would need every warrior he had in the coming fight.

  But there was still one nun in danger of being brutally murdered, still one sacrifice to perform. I knew the killer would not stop because there was war. The war would in fact make it easier for him. Who would care about a single nun when so many men would soon be dying?

  I knew then that my place was at the monastery. I was no longer a sister of holy Brigid, but I would not leave my friends to face a killer or an army without me.

  I ran back over the hills and through the forest to Kildare, my harp at my side. I could see the brothers and sisters on the walls of the monastery as I drew near. The king had indeed withdrawn his men.

  As I got to the gate, Sister Garwen came running to me.

  “Deirdre, Deirdre! They’re gone!”

  “Yes, Garwen, I can see the soldiers are gone. Don’t worry. We’ll be all right. I’m going to stay here. I can fight as well as any man.”

  “No, no, not the soldiers.”

  She was so frantic that she could barely speak.

  “What are you talking about, then?”

  “Riona and Dari. We can’t find them anywhere. They’re gone.”

  “What do you mean?” I shouted. “When did you see them last? Are you sure they’re not here?”

  I was shaking Garwen to get her to calm down and answer me, but it was no use. Kevin and three of the sisters ran out of the gate. Sister Anna and Father Ailbe were close behind.

  “They were here for midday meal about six hours ago,” Kevin said, “just after you left. Then word arrived from the king, withdrawing all the soldiers. There was so much commotion with all the guards leaving that it was hard to know who was going where. We collected our weapons and were all on the walls an hour later, but Riona and Dari could have left before that without anyone seeing them. We’ve searched every corner of the monastery. They’re not here.”

  “But how could anyone force them both out of the monastery at the same time in broad daylight?” I demanded.

  “We don’t know,” said Sister Anna. “The back gate is still chained shut. They must have gone out the front. One of the guards as he was leaving said he might have seen two nuns heading into the woods to the west, but he wasn’t sure.”

  “Were they alone?” I asked.

  “He didn’t know.”

  “I’m going to find them,” I said.

  “I’ll go with you,” said Kevin.

  “No,” I insisted. “You’re needed here. You’re the best fighter we have. If anyone attacks Kildare, there are going to be more than just two nuns in danger. I’m going to find this monster myself and kill him before he can hurt Dari or Riona.”

  I handed my harp to Father Ailbe to watch for me. Then I hugged him quickly, got my sword from the infirmary, and ran down the path to the west.

  It was already growing dark, but I found two sets of footprints leading down a side path from the main trail. The footprints were far apart and deep, so I knew both women were running. I was relieved to see that there was not a third person with them, but I couldn’t imagine why they would run off by themselves into the forest when there was still a madman on the loose. And why wouldn’t they tell anyone where they were going? I had a terrible feeling that they were heading into a trap.

  I followed the tracks for several miles through thick forests of elm and ash until I reached a small clearing. It was night now, but the stars were bright in the sky. I could see the comet Sinann had discovered near the constellation of the Great Bear to the north. Its red tail had grown longer and more menacing in the last few days.

  On top of a low hill about a mile away I saw the flicker of a fire. I had been on that hill before. It was a druid temple used by the western clans of our tribe for sacrifices on holy days. The sacred places of the Order were not made of stone like those of the Greeks and Romans, but were walled enclosures of interlacing boughs about the height of a man and perhaps a hundred feet across. They were open to the sky and aligned with the rising of the sun on the summer or winter solstice. There were no stone statues inside, but some temples had rough wooden images of gods and goddesses carved on standing logs. There was always an altar for animal sacrifice on the northern side of the enclosures, but most of the interior was open space for the gathering of worshipers. The first travelers from the Mediterranean world who had visited our island centuries ago found these temples unimpressive and concluded that we were a barbarian people without any religious sensibility. They associated serious worship of the gods with elaborate architecture and grand marble images covered in gold. For the Irish, it was just the opposite. True religious devotion was a matter of a simplicity of communion between humans and the divine.

  I began to run in long strides up the hill toward the temple. When I grew close to the top, I slowed and took my sword from my belt. The single wooden gate to the temple area was shut and there was no sound coming from inside. I walked silently to the gate and eased up the latch. I pushed the gate open just a few inches and saw a small fire burning near the altar. With my sword ready, I entered the enclosure.

  I couldn’t see anyone at first, but then at the far end of the temple I saw a large wicker cage surrounded by firewood and a person in the robes of a nun slumped on the ground inside. It was Dari.

  At that moment I felt something hard strike me on the head from behind. I staggered and struggled to keep my balance, but then I fell on my back beneath the altar. The last thing I remembered was the stars shining in the sky and a figure in black standing over me. Then everything was darkness.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  When I woke up, it was still dark. The first thing I remember feeling was surprise that I was alive.

