Chapter One

Ciara was playing in her secret cave in the cliff when the rider came. She recognized him at once. It was her brother Larian come back from distant Kars. He was studying as apprentice merchant with an old friend of her father's. But why was he home? She scrambled down from her cave to where she could swing across from one tall elm to another. From there she could reach her bedroom window at the back of the garth. She clattered down the stairs calling, "Larian, Larian, Mother! Larian's home!"

Her parents popped out of the cook room, both looking startled. "It can't be." Her mother sounded worried. "He isn't due home again until Year End."

Her father was practical. "Well, my love, we'd better go and see." But before they could move toward the front of the garth, Larian came striding through to meet them. His face was white with exhaustion under the brown, and his eyes haunted. He wasted no words.

"Yvian's gone mad. He's ordered the three-times Horning for all of the Old Blood. I took Falco's relay and came by the mountain paths. The guards will be right behind me. Half of them were f ... read full excerpt from Ciara's Song ebook