by Lucy Monroe
Then she moved and turned to face the others, his keen vision picking up the beautiful features he'd been so sure he'd never see in this life. She spoke to someone else in the boat and he realized it was another woman dressed much as she was, but her hair was blonde, her lovely features marred by a scar on one side of her face. They spoke some more, their words carrying on the wind, though it did not look like even the sharp hearing of the wolves were picking them up.
"Do you think this council can prevent what you came here to stop?" her companion asked, for Haakon was sure this woman had traveled with Neilina to the island.
Her adopted daughter. His daughter, though she did not know it yet.
Woe betide anyone who might do the girl harm with two Chrechte guardians as her parents.
"We will see. They have been open to our warnings, though you can tell the alpha and the dreki kongr are finding it difficult to believe my visions are true and the terrible calamity that will befall the Chrechte if we cannot avert it."
Their daughter frowned, her consternation clear, even at the distance. "Their celi di is very powerful and she has not had the visions,"
"She may be too close to the death." The boat docked on the beach as Neilina shrugged. "It works that way sometimes with the Sight."
"She is more than Seer."
"That too may hinder her. She is charged with the spiritual wellbeing of her people. Foretelling the type of death I have seen might be beyond her ken."
"She saw the coming plague."
The shrug was in Neilina's voice now as she stepped out of the boat. "And I did not. Does that mean the plague is not coming?"
One of the men grunted. As big as Haakon, his hair was near black, a color not common among the kotrondmenskr. Tinted with a red so deep it too almost looked black, the man's hair alone might have indicated he was dragon, but the power emanating from him left no doubt.
And his eyes glowed amber unlike any other Chrechte's.
Surprisingly Neilina did not glare at the dragon. She must be aware of his nature as well, because though she gave him a look of challenge, that defiance did not make it into a verbal foray.
She respected their dragon king as all Chrechte should.
Their daughter tapped Neilina on the shoulder and whispered near her ear. "Who is that man looking at you?"
Neilina's head snapped up and she looked around, her gaze at first skimming right over Haakon and he felt something inside him freeze.
She did not recognize him? The other half of his soul.
Her head jerked back toward him, her green eyes going wide in shock as her gaze focused on him. She shook her head, her dark hair and braids swinging back and forth as she gave silent denial to his presence.
Haakon found himself smiling.
So, it was destined that he and his mate meet in this world after all. Though it felt as if iron itself welded their gazes together, he looked away from his mate and toward their daughter, his smile growing at the curiosity in her expression. She didn't look like she hated him.
Perhaps, after all, he would have a family, if not a mate.
***
He waited for them, like a king awaits his subjects. Standing tall, his boulder like shoulders thrown back with confidence, a Viking's grin on his face, his blue gaze twinkling with inner mirth.
Did her mate find it amusing that she was here?
That he was? What was the asmundr doing here? In Scotland? He was Norse, from Greenland. He did not belong on Balmoral Island, looking so pleased with himself.
"Do you know that man?" Freya asked. "Is it him?"
The satisfaction that flashed in the Paindeal's eyes said his hearing was as good, or better, than hers.
She ignored her daughter and stopped in front of Haakon. "What are you doing here?"
"Is this your home then?"
"Nay."
"These are the people you had the visions about?" he asked as if something was making sense to him finally.
"They are."
"Our Seer had visions as well. We must all come together if our people are to survive."
"You are telling me that you were called here as I was?" Neilina asked doubtfully, her body tense.
Haakon's lips twisted wryly, like he thought the question a silly one. "Ja."
"You found out I was Scots from your father in the Spirit land." He had to have, and this man had followed her, intent on their mating.
Haakon shrugged, like that was of no consequence. "I did, ja."
"And yet you claim you came because you were sent by your Seer," she said derisively.
He rolled his eyes. At her. "Ja. I was sent." He turned to Freya. "Though your mother denies our mating, you are my daughter. If ever you have a need, it is my duty and honor to stand for you."
The shock in Freya's scent had to be as obvious to Haakon as it was to Neilina.
"You dare claim my daughter as your own?" she asked, not nearly as angry as she should have been.
In fact, not angry at all. Something she had not felt for so long it was nearly unrecognizable unfurled inside Neilina.
Comfort.
For all that Freya was hers. Neilina had cared for the girl these past nine years. She could not deny that having someone else share the burden of the girl's safety in these calamitous times, was a relief.
Not that Neilina would ever admit to it to the arrogant Viking.
"Whatever you wish were true, you are my mate. We never have to acknowledge that for it to be true, our souls have already joined."
"Nay. You promised that would not happen when I allowed you into my mind." And she had believed him.
"It happened long before. I've not been able to touch another woman since the first time you pulled me into the place of other."
She could sense no deceit in him, but still Neilina had to deny it.
Because if that were true, then they were both doomed.
"Nay, that is not possible," she whispered, even as the thought of him trying to touch another filled her with cold white rage. "Faithless Viking."