  My head was throbbing and I couldn’t move. I was sitting tied to a post next to the wicker cage. Dari was still asleep, unconscious, or dead, I couldn’t tell which. She had the same calm look on her face as the other victims. I looked around but couldn’t see anyone else. I called out to Dari, but there was no answer.

  “She’s still alive, Deirdre.”

  Riona was standing alone by the gate of the temple.

  “Riona, quick, untie me so we can get Dari out of here before he comes back! The monastery is preparing for war. No one is coming to help us.”

  She walked over to me slowly and bent down. She took off her veil and began wiping the blood off my face.

  “Never mind that now, Riona. Untie me! Hurry!”

  She stood facing me with a look of great sadness.

  “I’m sorry, Deirdre, I can’t untie you.”

  “What? Why? He’ll be back any minute.”

  “There’s no one else here. There never was.”

  “What are you talking about? He hit me on the head and tied me up.”

  “I’m afraid I did that.”

  “What? What are you talking about?”

  “I didn’t want to. I never planned to hurt you. I thought I would be done before anyone got here.”

  “Done with what?”

  She tied the bloody veil back onto her neck.

  “The sacrifice.”

  She stood facing me, waiting for the words to sink in.

  “Riona . . . no. That’s not possible.”

  She looked exhausted, but calm and determined.

&nb
sp; “Deirdre, I never meant for you to know. I never meant for anyone to know.”

  “But why? And how could it be you? You’re not even a druid.”

  “I have a little while before Dari’s mistletoe wears off, so I guess I can tell you. It would feel good to explain it all to someone.”

  She sat down on the dirt in front of me.

  “I did it for the monastery. For the church. For all the Christians of Ireland.”

  I tried working on the ropes behind me. They were so tight that they were cutting off my blood supply. But I had to keep her talking. I had to keep Dari alive.

  “Christianity is failing on this island, Deirdre. It’s been almost a century since Patrick arrived. In all that time, how much impact has the Gospel made? A few dozen churches, a handful of monasteries. The people here still live in darkness, worshiping false gods. The druids still fill their hearts with lies. Oh, I know most of them mean well, people like Aunt Aoife, but the seeds of truth can’t take root here while there are so many weeds choking them. The only way for the church to prosper here is for the druids to perish.”

  I kept working at the ropes. I couldn’t move them at all.

  “But Riona, why would you kill nuns? Why would you work with Finian?”

  She looked puzzled.

  “Finian? I never worked with him. Why would you think that?”

  “Because he killed the first four sisters.”

  “Finian didn’t kill anyone, Deirdre. It was always me.”

  This was unreal. I kept expecting to wake up. But I knew this was no dream.

  “But Finian died at the stake without saying a word.”

  “I guess he wanted a martyr’s death. Or maybe he knew it would do no good to protest after I gave my testimony to the king.”

  “Then why, Riona? Why would you kill those women?”

  “Like I said, the church is in trouble. The light of Christ is going to die on this island unless something happens to rid us of the druids.”

  “By killing nuns? Are you insane?”

  “No, Deirdre, not insane, just very, very tired. You can’t imagine how hard this has been on me. Do you know what it’s like to take somebody’s life? I wished a thousand times I could have accomplished all this by simply dying myself. I would have gladly sacrificed my own life instead of theirs.”

  She closed her eyes and sighed deeply.

  “But I knew that wouldn’t be good enough. I had to do something so shocking, it would turn the people against the Order. I had to make them think druids were killing the gentle sisters of Kildare. I knew that the Christian clans in the east and their allies would rise against the Order if I could provoke them enough. And now the war is about to begin. It will burn away the druids of Ireland. It won’t be easy and it won’t happen all at once, but the fire of the Gospel will spread throughout this land.”

  I felt one of the ropes on my wrist loosening just a bit.

  “Riona, how could you know how to do these sacrifices? You’re not a druid. No druid in his right mind would ever have told you.”

  “Ah, that’s true, Deirdre. But a druid not in his right mind did.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “About two months ago, I was at my farm looking after the sheep one evening when an old druid came wandering up my path. He was mumbling to himself about coming home, coming home. I asked him who he was, but he didn’t answer me. I took him inside the house and gave him a cup of water and something to eat. He looked around, asking why everything had been moved. I realized then that he was my grandfather, the man who had cursed my parents so long ago.”

  “Your grandfather? The druid sacrificer?”

  “Yes. I confess I thought about killing him then and there. I could have slit his throat like a sheep and buried him in the woods. No one would have ever known. But I put him in my bed and he fell asleep, still mumbling. He’s dead now.”

  “You killed him? But you said you thought you saw your grandfather in the woods outside the monastery yesterday. The board on the gate was loose.”

  “The board was easy to loosen from the inside to make it look like someone had entered from the outside. And I said a lot of things to mislead people, Deirdre. I had to. But no, I didn’t kill my grandfather. He died about a week later in his sleep. But not before I got what I wanted from him.”

  “What was that?”

  The outer rope on my hands was almost off. If I could just twist my hands enough to loosen the inner one.

