Chapter 21

Murtagh growled as yet another guard came to inform him that Birgit's son Nolfavrell was still insisting on seeing his mother and speaking to him. He'd been getting the same message for what seemed like every five minutes for the last hour of his interrogation of the woman and it was starting to upset him that the interruption were keeping him from gaining any type of useful information. Knowing that he would not be able to get any further with Birgit without speaking with her son he stood from his chair with a growl and stalked towards the door.

He startled the guard outside the door when he wrenched it open. "Where is he?" Murtagh asked, his frustration at the situation causing him to snap.

"H-he's, he was taken outside sir, so that he would not interrupt you again." The guard said nervously. He was unsure if Murtagh would take out his frustrations out on him for his constant interruptions.

"Bring him in, I wish to have a word with him. Maybe then I will finally be able to get somewhere." The man nodded as he strode across the room and pulled the door open and called out to the two men that were guarding Nolfavrell to bring him in. He then returned and Murtagh indicated with his head that he was to enter Birgit's room to watch her.

He had traveled to Carvahall a great many times over the years, and had come to know most, if not all of its people thanks to his relationship with Eragon and his position as the Riders ambassador. Thus he had spent most of his first and last nights in the village having a drink with Roran, Horst and his sons in the brewery that Nolfavrell had built to continue his fathers trade. He liked the boy, while at first it had taken time to earn his trust, as he had to do for a number of years, Nolfavrell had always treated him respectfully as did he in return. He had even been the one to marry him and his wife Noel three summers ago.

It was surprising then to see the almost wild, panicked look in his eyes, a look that he had never seen before in the good natured man. "I wish to speak with my mother. You have to allow me to see her, I know she couldn't have done this."

Murtagh closed his eyes and shook his head, before placing a comforting hand on his friends shoulder. "I'm sorry, I cannot allow that, not until I am done with her."

"But she could not have done this. Her and Roran have always gotten on rather well before. Sure they have argued before, but never has she wished ill on him." Nolfavrell said, his voice close to breaking as he plead with Murtagh.

Murtagh shook his head. "I have spoken with Horst as well as others from Carvahall, after the death of your father your mother swore that she would get back at Roran for his part in his death. Did you not know of this?"

Nolfavrell slunk into the chair that rested at the table to his right and ran a hand through his shoulder length dark hair. "I did not, she never told me of such a thing. I knew that she blamed Roran for fathers death, and for the first couple of years she had difficulty speaking with him. They would argue endlessly, sometimes so much that they would need to be broken up. But I never thought that she would attack him, she never gave me reason to."

Murtagh nodded. "How are they now, do they still fight? Do they still argue?" Perhaps Nolfavrell could help to enlighten things, perhaps speaking with him was not as bad he had originally thought it would be.

He shook his head. "No, at least not as they had. Do not get me wrong, they still have their differences, but I had thought that mother had let go of her pain, over her anger at fathers death. I have yet to hear a raised voice from them for the past three years, and neither Horst nor I have had a reason to separate them in a great number of years. I do not see how she could have done what you say she did. Not now."

Murtagh nodded. It was a possibility that someone had forced Birgit to do that which she had put in her past. And with all of the attacks of late, the possibility that it was someone causing the people to lash out, to act on their anger, no matter how far repressed was a terrifying prospect. It made him shudder with dread, just thinking of what it could possibly do to him, what it could cause him to do, he didn't want to think of it.

He stood and he rested a hand on Nolfavrell shoulder, and attempting to ease his friends mind said. "I believe you, I shall find the cause for her actions. When I am done, you can see her." He nodded, and as he looked up at him, but then looked back down at the table and ran his hands through his hair.

With one final look at him Murtagh strode back into the room, and when the guard went to leave he instructed him to leave Nolfavrell alone and that he was to allow him to stay. With a nod the guard left and Murtagh made his way back to the chair that he had vacated across the table from Birgit, who was restrained to her own chair.

"What have you done to my son?" She asked, her voice hollow.

"Nothing."

"Where is he, I wish to see him." She said, as her eyes bore into his own.

