Children of the Moon 04 - Dragon's Moon

conviction.
    “I am not a princess.”
    “My dreams said otherwise.”
    Dreams. She would have grown to hate them, but sometimes her dreams were happy and ’twas the only time she felt true joy.
    “Your dreams could be wrong.”
    “They aren’t.”
    “You’re very sure.”
    “My mother taught me the difference between a seer’s dreams and an ordinary one. I am sure.”
    “If I can, I will do it.” Ciara could promise no more and considering all that Mairi had risked to come to them, she could do no less.
    E irik waited with the Sinclair and his second-in-command in the great hall for Lais to accompany Ciara and Mairi down the stairs.
    Niall had not been happy to find out that Mairi had made it so deep into Sinclair lands without detection and was still complaining to Talorc about it. “How did a wee woman get past our guards and our clansmen?”
    “Perhaps she had divine help,” Abigail said from behind Eirik.
    The twins were with her, running for their father and the big warrior sitting next to him. Niall’s scowl turned to an instant smile and he took one boy up on his knee to examine some treasure the child had brought in with him.
    The other twin was asking his father if he could see the man’s dirk and Abigail was giving Talorc a look that promised serious retribution if the man said yes.
    The sound of people on the stairs had Eirik tearing his gaze from the domestic scene to watch their descent. Mairi moved gingerly, leaning heavily on Lais’s arm, but looking better than the night before.
    Ciara, on the other hand, wore a haunted expression, dark bruises marring the skin below her eyes. Eirik’s dragon growled at the sight. She had not slept.
    Tonight she would, if he had to wrap her in his arms and guard her dreams with his own. As prince of his people, Eirik could speak to any Éan in his mind, but as dragon gifted by the Clach Gealach Gra , he could soothe the minds of others.
    He had started to do just that the night before with Ciara but had thought better of revealing his ability. Now, he knew the next opportunity he had, he would use it.
    Lais reached the bottom of the stairs with Mairi, looking like a man who had found his mate and did not know what to do about it.
    The twins ran to Ciara and threw arms around her in exuberant hugs. “We missed you,” Drost confided. “Mama said you were tired.”
    “She said you was sleeping,” Brian added.
    Eirik frowned. “You do not look like you slept.”
    “You should have come play with us,” Drost said.
    Ciara shook her head but smiled. “I should have.”
    Mairi sent a worried glance, riddled with guilt toward Ciara. “I should not have taken your bed.”
    “Yes, you should have. My dreams disturbed me, not my pallet on the floor.”
    “You got to sleep on the floor?” Drost asked with an askance look at his mother. “We never get to.”
    “I want to sleep on the floor,” Brian announced before climbing back into Niall’s lap and crossing his arms just like Talorc when he wanted to make a point.
    “Your mother prefers you sleep in a bed.” Talorc’s tone said that no matter how he might want to indulge his sons, they would have to get their mother’s approval first.
    “Well, if you really want to sleep on the floor, then I’ll make you a pallet on the floor of our bedchamber tonight,” Abigail offered with a sweet smile directed at her husband.
    The Sinclair’s frown was immediate. “Why our floor?”
    “Because it will be an adventure.”
    And he wouldn’t be so quick to lay blame for the boys sleeping in a bed on their mother if them sleeping on the floor meant Talorc would have to spend it sleeping as well. Abigail was a clever and a sneaky woman.
    Eirik liked her.
    Ciara smiled on the scene, a wistful expression in her eyes Eirik did not understand.
    Unsure what drove him to do it, Eirik rose and went to her. He took her arm and led her to the chair he’d been sitting in by the large fireplace. “Sit, faolán .”
    “Why’d he call Ciara little wolf, Niall?” Drost asked the big warrior. “She’s not little; she’s bigger’n me.”
    Niall looked up at Eirik, his expression a challenge. “I don’t know. Eirik, why don’t you tell us why you called our laird’s daughter by the endearment?”
    Ciara was so exhausted, Eirik could tell she wasn’t really listening to what was being said around her. Hell, she hadn’t even balked at taking his chair. In his experience, she was not the biddable wolf