Chapter 1

1

In Daniel’s dreams…

The trumpets sounded in the distance, heralding the oncoming storm. Daniel Trace stood tall on the castle battlements, ready to advance toward danger. The raging winds sweeping across the rolling, green hills ravaged his blond hair and tugged at the blue tunic that matched his piercing eyes.

“Sury, is the narration really necessary?” Daniel asked his cousin, who was carelessly swinging one tall, leather boot over the castle wall.

“Of course, Daniel,” Suryodaya Trace said as she sat nearby on the stone parapet of the medieval castle wall, picking moss from the cracks in the stone. Tossing her braid of dark hair over her shoulder, she leapt and landed beside him. “Otherwise you’re just a good-looking, rare-book dealer staring at that.” She motioned to an ominous shadow lurking in the dark clouds spiraling in the distance.

Gripping the thin hilt of his sword with one hand, Daniel ran the other through his sandy hair in frustration. His dreams always carried a message, yet it could be difficult to decipher amid the eclectic personalities of his family and friends who held recurring roles. Daniel glanced out at the storm and suppressed a sigh.

“Piercing eyes?” he asked her with an incredulous look. With his towering frame and fair complexion, it was no wonder few believed he was related by blood to Sury, who gracefully carried her dark features and sinewy stance. Still, he chalked her dogged insistence of his beauty up to family devotion. She smiled and blew him a kiss.

Unable to muster a response, Daniel turned instead to the dark clouds consuming the field in front of him. “Archers! Ready your bows!” he cried. A row of black arrows appeared from the lower stone walls, poised to fire. Before he could give the order, an ear-splitting scrape of metal-on-stone yanked Daniel’s attention from the storm.

A few steps away, a short, muscular man with dark, wavy hair, sported a leather breastplate Daniel estimated was two sizes too small. He struggled to lift a hulking bronze shield. As it slipped from his meaty grasp, the loud clang of metal striking stone echoed. The shield slowly rolled in front of Daniel, ringing as it clattered to the ground. Daniel raised a single eyebrow in question. “What are you wearing, Frank?” he asked.

Frank glanced down to his attire and attempted to straighten the ill-fitting armor, failing to cover his expansive chest. “It’s Greek tonight, right? You know, with the shield and the sword and the grrrrrr,” he growled. Daniel somehow resisted the urge to slap his hand to his forehead. Two teenage boys dressed in identical tunics stepped out from behind Frank and picked up the shield. “Here you go, Uncle Frank,” they said in unison, while one glanced at Daniel and rolled his eyes.

“Thanks, boys,” Frank said with a slightly sheepish grin. “Oh, I almost forgot my line!” Dropping into a serious tone, he announced, “Danger comes from the west! And the seafood is with Sir Montrose!”

Daniel nodded and peered back to the storm. “He returns,” he whispered. Daniel’s voice was lost to the sharp snap of battle flags catching the edge of the approaching gale. The memory of the dark and seductive power of the winds licked at Daniel’s skin…

“Sury, honestly!” snapped Daniel. She only smiled in response.

A small, red cloak slapped Daniel in the face as somewhere in the distance, the sound of a bell chimed. He pulled the cloak away to see a small, elderly woman smiling in front of him. “Today I am thinking of oleanders,” she said, giving Daniel a wink as her frail hands nimbly affixed a sprig of lilac to his tunic. “There was a lovely lilac bush growing outside my window when I was growing up,” she added with a wistful sigh and lovingly straightened the purple sprig.

“Thank you, Eleanor,” Daniel said with a warm smile as she patted his cheek. He gingerly placed the cloak around her shoulders just before another blast of wind shook the castle walls, this time carrying a light spray of water. Daniel wrapped a protective arm around Eleanor.

“Oleanders dear,” Eleanor whispered. “And they will need your help.” Eleanor pointed further down the cracked stone of the battlements. Daniel peered over to see a man and woman standing beneath a rush of water from the castle wall. “Daniel!” called the woman, water splashing against her dark hands as she pushed in vain at the deluge. “When you have a moment, Maddy and I will soon face a bit of a mess.”

Madison Westmore shoved his shoulder against the wall as the water rolled down. “Looks like the second floor, Daniel. We should send word to the pied piper.” Daniel nodded.