Children of the Moon 04 - Dragon's Moon

him though?” Mairi asked warily.
    “No. He does not prey on those weaker than him.”
    “That is good.” Though Mairi still didn’t sound entirely convinced and Ciara could not blame her. To be hurt by the one who was supposed to protect you had to have destroyed her trust in all who would have authority over her.
    She whispered, “I wish I did not fear my father. My brother is not afraid of him.”
    “Your father has broken the ancient laws of our people. Chrechte do not beat their children.” Though clearly some did. It made Ciara’s stomach knot with tension.
    Mairi frowned. “I have heard my father say that the old laws don’t matter any longer, that the Faol have to make a new way.”
    Laird Talorc and the secret council Ciara was not supposed to know existed would want to hear that. A pack leader who dismissed their oldest tenets to live by was a danger to them all, Faol and Éan alike.
    Grief now mixed with pain and fear in Mairi’s scent and Ciara felt empathy for her. She knew the pain of accepting that the one you looked up to most in the world lacked what all Chrechte deemed of greatest importance—honor.
    “Your father is part of the secret group determined to eradicate the Éan, isn’t he?” Ciara was guessing, but it just made sense.
    A Chrechte so twisted he would hurt his only daughter was a man who would entertain unreasonable prejudices as well. And that new way for the Faol business just sounded too much like something Luag would have said to Galen.
    “How did you know?”
    “I didn’t, but I suspected.” She reached out and touched the other woman in comfort. “I have known others of like mind.”
    “They want to kill all the Éan and say that the Faol cannot thrive until they are the only Chrechte left. My father hunts often, but once a month, he and others go hunting and it is not for game to feed the clan.”
    Memories made Ciara clench her jaw so words would not come out.
    “He wants the Faolchú Chridhe ,” Mairi whispered.
    “No,” Ciara practically shouted. “The sacred stone would not be safe in his foul hands.”
    “You are right.” Mairi’s expression turned even more miserable. “He wants its power to overthrow Scotland’s king.”
    “How does he know of the sacred stone’s existence?”
    Mairi’s eyes glistened with tears. “My mother had the sight. She told him everything she saw, including her dreams of the Faolchú Chridhe and the power that can be drawn through it.”
    Mairi’s voice softened when she mentioned her dam, but it was evident that she did not approve her mother’s choice to share such sacred things with a man like her father.
    “She was deceived by her loyalty to her husband,” Ciara comforted the other woman.
    Mairi nodded. “But he had no loyalty to her.”
    “I am sorry.” The words felt inadequate, but Ciara had no others.
    “He wanted more children, a son, but my mother miscarried with her two pregnancies after me. The last one when I was six summers. She drowned in the loch she did our washing in two months later.”
    Was Mairi saying her father had killed her mother?
    “He knew.” Mairi said it like she’d had too much drink and Ciara realized the woman’s condition was worsening.
    “What did he know?” she asked as she tried to ease the human woman to the ground.
    But Mairi fought Ciara’s efforts, remaining standing against the tree. “He knew that to have more children, hehad to bed another and he could not do that while my mother lived. She was his true mate.”
    Ciara’s stomach roiled at the implications. For a Chrechte to kill his mate was anathema to even the worst among their people. “You realized this so young?”
    “No, but later, I knew and I hated him for it, even before he learned of my deficiency, that I am not wolf.”
    Ciara had no words of comfort for something so evil.
    “I have it, too, the sight, but I never told him.” Mairi sounded pleased by her deception.
    And well she should be.
    Ciara asked, “Not even to stop the beatings though?”
    “No. It would not have been worth it. I would not help him in any of his plans.”
    “You are strong of mind and spirit.” Ciara’s voice was warm with approval and she hoped the other woman heard it.
    “For a human, you mean.”
    “For anyone. I told my brother about my dreams and he would have misused the Faolchú Chridhe for his own gain.” And that was Ciara’s own shame to bear.
    It was Mairi’s turn to extend comfort and she did.