Page 41 of The Empire and the Wolf King

“Aye, we looked. Ultimately we suspect his body was taken by the English king.”

“This is an insult that we canna bear, Magnus was…isthe king of Scotland. Sean was his brother, how dare he!”

The anger seemed to build her strength so I took my hand off hers and leaned back in my seat.

She said, “Ye said Wallace was involved.”

“He has sworn he would avenge Uncle Sean, we are?—”

“Ye see, Archibald, avenging a slight is not nearly as satisfying as having so much power that evil would never dare touch ye. Magnus is a king at both ends of time. His power should have been such that nae one dared tae try this.”

“Ye daena hae tae tell me this, I ken it. ‘How dare they’ is right, this is infuriatin’.”

“As Hammond would hae said, ‘I daena like that we hae been caught on our back foot.’”

I had my eyes down on my clasped hands between my knees. “We are well beyond ‘on our back foot’. The king has been kidnapped, his brother murdered, his children livin’ in exile for a decade?—”

She said, “Aye, I see it, tis grim. I daena ken how ye kept going… how did ye?”

“I daena ken.” I shook my head and then said, “Da told me a story, the day before all of this happened. About the wolves on the cliffs of Stirling. Hae ye heard it?”

“I daena think so…? But I am not much for stories, they take us from the important happenings around us, they are often a distraction.”

“Well, this one is a good one: the royals lived in Stirling castle and there were wolves in dens in the cliff walls.”

“The wolves arna there any longer…” She said vaguely, “I wonder what happened tae them?”

I shrugged. “The Vikings planned an attack on Stirling Castle and when they crept close, in the night, they were usin’ the cover of darkness tae surprise attack.”

“The Vikings are devious, ye canna trust them.”

“Aye, and all would hae perished except, as the story goes, a Viking warrior tread upon the foot of a young wolf, and that wolf pup began tae howl. All the wolves joined in, and the howl woke the royal family. They fought the Vikings and the castle was saved.”

I added, “The story gives me solace.”

“Ye fancy yerself the wolf?”

“Aye, I consider m’self the Wolf King.”

A smile tugged at the edge of her lips, “Well now, Grandson, this is a verra good story. I hae finally been told a story that is not a distraction. Now we must plan what ye do next, I ken where Asgall is with Magnus and Kaitlyn, he has been bothering me with ransom videos filmed in a brothel on June 15, 1775?—”

I slapped my hands down on my thighs. “Good, I am glad ye dragged me here then, this is enough, I need tae go get them?—”

Her brow drew down, “Ye will run foolhardy intae war? Ye winna care that ye are putting all lives at risk? As soon as Asgall sees ye coming, he will turn off yer vessel.”

I chewed my lip, considerin’, when a big tray of food was brought in and placed on the table. A lid was lifted and inside was a steak and mashed potatoes with roasted root vegetables. “Och, ye might be right, Grandmother, but I canna think on it, I am famished.”

CHAPTER 18 - ARCHIBALD

THE KINGDOM OF RIAGHALBANE - 2391

We walked over to the table and I sank intae a chair, lifted my knife, and speared the meat.

Grandmother cleared her throat loudly. “Do ye hae the manners of a barbarian? Nae, not the prince, not Prince Archibald, I winna stand for it. Ye place yer napkin on yer lap and ye smooth it out.Thenye lift yer fork.”

I pulled the knife from my steak and smoothed my napkin over m’lap with my knife still in my fist. She gave me a withering look.

I stabbed the steak, lifted it tae m’mouth, and gnawed at it.

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