Free There Be Dragons by Heather Graham Page B

wonderful!” Adriana exclaimed. Naturally, his sweet young sister would understand.
    “Perhaps you should go to your room,” Lucia said worriedly to Adriana.
    “Mother! And miss this?” Adriana protested, eyes sparkling.

    “No one should miss love,” Michelo said, grinning at his sister.
    “Bah, love!” his father said.
    “Orisini!” his mother protested, outraged.
    “Well, dear, it’s blessed that we are in love!” Orisini said, speaking quickly. “But our marriage was arranged.”
    She rolled her eyes, looking at her son. “Hear how he intends to arrange this!”
    “Yes, son, we shall all go to the square in Lendo. Every lady in all of my dukedom of Calasia will assemble there. When the olive branch falls—”
    “When the olive branch falls!” Michelo interrupted, astounded. “No, no, no, Father. You listened, I know, but you didn’t hear me. I am in love. I know the girl I will wed.”
    “You know this girl?” his mother asked.
    “I met her in the hills. You see, I did have a bit of an accident on the way home—I hit my head. And when I awoke, she was there.”
    “A dream girl, no more,” his father said impatiently.
    “You hit your head, dear,” his mother said. “Obviously, you’re well enough now … but she might well have been a dream, indeed.”
    “She was real! I have her shoe!” Michelo said, and produced it.
    “Really. A dream girl would never lose a shoe,” Adriana said, quite practically.
    Orisini ignored them both. “When the olive branch falls—”
    “Father—”
    “When the olive branch falls—”
    “How will this olive branch fall?” Michelo demanded.
    “A falcon will drop it,” Orisini said.
    “A falcon spoke to him,” his mother said, rolling her eyes once again.
    “A falcon?” Michelo repeated.
    “Yes, dear, a falcon,” his mother said with a sigh.
    “A
falcon?”
Michelo repeated.
    “Why, yes! A falcon,” Orisini said, delighted since it appeared that Michelo understood.
    A falcon? Could it be …
    Michelo had seen wartrolls. And he had seen the beautiful falcon in the woods. A creature so very magnificent that surely …
    Perhaps, myth and magic could be true.
    “Let’s see what happens,” he told his father cautiously.

    Pietro d’Artois, Count of Lendo, fumed in astonishment. “It’s changed!” he swore angrily. His daughter stood before him, staring at her father. “I don’t believe this insult, this indignity! Now, the great Fiorelli claims we must all stand out in the square, that there has been an omen, that for the good of all the lands, we must gather and wait—and a
falcon
will decide our fates!”
    Daphne listened, barely able to believe her good fortune. “Then—I’m not to marry Michelo Fiorelli?” she whispered.
    He glanced at her, dismayed and despairing that she should find such pleasure in this disaster. “The wretched falcon could drop the olive branch before you,” he reminded her. “In fact, it must, it must … I will consult Geovana, that’s what I’ll do!” he said.
    Before she could stop him, her father left her.
    “Yes!” she cried out when he was gone. “Oh, yes! Please, please, falcon—or whatever you may be! Whatever you do, don’t drop that branch before me!”

    If not for the fact that Armand had heard about the happenings in the courtyard, Marina herself might have never known what was going to happen. Apparently, a crier had gone out, informing all the ladies of Calasia they must be in the square at sundown, for the great Duke Fiorelli had been given an omen, and his son would marry only when a falcon had dropped an olive branch before the girl he was intended to wed.

    Michelo Fiorelli had been wounded, and he had just made it home after a night out on the cliffs.
    And so she knew.
    Michelo had been her dream prince. The great duke’s son—previously to marry her stepsister—was now destined to follow a new plan of his father’s.
    Somehow, that plan involved a falcon.
    Hope took flight