What is it?” Dragon asked.
“There is a man, lord, just off a ship from Normandy. He’s in the tavern over there and he’s asking for the Lady Rycca.”
“Is he? What manner of man?”
“Tall, slender, actually he looks rather like her ladyship. He says she is his sister and he seeks word of her.”
“Does Rycca have yet another brother?” Wolf asked. He was close to Dragon and had overheard the exchange. The news had him fingering the hilt of his sword.
“Yes, she does, but I gather he’s an altogether different sort. Do you mind finishing up here?”
“Not at all. Go ahead.”
Scant minutes later, Dragon set a horn of ale in front of the visitor from Normandy. The young man looked up, startled. He was pale skinned, with eyes like honey and hair that held the promise of fire. Had Rycca been a man, she would have looked just like him.
Happy, happy day that she was not.
“What brings you to Hawkforte, friend?” Dragon asked as he took the seat opposite his new acquaintance.
“I seek word of my sister, the Lady Rycca of Wolscroft. I have had troubling word of her in Normandy and wish to be assured of her safety.”
Trouble involving Rycca? How astonishing. Dragon hid a grin and said, “You would be called—”
“Thurlow. And you are—?”
This time, Dragon’s smile would not be denied. “Ah, well, as to that, therein hangs a tale.

Autor: Josie Litton