Princes of Ireland - Edward Rutherfurd [48]
The traveller was a bard. They fell into conversation easily, and Conall was able to exhibit such a knowledge of poetry that the stranger quickly took him for another bard like himself. Conall judged the man to be a good practitioner of his craft, but it was not long before he learned that the bard was leaving Munster to escape trouble of some sort. So when Conall suggested that he might be able to help his new acquaintance find employment at the court of the High King, he was not surprised to see the fellow’s eyes light up.
“You must go to Uisnech, while the king is still there,” he told him. “I have a friend, a druid named Larine. If you go to him and say I sent you, he may be able to help you. But I have enemies myself, so you must tell nobody who sent you. Just go straight to Larine.”
“But how will he know who sent me?” he asked.
“I shall give you a token,” Conall replied. And breaking a small branch from a nearby tree, he whittled it with a knife and after carefully making marks on it in ogham script, he gave it to him.
“Show him this and say that I told you he would help you.”
“I shall indeed,” the man promised, and went on his way.
What Conall had written on the stick was a request. He had just asked Larine to come and meet him. He had to get a message to the king.
In the days that followed, they went sometimes southwards, sometimes westwards, at a more leisurely pace. They dropped down to move cautiously past some scattered farms, before finding high ground and forest again. They also fell into a new mode of travel.
It was his meeting with the bard that had given Conall the idea. Each day he would scout ahead, then lead Deirdre forward to a place he judged to be secure. Moving off by himself, then, he would travel until he saw a farmstead. He had some days’ growth of beard now. His shirt was not too clean. By walking with a slight stoop, he made himself seem older. Taking care always to arrive on foot, he had no difficulty in passing himself off as a bard and in obtaining food and shelter for the night. In the morning he would beg some extra food for his journey, and this he would bring back to Deirdre. Not only did this solve the problem of feeding her but it also allowed him to keep informed of any news in the countryside. So far there was no word about his flight, nor any sign of a search party. This method of travelling also had another advantage for Conall. He was often away from Deirdre at night.
When a man is withholding himself from a woman, or a woman from a man, the most effective avoidance lies in the arrangement of circumstances. The method of travelling safely which Conall had chosen was so entirely logical that Deirdre could hardly question it. Some nights Conall stayed with her, but when he did he was tired; and so, although she was still puzzled, she supposed that he meant to put off the consummation of their love until they reached a place where they could safely remain, and that she need only be patient.
He had told Larine to meet him in fifteen days. It should take the fellow three, perhaps five days to find the druid; and another three for Larine to reach the meeting place. Allowing a generous margin for error, fifteen days had seemed sensible. He had picked the meeting place carefully. It lay on open ground where he could watch the approaches. To reach it from the north, the druid would have to take a winding path across a bog. He had told him to come alone, but even if his friend were followed, Conall would be able to make his escape before any pursuers could come close. The only problem he had not yet solved was what to do with Deirdre while he went there. Perhaps he would find a farmstead where she could await him; but that was risky. More likely he would have to find a safe place where he could leave her with provisions for a few days. Until then, he did not want to get too far from the meeting place. So it was that their journey was following a large westwards curve, rather than plunging due south into Munster.
His choice of Larine had been natural. If there