Highland Wolf Pact (21 page)

“Me brother’s laird of clan MacFalon.” Donal helped her stand, shaking his head sadly. “He’s the MacFalon now. That was me father’s doin’, nuh mine. These men do’na follow me.”

“But they will!” she insisted, glancing down at the lot of them. More were coming into the hall all the time, having been drawn by the shouting. “The Scots do not have a hierarchy like we do in England. They will follow the strongest leader. Alistair is not that man!”

“Ye bitch!” Alistair sneered up at her, hand on the hilt of his sword. She didn’t care if he came after her. He could run her through with it—death would be a merciful blessing now—as long as she could save Raife and her wulver family. “Ye lying, whoring lil cunt!”

“You must lead these men to do the right thing!” Sibyl spoke only to Donal, seeing a light in his eyes, the same light she’d seen in Darrow’s. It was the passion of the second son, one not born into distinction but who desperately craved it, who went after it like a moth to flame.

“Many of these men are too young to a’member the wulver warriors,” Donal said, his voice carrying through the hall. “I was jus’ a chile when King Henry came ta the MacFalons, askin’ fer our allegiance. But some of these men do a’member. Don’t ye?”

Sibyl glanced down, finding some gray-haired men among the group who pursed their lips and nodded in agreement, much to her relief.

“But some of these men followed me father when King Henry created the wolf pact. Some of these men followed King Henry into battle to fight for his right to wear a crown in a foreign land. Their fathers fought alongside mine, and they fought alongside the wolf warriors for God and country, to secure a peaceful future for their families.”

Sibyl watched Donal’s face change as he talked, as the men, even the younger ones, started really paying attention to his words. Alistair’s face grew red with anger.

“How much bloodshed d’ya wanna see?” Donal cried, throwing his arms wide. “D’ya want yer homes burned, yer women raped? Hav’ya seen what warfare does? Me father saw what the border wars did ’tween the Scots and the English. Me father, yer laird, told King Henry he wanted t’live in peace, and King Henry agreed. Scots, English, wulvers—we all bleed. If we fight—we’ll die.”

The crowd murmured its assent. Many of Alistair’s men were too young to remember that kind of bloodshed, but they grew afraid, not only of what the reality of war might mean, but of taking up arms against an army rumored to be more than human. Sibyl smiled triumphantly as she realized Donal had swayed them. Even if Alistair ordered them out to kill the wulvers now—would they do so? She didn’t think they would.

“Do’na listen t’im!” Alistair cried. “I’ve heard from King Henry himself! He—”

A commotion erupted through the crowd. Something was going on outside. Sibyl cocked her head, hearing the sound of a horn, some sort of call. She didn’t understand it but she was glad it had distracted everyone from Alistair’s words. The thought that King Henry himself had made some sort of agreement with Alistair to eliminate the wulvers made her blood turn cold.

“What’s that noise?” Alistair huffed, crossing his arms like a petulant child at the interruption. He clearly didn’t like his brother getting all the attention. “Stop it at once!”

“Tis the wolf pact, brother. The one ye do’na have the honor t’honor.” Donal walked slowly down the stairs, coming to stand face-to-face with his older brother. Alistair’s eyes grew wide with fear. “They’re invokin’ single combat rite.”

“No.” Alistair’s voice barely got above a whisper. She could hardly hear him. “I will’na.”

“According to the wolf pact, ye must,” Donal insisted. “Yer father signed that agreement in blood, and yer honor bound t’it!”

“I’m nah!” Alistair stamped his foot, arms still crossed over his chest. “I will’na!”

“Men!” Donal called, eyes bright as he saw them turned toward him, listening, paying close attention. “Take yer laird t’face the wulvers.”

Alistair howled like a child, but there were too many of them. They grabbed him and hauled him out of the hall, out the open door. She watched the men do as Donal ordered with great relief, knowing they would follow him. Alistair could talk until he was blue in the face, it didn’t matter anymore. Donal was a man who inspired these men, whose integrity showed in everything he did.

“What is single combat rite?” she wondered aloud.

Donal heard her, turning to glance back as he started following his men.

“T’will be leader against leader,” he called back.