"After we have finished. He believes that you have not acted on your own, that you would not have done what you did. I need to know the truth Birgit, did you purposefully mean to attack Roran Garrowsson and kill him." Murtagh asked as he leant forward in his chair, his arms crossed across the table.

"Twenty years ago my answer would have been yes, Fifteen years ago I would have told you that I meant it, and that I would celebrate it. But not now. I did not wish to cause him harm. When I saw him, it was like my body was not mine to control, it was like a spirit had taken control of my limbs and was forcing me strike. The anger that I had felt, it is not something I have felt since the war, since my husband had been killed and eaten. I wished to stop, but I could not." She said, her voice low.

"Why did you not run and flee the scene?" Murtagh asked.

"When the deed had been done, I knew that I had caused it, it mattered not if I had been possessed by an angry spirit. It was by my hands that the blows had been struck, it was my anger, long forgotten, long pushed to the back of my mind that had fueled me."

"Did you come into contact with anyone strange today, did anyone offer you anything." Murtagh asked, his eyes hardening as things began to click into place. Her story was beginning to sound like those of the people that had been involved in the fight outside the tavern.

"Everyone seems strange for many reason in the lower ring." Birgit said, and Murtaghs eyes widened. Everything that seemed to be happening was originating from the lower ring.

"What were you doing there? What was your business in the lower ring of the city?" His voice hardened ever so slightly as he pressed for answers.

"I wished to browse the vendors, their wears are cheaper than those in the middle ring."

"Did you purchase anything, a pendent or something with a stone or crystal?" He asked as he stood and made his way around the table.

She shook her head as she looked up at him. "I did not find anything that I liked, or thought that my sons wife would appreciate. The day of her birth is approaching within the month and I wished to find something for her within the city before we returned to Carvahall."

Murtagh cursed and strode across the room, his right hand coming through his hair as he thought. If she had not purchased anything, or been given anything than that only meant that someone had placed a spell on her. Quickly he strode back across the room and knelt before her, his hands raised on both sides of her head. "I need to search your memories. Perhaps I will be able to find something that you have forgotten that will lead us to the truth of the situation. It wont heart, I promise you."

She nodded, and then after closing his eyes to concentrate he entered her mind and began to shift through her memories of the day as well as the day before. He learned that she had been telling the truth when she said that she had not bought anything or been given anything. However the troubling matter was that, like many others minds that he had examined as of late he continued to see a man cloaked in black in a number of locations that she had been. He had seen him before, in the minds of the men that had been involved in the fight as he had made his way to the tavern that the fight had taken place outside of.

He cursed when the man would not raise his head, not allowing his face to be seen as he briskly walked past, but as he did Murtagh felt Birgit's anger rise as she turned and made her to he middle ring in search of Roran. He could feel her panic as she attempted to stop herself, could hear as she mentally screamed at herself to stop and cursed the spirits for what they were doing to her. In front of her, she could see Roran and his family walking through the streets, she could see Katrina laugh at something that her son had said and she wished that her old friends daughter would one day forgive her for what she knew was to come.

She pulled a dagger out of the belt of a man that she passed and as Roran turned to look at something that Garrok had pointed out she had struck him in the chest, causing Katrina to scream in alarm and Garrok to run off seaking help. She struck again for a second time and just as she was about to do so for a third time she found that she could once again control her limbs and dropped the dagger just as she crumpled to the street. Her eyes were wide as Katrina grasped at Roran's bleeding chest and out of the corner of her eye she could see Garrok running towards them with two guards and a number of healers behind him. She did not resist as they grabbed her arms and pulled her in the opposite direction than the healers were taking Roran.

With that Murtagh pulled himself from her mind, and noticed that tears were falling from her eyes. He moved his hands from either side of her head, and wiped at her eyes with the back of his hand. She began to calm soon and when he was sure that she was fine he stood and he had her stand as well. He placed his hands on her shoulders and waited for her to look up at him. "I know you are not to blame."

She nodded, and with a strangled voice asked of Roran. "He lives, Eragon saved him."

Birgit smiled. "Good."