Children of the Moon 04 - Dragon's Moon

as well, when you are thinking clearly.”
    “Thank you for telling me my innermost thoughts.”
    “I understand wanting to believe those you hold dear are good people…and having to accept when you realize they were not.”
    “My brother was a good person. He was deceived.”
    “Do you enjoy your life among the Sinclairs?” he asked, refusing to continue such an argument.
    She might well be right. He knew what it was to be deceived. Would her brother have shifted his thinking if exposed to the truth? There was no answer to that quandary in the violence of the past.
    “Laird Talorc and Abigail have been very kind to me.”
    “You live with the laird?” Lais asked with surprise and humor he made no attempt to mask.
    Eirik had agreed to make his home in the keep until the Éan were settled amidst the clan.
    “I have a room next to their children.”
    That was an interesting way of putting it. She could have said that she was part of the family, or treated like family, but she avoided doing so.
    It probably made Lais a bad friend, but he could not help looking forward to the times to come with Eirik and Ciara under the same roof.
    There was something there. Lais had never seen Eirik shift so fast and not once into a dragon in front of his people.
    Eirik kept the dragon private and Lais thought he was probably the only Éan who understood why.
    Everyone else speculated it had something to do with the power or pride of the dragon, but Lais knew Eirik feared his dragon as much as he embraced it. To burn another Chrechte to ash was not an easy event to carry on one’s conscience.
    “Eirik killed your brother in protection of the young of our race, but he saved your life this night. Will you let that go unremarked in your bitterness?”
    Ciara jerked so hard she almost fell off her horse but shook her head. “No. I would tell him of my appreciation.” A moment of silence passed. “I am not bitter.”
    “Good.” He thought about what he had to say next. “You can show your genuine appreciation and continue to maintain the secret of Eirik’s dragon.”
    “Laird Talorc does not know he is a dragon?” Ciara asked, anxiety coloring her voice and making her heart quicken.
    “Aye, he does, but others do not. It is a closely guarded secret.”
    “Because of Faol like Wirp and Luag.”
    “Aye.”
    “Perhaps news of such a being would frighten them off.”
    “Or make Eirik the greatest target to them all.”
    “I will not betray his secret.”
    “Thank you.”
    She was silent as they entered the lower bailey, the only clan there to meet them the night guard who spoke in low tones with Eirik before sending a young soldier running toward the keep.
    E irik’s people had all dismounted and gathered their belongings by the time the Sinclair made it down the hill from the keep. His hair stuck up as if he’d been drawn from his bed and he wore only a sword and his kilt.
    Nevertheless, he was smiling. “I’m glad you and your people have finally made it.” Like the friend that he was, the Sinclair reached out and pulled Eirik in a warrior’s embrace.
    Eirik returned it before stepping back. “I did not mean to pull you from your bed.”
    “It happens.” The Sinclair gave the shrug Eirik knew could irritate the man’s wife, Abigail, no end.
    “We were going to camp outside the wall.” Eirik let some censure bleed into his voice. “I saw the drawbridge was down, so changed my plan.”
    The smile the Sinclair gave was smug. “I had a feeling you would be here tonight.”
    “The security of your people is more important than a little inconvenience.”
    Instead of taking umbrage at Eirik’s clear censure, Talorc merely let his grin grow wider. “You are all my people now, too. Abigail insisted you would feel more welcome if the drawbridge was down.”
    “You allow your lady to dictate in matters of clan security?” Eirik asked with no little shock.
    “You know Abigail.” But there was something in the Sinclair’s voice and then he looked over Eirik’s shoulder.
    Eirik turned his head to see a group of warriors entering the lower bailey as the sound of the drawbridge being lifted could be heard.
    “You had a guard on watch outside the walls.”
    “Of course.”
    Eirik almost smiled. “It seems your life is filled with headstrong women, but you know how to handle them for the most part.”
    “Women?” Talorc asked with a puzzled frown that went dark as he seemed to comprehend all that Eirik had