The Sacred Stone Read online

  And that, Geoffrey thought, was exactly what Marcus would say when he was confronted with the evidence of his treachery. He was about to say so when Ivar, seeing Cadowan and Nest indicate they wanted to speak to him, turned and broke into a run. They followed, making a comical procession as they rounded the church.

  Then the gate opened again and Walter strode inside, holding a cloth-wrapped bundle; his four knights were at his heels. Their arrival was oddly timed, and Geoffrey wondered whether they had heard Roger’s pronouncement from outside – it had certainly been loud enough. Pigot’s dark face creased into a scowl when he saw Roger, although Revelle smiled a friendly greeting. Walter grinned when he saw Geoffrey, all teeth and no sincerity.

  ‘You are up early,’ the constable remarked. ‘I expected you to sleep late, given that you must have been tired after yesterday’s exertions. I am sorry business claimed me last night, depriving us of the opportunity to chat, but we shall rectify that today. I am eager to make better acquaintance with one of the King’s agents.’

  Odo appeared suddenly from the direction of the church. He was breathless and looked flustered; Aidan was not far behind him. Odo stopped dead in his tracks when he heard Walter’s words.

  ‘You are the King’s agent?’ he demanded, regarding Geoffrey with alarm. ‘You did not mention that yesterday.’

  ‘He is a modest man,’ provided Roger when Geoffrey said nothing. ‘It is usually left to me to do the bragging. And it was as well I did yesterday, or you might have killed him.’ He turned to glower at Walter, who had the grace to look sheepish.

  ‘Walter tried to harm you?’ asked Odo. An expression of gleeful malice crossed his face. ‘Then it is a matter that must be reported to the King. I shall write this morning and—’

  ‘Please do not,’ said Geoffrey tiredly, unwilling to have his name brought to Henry’s attention for any reason. ‘It was a misunderstanding.’

  Odo’s eyes narrowed. ‘I do not believe you. And you do not look well today. You—’

  ‘He said it was a misunderstanding,’ snarled Walter, coming to stand close to the prior and insinuating enough menace into his words to make Odo step back in alarm. ‘So that is an end to it. You would do better to pay heed to your own business – for example, establishing which of your monks murdered Leger, who, incidentally, is uncle to Sir Geoffrey’s wife.’

  ‘That means Geoffrey is Leger’s kin, and you are in serious trouble,’ added Pigot provocatively.

  ‘How dare you make such accusations,’ shouted Odo. ‘You know perfectly well that the villain was one of the brutes who stand at your heels. They have killed before and—’

  ‘I came to return this,’ interrupted Walter. He pulled the cloth from the parcel he held, to reveal a large altar-cross. ‘It was found in the possession of a local thief, and I imagined you would be pleased to have it back. However, I did not come here to bandy words with you. I am above such indignities. With your permission, I shall take it to the church.’

  He turned and strutted away, without waiting to hear whether he had permission or not, leaving Odo grinding his teeth in impotent rage. It was a clever piece of manipulation – coming to present the priory with stolen property, and then manoeuvring himself into the position of injured party during the exchange that followed – although Geoffrey saw through it. But Walter’s games with the priory were not his concern.

  ‘We need to talk to Marcus,’ he told Odo, watching as Walter and his henchmen opened the church door and disappeared inside.

  ‘He is your spy,’ added Roger, presenting the little box and its contents with a flourish. Geoffrey closed his eyes. He had imagined the thing had been left where it had been found and would have stopped Roger, had he seen him removing it.

  Aidan snatched it from him. ‘Walter owns a lot of these. I know, because when we say Masses for his daughter’s soul, the coins come in one. And here is one of our wooden crosses. It looks like Marcus’s – his was chipped when he dropped it once, and here you can see a small piece is missing.’

  ‘But Marcus told me he lost it,’ said Odo, bemused. ‘And that his family had sent him a gold one as a replacement. He asked my permission to wear it, because he said a gift from his family helped alleviate the sorrow he felt at losing the one he was given at his ordination.’

  ‘If this cross was at the castle,’ said Aidan, staring at his prior with worried eyes, ‘then it means Walter stole it. Marcus would not have parted with it otherwise. Or it fell off when he was in their dungeons.’

