Page 76 of Bride of Ice
What followed was an excruciating and highly romanticized account of Colban’s leap from the window and his ensuing battle. By the end of the performance, Colban decided theyhaddecided to torture someone. His ears burned, and his smile of gratitude strained the corners of his mouth.
Isabel then announced Agile Giles, a lad in tattered clothing who could juggle four hen’s eggs in various manners without breaking a single one.
A white-haired blind woman swathed in colorful scarves was introduced as Sofia the Seer. She waved her hands about wildly, summoning various people in the crowd to come forward so she could touch their sleeve and tell them what their future held.
She foretold wealth for a bright-eyed lad, two dead sheep for an old man, another babe for Rauve in the summer, and victory for a knight in the spring tournament.
Finally she lifted her finger to Colban. “You. Champion.”
Colban scowled. He didn’t want to have his destiny foretold. He didn’t believe in such drivel.
“Throw down an article of your clothing.”
One of Isabel’s bolder friends squealed, “Throw downallof them!” A spate of girlish giggles followed.
Colban wanted to withdraw from the window. But everyone was staring expectantly at him now. Gellir. Brand. Isabel. Hallie. He supposed it would be easier to comply and dispense with this nonsense.
He didn’t have any spare clothing. And he wasn’t about to tear a sleeve off his only leine. But since his foot was bandaged at the moment, he supposed he didn’t need his boot.
“Ye’ll return this, aye?” he called down, garnering laughter from the clan.
He tossed it onto the green, not far from where he’d landed this morn. A man 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.
“Nay, nay, nay,” Isabel complained. “That can’t be right. Try again.”
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.
