Read Children of the Moon 04 - Dragon's Moon for Free Online Page A

he thought were friends.”
    “He would have allowed his friend to murder a child.”
    “So, you killed him.”
    “I did not know he was any less a threat than the man with a fist raised to my cousin.”
    “He was.”
    “I could not risk it.” Not that he’d even considered the matter.
    “You burned them to ash.”
    “Aye.”
    “I left Luag’s remains in the forest for the animals.” She said it as if admitting something no one else knew.
    As far as Eirik was concerned, she’d done exactly right. “’Twas no less than the would-be killer of children deserved.”
    She nodded and he helped her to her feet, unable to let her sit so defenselessly in the grass any longer. It just didn’t feel right. “You saw me.”
    “Yes.” She pulled away from him as soon as she was standing.
    “How?”
    She swayed a little but seemed to stay standing by sheer will alone. “Does it matter?”
    “It does if you were in a position to protect the boys and did not choose to do so.” He knew not all Faol were bad, but to think this woman lacked honor in that way made something in Eirik’s gut twist sickly.
    “I was going to intervene, but you got there too quickly.”
    “Barely quickly enough to stop Luag from killing my cousin with a single blow.”
    “I was set to attack him as a wolf.”
    “You hesitated too long. If I did not see you, you could not have reached Fidaich in time.” Eirik made no effort to soften the censure in his tone.
    This woman accused him of killing not only her brother but her mother as well by his actions in protecting Fidaich and Canaul. He would give no quarter on the circumstance of her brother’s death. Chrechte did not harm children.
    And none should stand by while one tried to.
    “The only one who killed that day was you.”
    “Would you have rather I left my cousin to the nonexistent mercies of your Luag?”
    “He was not mine.”
    But Eirik was not listening, nor did he care how much revulsion she showed at every mention of Luag’s name. He had heard enough from this female wolf who accused him of murder when she had stood by while Éan children were threatened.
    He regained his mount and nudged his horse into movement. The Sinclair wolf could walk. The bridge into the fortress was close enough.
    Nevertheless, Eirik was not surprised to hear Lais offer the woman a ride on one of the extra horses. As healer to their people, the eagle shifter was the only one with the authority to do so without Eirik’s say-so.
    Lais must have seen how weak the woman was, the way she swayed on her feet, and chosen to show more pity than the woman’s brother had had for two Éan children caught playing in the forest.
    The quiet words of acceptance and gratitude reached Eirik’s ears before he kneed his horse into a gallop.
    I gnoring the looks of censure he received from the others, Lais helped Ciara onto the back of Eirik’s extra mount. It was the only horse well trained enough that he had no worries about it dumping the obviously shaky woman on the ground.
    “I am Lais. I don’t know if you remember me, but I was once a Donegal as well, Ciara.”
    “You know my name.” Ciara searched his features until her green gaze glimmered with recognition. “You are here with the Éan? But you were a friend of Rowland’s. Of Wirp’s.”
    “I was never their friend.” Though he’d been misled into believing himself so at one time.
    She pondered that for a moment and then nodded ever so slightly. “Like my brother, you were deceived.”
    “Yes.” Which was why, of all the Éan, he was probably the only one who would understand Ciara’s defense of a man who had stood by while Chrechte children were threatened.
    He was also one of the few Chrechte, maybe the only other one besides himself, who knew the toll that day in the forest had taken on Eirik’s soul. And how much Ciara’s accusations would have bothered the prince.
    “Do you remember my brother?” Ciara asked softly.
    “I did not know