  “The secrets of druid sacrifices. I came up with the idea that first night. It was as if God had sent the man to me to reveal with his final breath the means to destroy the Order. He was completely demented. I don’t know how he had wandered back to the farm after all those years, but I suppose memories of youth are strong. He didn’t know who I was or what he was doing, but he knew the details of the seven sacrifices like the back of his hand. All it took was patience as I questioned him. After two days, he had revealed everything to me, even the recipe for the mistletoe drink. When he died, I gave him a decent burial. I am a Christian, after all.”

  “So Finian never attacked you at your farm?”

  “No, of course not. I knew you would be coming by to visit that morning. I staged the whole thing to make Finian look guilty and rouse anger against the druids.”

  “You almost strangled yourself and killed your own dogs?”

  She hesitated for a moment.

  “Yes. The choking was easy enough, though it did hurt quite a bit. But my dogs, my beautiful dogs. . . .”

  The inner rope was slowly coming loose now.

  “But how did you get the nuns to drink the mistletoe?”

  “Oh, that was easy. I stopped at each of their hermitages for a visit and offered them some mead from a bottle in my satchel. The mistletoe was mixed into it in the precise amount. I couldn’t let them suffer, except for Fedelm, unfortunately, who had to suffer as part of the ritual.”

  “But how could you kill them? They were fellow sisters of holy Brigid. How could you hate them so much?”

  She looked astonished.

  “Hate them? Deirdre, I loved them all. I pray for them every day.”

  She stood up.

  “I need to finish before Dari wakes up.”

  She walked over to the small fire by the altar and got a blazing stick. The woodpile beneath Dari’s cage was as dry as a bone. It would be a raging inferno in moments.

  “For God’s sake, Riona, no! Even if you believe you killed the others for some noble reason, you don’t need to hurt Dari. Your war is about to start. You’ve won. You’ve accomplished what you set out to do. Please, don’t kill her, I beg you.”

  She knelt down beside me again.

  “I have to, Deirdre. Don’t you understand? I have to complete the seven sacrifices. It will make the anger against the druids even greater when they find her body. The cycle will be complete. Seven sacrifices, seven victims. Or I suppose I should say eight.”

  She took a bottle from her satchel and pulled out the stopper.

  “Please drink this, Deirdre. I don’t want you to suffer either.”

  “Are you crazy? You think I’m going to drink that so you can kill me?”

  “I’m going to kill you anyway, Deirdre. I can’t let you live to tell people who the real killer is. That would ruin everything.”

  She grabbed my head and tried to force the drink into my mouth, but I turned away and fought her off.

  “Deirdre, I am trying to help you. I don’t want you to feel pain. I don’t want you to have to watch Dari die. Please drink it.”

  I pursed my lips together tightly. Riona sighed and gave up.

  “It’s your choice. I’m so sorry, Deirdre.”

  She began walking toward Dari’s pyre with the burning stick.

  “Wait, Riona! Take me instead. I’ll drink the mistletoe, then put me in the cage instead of her. She doesn’t have to die.”

  “I’m sorry, Deirdre. I wish that would work, but it�
��s too late. I told Dari you had sent a message saying that it was a matter of life or death for the two of us to meet you here and that we were to tell no one. I knew none of the other nuns would dare leave the monastery, but Dari would if she thought you were in danger. If I let her go, she would know I lied and tell everyone. I can’t let her live.”

  She tossed the burning brand onto the dry kindling beneath Dari.

  “NO!”

  “I’m sorry, Deirdre. I’m so sorry.”

  The fire was raging in a matter of seconds. It was almost to the bottom of the cage.

  It was then that I broke through the last rope.

  I jumped up and hurled myself at Riona in one desperate motion. I knocked her down hard so that she fell forward into the fire. I then ran to the cage and tore open the door, pulling Dari out just as her robes were starting to burn. I quickly put them out and dragged her to the wall at the edge of the temple. I turned to save Riona, but it was too late. She was trapped deep in the fire, writhing and screaming as she was devoured by the flames.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Dari was groggy as we left the druid temple, but there was no time to waste. I wrapped her arm around my shoulder and half-dragged her down the path and back through the woods on the trail to Kildare.

  It would be dawn soon, and I knew the armies of the eastern and western clans would be gathering near the monastery. My only hope to prevent a slaughter was to somehow convince them of the truth, which I scarcely believed myself. I hoped it would work, but I had serious doubts. Blood had already been spilled on both sides, and Irish warriors were not known for listening to reason.

  By the time we got to the edge of the woods near the monastery, it was daylight and Dari was walking mostly on her own. I explained to her what had happened as quickly as I could. I could see the monks and nuns on the walls in the distance. I could also hear the sounds of shouting and the movement of men in the plain on the far side of Kildare.

  I led Dari to the gate of the monastery, where Father Ailbe and Sister Anna met us.