by Lucy Monroe
I am no threat to you, Haakon sent to the conriocht with his mind, practicing a gift he'd only ever experienced with his father before. Bjorn being the only other guardian he'd known.
"You can speak into my mind?" the conriocht asked, his words slurred by the changes in his facial structure.
You can as well. All guardians can with each other.
Shift back, the man demanded in Haakon's mind.
Haakon let out a mighty roar, telling the laird he was no lacky to be ordered. Only after those around had taken a step back, showing their respect for his beast did he allow the shift to overcome him.
He gave a real smile when he noted that one of the soldiers had fainted and they all eyed him with wariness.
He was asmundr. They would do best not to forget that.
Nevertheless, they needed another reminder about his nature. "I am guardian to all Chrechte. So long as none of you are offenders of our ancient law, or intent on harming others without just cause, you will never know my beast's wrath."
"What kind of beast are you?"
"It is the ancient tiger from before the time we left the caves."
"Your pride knows such history?"
"Some." Haakon had come to realize how many holes there were in their understanding of what had come before.
"You say you are called to protect all Chrechte?"
"Every guardian is. Conriocht, asmundr, griffin, and the dragon."
The laird tensed upon the mention of the dragon. So, he was aware of their king, but not that he was king.
"When a dragon is called forth by the stone, it means our people all need to be united under one leader."
"We have lived separated for centuries."
"And if we wish to continue to live, we must unite."
"This peril we face, it is that serious?"
"Has not your Seer said so?"
"He spoke of our entire clan dying in agony."
Haakon nodded, thinking what could cause such a thing. "Poison."
Lachlan nodded grimly. "We need to call a council of the Chrechte."
"You cannot have a true council without a member of the Paindeal there."
"You?" the Balmoral asked.
"I am guardian, not pride alpha. As jarl and pride alpha, my uncle would be the natural council member. Though we have our own kotrondmenskr council. Our Seer is the council elder."
"Neither could get here in time to deal with the present threat," the Seer opined, his face still white with shock, sweat beaded on his forehead attesting to his worry. "You were sent here for a reason."
"As asmundr I have never sat on the council."
"Were you welcome at their meetings?"
"My father was, but he was also jarl."
"He passed the position to someone else?" Lachlan asked.
"It is not good for guardian to be alpha as well. A guardian can be called on to protect away from the pack or pride and who leads then?"
Lachlan frowned. "That has not come up for the Faol."
"In your memory."
"We just discovered that conriocht are not myth in the past few years."
"None of the guardians are myths, though we are fantastical creatures that stories have been told about since the beginning of our people."
"You will have to represent the Paindeal," the Seer said.
His laird glared at the man. "That is a decision for the council to make."
"Nay. You cannot deny the will of providence."
"My destiny is to protect, not to play politics."
"According to you, if we had a dragon shifter, your allegiance would be to him?"
"Ja. This is true." Haakon wasn't entirely comfortable with that thought.
He'd submitted to his own father as a son should, but no one since. Even his uncle understood that it was not his place to order Haakon to a task, but to make the need for his power known.
"He is on the council."
"As he should be."
"Things are not as they once were with the Chrechte."
Haakon shrugged. Peoples were bound to change over time, but the laird in front of him would have to learn to live with the way of things just as Haakon would.
Neither of them had a choice. The good of the Chrecht depended on it.
***
Haakon spent the next days waiting for the other members of the Chrechte council to arrive and getting to know the uffe and Ean of the Balmoral as well as the human clan.
Every evening he spent the hours after dinner with the laird and other members of his inner circle answering questions about the kotrondmenskr, their history as his people understood it, and explaining about his father's role in their shared history.
"So, a guardian can turn on the people the stone called his beast forth to guard?" Drustan, the Balmoral's second, asked.
"Just as a council might contravene the very tenets of our mating bond to allow one Chrechte to steal another's mate," his wife said with some acerbity before Haakon could reply himself. "His father's actions were unconscionable, but so were those of the council that caused his terrible grief. How would you respond if the council gave me to another?"
"But if she did not want to be his mate," Lady Emily said.
"She'd lain with him, she'd married him in the ways of her people or she would not have had a child with him."
Haakon nodded. "It was before the ways of the Roman Church set laws down that required a lifetime commitment for marriage, but she had made vows to my father. And it was not just his mate he lost, it was his son."
The Balmoral looked sick at the thought. "I would never allow anyone to take my child."
"My father submitted to the will of the council, but his grief and anger were terrible."
"He could have annihilated them all right then," Drustan mused.
Haakon nodded. "Their conriocht would have had to be powerful and many to defeat my father."
"There was no dragon for the Éan?" Lady Emily asked with curiosity. "No griffin?"
Haakon shrugged. In truth, he did not know. "If there were, they did not accompany your people to Scotland."
"A dragon might have prevented what came later," the Balmoral mused.
Drustan's gaze said he agreed with his laird. "So, if no dragon lived, how did your father know they were real?" he asked Haakon.