"Faithless when you have never allowed me to give you my pledge, never allowed words of mating between us?" He shook his head, turning from her. "I will speak to the dreki kongr now."
She looked around to see if any had heard his words, worried that the secret their leader had been at so much pains to keep would be out to all the Chrechte on the beach. She could not know whether or not these were people that were aware of Eirik's true nature.
But then she realized that whenever Haakon referred to the dragon shifter, he did so in the words of the Norse, not a language her people were likely to understand. Not the ones here, at any rate.
Those who lived on her island were no doubt as familiar with Norse as they were with Gaelic.
"You're so sure you know who our dreki kongr is?" she asked, using the Norse word as well.
"Didn't you? The first moment you saw him?"
She couldn't deny it.
He turned his head to look again at Freya. "Remember, young one, you are my family as well as hers. I will protect and care for you in every way within my power and being asmundr, that power is great."
Without another word for Neilina, Haakon walked away. He stopped in front of Eirik.
Neilina felt the air still in her chest as the man who claimed to be her mate, the man she now knew to be asmundr, dropped to one knee and put a big fist over his heart.
He then spoke his vow of allegiance in the ancient Chrechte tongue, repeating the words in Norse, before bowing his head in a show of true dìlseacht, unquestionable fealty.
As Eirik reached out and laid one hand on her mate's head, Neilina felt the connection between all three of them as real as if they were bound with a stout, living rope.
Her own heart changed its rhythm to match the dragon's as she knew Haakon's had done as well.
She did not know how she knew, but she could feel the absolute dìlseacht suffuse every bit of Haakon's being as he made his pr
omises.
She had vowed her help, but she'd held back, certain that once this crisis was over, she would return to her island, to her life of solitude.
There was none of that holding back in Haakon, he was promising a lifetime of loyalty and service to their dràgon rì. And for an asmundr, that lifetime would be very long.
It shocked her, the depth of the Viking's commitment to the protection of all Chrechte. His father, the asmundr before him, had not been so committed.
Had he been, even the loss of his mate and child would not have caused him to do what he did. To murder all the other living conriocht of her time.
She'd learned since coming among the Sinclair clan that until recently, no other conriocht had been called forth by the stone in so many years, they had lost their memory of the stone itself in some cases, and conriocht in others.
She was not surprised later to hear, as the alphas discussed recent events, that a Fearghall who had infiltrated the Balmoral clan had called the conriocht form demon.
How else could they explain the fact there were no guardians among them other than to call the ones that did exist demon, or unclean?
The Sinclair laird voiced that very opinion.
"Aye. How long have the Fearghall known of the conriocht and taught their own that to have the third form was to be touched by evil?" Eirik wondered aloud.
"The first Fearghall was conriocht," Ciara reminded them all. "Perhaps when he lost access to the stone and knew he could make no more like himself, he began the story."
"How did he explain his own nature then?" the Balmoral wondered.
Haakon asked for the full story as they knew it, listening intently as Ciara repeated all she'd learned from the ancient kelle in her spirit communications with the other woman.
Neilina was shocked to learn that one of their own had turned against the people of the Chrechte as well. A conriocht as rogue as Haakon's father, but with less cause, if Ciara's account was to be believed.
And Neilina could see no reason to doubt the celi di and her visions, despite the fact that her clan still questioned the validity of Neilina's claims.
"A guardian can turn against those he is called to protect," Haakon said, his voice heavy. "But to destroy his own mother?"
He didn't sound like he could imagine such perfidy. Because of how her own relatives had treated Freya, Neilina found it easier to believe. She found it much harder to accept that one like herself had not used his strength to protect, but to destroy.
The very reason she had hated that asmundr and all Norse for more than two centuries.
Now, she was faced with undeniable truth that any might go rogue. 'Twas not a result of being Paindeal rather than Faol. Or Éan either.
Her entire thinking was turning on its head and she had no time for it. Neilina's focus right now must be the salvation of the clans around her.
"So, the Fearghall teach the conriocht are demon," she said, to bring her own thoughts back where they needed to be. "They have always believed any but their own select group are abomination. It is this belief we must prepare for."
"Neilina claims all clans who fight the Fearghall's ways are at risk." Eirik made no effort to hide his doubt.
Annoyed, Neilina gave her dreki kongr a good glare. "My visions drove me from the solitude I prefer to join your clans, to help you protect your people. I would appreciate if you would not show such disdain for my sacrifice."
Suddenly Haakon stood beside her, his big body rigid, his expression grim. "It is not only Neilina who has had these visions. I have had them as well, and the ancient Seer who lives among my pride sent me here for this very purpose."
"Our own Seer has had the visions," the Balmoral laird said, some anger in his voice as he added. "He told me nothing about them until the asmundr came and proved such a being existed, so the rest of his visions were real, as well."
The dragon king still didn't look fully convinced. "Ciara has not had the visions."
"Not all Seers are given the same visions," Haakon said, like he knew what he was talking about.
Having been raised around a Seer who knew more of their people's history than these clans, perhaps he did.
"But if it is something so terrible for all our clans?" Ciara asked, her tone wounded.
