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in love, or so he believes. And this will certainly seal the alliance with Ralsean. Why do you want to do anything?”
    “Landos.”
    “What about Landos?”
    “He’s in love with Sarah!”
    “Oh! That’s a different story altogether. Quick: Sound the alarms! Light the beacons! Call the King!”
    “Master--”
    “It doesn’t matter, Julia,” Gabriel interrupted, “Landos isn’t nobility, so he cannot marry Sarah anyway. He is a servant to Michael. He is a high-ranking servant, and certainly he has authority over many other servants, but at the end of the day, he is a servant. If Michael so chooses, he can have Landos clean the stables. There is no emergency here.”
    “I don’t see it that way,” Vye said. “Landos is young and in love.”
    “They’re both young,” Gabriel said, “And I’m not getting any younger during this conversation. There is no problem. Michael will ask Ralsean for his daughter’s hand, Ralsean will say yes, and Landos will have to accept loving Sarah from afar.”
    Gabriel redoubled his efforts on the stubborn clasp, seeming to end the conversation. Vye wandered to the door, but she had one more question.
    “Have you ever been in love?”
    Gabriel took a breath, calming himself. And he smiled. There was an epic story to be told in that smile, but all he said was, “In my youth.”
    “I never have.”
    “You’re still in your youth.”
    “The one thing I’ve noticed though, even in my youth, is that people can do some crazy things when they’re in love.”
    She exited the room. To calm her nerves, she took a walk on the catwalk. It had a good view of the shore, and the sun would be setting over the west wall. But that knot in her shoulder only got worse when she saw Sarah and Landos on a lower parapet. Landos had probably taken her out to look at the same sunset, but now, they were kissing.
     

Chapter 9: A Noble in Name Only
     
    It took four days for King Vincent to hear of the marriage. It took him seven minutes to decide not to attend.
    As there were only ten Counts and two Dukes in the Kingdom, one of them getting married would usually be a big enough event to warrant the King ’s attendance. But Michael and Sarah had arranged for their marriage to be on the first day of summer. Apparently, they hadn’t received the latest Jousting Schedule. The season opened with a grand affair at the Royal Court, and King Vincent was terribly excited about his Champion of the Joust, Sir Noble.
    Sir Noble had a troubled childhood. As a commoner, having the name David Noble always led to problems, especially in a society that placed such importance on nobility. He was beat up often, especially by the children of noblemen, for trying to impersonate a nobleman. He would try to explain, between kidney punches, that it was just his name, and it didn’t mean anything.
    But kids, being the cruel things that they are, insisted that he had named himself that on purpose. So, David Noble got angry. Very angry. He decided that if he was going to have a name like Noble, he was going to have to become a nobleman.
    There was only one path to nobility for the commoner. He was going to have to be knighted by the King. Counts and Dukes could knight people who were of the proper lineage, but only a King could confer it upon commoners.
    So, David figured he was going to have to do something extraordinary. Or as many extraordinary things as it took to get the King’s attention. He single-handedly hunted down the Wild Boar of Dirga. He saved a village from bandits. He fought off the Pirates of Piccirillo using only a rowboat and a slingshot. Finally, he had enough advocates to get an audience with the King. He was a shoo-in for Knighthood.
    But Vincent didn’t see it the same way, “Well, that’s very impressive, no doubt, but in order to be knighted, you would have to do something extraordinary.”
    “Your Majesty, I implore you. Those things weren’t easy to do. They were, by the measure of all