by Lucy Monroe
But these Faol? They faced a terrible threat. First and most imminent, from those they called Fearghall. Later a devastating plague was coming and only if the Chrechte races were once again united would any survive. Osmend had said that the plague would not come until generations after all those Haakon now knew as family had passed over to the Spirit realm.
The Seer had revealed that he had known of the plague to come for more than a century, but only now was the time right to reunite the peoples of the uffe, the kotrondmenskr and the Éan.
They must all learn to live together again, share their knowledge of the powers of their Chrechte nature and the ceremonial stones if they hoped to survive the coming devastation. The thought was a chilling one. What disease could be so virulent that even their Chrechte nature could not protect them from it?
"Tha thu ann." A Chrechte soldier wearing the colors of the Balmoral and well past his first blush of youth hailed Haakon as he approached. "Who are you and where have you come from?"
Haakon's senses told him there were three more soldiers, not far off, but out of sight. All Chrechte, but not all Faol.
Smart.
Haakon inclined his head to the soldier, giving him a measure of respect. "I am Haakon of the kotrondmenskr. You call my people Paindeal. I have come to broker peace between our peoples and to pledge my vow of allegiance to Eirik of the Éan."
"Peace? Our peoples are not at war. Why does a Paindeal want to pledge allegiance to the Éan?"
Haakon ignored the question about his pledge, guessing it would not be the last time it was asked. "We have been at war for the past six centuries, but your packs have forgotten our past."
"Do the Paindeal mean us harm then?" the soldier asked, his body tense with preparation to fight.
He could not stand against asmundr, but Haakon respected his wiliness to try. The wolf did not know what kind of shifter Haakon was and yet, he was prepared to defend his clan and his pack.
"We mean you no harm. I have come to reunite the clans."
"If that is true, where is Maon?" the man asked suspiciously. "And the others that were with him?"
"Osmend, our Seer sent Maon to continue on his quest, searching for the rest of my people in the Land of the Sun."
"And the others?"
"Maon took all but two with him, those two replaced by kotrondmenskr."
"And the other two? Where are they?" the soldier demanded.
Haakon did his best to remain patient, reminding himself that this Chrechte knew nothing of him. "Artair and Fionnlaigh agreed to join my pride. They begin the process of the unification of our peoples."
"What about Gart? He didn't stay with Artair?" Did the older soldier know the two had been mates? His expression said maybe he did.
"Gart follows a different path, one with a wife and children in his future."
The soldier shook his head. "That can't be right."
"Artair found his true mate in my cousin, Einar, who will one day be jarl of our people and pride alpha."
The Chrechte looked unimpressed by Einar's position. As it should be. "But, he already had a mate."
"When the mating is not accepted, a Chrechte may find another true mate." Then again, he might not. Haakon knew deep in his gut that he would have no other mate but Neilina.
No matter if they never saw each other in this life.
"You need to talk to our laird. He'll be able to tell if you lie."
"You cannot?" Haakon asked in surprise. He'd done nothing to disguise his scent.
The other Chrechte should have been able to smell any intent to deceive on him.
"I don't know what the Paindeal can hide, now do I?"
"You are wary," Haakon said with approval. "That is smart."
The older soldier gave a jerk of his head in acknowledgment. "Come, we will go to the keep."
"And the others, will they join us, or follow behind?"
"They'll follow behind, prepared to end your life should you threaten mine."
Haakon was not offended by the threat, more impressed by it. He was going to like this soldier. "What are you called?"
"I am Lyall, and I may as well tell you, I'm not believing this nonsense about a Chrechte having more than one mate. It has never been such."
Haakon did not blame the man for his skepticism. "I had never heard of such a thing either." He'd recently realized there was much his father and Osmend had not seen fit to reveal to Haakon. How was he supposed to stand guardian to his people when he'd been left in the dark about so much?