“Raife,” Sibyl whispered.

She didn’t think twice. She used the dagger still in her hand to cut away the train of her wedding dress, freeing herself, and ran down the stairs.

“Blood rite!” The words were whispered from one person to another in the crowd as they gathered out in front of the MacFalon castle.

Sibyl looked around at all the people and wondered at the number. Why were they all here? Alistair had claimed he had a thousand men at the ready and he was not speaking in jest. But the rest of the people, where had they come from? The villages around the MacFalon lands weren’t this densely populated. Could word have spread so quickly?

Sibyl pushed her way through the crowd, searching for the source of the horn that sounded loudly above her head. People stopped and looked at her bare legs in her ruined wedding dress, whispering behind their hands, and suddenly she realized—these were her wedding guests. They had come to see their laird marry an Englishwoman and had ended up attending something akin to a joust. That was all she could imagine as this, “single combat,” or “blood rite” everyone was talking about.

Either way, it would be a good show, Sibyl thought grimly, as she made her way to the front of the growing crowd. Alistair had been so sure she would come, that there was going to be a wedding. He had trapped all of them, she realized in horror. He would kill the wulvers, marry his Englishwoman, inherit her lands and titles, and gain the favor of the king. In the end, he would get his way, just as he wanted.

She saw Raife sitting on his horse just across the field. They had come through the woods, just as she had, riding hard. But they were fully armed, their horses geared up for war, the wulvers too. She saw the men she had watched train, men who had teased and funned with her, men she had supped with, men she had watched sleep in a pile at night, half on top of one another, snoring like dogs.

She didn’t want to see any of them harmed, not one of them, and she had the same feeling about Donal as she watched him approach Raife on horseback. Alistair was still howling his objections, his men holding onto him as Donal approached the wulver leader. Raife leaned forward in his saddle, listening to Donal speak, nodding slowly.

Sibyl’s heart shattered into a thousand pieces, just seeing Raife alive and well, his bare chest under his plaid wet with perspiration. They had rode hard to get there so quickly, Sibyl realized, glancing up at the sun in the sky. It had only been a few hours since she’d arrived at Alistair’s. They were armed as men, and had not yet transformed.

Mayhaps bloodshed and panic could still be avoided, she thought.

“One of our pack’s blood has been spilled! Ye, Alistair MacFalon, are in violation of the wolf pact!” Raife raised his sword high, speaking to the gathered crowd, but he was looking straight at Alistair. “We’re invokin’ single combat blood rite!”

“There is no wolf pact!” Alistair spat, shaking loose of the men who held him. “We hold t’no such thing.”

“Will it be war then?” Raife stared the man down.

The crowd murmured its disapproval and Sibyl glanced at many of them, who were dressed in finery for attending a wedding but hadn’t at all planned on being slaughtered in the midst of a battle between man and wulver.

“Ye have t’honor the pact!” A cry rose up from the crowd. Sibyl didn’t know from where, but she was grateful when the rest of them began to take up the chant.

“Honor the pact! Honor the pact!”

Alistair reddened, his face twisted in a sneer at the sudden turn of the crowd’s allegiance from their laird.

“I’ll honor it!” Alistair announced loudly, bowing in Raife’s direction with much show. “The wolf pact allows for blood rite if either party feels the pact has been violated.”

He was explaining to the crowd, Sibyl realized, her heart hammering in her chest at his words. He had that smile on his face, that cold, calculating smile. What was he up to? Whatever it was, she didn’t like it.

“But as laird, I’ve a right t’call for a stand-in!” Alistair raised his voice, looking at his men, his eyes a cloudy, glittering gray. “Which of ye brave men will stand in me place?”

Sibyl held her breath, waiting. Of course Alistair would take this way out—and it looked, to the crowd, as if he were being magnanimous by calling on one of his “brave men” to take his place. Of course their laird couldn’t fight—he was laird. He had a clan to run, after all. Sibyl hated the way he made it look, as if the men who stood by, considering his offer, were the ones who were cowards for staying silent.

“
He
broke the pact!” someone murmured.

Sibyl’s head came up, eyes widening as those phrases peppered the crowd.

