Prologue
Søren and Isobel
When solstice breaks in the gray shatters of the hall in clan Aerin’s keep, the tongues of sway-backed men begin to wag. Early, before the drunks rise from their positions draped from stool and bench, is when secrets can be spilled, and reality up-turned like the wine-pitchers of Rothgild’s sentries. Only then, in the new reaches of high summer does their tale moisten on the lips and stir the hearts of man and maid.