  ‘Fell off into a box?’ asked Roger archly. ‘Which was then hidden in a wall of the room allocated to him when he is at the castle? And in company with gold coins?’

  ‘There are no gold coins in here,’ said Aidan, peering into the box doubtfully.

  ‘They must have fallen out,’ said Roger smoothly.

  ‘We should confront Walter,’ said Aidan, watching as the constable left the church. Walter was walking briskly, giving the impression of being a busy man. ‘He is here anyway.’

  ‘No,’ said Odo, reaching out a hand to stop him. ‘We will talk to Marcus first. Where is he?’

  ‘Asking forgiveness for his sins in the church,’ replied Roger piously, ignoring the fact that he had some sins of his own to confess, the most recent being theft.

  Odo set off towards the building, the others at his heels. It was far darker than it had been the previous day, because of the gathering thunderclouds. As if to accentuate the point, there was a flash of lightning and another growl of thunder, this time closer.

  It illuminated Marcus, who was in the Lady Chapel next to Leger’s coffin. He was lying on his face, and there was a dagger protruding from his back.

  Odo released a strangled cry and ran towards him, while the blood drained from Aidan’s face. Geoffrey dropped to one knee beside the prostrate monk but could see he was past all earthly help. Like Leger, he had been killed neatly and proficiently with a single, efficient blow.

  ‘Walter!’ exclaimed Aidan. ‘He was just in here. He killed Marcus!’

  ‘He might have done,’ acknowledged Geoffrey. ‘However, you can see from here that the cross is back on the high altar. Perhaps Walter really did just replace it and leave.’

  ‘Then why did he not raise the alarm when he found Marcus?’ demanded Aidan.

  ‘Because you would not be able to see a body on the Lady Chapel floor from the high altar,’ explained Geoffrey. ‘And Walter is not stupid, anyway: he is unlikely to commit such a bold murder when he is the obvious suspect.’

  Or, he wondered, was that what Walter was hoping everyone would think? That the clever constable would be more subtle in dispatching his enemies? But Marcus was not an enemy – he was a much-valued spy. Of course, Geoffrey thought wryly, he had probably heard Roger’s stentorian announcement, and so knew the monk would no longer be of use to him – worse, that he might be a liability, should Odo decide to write to the King. The knight rubbed his head, not sure what to think.

  ‘Well, we know the killer is not Odo or Aidan,’ muttered Roger as the two monks began deliberating how best to confront Walter. ‘First, you can see they are shocked. And, second, we saw Marcus enter the church, and they were outside until we came in here.’

  ‘It is easy to feign horror,’ Geoffrey murmured back. ‘Moreover, both Odo and Aidan disappeared from sight briefly after you announced that Marcus was the spy, and I can see from here that there are another two doors they could have used – one at the back of the building and one at the side.’

  ‘They would not have had time,’ objected Roger. ‘And they would be drenched in blood.’

  But Geoffrey shook his head. ‘You know as well as I do that it takes but a moment to plunge a knife into a kneeling man’s back – and that leaving the weapon in the wound reduces spillage.’

  Roger frowned. ‘But this means our suspects for Marcus’s murder are the same as the ones for Leger – Walter and his creatures, and Odo and all his monks. We cannot eliminate anyon
e.’

  ‘No,’ agreed Geoffrey. ‘And you can add Cadowan and Nest to the list, too. They also disappeared from sight after you bawled our findings to half of Wales.’

  Roger looked indignant. ‘I merely spoke the truth. But which of these villains do you think is the culprit? You have a sharp mind: you must have some theories.’

  ‘Not really,’ said Geoffrey. ‘However, while all our suspects had the opportunity to dispatch Marcus, they do not all have a motive. I understand why Walter might have done it – and the monks will certainly want to avenge themselves on the spy who has been selling embarrassing secrets to the castle. But Cadowan and Nest?’

  ‘They are obsessed with getting the sky-stone,’ said Roger. ‘Perhaps they think the spy at the priory is one reason why Ivar is so distrustful. In other words, Marcus’s death will mean everyone likes each other again, and Ivar will relax enough to part with the thing.’