“
He
took the wolf-woman!”

“Fight yer own battles!”
This last was spoken so clearly it echoed against the castle’s gray walls.

“Donal?” Alistair turned to his brother, looking up and smiling at him on horseback. “As second son, tis yer place to stand in for yer laird.”

“Tis true. The pact allows for a stand-in.” Donal reined his horse away from his brother, glancing over his shoulder as he clearly replied, “But all have the right of refusal, brother. Even the second son. And I’m sorry, but I refuse. Do as the man said—fight yer own battles.”

A cheer—an actual cheer—went up from the crowd.

“Ye wanna see a fight?” Alistair called, his face twisted in a scowl as he called for his sword and a man brought it to him. The crowd cheered again. Of course they wanted to see a fight. They’d come for a wedding, but a fight was even better, she judged from the reactions.

Sibyl had seen all manner of jousts back home in England but she didn’t understand how this was going to work. Alistair swung his sword through the air, showing off for the crowd. He looked back over his shoulder at Raife, goading the man.

“Ye ready, dog?”

Raife shook his head and a slow smile spread across Alistair’s face. 

“Afraid, are ye?” Alistair called loudly—for the benefit of the show, of course. “Get down here and face me like a man.”

“Tis my brother who’s callin’ for blood rite.” Raife’s voice rose over the crowd, sure and clear. Just the sound of it made Sibyl want to run to him. “Tis Darrow ye’ll be facin’.”

“Dog-boy, is that what ye said?” Alistair swung his sword, stabbing at thin air. “What was yer name again? Ruff? Ruff?”

Alistair barked and howled and the crowd laughed.

Sibyl had been so focused on Raife, she had missed Darrow in the crowd of wulvers. He reined his horse up next to his brother and Sibyl saw the horn he’d blown still in his hand. His eyes were dark, so dark, glittering as he slid off his horse. He handed the horn to his brother and drew his sword as he approached Alistair in the middle of the field.

Sibyl thought of Laina. She thought of their little blue-eyed boy back in the mountain, a baby Sibyl had seen birthed, had put to his mother’s breast so he could help keep her from bleeding to death. Sweet, gentle Laina, whose mother had been captured by the MacFalons, who had birthed Laina in a cage, and had been killed before she even had a chance to hold her daughter.

Smart, determined Laina, so insistent, so sure she could find a “cure” for their wulver affliction. Where was Laina now? Sibyl scanned the crowd, hoping against hope to see her face. Had the maid told her the truth when she said Laina had thrown herself upon a spike? Could it possibly be true? She didn’t want to believe it.

“Come on, dog.” Alistair turned toward Darrow as the big man approached. The crowd gasped at the size difference between the competitors. Darrow towered over the Scot—and Darrow was small compared to his brother, Raife, who sat still in his saddle, watching. Donal had reined his horse in on Sibyl’s side of the field and she moved closer.

“Let’s get this over wit’!” Alistair said loudly. “I do’na wanna get fleas.”

More laughter from the crowd, but it was nervous laughter. They had seen Darrow now and had judged Alistair’s chances accordingly. So had Sibyl. Darrow had bloodlust in his eyes and she couldn’t blame him. If they didn’t stop this, he would be likely to kill Alistair, and then what? Would it simply mean more war?

“Donal,” Sibyl called when she was beside the man. He glanced down, frowning at her, reining his horse away. She was standing quite close and put her hand on the horse’s flank. “This blood rite? They fight until blood is drawn then? How does it work?”

Donal shook his head but the answer came from an old man to her right.

“Blood rite’s ta the death, lass.” The old man gave a single nod, his gaze on the men approaching each other across the field. “A life for a life.”

“Oh no.” She looked up at Alistair’s brother, panicked. “Donal, no!”

“Tis the pact,” he informed her, his head whirling around as the first sound of steel striking steel rang out. “Let it work, as it should. One of ’em’ll die today.”

“T’will be an honorable death,” the old man beside her agreed.