"I do not know." Haakon had no trouble admitting the truth, no matter how much it irritated him personally. "There is much my father and the Seer have not told me."
The Balmoral frowned. "You speak like you still have communion with your father."
"I have spoken with him in the Chrechte spirit world." And what a shock that had been.
"You can travel there?" the Balmoral asked, his brown gaze narrowed in thought.
"Ja."
"Are all asmundr Seers, then?"
"Nei. Until recently, it never occurred to me why I traveled to that place of other so often." He'd thought his mating bond pulled him to it, and indeed it did.
But it couldn't have, if neither he, nor Neilina were more than guardians. The fact they could both go, and call the other to them, was how he knew she was kelle, not merely conriocht.
"You have no scent of deceit about you, but we cannot know what the Paindeal might mask."
The Balmoral's caution was understandable, but they were past the time when Haakon could indulge it.
"Lyall said as much to me the first day. I can only speak truth and you must decide whether or not to believe."
"Ranulf had visions of him. Surely, we can trust our own Seer," Caitriona pointed out to her husband, Drustan, and to the laird.
Emily nodded decisively. "I agree. This wariness is not going to help you save our people."
Haakon frowned, unable to agree completely, despite how time was against them. "I have to disagree. If there had been more wariness between Chrechte, the Fearghall would not have infiltrated your pack as they have done."
"We have only your word for that."
&nbs
p; "And I only have a supposition, but I know the dreams I have had. I know that the threat comes from within, not without."
"We have routed out the Fearghall among us." But the Balmoral did not sound as certain as he had in other matters. How could he? He knew now of his Seer's visions, of the terrible calamity to come if it was not stopped.
"We thought none lived here at all," Emily said impatiently, "and that is clearly not the case."
"You would then have me trust this man if I cannot scent out deception among our own people?"
His lady winced, as did Druston, but Caitriona simply looked thoughtful. "There must be a reason you haven't scented deception among our people. Perhaps this insider is not one of us but connected to the clan in some way. They will gain access to us through that connection, but it's not someone you would normally test for affiliation with the Fearghall."
Haakon had to admire the woman's theory. It made sense and he said so.
The laird sighed. "As much as I would like to believe that, we cannot rely on that being the case."
"Nei. You cannot." The man's entire clan's lives depended on him and those he most relied on being cautious.
"You will find the betrayer," the Seer said. The old man had not left the keep since his arrival, but he spent most evenings silent, staring into the fire as the others talked.
"Is that what your visions tell you?" Lachlan asked, sounding disbelieving. "You're the one that told me Haakon's ability to shift into that beast that no longer walks the earth meant we were all going to die a terrible death."
"Our visions can be given to us to help prevent a terrible tragedy to come," Ranulf reproved his laird.
"And this one?" Emily asked with a glare for her husband.
"I have had a waking vision."
Haakon jolted in shock. Waking visions were so uncommon as to be nonexistent. Osmend had told Haakon of them but had never had one in Haakon's lifetime. To his knowledge anyway.
Seers did not tell all, no matter what this laird expected.
"What did you see?" the laird demanded.
"I canna tell you yet."
That did not go over well with any of the Balmorals. Shouting, threats and anger ensued, but the old man stood his ground.
When one of the soldiers got up to stand threateningly over Ranulf, Haakon moved with the speed of his beast.
He threw the offending Chrechte across the room to land with a loud thump against the far wall of the great hall. "You will respect the Seer and his decrees," Haakon roared, his words heavily tinged with his tiger's growls.
Lachlan, who had been on his way to them nodded firmly, scowling at everyone present. "We, none of us, get to choose our nature, only how we make our journey. Ranulf is our Seer. I do not like his refusal to say more either, but we are Chrechte. We respect the elders, we respect the visions."
"And if he lies?" another soldier demanded.
"Are you accusing our Seer of deceit?" Lyall asked, his wolf flashing in his eyes.
"He himself said the betrayal will come from within," the soldier who doubted said truculently.
Lyall's glare was sulfuric. "So, he warns us only to betray us? Use your head, ye daft boy!"
"Enough!" Lachlan thundered before the other man could reply. "We will not fight amongst ourselves."
"Are you going to let the Paindeal get away with attacking one of our own," the same soldier who had accused the Seer of lying asked with a sneer.
Lachlan stalked forward, more beast than man, though he had not shifted. "You question my leadership? You wish to challenge me for my position?"
Paling, the younger soldier swallowed. "Nay, laird."
Laird, not alpha?
Haakon shifted subtly, moving toward the mouthy soldier without appearing to be doing so.
"I am your alpha!" the Balmoral barked. "Kneel before me and give me your pledge."
"Sir, you doubt my loyalty?" the man did a credible job of acting offended and shocked, looking toward Drustan as if expecting him to say something.
The second-in-command merely stared back, his expression stony. He did not repeat the alpha's order, but there could be no question he expected the other man to follow it.
The soldier looked around him as if expecting someone else to defend him, but all the other Chrechte were now staring at him with suspicion.