  It did not sound very likely, but Geoffrey was acutely aware that there was a lot they did not know about Estrighoiel and its inhabitants. Cadowan and Nest might have a motive that had not yet been uncovered. He winced when there was a particularly loud grumble of thunder. It rattled the glass in the window frames, and the lightning that flashed just before it was enough to turn the twilight gloom into bright daylight.

  ‘Which of those dogs did it, do you think?’ Aidan was asking Odo, clearly having dismissed Geoffrey’s reasons for why Walter might be innocent. He was fingering a dagger. Monks were not supposed to carry weapons, and Geoffrey wondered where it had come from.

  ‘Revelle, probably,’ replied Odo bitterly. ‘He will obey any order, no matter how repugnant. Or his stupid friend Pigot. Walter would not have delivered the fatal blow himself. But one thing is clear: we shall not sit back and do nothing while a second monk is murdered.’

  ‘A monk who was a spy,’ Roger pointed out.

  ‘But a monk nonetheless,’ said Aidan coldly. ‘Yet some good will come out of this dreadful business: the King will have no choice but to remove Walter from office now.’

  Geoffrey stared after him as he stalked away. Having Walter under suspicion of murder would put the priory at a significant advantage, and was yet another reason why the monks should remain on his list of suspects.

  While the Benedictines started moving Marcus’s body to an outbuilding for washing, Geoffrey began to feel that the odds of solving the crime were too great, and he seriously considered riding away and telling Hilde that her uncle had been killed by a lunatic who randomly slaughtered monks at their prayers. Unfortunately, she was unlikely to be satisfied with such an answer, and he also knew that the mystery would gnaw at him if he did not stay to solve it.

  As they exited the church, Walter returned, this time with a contingent of soldiers as well as his knights, and offered to set them to investigating the latest crime. Odo’s jaw dropped in astonishment at what he declared was mind-boggling audacity, while Cadowan and Nest watched the scene with expressions that were difficult to read. Geoffrey was not sure what to make of any of them.

  ‘You asked yesterday to examine Leger’s possessions,’ said Aidan, handing Geoffrey a box. ‘He did not have many – he followed our order’s policy of poverty, obedience and chastity.’

  The knight was acutely aware that everyone was watching as he began to sort through the chest’s contents. Cadowan and Nest were blank-faced. Odo and his monks were vengeful and angry, although Ivar seemed more distressed than enraged. And the men from the castle were alert and tense; Geoffrey realized uncomfortably that they seemed full of pent-up violence,

  He doubted there would be anything useful in Leger’s belongings – not so long after his death, and with the entire priory aware that he had asked to inspect them. There was a spare habit, another plain wooden cross and some letters from Hilde. Odo’s eyebrows drew together in disapproval when he saw them: monks were not supposed to hoard keepsakes.

  ‘Nothing,’ said Roger in disgust.

  Absently, Geoffrey unfolded one or two of the letters, half listening to a tension-loaded discussion between Walter, Odo and Cadowan about who might have committed the second murder. None of them said anything new: Odo thought the suspect hailed from the castle, Walter claimed it was a monk or a townsman, while Cadowan pointed out that the priory and the castle held the most obvious suspects. Tearfully, Ivar announced that he distrusted everyone, and even included Geoffrey and Roger in his accusing glare. The bald declaration silenced the clamour of the others, and so did the growl of thunder that followed it.

  A tiny piece of parchment had been hidden in the third letter Geoffrey opened. The spidery writing looked as if it had been penned by the same hand as the desperate letter to Hilde. The knight had no doubt that it was Leger’s. He began to read:

  Brother Ivar shared a terrible secret with me today. He told me the location of the sky-stone, which lies at the base of the great oak below the cliffs from which Drogo fell. I urged him to set it on the altar, because it comes from God, but he is afraid. Perhaps it would be best if it stayed hidden, because it brings out evil in good men. I fear for my life now. It is

  There was no more, and Geoffrey could only assume that the monk had been interrupted before he could finish. He became aware that people were regarding him expectantly, so he handed the letter to Odo, who read it with narrowed eyes. The prior glared at Ivar.

  ‘You concealed the sky-stone under a tree?’ he demanded angrily. ‘You stupid fool! Why did you not bring it here, to be safe?’