Some of his rancor at that thought bled into voice when he added, "Until our Seer met your Artair and the man who had refused their claiming these many years past, I had never been told that a Chrechte might have another mate should the mating not take for some reason."
Like an asmundr's intended hating his father so much she would never trust him enough to bind their souls.
"But they have been the closest of friends. Gart always had Artair's back."
"Ja. That may be, but he refused to bind their souls."
Lyall sighed. "The boy wanted children."
Haakon was not sympathetic. "My cousin and Artair have adopted two children left parentless this last winter."
"Your pride did not see to their welfare?" Lyall asked, sounding shocked at the idea.
As well he should be. If it were true.
"Naturally, but Einar said the children would be known as his, a gift from Providence he would cherish for their lifetime. They will be raised as grandchildren of the jarl."
"He sounds sentimental, does your cousin."
Haakon had to laugh at that description of his usually stoic, very much a warrior cousin. Einar had expressed the same belief Haakon had been raised with many a time. Tender emotions were for women and old men. Not warriors.
"Smart enough to insure he has heirs when his mate was destined to be a man. Besides, to acknowledge a gift from above is not sentimental, it prevents later reprisal for dismissing those gifts as nothing." Vikings understood this and even the Roman church taught such.
"You believe if he did not show his thanks, they would be taken from him?" Lyall asked musingly.
"Don't you?" Did these Scotsman believe they did not have to give thanks for their blessings?
Did their priests speak a different message than the ones sent to Groenland? Regardless, the kotrondmenskr might have accepted the Church and its teachings, but they hadn't forgotten everything of the old ways. To give thanks was ingrained in the Chrechte from the time of birth.
Though they no longer offered the animal sacrifices of old, at anything other than their most sacred of ceremonies and in absolute secrecy.
"I dinna ken. Our priest teaches we should give thanks for all good things, I suppose."
"And the bad?"
"England's Church teaches bad happens when we disobey."
"And your priest?"
"He says bad comes to every man's life. 'Tis no the result of sin, but can be because of it."
Haakon nodded his agreement with the idea. "He's a wise one, this priest."
"He has many years and chose to live his remaining ones among our clan. He is wise indeed."
Haakon nearly smiled at the arrogance of the soldier's claim. Perhaps living amongst these people would not be so different than among his own pride.
He had leave to doubt that assumption later, after explaining his arrival and where the other Balmorals were to their laird.
Lachlan looked at Haakon with distrust and no small amount of anger. "We have only your word for any of this," he growled. "I dinna believe Artair would stay in that place without Gart."
"He went on that quest with Ciara and Eirik without him," the laird's second, a man called Drustan, pointed out.
"But he came back." Lachlan scowled at Haakon as if it was the asmundr's fault that this time Artair had not returned to his clan.
"He volunteered to go with Maon before he knew Gart would as well," a woman, he thought it wa
s the second's mate pointed out.
Drustan nodded at her and touched her shoulder, confirming their bond. No other but mate or family would touch her in front of others. And while she shared the man's scent, she did not have the scent that spoke of a familial connection.
The woman sighed, looking unhappy. "I think he realized that no matter how strong the mate pull is, Gart's desire for children was stronger."
"I think Gart is attracted to both men and women," the laird's mate, a woman Lachlan had introduced as Emily, pointed out. "He didn't want to love Artair that way if it meant giving up the possibility of being a father."
So, Haakon explained again about Artair being one already.
The two women got misty-eyed. "That's so wonderful," Lady Balmoral said. "Artair deserves to be happy."
"He deserves to be with his mate, not kept as a sacrifice for our two races to find common ground." The Balmoral looked ready to do battle.
"He is no sacrifice. He and Einar are mates and my cousin will kill any who try to take his mate from him," Haakon warned.
"He's not keeping my pack member without my say so," the Balmoral declared. "I dinna accept such an insult without reprisal." Lachlan gave a significant look to both his mate and that of his second that Haakon did not understand.
