The Sunstone Brooch : Time Travel Romance by Katherine Logan (comprehension books .TXT) 📗

brother, the same as all the men in the clan—brothers in battle, brothers by different mothers—and he’d fight to the death for each one of them, as they would for him.

“It was the most efficient course of action to bring the Keeper and Erik’s children to meet with the Council. You would not have all come at once.” Arne didn’t ask David and Austin to lower their weapons a second time. Instead, he turned and walked back into his longhouse, holding the door open for them.

“Leave your weapons here, or you will not be allowed to go any farther.” Arne reached for the sling holding Erik’s ax. “I’ll take this,” he said with greedy eyes.

Ensley turned away from him. “It’s mine. You can’t have it.”

“It is not yours. It belongs to the Council and was only loaned to Erik.”

“He gave it to me. You can take my guns, but not this.”

Arne reached for it again but jerked back his hand. “Keep it, then.”

David surrendered his rifle and sidearm, and so did Austin. But Ensley and Elliott kept theirs hidden beneath their clothes.

Do not be distracted, young David. Be the vængr I have guided you to be.

Erik?

I will not abandon you today. I will give you wisdom.

David breathed in the smoky air but didn’t cough. He didn’t want the enemy to know it bothered him.

Where are ye, Kenz? I canna see ye, but I feel ye near me.

Three women sat on the dirt floor, weaving cloth on weighted looms. The click, click, click of the stone weights was a rhythmic sound, but underneath it was another kind of click or tap of metal against stone.

It was second nature to him to match taps to letters. He waited for the letters to repeat. ––. ..– –.

GUN.

And then he knew Kenzie was tapping her West Point ring against the stone wall. Someone had a gun. Did she? No. They would have disarmed her, and she carried only one. That meant someone had hers. A Council member?

He cleared his throat, hoping to let her know he got her message. She continued spelling GUN again. He cleared his throat a second time. “The smoke takes getting used to,” he said, and the tapping ceased.

Bjørn, Birger, and Forde, the other Council members David met three years ago, sat on a bench against the wall.

“Where are my wife and brother? Produce them now,” David demanded.

“You are in no position to demand anything,” Arne said.

Arne’s condescending-as-shit tone sent a bitter taste to David’s mouth, and he pivoted to face the asshole full-on, his hands turning to fists at his sides.

Have patience, young David.

“If ye continue with an attitude like that, negotiations won’t go very well,” David replied. “Let’s start over. Before we talk specifics, I want to see my family.”

Arne nodded to a man standing behind David. He left, and a couple of minutes later, he and another Viking dragged a trussed-up Kenzie and Cullen into the room and dropped them at the Council’s feet. Kenzie’s face was cut and bruised, and her nose probably broken. Her hair was hanging loose, and there was matted blood above her ear. The body armor was gone, and all she wore were her utility pants and T-shirt, both ripped. No socks. No boots. And Cullen had similar injuries. But anger burned in both their eyes. If they were free, the fight would start all over.

David had flashes of finding her naked, battered, and bruised in the London Cage, and he almost erupted.

Do not be distracted, young David. Do not. You will all die. Be the vængr.

It took every bit of training to ignore Kenzie and Cullen and focus entirely on Arne, all the while remaining open to Erik’s wisdom.

“Why have ye kept Tavis here against his will?” Elliott demanded.

“He’s Erik’s heir and a Council member. He belongs here, as does Erik’s grandson.”

“Do ye for one moment believe that’s why Erik planted his seed in two twenty-first-century women? So his heirs would live in the twelfth century? No, he intended for them to live in the future. He planned to move the Council.”

“That was never his plan,” Arne said. “He intended to bring new blood to the Council here in this time.”

“If that’s the case, why haven’t ye brought Tavis into Council business and shared the history of the brooches with him?” David asked. “Ye’re keeping him out. Why?”

“He has to earn the privilege to receive the secrets,” Arne bellowed.

Tavis screwed up his face and stepped forward with clenched fists, but David blocked him, and Joseph clung to Tavis’s leg to hold him back.

“There are no big secrets,” David said. “There’s nothing on the other side of the door except an easier way to travel. The only thing ye have is Erik’s brooch, and without that, ye have nothing. Ye are nothing, and ye have no right to it. The brooch belongs to Erik’s children. It’s time to give it back.”

Arne laughed. “None of that is true.”

Tavis raised his clenched fists again, and this time Ensley stepped in front of him. “Erik drew the Yggdrasil on my forehead. It represents the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. I am the chosen one, and I demand you return our brooch.”

“We have the torc. We have eight brooches. Elliott is the Keeper.” David sent a hand signal to Elliott, telling him to prepare to insert the topaz into the torc.

“I am the legitimate Keeper of the stones. The brooch ye have belongs to Erik’s heirs.”

The other three Council members joined Arne. “We stand in solidarity and demand you leave Jarlshof, but Joseph must stay here.”

David gripped Tavis’s arm, holding him in place.

“As Keeper, I can make one request of the Council.” Elliott’s voice didn’t waver. There were no hints of emotion slipping through the cracks in his tough façade. He went chin up. “And it has to be honored.”

“You have the privilege of making one request in your lifetime. That is correct,” Arne said. “Choose wisely. You cannot take it back and choose another.”

It was clear