Children of the Moon 04 - Dragon's Moon

tune only Guaire could play.
    She grinned and turned back to Eirik. “It may be a bit before we can break our fast.”
    “How long have they been mates?” the Éan prince asked.
    “Since before I came to live with the Sinclairs.”
    “They act as if the mating is new.”
    “They are in love.”
    “They are lucky Talorc approved the mating. Among the Éan, those with same-sex mates, or human mates, are expected to produce offspring with another Éan before the mating bond can be consummated.”
    “That’s terrible.”
    Eirik shrugged as if it really didn’t matter. “Perhaps it will no longer be necessary, now that we are not dying off one by one as we are hunted to death in the forest.”
    “Our laird would never require something like that.” Ciara had absolute faith in Talorc’s commitment to the most sacred of the Chrechte laws—that a true mating was inviolate. “It would circumvent the true mating bond and love that comes with it.”
    “Love is only paramount in Heaven. Here, among mortals, other considerations must be taken into account. Waiting to take one’s true mate in the ways of our people is a small price to pay for the continuance of our very existence.”
    “It is a good thing for us Talorc does not agree with you,” Niall said as he released his mate, who immediately began setting out food provisions on a small square of the Sinclair plaid. “I would have had to defy my laird; I would not bed a femwolf just to make cubs.”
    “The Faol have never been at risk for extinction. You have never been forced to make the kinds of choices our leaders had to make for us. There was a time, right after the Éan first escaped to the northern forests that less than twodozen of our people remained and some were past the age of producing offspring.”
    Ciara sucked in a shocked breath. She’d no idea the Éan had come so close to disappearing forever. Part of her admired Eirik because she knew he would have made the difficult choices she spoke about. Part of her despaired as she realized he put no importance on love.
    “In theory, I can understand what you are saying, but it would have broken my heart if Niall had taken a wife,” Guaire said. “It near broke my heart the years I waited for him to claim me, as it was.”
    Ciara scrambled to her feet, and only then realized she wore a shift and nothing else. She threw a glare over her shoulder at Eirik, knowing exactly whose fault that had to be.
    She reached out and patted Guaire’s arm. “Niall loves you too much to have ever taken someone else to mate.”
    They might have to keep the truth of their relationship hidden from most of the clan, though she thought that by now many had guessed, but they should never doubt one another’s love. It was too pure and bright between them.
    Guaire smiled at her and then turned a besotted expression on the big warrior. “I know.”
    “Love can coincide with duty. ’Tis not always mutually exclusive.” Eirik’s voice was muffled as he bent to retrieve his kilt and put it on.
    “Duty should not dismiss love,” Ciara maintained.
    Niall grunted his agreement, but Guaire just looked thoughtful.
    “What are you thinking, love?” Niall asked him.
    “Had our laird’s father been more appreciative of his duty and less focused on his obsessive love for the Englishwoman, he might yet be alive and many in our clan besides him.”
    “There is that,” Niall agreed.
    Eirik just handed Ciara an apple. “Eat.”
    Clearly he was not worried if others agreed with his reasoning, or not.
    She ate the apple, an oatcake and some roasted rabbitGuaire had prepared the night before while she slept. It was wonderful. After she’d drunk from the water skein, she took her clothes away from the light cast by the torch and dressed in the shadows.
    “Why are we in a cave?” she asked Eirik, not sure if the search for the Faolchú Chridhe had already begun.
    “You needed to sleep.” Eirik said it like that should answer her question.
    It didn’t. “So? I don’t understand how that ended up with you, myself and two of my father’s most trusted warriors in a cavern.”
    “Eirik claimed his dragon could guard your dreams,” Niall replied.
    She would have scoffed, but the blond warrior’s earlier words made more sense now. Hope and pragmatism warred in her heart. If the dragon could guard her dreams, she could sleep. Only, she did not believe her father would allow her to spend her nights in a cave in the