“What happened to your chieftain?” he asked.
She lifted her shoulders in a shrug. “Lúcás died, I suppose. I don’t know which of the men is leader now.”
“And neither do they.” Trahern pointed back to the dwelling. “Haven’t you seen the way they look to each other, waiting for someone else to lead? Were Lúcás’s sons also killed?”
“I don’t know. They aren’t among the survivors. But even so, there are a few men who might fill his place.”
Their chieftain had not been the strongest leader, often preferring to let the others make decisions. Morren had never particularly cared for him, though she couldn’t say why. For now, perhaps it was best if her clan remained blended with theLochlannach.
Trahern led her across the longphort, toward the gates. “Until someone becomes the chieftain, your tribe has essentially fallen into the hands of theLochlannach.”
“The Dalrata people weren’t our enemy,” she pointed out. “Several of our women married them. It isn’t as though we have no ties.”
Trahern stopped and surveyed the entire longphort which dominated the landscape. Easily as large as his brother’s kingdom, the Norse holdings stretched out to the western sea.
“I wouldn’t trust them. And neither should you.”
She crossed her arms and regarded him. “You don’t trust anyone anymore.” She exhaled, not understanding what had happened to him. Had one woman’s death affected him this profoundly?
She remembered his laughing demeanor, the way he’d always had a story to tell. The way he would swing a child up onto his shoulders, teasing and joking with others. That man was now gone.
“I’ve reason to be angry,” he responded. “Until I’ve had my vengeance, I don’t care how I appear to others.”
“You’re letting it destroy the man you were.”
“And are you the same woman you were?” His words cut her down, and she looked away in shame.
“Neither of us will ever be the same,” she said at last. “But I’ve chosen to bury my feelings about what happened. I can’t indulge myself in anger or weeping. I have a sister to take care of.”
“Do you really believe that you can simply forget about what happened?”
“I don’t have a choice.”
His tone altered, turning gentle. “It’s a poison, Morren. It festers inside you, until you think you’re going to go mad.”
She shivered, for there was truth to his words. Every time she pushed away the nightmares, they only returned stronger than before.
“I tried to forget and go on with my life,” he continued. “I have a family. Four brothers, all married with children of their own. And every time I looked at them and saw their happiness, I thought of Ciara. She was taken from me, and I’ll be damned if I’ll let the raiders find happiness of their own.”
She pulled away, feeling even colder. “Your need for revenge has changed you. Ciara wouldn’t have wanted that.”
Turning her back on him, Morren strode back to the house where she’d left her sister. The autumn air shifted against her hair, sending the cold onto the back of her neck. Behind her, she heard Trahern’s footsteps trailing her. He wouldn’t let her alone, not even for a moment.
Before she reached the house, he said, “Morren, wait.”
She stopped walking but didn’t move to face him. He could say what he wanted, but it wouldn’t change anything.
“If you intend to stay among theLochlannach, then I won’t leave. Not until I know you’ll be safe.”
His sense of honor was so strong, she suspected it would be some time before he’d leave her. The thought made her feel even more like a burden. “I’m not your obligation. If you stay, it’s for your own reasons. Not because you feel some need to guard me.”
She kept moving forward, but Trahern intercepted her, standing in her path. He looked into her eyes, folding his arms across his chest. “You don’t believe you need protection from them?”
“Not if it’s given by a man who will brood and sulk the entire time. Or tell me that I’d be better off taking my sister some place isolated from everyone.”
The corner of his mouth twitched. “I’m not brooding.”
“You are. And I’ve no doubt that you’d complain at every moment.”
