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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.
    â€œI am Lais. I don’t know if you remember me, but I was once a Donegal as well, Ciara.”
    â€œYou 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.”
    â€œI 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.”
    â€œYes.” 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.
    â€œDo you remember my brother?” Ciara asked softly.
    â€œI did not know him well. He spent most of his time with Luag, some with Wirp.”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œHe would have mated you to Luag.” And a damn shame it would have been. Luag had been a sadistic, honorless man who did not deserve the wolf that shared his soul.
    â€œYou can’t know that.” But Ciara’s tone said she knew the truth of it, just as Lais did. The scent of grief and sadness coming off of her told their own story.
    Wishing he had not reminded her of her brother’s other failings, Lais said, “You never told anyone of the dragon.”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œHow did you explain your brother and Luag’s disappearance?”
    â€œI told everyone Luag had led Galen into harm’s way and caused both their deaths. It was the truth and the Chrechte of our clan could scent it. I masked the deceit in my scent when I told them I had built my own pyres and burned them as is right and true.”
    â€œYou can do that?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œThat’s unheard of.”
    â€œOthers in my family had similar talents.”
    He did not doubt it, but he could not help being glad her brother was dead. A wolf who hated the Éan but had the ability to mask a lie? He could have wreaked havoc in a way even Rowland could not have competed with.
    â€œYour prince did kill my brother.”
    â€œBut he did not murder him.”
    She did not answer, but her lack of argument said it all.
    â€œHow did you know he is our prince?”
    â€œHow could he be anything else?” Ciara asked in a tone that said she doubted his intelligence but he should not doubt hers.
    Lais laughed. “You’re an arrogant little thing, aren’t you?”
    â€œI don’t mean to be.”
    â€œWith eyes as green as yours, I always suspected you and your mother were descendant of the Faol royalty.”
    â€œMacAlpin killed all the royals of our line.”
    â€œOnly those counted by