Bride of Ice (The Warrior Daughters of Rivenloch #2) - Glynnis Campbell Page 0,56
picked it up and handed it to the seer.
“What do you see?” Isabel eagerly asked, clasping her hands hopefully beneath her chin. “What’s in the stars for our champion?”
Colban smirked and folded his arms. He expected Isabel had paid the woman to predict a romantic match between her sister and The One. A quick glance at Hallie’s tensed jaw told him she suspected the same.
But the old woman’s face clouded. She clutched the boot to her bosom as if it were an injured kitten.
“A dark time is ahead for you, I fear,” she intoned.
Despite his disbelief in her sight, her words felt like a cold dagger sunk in his chest.
The woman shook her white head. “I see loneliness and heartbreak.”
Isabel’s face fell, and the crowd silenced.
The old woman’s predictions were nonsense. Of course they were.
Determined to make light of her comments, Colban shouted, “There will be heartbreak if I don’t get my boot back.”
His words relieved the tension as the crowd chuckled. But they didn’t erase the furrow from between Hallie’s brows. And they didn’t banish the chill from his soul.
Nor could they remove the disappointment in Isabel’s eyes, disappointment she quickly hid with a quavering smile. Ushering the seer aside, she introduced a consort to play while her friends danced and frolicked about with garlands of ivy and hawthorn berries.
The main play featured two youths in armor, one lad wrapped in a plaid like a Highlander, Isabel and two of her friends dressed in finery, a fur-robed lad introduced as the Laird of Rivenloch, and a cloaked wizard with a beard made of moss who looked and sounded suspiciously like Brand.
The story was fairly simple.
According to the wizard, centuries ago, Rivenloch had been besieged by a terrible fire-breathing dragon. Each year, the dragon visited for three days. And on each of those three nights he demanded the sacrifice of a virgin for his supper.
Every year for centuries, the knights of the castle had tried their best to defend the virgins. Every year, they had failed, the wizard said, gesturing to a folded screen in front of the curtain wall. Two lads moved the screen aside to reveal a great pile of armor and what Colban hoped were beef bones.
While the lad playing the laird despaired over their hopeless predicament, night fell. At last, the dragon made its appearance at the top of the wall.
Colban grinned at the sight. The spectacle inspired oohs and ahhs from the clan, as well as frightened whimpers from several of the younger children.
Ian had definitely had a hand in creating the impressive beast. Two giant reptilian legs, sporting daggers for claws, perched atop the wall. A great mail-covered head with eyes of amber glass peered down at the crowd as the beast puffed smoke from between its jaws.
In Gellir’s disguised but unmistakable deep and surly voice, the dragon demanded a virgin for his supper.
The laird reluctantly offered a maiden as sacrifice. The brave and noble virgin was led up the stairs of the platform and tied to the post.
But before the dragon could claim its feast, a young knight leaped in front of the platform with a sword to save the maiden from her horrible fate.
“Fear not!” he declared. “My steel will defeat the beast!”
There was much hacking and roaring back and forth. But eventually, the knight was flung onto the pile of armor with a mighty crash. In a haze of smoke, the virgin disappeared, apparently consumed by the dragon.
Even Colban had to blink in amazement at the effect. He supposed it was done with a secret door in the platform. But it had been executed so quickly while all eyes were fixed on the dragon that no one saw the lass vanish.
The castle grieved all the next day, lamenting when the dragon returned at nightfall and a second virgin volunteered to save her clan. This time, the knight who stepped in to rescue her was armed with a bow and arrows.
“Fear not!” he announced. “My fire will defeat the beast!”
He lit a pitch-dipped arrow and fired it from the bow. The arrow trailed flame across the sky, landing with a thunk between the dragon’s eyes.
There was a tense moment when Hallie shot to her feet, no doubt fearing her siblings’ antics would either kill someone, set the castle on fire, or both.
But the fire sputtered out. Hallie sank back onto the faldstool.
Once again, the dragon triumphed. The hapless knight was tossed onto