Children of the Moon 04 - Dragon's Moon

by her.
    The Sinclair looked like he would not answer his daughter’s challenge, but Abigail smacked him on the shoulder and Talorc’s expression changed.
    Whatever the laird’s wife had said to him over the mindspeak of mates, he looked properly chastised. “As prince of the Éan, Eirik’s knowledge of the Clach Gealach Gra and ability to defeat any who would try to take possession of the Faolchú Chridhe make him the best warrior for this mission.”
    “I am sorry I questioned your decision, laird.”
    “I do not expect the same unquestioning acceptance of my orders from family as I do my soldiers,” the clan chief said, as if reciting something he had heard many times before.
    Eirik had to stifle an urge to smile, confident he knew exactly where the laird had heard those words from. Abigail’s smile of approval confirmed his guess.
    Talorc turned to Eirik. “You will take Ciara with you. As she is the keeper of the stone, Abigail believes it will continue to draw her to itself.” The Sinclair’s jaw hardened, his head giving a short jerk as if in answer to a silent question. “And your dragon will continue to protect her dreams so that she does not become ill.”
    Eirik noted he was not the only one biting back amusement at his laird’s obvious discomfort at having given permission for such. But once again, the man’s wife looked quite pleased and he for one, had no desire to draw her wrath.
    She was a wily one, he knew.
    Ciara opened her mouth to speak, but whatever she meant to say, whether protest or acquiescence, was drowned out by Mairi’s plea. “Please let me go, too. I have had many dreams of this stone…I don’t know why, but I feel I am supposed to come on this journey as well.”
    Lais frowned down at her. “You need more time to heal.”
    “Is it that you feel that you should be there, or you crave the wolf your dreams have told you the stone will give to you?” Eirik asked, remembering what the human woman had claimed the night she was found.
    Mairi showed no signs of embarrassment at his question. “If you had been beaten as often as I have for nothing more than the fact I have no wolf, you would not be so dismissive about the power of the Faolchú Chridhe to heal all Chrechte. It is my right as much as any other to be gifted that healing.”
    “Of course it is,” Abigail inserted.
    And no one gainsaid her. She was human, but she was lady of the clan and an acknowledged member of the pack despite her lack of wolf.
    Mairi nodded her thanks and then frowned at Eirik. “But that is not why I believe I am supposed to be there. Once the stone is found, many will be touched by its power. My turn will come, later or sooner, but it will come. I must be allowed to accompany you on this quest because such is in my dreams. If God gives you a vision, do you cut out the bits that are not convenient or logical and expect the vision to come to pass?”
    Eirik shook his head at the warm approval in Lais’s eyes for Mairi’s words. The man had it bad, but it was no excuse for condoning the human woman’s disrespectful tone.
    Ciara’s glare directed at Eirik was even more unwelcome,however, and he arched one brow in question. What had he done?
    “Answer her,” Ciara demanded.
    Eirik opened his mouth to lambast both women for their disrespect and then repeated Mairi’s words in his head and decided she had some reason for her acerbic tone. “I have never had a vision. I would not know.”
    “I have,” Mairi said. “More importantly, my mother taught me the importance of paying attention to every tiny aspect to these special dreams. If she had, she would still be alive.”
    “If my brother had listened to me about all the points of my dream, I believe we would have found the Faolchú Chridhe by now.” Ciara frowned up at Eirik as if it were his fault.
    As far as he was concerned, that particular failing was for the best. “It is good that he did not then.”
    Ciara flinched at his words and damned if he did not have to fight the desire to comfort her, but the slight incline of her head acknowledged their truth.
    “We will fly to Balmoral Island tonight.”

Chapter 12

All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.
    —G ALILEO G ALILEI
    “Y ou intend Ciara to ride on your dragon?” the Sinclair asked.
    “Aye. Ciara has proven herself an adept rider.” And Eirik’s dragon wanted her to ride again, craved it like the beast had shown