"You're going to travel to Groenland?" Haakon asked with only a tinge of mockery.
The look he got back was anything but amused. "I'll take an invading force, if necessary. Artair is under my protection."
"He is under Einar's protection now," Haakon reminded the angry pack alpha. "Ask your Seer. Perhaps he has had a vision." Haakon could only hope. He was supposed to be brokering peace between their peoples, not restarting the war the uffe had forgotten. "You have a very real enemy among your own people, you would do better to spend your time preparing to battle."
"What do you mean?" the Balmoral asked with even deeper suspicion.
"You call them the Fearghall."
"What do you call them?" Lyall asked.
Haakon did not hesitate. "Anathema."
Thawing just barely in his demeanor, the Balmoral nodded. "That is a better name for them, though they follow the ways of the first among them."
"They kill true mates to prevent a human-Chrechte mating." Lyall shuddered, his warrior's countenance showing just how abhorrent he found such an action.
Haakon agreed. "They would destroy your entire clan rather than allow you to give sanctuary to the Éan." Osmend had impressed that truth upon Haakon, though he'd seen as much in his own visions.
Visions it had taken him many weeks to understand and realize he must act on.
"They can try." Lachlan did not sound worried in the least.
While Haakon admired the alpha's confidence, it was misplaced. "They will not fight you face to face, a battle you would most certainly win. Their ways are sneaky and underhanded and they do not care how many die to achieve their goals."
"What does that mean?" the Lady Emily asked, fear scenting the air around her, worry strong in her violet gaze.
"I have my suspicions, but I do not know. With certainty, I know only our Seer said you faced a more terrible threat than the plague to come. That you and any you call ally are at risk of being destroyed completely if the Fearghall are not routed out and destroyed."
"We do not kill other Chrechte for no reason," Lachlan said, his voice firm. "We have turned the minds of more than one Fearghall."
"Ja, Maon said he used to be one of them, but more will have to die than can be allowed to live." That much Haakon knew.
"Says you."
"Ja. And our Seer confirmed my own visions."
"And I am to take the word of a stranger, or this Seer I have never met?" Lachlan demanded.
Haakon liked the man's abrupt nature and protective attitude toward those under him, but he was rapidly losing patience. He'd spent his entire adult life as asmundr, trusted implicitly by all the Chrechte and humans for that matter who knew him. "I have already said, speak to your Seer."
"Don't you think if he'd seen something like that he would have already told me?"
"Not if he's anything like Osmend."
"This Osmend sounds like he holds information to his chest."
"Ja. He does that." Too much. There was still so much Haakon did not know.
"Our Seer would not do that," Lachlan said with just the type of arrogance that was bound to get pricked like a puffed-up pig's bladder.
Haakon had his own arrogance so he could find it within himself to feel a measure of sympathy for the shock the man had in store, for he was sure he did have a surprise coming. No Seer told all they saw. Osmend had said so too often for that to be anything but ancient Chrechte wisdom.
A commotion sounded near the door, the sound of shuffling steps came into the hall soon followed by the visage of an old man. While it was unlikely, he looked a great deal older than even Osmend.
He had the look of Artair around his eyes and walked in on weak legs, leaning heavily on his walking stick. "You have come."
Haakon bowed toward him. "Seer."
"My dreams said you would come and you did. But that means the other dreams…they are true." Terror shown in the old man's eyes. "I believed they were the rumblings of an old mind before death."
"Death is sure to come if we do not take action."
"Are you saying you saw the demise of our clan and you said nothing?" Lachlan asked, his voice more growl than human.
"It was too terrible." The Seer did look like he'd seen the horrors of the damned. "I couldna believe it was true. How could we all die like that, in terrible agony, everyone affected, so many dead, the corpses left to rot in the great hall?"
The Balmoral blanched. "This cannot be true."
"Oh, aye, it's true enough. If the guardian is here and he is what my dreams say he is, then the rest must be true too."