Haakon had it in himself to pity the young uffe, to be doubted by one's own people would be demoralizing. If he was innocent. Very dangerous if he was not.
Lachlan did not move, his expectation in no doubt. The boy would pledge his loyalty or pay the price. It was the Chrechte way.
Glaring around like he felt betrayed, the uffe dropped to one knee and pounded his chest with his fist. "I pledge my life and my strength to protecting my clan."
The look that came over Lachlan's face was more than rage, it was hurt. He moved forward, his expression going stoic. "You did not pledge with your hand over your heart and you were too damn careful not to make your vow to me or this clan.
Rage washed over the younger uffe's features. He surged up, metal glinting in the candlelight as he threw himself toward the alpha.
Haakon was in a position to interfere, but he didn't. Lachlan Balmoral moved with the speed of the conriocht, fur sprouting on his hands as they shifted into claws. He easily disarmed the disloyal soldier, shaking him with one giant clawed hand around his neck. "You dare to pull a knife on me? You cur!"
"You're just the half-breed son of a misguided Chrechte and his human mate." Had he not already done so, those words would have revealed this soldier's sympathies lay with the Fearghall.
"I am alpha," Lachlan growled. "I am conriocht and well you know it."
Hatred and disgust mixed with fear in the boy's eyes. "The stone didn't call you into such a beast form. That is from the lower regions of hell, that is. You are demon not protector."
"Chrechte came before the teachings of Rome, or don't you remember that." Lachlan asked with his own disgust.
"That doesn't change what you are."
"Who taught you such filth?" Emily demanded, unquestionably furious at the man who had dared to threaten her mate. "You are Drustan's cousin, you were raised here in the clan."
"Not always, he wasn't." Drustan sounded as heartbroken as any warrior could. "They got to him when he was but a boy, living with his father's people. When his mother brought him back to live on the island after his death, it was already too late."
"Aren't you going to try to change my loyalties?" the youth demanded. "Like you think you did with the others."
The expression on the laird's face said the boy's sally had not reached its intended target. The Balmoral had no doubts. "I can speak only for Maon, but there is no question he follows the path of the true Chrechte now."
"As he should. He made his vow." Drustan gave his cousin a sulfuric glare. "As did you."
"I never spoke words of loyalty to the pretender half-breed alpha."
A look of near demonic glee came over the Balmoral's features. "And that is how these disloyal curs infiltrated our clans. We will demand new tribute and any that do not vow specific loyalty to the alphas, not just their clans will be tested."
Haakon respected that despite the severity of the situation, Lachlan was not proposing they label anyone disloyal without first testing.
"If they make their promise before the dreki kongr in his shifted form, they cannot lie. It is the way of our natures. Even if they do not acknowledge loyalty to him, no Chrechte can speak deception directly to our king."
"Are you sure of this?" Drustan demanded, relief and hope clear in his countenance.
"You and your laird can test with your senses and the way every Chrechte conducts himself. By no means, should we leave it all on the dragon leader to know the honesty of his people. We have all been called to our guardianship for a purpose."
"Demons more like," the Fearghall infiltrator spat.
Haakon shook his head. "I have it in me to pity you,
boy. You were deceived young and you have clung to those deceptions despite the evidence of your eyes now."
"You think they've proven themselves worthy leaders? They not only allow, but participate in half-breed matings. Soon, no Chrechte will survive but the Fearghall."
"If that is true, then there is no need to destroy those who live now, is there?" Drustan asked with undisguised repugnance.
"We shall not survive the abomination to live."
"Then I guess you need to die," Lachlan said with a shake of his head. Grief aging his countenance for a moment.
"Of course you will kill me," the young soldier spat. "It's what your kind do."
"Nay, boy, that is not what I meant. But by the rules of those you follow, you should die.
you carry the blood of humans in your veins. Your great grandfather on your mother's side was a nonshifting Chrechte born of a human and a Faol."
Drustan's cousin jerked back in revilement. "Nay, that is not true," he denied with all the vehemence of youth and obsession.
"It's true enough," Drustan said, his tone weary and sad, but not disbelief.
These Chrechte had already had too much experience with the subterfuges and hatred of the Fearghall to be surprised by them.
The dragon arrived the next day, along with all the members of the council. They weren't all alphas, though the alphas of four clans were present. An elder, celi di, or Seer was also present from each pack.
But it wasn't any of those uffe or Éan that caught Haakon's attention as he stood on the beach watching the latest boat of people step onto the rocky shore. It was the bear that came lumbering onto the pebbles beforehand, now shaking its fur clear of water, and turning to watch as the boat approached the beach.
Haakon thought the heart in his chest would seize as he spied the dark hair with warrior's braids on the woman standing with her eye on the horizon. He could not see her face, but he knew every inch of her.
Neilina wore her usual leather clothing more suited to a man, though it was as appealing as anything he'd ever seen on another woman. Her large fur cloak was missing, but perhaps that was because she did not need it in the near mild temperatures he'd encountered since reaching Scotland. She held her ever present staff with the antlers sharpened to points at the top, her stance as though she was the only one on the boat.