Not a hero. Not a chosen one. Hayley is only a survivor.
At fourteen Hayley finds herself with a choice -- hang for being caught stealing or become a squire. She knows nothing about the world of knights, chivalry, swords, and horses, but she knows a lot about death. In this coming-of-age tale, Hayley discovers there's more to not only the Order of Knights, but the world around her and the strength that lurks inside her heart.
Excerpt
“How old are you?”
Digging her cracked fingernails over the back of her neck, Hayley flinched at the question. “Fourteen, more or less.” It was the best stab at an answer she could give.
“That is the average age a person begins to squire at, and they remain in the service of their Knight until reaching the age of eighteen or nineteen.”
“Five years?” Hayley gasped. She had no intention to keep at this farce, but she’d been working on the assumption they’d take a year away from her. Make her move rubble, or sweep floors, or polish armor, or whatever squires did to build character. But five years? She’d be an old crone by then.
“More,” Gavin’s piercing amber eyes burned through Hayley, seeming to sense her extreme reluctance, “or less. A new squire is not found until the old has left…or perished.”
“I can die?” Hayley squeaked.
“We can all die,” he said with a shrug.
She pursed her lips at that. No shit, everyone can die, it’s that opposite part of living. But… “How likely is the dying part? Like…plague rips apart a village, or knock your head on a rock and maybe bleed from your eyeballs certain death?”
“That,” the man returned to his march through the masses, “depends entirely upon you.”
“So black death then,” Hayley muttered to herself.
She was fed, clothed, and seeming to be led towards somewhere that was under a roof. It was the best possible outcome in her life in over a year, but she couldn’t shatter the despair cloak clinging to her bones. Everything had a catch. It was only a matter of time until the catch snapped and took out your ankle.