Whispers of the Dead (48 page)

Archbishop Theodore’s eyes had widened. Brother Eadulf smiled brightly.

“Do you mean that when you saw that the Latin was so modern, you realized that it could not have been written five centuries ago?”

Fidelma shook her head.

“When I read how Cingetorix talked about the position of his house, the forgery stood out like a sore thumb.”

Archbishop Theodore was shaking his head.

“But you found the hypocaust of an ancient Roman building exactly where he said it was. And there was the ruined defensive tower on the old city wall, which is marked number ‘eight.’ Each tower bears a Roman numeral.”

“Surely, and his house was by the northeast corner of a church being raised by Christians to Martin of Gaul, whom we call the Blessed Martin of Tours,” agreed Fidelma.

“So? What is significant about that? There had been Christians and Christian communities in Britain for about a hundred years before the time that the Ninth Legion was said to have disappeared here,” pointed out Brother Eadulf.

“Indeed. But Martin of Tours, who had such a profound effect on the Christian communities not only in Britain but in my own land of the five kingdoms of Éireann, was not born until a century and a half after the events supposedly recounted by Cingetorix. Deacon Lepidus had done some research, but not enough. I went along with him to see where he was leading me. In my own language, Archbishop, there is a saying:
is fearrde a dhearcas bréug fiadhnuise
—a lie looks the better of having a witness. He wanted me to be witness to his lie, to his fraud. But even a clever man cannot be wise all the time.”

The stories contained in this volume first appeared as follows:

“Whispers of the Dead” was originally published in
Murder Most Catholic,
ed. Ralph McInery. Nashville, Tennessee, USA, Cumberland House, Autumn, 2002.

“Corpse on a Holy Day” was originally published in
And the Dying is Easy,
ed. Joseph Pittman and Annette Riffle. New York, USA, Signet Books, May, 2001.

“The Astrologer Who Predicted His Own Murder” was originally published in
Death By Horoscope,
ed. Anne Perry. New York, USA, Carroll & Graf, July, 2001.

“The Blemish” was originally published in
The Brehon,
Vol. I, No. 3, September 2002.

“Dark Moon Rising” was originally published in
The Brehon,
Vol. II, No. 3, September, 2003.

“Like a Dog Returning…” was originally published in
Murder Most Medieval,
ed. Martin H. Greenberg & John Helfers. Nashville, Tennessee, USA, Cumberland House, June, 2000.

“The Banshee” will be published in
Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine,
February, 2004.

“Who Stole the Fish?” was originally published in
Murder Through the Ages,
ed. Maxim Jakubowski. London, UK, Headline, November, 2000.

“Scattered Thorns” was originally published in
Murder Most Celtic,
ed. Martin H. Greenberg. Nashville, Tennessee, USA, Cumberland House, May 2001.

“Gold at Night” was originally published in
Great Irish Drinking Stories,
ed. Peter Haining. London, UK, Souvenir Press, Autumn, 2002.

“Death of an Icon” was originally published in
The Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunnits II,
ed. Mike Ashley. London, UK, Robinson, August, 2001.

“The Lost Eagle” was originally published in
The Mammoth Book of Ancient Roman Whodunnits,
ed. Mike Ashley. London, UK, Robinson, Autumn, 2003.

“Cry ‘Wolf!’,” “The Fosterer” and “The Heir-Apparent” have all been written as original contributions to this volume.

P
eter Tremayne is the fiction-writing pseudonym of Peter Berresford Ellis, a leading Celtic scholar. Born of an Irish father and English mother in Coventry, England, and taking his degrees in Celtic studies, he has published over a score of books in the field of Celtic studies. These include
The Ancient World of the Celts
(1998),
The Celtic Empire
(1990),
Celtic Women
(1995),
Celt and Roman
(1998),
Hell or Connaught: the Cromwellian Colonisation of Ireland
(1975),
A Dictionary of Irish Mythology
(1987),
The Celtic Chronicle: Retellings of Celtic Myths and Legends
(1999) among others. He has received numerous awards and honors for his work, which has been translated into more than a dozen European languages as well as Japanese.

He began writing fiction as Peter Tremayne in 1977, mainly in the field of heroic and supernatural fantasy, using Celtic myth and legend as background. His Lan-Kern sword and sorcery trilogy (1980–1983) and books
such as
Raven of Destiny
(1984),
Ravenmoon
[US title:
Bloodmist
] (1988) and
Island of Shadows
(1991) secured his reputation in the genre. No less than half a dozen of his short stories have been chosen to appear in collections of
Great Irish Stories,
and his own collection of stories,
Aisling and Other Irish Tales of Terror
(1992), won high literary praise. He began to write the Sister Fidelma mysteries in 1993 primarily to illustrate the role of women as lawyers in seventh-century Ireland. The stories have attracted a wide following on both sides of the Atlantic and in translation. The Web site for the International Sister Fidelma Society may be found at
www.sisterfidelma.com
.