An honorable death? What did that mean, if Darrow was dead? She saw the look in Raife’s brother’s eyes and knew, without Laina, he believed he had nothing to live for. She wanted to run to him, to plead with him to live, for his child’s sake.
Don’t orphan your son,
Sibyl thought, her heart breaking as the men crossed swords again. She couldn’t look. She couldn’t bear to watch.

“Is it over?” she whispered, covering her face. “Please let it be over.”

Steel against steel. The grunt of men hefting heavy swords. The rising cry of the crowd as one or the other man landed a blow. Had it been a death blow?

“Please tell me it’s over,” she whispered, saying a prayer in her head for Darrow. She had no love for Alistair, but it was Darrow she didn’t want to perish in this “blood rite.”

Darrow howled. It was a long, keening howl, a wulver wail, and Sibyl’s head came up, sure she would see the man split in two on the field.

But it was Alistair who was down, Darrow’s foot on the man’s chest, sword at his throat. Darrow’s head was thrown back, his dark hair spilling down his shoulders as he howled, not at the moon, but at the sun.

“Wait!” Alistair waved his arms, gasping for air. “Call it off! I did’na kill’er!”

Sibyl could see, even from her vantage point, the abject terror in Alistair’s eyes.

“Yer bitch is alive! She’s—” Alistair croaked, gasping for breath as Darrow took a step back, frowning at the man.

“Show me!” Darrow didn’t take his sword from Alistair’s throat.

“Bring’er!” Alistair choked, his voice strangled. “Fer God’s sake, get the bitch!”

Sibyl watched, breath held, as one of the men—Gregor, the same one who had manhandled her, the one who had escaped them on the stairs—led a stumbling woman onto the field. Could it be? Her heart soared in her chest as the Scot shoved the woman forward. Sibyl couldn’t see her face—it was obscured by cloth. She had a grain sack pulled over her head, hands bound behind her with rope.

Was this some trick?

“Laina?” Darrow called but didn’t look over his shoulder as they approached from behind. He didn’t take his eyes off the man under his blade.

“Darrow!” Laina responded, voice muffled under the bag. Her voice was full of pain, horror, unspeakable things Sibyl didn’t want to think about, but it was also filled with longing and the sound of hope.

Darrow sheathed his sword, giving one last, low growl in his throat at the man on the ground, before turning to his wife. Gregor pushed Laina forward and she fell into her husband’s arms as he pulled the sack from her head. Her face was filthy, tear-streaked, as she turned her eyes up to him and he embraced her, a look of relief on his face that was palpable. He yanked at her restraints, pulling her free so Laina could put her arms around her husband’s neck.

Sibyl sobbed, her own relief taking flight in her chest as she saw Laina was alive. Alive! She could hardly believe it. She looked across the field and saw Raife watching them. He was a blur to her—they were all a blur through her tears. She wouldn’t have heard anything, expected anything at all, if she hadn’t heard the collective gasp from the crowd.

She saw it a moment too late. Alistair was up, stalking toward the reuniting couple, his sword drawn. Sibyl heard a scream. She thought it might be her own as she sank to her knees in the grass, watching Alistair grab Darrow’s shoulder for leverage and shove his sword straight through. Laina screamed, wiping blood from Darrow’s mouth as it flooded their kiss, the tip of the sword narrowly missing her.

It happened so quickly Sibyl thought she was dreaming. She screamed again, but the crowd drowned out the sound as Alistair pulled his blade and lifted it high in the air, aiming to take Darrow’s head clean off his shoulders. Raife was riding toward them, and so was Donal, but it was over before either horse had reached the bloody scene.

Darrow pushed Laina to her knees, turning and unsheathing his sword just in time to catch the steel of Alistair’s sword in mid-air. The swords clashed and tangled for just a moment, and then Darrow pushed forward hard, moving Alistair off-balance, and then he swung. Sibyl screamed again—she heard it in her own head—as she watched Alistair’s head topple from his shoulders. Donal’s horse had to sidestep it as it rolled in the grass, Alistair’s dead eyes staring up at a cloudless blue sky.

Darrow went to his knees, his shirt and plaid blooming bright red, and Laina helped lie him down in the grass. Raife was off his horse, kneeling before his brother’s body, and Sibyl ran to them without another thought.