When she wakes the next day, shivering and hungry, Alanna quickly slams her eyes closed and spends a few minutes silently insisting that it was all a dream. The reprieve doesn't last long; she's far too sensible to believe herself ( Read more... )

Alanna is late.

Rushing headlong through the city gates, she reflexively bows her head to the statue of the Goddess in its alcove and darts between two arguing lords on the way to the palace for a late audience with Duke Gareth.

That's what comes of wearing skirts, she thinks. I forget I've a proper brain in my head, swanning about the city that ( Read more... )

Three days after the Call to Muster, the palace is still in an uproar. Those who will ride to war are busy preparing, while those who won't gossip about what the future might bring ( Read more... )

When Alanna asks Faithful to stay with Myles, the cat makes his displeasure known.

You don't have enough sense to take care of yourself. I remind you that it's only through my intervention that you're here at all, he yowls ( Read more... )

Goddess, yet another new experience.

I feel as I often did when father handed us scrolls and requested that we fill them with the lessons we had learned that week. All that blank parchment would stare at me, and I could just feel the expectation. I wanted to fill it with glorious tales of knights and their heroic deeds ( Read more... )