The Magic of Highland Dragons Read Online Free PDF

recommend, then? For the good of us all?”
    “Nay. Never what ye recommend.”
    “Och, ye’re only being stubborn. It’s good advice.”
    They ate for a few moments in companionable silence, until Bren’s younger brothers arrived for the meal. As usual, they were late and they were starving and soon had old Berta scolding them up and down for their lack of manners. Bren had a feeling that without Berta, they would in short time all be living like wild beasts. Men needed the civilizing influence of women, of that he was certain. Men might make a place safe to live in, provide sustenance, but only women could make it a home, with children and laughter, and yes, even flowers. He thought of the beautiful flowers his mother had always arranged on the tables, and how he missed those little touches of softness in his life, of beauty and joy, when the rest was so filled with hardness and far too often, spilt blood. The scars on his body were testament to the life he had led thus far. He felt his heart begin to squeeze too tight in his chest, and so quickly looked around for something to divert him from the unwelcome direction of his thoughts.
    Dirc was taking advantage of the distraction Drust and Eian had provided to slip a small loaf of bread into his pocket, to bring to Faith for her dinner. He took most of his meals here at the hall, and so kept very little food in his cottage. He excused himself from the table, and with his back turned, he could only feel Bren narrow his eyes in renewed suspicion. Dirc smiled to himself and began humming softly as he left the hall at a near run.
    “The old man is up to something”, Bren said while his brothers all had their mouths too full and could actually hear him above the din in the hall. At least half the men that lived within the castle walls were seated at the long tables, eating and drinking heartily and talking loudly. It was no wonder most of the women chose to eat after the men finished, in relative peace.
    “Up to what?” asked Drust, when he had swallowed his food, and just before he stuffed his mouth full again.
    “I dinna ken what , I just ken it’s something . Perhaps between the two of ye, ye can find out what it is. It’s always safer to ken what Dirc is plotting ahead of time.”
    Eian grinned at him. “Ah, sure. Spying on errant sorcerers is one of my many specialties.” Bren raised an eyebrow at his youngest brother, the corner of his mouth curling up just a little. Eian was the most lighthearted of the three of them, quick with a smile and a jest. Constantly occupied by women and wine and all the finer pursuits in life, all while still managing to live up to his responsibilities as brother of the laird and chief. Bren sometimes wondered what it was like to be so cheerful all of the time, so carefree. With every day that passed, he felt the chances of knowing happiness in his own life grow a little dimmer.
    He remembered a time when he was very young, and his father had held him on his knee in the evenings and told him the stories of the clan. He would tell him that one day he would be chief, and that he must rule wisely and justly. He must protect both his people and the sacred rites that bound them all together. His father had told him that one day he would find his own great love, a woman made only for him, who would be always at his side and bear him sons and daughters. He had warned Bren then, even then when he was just a child, that he mustn’t wed before he was sure he had found the right woman, or he would be unhappy for all of his life, and his destiny would remain forever unfulfilled. That was the way of the Mac Coinnach men of their line. When a young Bren had asked how he would know her, his father had taken out the book of family lore, and showed his the passage where it said “…and her heart shall beat beneath the twin dragons, as though it is his own heart they devour…”
    “When I met your mam”, his father had told him, “it was just