  ‘No!’ cried Ivar, blood draining from his face. ‘Leger promised never to reveal my secret – not until we had discussed together what was to be done. He promised!’

  ‘That was before he knew it might cost him his life,’ said Aidan angrily. ‘Why did you burden him with this knowledge? Why not Odo or me? We are men who know how to look after ourselves, but he was not. You killed him with your nasty games!’

  Ivar looked ready to cry, while Geoffrey considered the information with interest; Odo and Aidan knew how to look after themselves, and he had seen Aidan with a dagger. Did that mean they were not averse to shedding a little blood for whatever cause they believed in?

  ‘We had better go and lay hold of it,’ said Odo to his monks. ‘We do not want it falling into the wrong hands.’ He looked pointedly at Walter, who bristled.

  ‘What do you mean by that?’ the constable demanded. ‘And why should you have it? If Ivar had wanted it to go to the Church, he would have given it to you when he took holy orders.’

  ‘I do not want any of you to have it!’ shouted Ivar. ‘I have kept it safe for years, and I shall decide where it goes when my death is near.’

  ‘Then you had better make a decision soon,’ growled Pigot. ‘Or you may run out of time. Like Leger.’

  ‘Is that a threat or an unintentional confession?’ demanded Odo. ‘It sounded like the latter. In other words, you killed Leger, because you guessed Ivar had confided in him, and you wanted the thing for yourself.’

  ‘We do not want it,’ said Walter contemptuously, while the black-haired knight blanched at the accusation. ‘Why would we, when it failed to save Eleanor?’

  ‘Because it saved me,’ said Nest quietly. She looked directly at Pigot. ‘When I was being chased by men with harmful intent.’

  Pigot flushed guiltily, although Walter was incensed. ‘That incident had nothing to do with us, as I have already told you.’

  ‘But Pigot has not,’ said Cadowan, who had not missed the knight’s reaction. ‘Let him hold Leger’s cross and deny it. If he lies, he will be struck down. Here – take it.’

  ‘Perhaps we did follow Nest when we saw her alone by the cliffs,’ snarled Pigot, putting his hands behind his back when Cadowan tried to thrust the cross into them. ‘But you cannot prove our intentions were dishonourable.’

  ‘It does not matter,’ said Nest quietly, pulling her husband away. ‘It was a long time ago, and all forgotten.’

  ‘Not by me,’ hissed Cadowan. ‘
It will never be forgotten by me.’

  ‘Never mind this irrelevance,’ said Walter briskly. ‘As constable, it is my duty to find this stone and smash it before any more evil is done. I shall prepare a search party.’

  ‘No!’ cried Ivar, darting forward. ‘You cannot destroy it! It is a gift from God.’

  ‘Get away from me, you devil-lover,’ snarled Walter. ‘Your stone will soon be dust.’ Then he snapped his fingers to indicate his men were to fall in behind him and left the priory without another word.

  ‘We had better make sure we reach it first,’ said Odo grimly. He looked around at his monks, who were already donning cloaks against the looming storm. ‘We cannot stand by and see a gift from God destroyed. You had better stay here, Ivar – you will slow us down.’

  Geoffrey raised his eyebrows. ‘You will have to hurry: if Walter reaches it first, it will not be easy to wrest it from him. He and his men are armed.’

  ‘There are many ways to the base of the cliff,’ said Aidan. He grinned wildly. ‘And I believe I know a faster way than Walter.’

  They hurried away, and Geoffrey looked around to find that he and Roger were alone. Cadowan and Nest had also disappeared, while even Ivar, apparently loath to stand by while his treasure was seized, had hobbled after his brethren.

  ‘It looks as if they all mean to have it,’ said Roger, amused. ‘It is a pity they know these cliffs, because I would not mind owning a healing stone myself – to use on you. You do not look well.’

  ‘I am all right,’ said Geoffrey, although his arm now throbbed so badly it was difficult to think of anything else. He winced when the next thunderclap started. ‘I suppose all we can do now is wait to see who returns victorious.’

  ‘Not here, though,’ said Roger, looking around in distaste. ‘We shall visit a tavern.’