"You have been called by the stone to protect our peoples into the centuries that many here will not see. Be glad there are other Seers who share your burden, if there were not, the weight would be too heavy to carry, even for a celi di such as yourself," Haakon said to the beautiful woman, with more compassionate warmth than necessary, Neilina thought. "The ancient kelle made a terrible mistake giving her son the gift of the conriocht when she knew his heart to be bent on power and domination, not the good of his people. Any might make such a mistake."
"Which is why we have more than one Seer, more than one celi di among our clans. Why there is not just one guardian, but many called from each of the packs and prides." The Balmormal's words were heavy with meaning. "Each are called to their own message and outreach to our peoples, but each one helps to check the others, as well."
"Some cannot be checked so easily." Neilina gave Haakon a hard look. "Your father decimated the conriocht of my time."
"How were you called forth by the stone if it had been hidden away?" Haakon asked Neilina.
"Each pack was led by a member of the Chrechte royal lineage. And in each family, small stones were passed down from father to son, mother to daughter, as the case may be. I inherited the weapons with the stones from my grandmother."
"You mean the stones in my sword and knife can be used in the coming of age ceremonies?" Ciara asked in wonder.
Neilina nodded. "They can be used in all ceremonies, but the smaller stones rely much on the magic of the Chrechte in the ceremony as well as those around him or her. 'Tis nearly impossible to call forth a guardian without the original Faolchu Chridhe."
"You were called forth."
Neilina shrugged.
"The power of our ancestors lives within her, the same as in me. I did not know our stone was only a chip off the kontrondmenskr hjarta until our Seer told me that our pride split more than a century ago."
Ciara, mate to the dragon and undoubted chief celi di, looked very thoughtful at Haakon's words. "I had no idea. I knew the emeralds in my weapon's hilts helped me to connect to the ancient kelle, but not that they could be used for the important ceremonies. All this time, we've been doing without among our packs and it was not necessary."
The dragon looked grim. "We thought if we lost our stone there would be no more Éan."
"If you did not know to use the smaller stones, there would not have been," Ciara said. "It may have taken the Clach Gealach Gra to call forth your beast."
Neilina did not know how much of the dragon being called forth had been need, how much had been Eirik's personal connection to the magic that ran through their people, and how much could be attributed to those who had participated in his coming of age ceremony.
She glanced sideways at Haakon. He had been called forth with a gem, not the larger Paindeal Neart. What had made that possible?
His father had been given the asmundr gift from the larger stone, as he'd been called forth before the pride split and took the original with them.
There could be no doubt his family was of the royal line, though. Not if they had the smaller stones that had been passed down.
Neilina wished, not for the first time, that she'd had a chance to learn more from the elders of her pack before they were taken from her.
Her sigh was little more than a puff of air, but it brought Haakon's gaze to her. "You are well, kelle?"
"Don't call me that." She had no right to the name. She'd spent two centuries hiding from her own people. She was no kelle.
"Refusing to speak the word does not change what and who you are. I am asmundr. I am Norse. No amount of speaking or refusing to speak will change these facts." His tone was almost like he was giving her a warning.
Mayhap he was.
Never in nine years had Haakon hidden from the truth of what he believed them to be, or who he was. Truly, she had not known he was asmundr, but that was because she'd refused to ask about him.
It had taken him very little time to realize his confidences fell on deaf ears. Or so he had believed.
For the first time in centuries, Neilina felt tears pricking at her eyes over the past. Over events that could not be changed.
"I hid from my people. They were without conriocht because I wanted only to bury myself in the forest and lick my wounds."
Now the warmth of Haakon's compassion was turned on Neilina. "You have rejoined the packs when you are most needed, there is nothing of shame in that."
"You don't believe that." He couldn't. "You do not even have thirty years yet and you have heeded the call to protect with everything in you."
"I do not have your past." He said it so matter of factly.
Like he did not question that his own life had made his actions possible while she had been hampered doing the same.
She gave him a wry look and sighed. "Wisdom is not supposed to be in the young but come with age."
"There are different kinds of wisdom, kelle." The dragon spoke, but the other alphas around them nodded.
Ciara spoke then. "You have knowledge of things we know nothing about. We thank you for sharing that knowledge."
"I am not kelle," but the words did not sound true, even to Neilina's own ears.
The dragon frowned, like his head hurt. "You are. Ciara is celi di. You are kelle, Neilina. And as Haakon has already acknowledged, he is asmunder, guardian to all Chrechte. We will serve our packs, prides and flocks for centuries to come. Together."
The words washed over them like a resounding gong and chills rushed over Neilina's body, sending goose bumps up and down her arms.
"We're never going back to our island, are we?" Freya asked of no one in particular.
But the dragon shook his head. "Your mother and father are destined to a life beyond the cave you have been living in this past decade."
Neilina couldn't help the sound of protest that came out of her mouth at the dragon referring to Haakon as Freya's father. The Viking, though, looked well pleased with the legitimizing of his claim.