CHAPTER EIGHT
"What do you mean?" Drustan asked, eyeing Haakon askance. "What is he?"
No patience for being talked around, Haakon answered. "I am asmundr."
"What is that then? A new kind of Chrechte?" another of the few soldiers allowed into the hall asked.
"Guardian. First to the kotrondmenskr, but last to all Chrechte."
"You are a griffin?" Lady Emily asked, her violet eyes round.
Haakon did not roll his eyes, but it was close. Did none among them know the ancient ways? "Griffins cannot be called forth by the stones unless they have the mixed heritage of the Éan and the kotrondmenskr."
"That's what they call the Paindeal," Haakon heard someone whisper to the man next to him.
"Then what is asmundr?" the Balmoral demanded.
"He'll have to show you, or you willna believe," the Seer said, then sighed. "I willna believe either, until I see for myself. 'Tis the truth, I hope you shift into a mountain lion, or some such. I dinna want these dreams to be visions."
Haakon frowned and reminded the old man, "A Seer has no choice about what he sees, though according to Osmend he gets to choose what he shares."
The Balmoral did not look happy to hear that, turning a sulfuric glare on the old Seer before him. "Tell me, Ranulf, is that what you believe? What else have you held back from me, your alpha and your laird?"
"No alpha, no not even a laird, may dictate to a Seer," Haakon reminded them of this sacred truth.
"That may be the way it is done among the Paindeal, but—"
"No Chrechte will put themselves above the Seer, not even the king." Haakon was done trying to be tactful.
"We have no king."
"Ja, you have one, but you've ignored his place in favor of modern human rules and norms. You have forgotten the ways of our people." Haakon let what he thought of that show in his voice and the glare he gave the offending speaker.
The asmundr thought the Balmoral might lose his temper at the accusation, but he calmed down instead.
Sighing, Lachlan looked around, letting his gaze fall on a Chrechte Haakon could
scent was not Faol. Not kotrondmenskr either. Éan then.
"Aye, we have forgotten much over the centuries and welcome the wisdom of others who have kept better record of our people's ways."
"Our guardians live centuries. Their memories serve as our history. Our Seer has lived longer than even a guardian."
"But I've lived no more than ninety years," the Balmoral Seer said. "My life draws to a close."
"Perhaps Osmend would know why this is." And if there was a way to change it. "Until he revealed his true age, I did not know that the Seer and the guardian had the same long life span."
"You are a guardian. An asmundr you said?" the Balmoral asked.
"Ja."
"You will shift for us? That we may know this part of history we have forgotten?"
"Ja." Haakon looked for Lyall. "You will guard my weapons."
The soldier's eyes widened and then he puffed up with pride. "Aye. With me life."
That would not be necessary, as none would be foolish enough to challenge his beast, but it did not sit well to strip his weapons and not charge someone with their care.
Haakon began to strip, smiling slightly when he saw the laird and his second covering their wives' eyes rather than send them from the room.
Perhaps the Chrechte here understood the power of women as his own pride, if not the humans of the jarl's landholdings.
Haakon removed his vest of furs, the cloak he usually wore over them already with his bundle of belongings. He had to untie the laces that went up his calves around his leather boots. His shirt, smalls and leather breaches were quicker to remove and then he stood proud and naked for only a second before allowing the shift to come over him.
The gasps that filled the hall did not surprise him. These uffe would never have seen one of his kind.
"Aye, it is all true," the Seer lamented, collapsing onto a stool.
"He's amazing," Lady Emily said, awe filling her tone.
"He's almost as tall as me and he's standing on all fours," the second's mate said.
The sound of a conriocht growling did surprise him. So, the laird was guardian, but unfamiliar with their ancient laws and ways? Interesting. Had he not been trained by the conriocht that came before him? Or had Haakon's own father killed all the conriocht as the Seer had claimed? It was a terribly sobering thought.