10
The stillness, taut and charged with hostility, hung suspended in the air over the warriors in the Great Hall. The threat of violence lurked in every corner, and the few audible murmurs poisoned the air with low, menacing growls. On the walls, armed hunters and dying animals glared down from tapestries amid the mounted heads of deer and elk and boar.
And at the head table, the two leaders seemed to be making no serious attempt to dispel the gloom or to ease the tension.
Gavin Kerr stared thoughtfully at the crystal goblet in his hand. The wine, red and potent, glowed in the light of the fire in the great hearth. It was difficult for him to ignore the seed of suspicion that the priest had planted in his mind. From the time he’d greeted the Earl of Athol and his men, a coldness had tak
