The Gift of Dragons – Book Excerpt

Hello friend! Today I am chatting with author, Rachel A. Greco, about her fantasy book, The Gift of Dragons. We recently collaborated on my indie recommendations series. Let’s welcome her and learn more about the book. You will also find a book excerpt after the interview. 🙂

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Get to know the author: Rachel

Welcome to Armed with A Book, Rachel! Tell me and my readers a bit about yourself!

I dream of being a dragon but have settled instead for being an author, which is almost as fun. My short story, Fairy Light, won an honorable mention in the Writer’s Digest Annual Writing Competition, and my debut, The Gift of Dragons, just came out in May. When not writing, I can be found reading, kayaking, or dancing with elves in the forests of my North Carolina home.

What inspired you to write this book?

That’s such a great question! It’s hard to pinpoint the specific thing that inspired me, but I did have this image in my mind of a man relentlessly pursuing a woman who wanted to overthrow him. The dragons came later, but I’m so glad they did. I can’t imagine the book without them now. 

How long did it take you to write this book, from the first idea to the last edit?

I have no idea. Way too long—years. I worked on the project in-between writing other stories to help keep me sane. 

What makes your story unique?

The way the dragons appear are different than how they appear in most novels, but I can’t say more without giving too much away ☺.  The main character journeys not only through the country to start a rebellion, but through the pain surrounding her sister’s death, all while learning the prince and king may not be who she thinks they are. Plus, she has a hawk! 

Who would enjoy reading your book? 

Those who enjoy fantasy with medieval settings, lore, dragons, and enemies-to-lover plots. 

What’s something you hope readers would take away from it?

I hope readers enjoy escaping with Adelaide, but also have their eyes opened a little more to the truth that people might be more than we expect and to the knowledge of what true freedom is. 

Do you have a favourite quote or scene in the book that you find yourself going back to?

This quote from Prince Elias has always stuck with me: “To fly would be freedom itself.” 

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Book Excerpt from
The Gift of Dragons

Chapter One 

Cyr screeched overhead, urging Adelaide and Emma faster over the dirt path leading to the bedraggled town of Alesfirth. 

When they reached the top of the hill cluttered with stone houses and shops, Emma raised her arms. Her summer-sky eyes lit with victory. “I won! Now you must do my chores for a fortnight.” 

“A fortnight?” Adelaide tugged her sister’s flaxen braid. “No way. That’s too long for a simple race.” 

“Then…” Emma watched a bent-backed woman push a cart bulging with glossy red apples through the rickety wooden gate toward the covered food stalls. She faced Adelaide again. “You get to see how much the leather costs for father’s shoes.” 

Adelaide’s face fell at the thought of wading into the cloud of rancid stink surrounding the tanner’s hides. The smell of the sharp animal urine he used for treating the leather always made her want to vomit. “That’s unfair, Em.” 

“No, it’s not. You lost, and one of us has to go there anyway. I’ll go next time.” Emma placed a few silver klins in Adelaide’s hand, then darted to the food booths which smelled of baked bread, fresh cheese, and golden harvests: much more tantalizing than the tanner’s booth. 

Muttering words she’d never let Odo hear, Adelaide swerved around threadbare dogs nosing for scraps, skeletal children scurrying about, and carts piled high with firewood. She passed the lord’s cedar hall where buttery and azure flags embellished with a black buck—the symbol of Alesfirth—hung. Red-faced men, probably colored so from drinking too much wine, could be seen guffawing through the hall’s open windows. 

As she passed the raised stone dais in the middle of town, an orange-capped boy almost knocked Adelaide over. 

“Sorry, Miss,” he called back at her.  

Adelaide waved at him then followed the ripe stench of urine past the dais toward the tanner’s booth. She nodded to him and told him what she wanted. 

As the tanner picked up hides and rattled off prices, screams sharp with fright pierced the normal chatter of the market. 

Adelaide whirled around. Knights on horseback galloped down the road, their upheld swords flickering with cold sunlight. Black and silver tunics peeked from beneath their chain mail, marking them as Gyndilians. Adelaide shivered. 

A Gyndilian’s sword cut down into the orange-capped boy she’d seen earlier. He collapsed like hacked wheat, blood pouring from his chest. 

Adelaide jerked back, her heart stuttering. 

Another knight, this one cloaked in the blue and gold colors of Klinhun, stepped out of the tavern, a mug of ale in his hand. He stared at the mounted Gyndilian who was now attacking an older man, then darted away, his sword swaying uselessly from his girdle. 

Adelaide longed to scream at the knight, beg him to return and help the boy, even if it was too late. There were plenty of others falling around her that he could protect—was bound to protect. 

But Adelaide had to find Emma. She plunged under horses’ legs, leapt over prone, wailing people, trying to block out their desperate cries, and wove past Gyndilians striking anyone in sight. Smoke now clogged the air, and Adelaide, coughing, squinted through the thick haze. 

A horde of Klinian knights darted in the same direction as she toward the town’s gate. As she hopped over a too-still young man, Adelaide slipped in a pool of blood and tumbled to her knees. 

Something whooshed by her head. She rolled over just in time to dodge an arrow. It struck a bag of oats on the ground behind her. They cascaded to the ground in a tawny waterfall. 

Not wanting to give the Gyndilian another clear shot, Adelaide dove under a table, knocking over a basket of turnips. She’d finally made it back to the food market at the front of town. Now she just had to find her sister. 

“Emma? Emma, where are you?” Her voice was hoarse from smoke and heaving breaths. She crawled under tables through sticky blood and spilled fruits and vegetables. 

From the sound of swords ringing out above, the Klinian knights must be fighting back. But too few and too late to save those already dead. 

Adelaide coughed. “Emma?” 

Nothing but the clashing of swords and frantic shouts. She called out louder, “Emma! Answer me.” 

Panic clung to her skin, stickier than the blood covering her hands. Where was her sister? 

She continued crawling until she saw a familiar golden braid. Emma lay in a pool of crimson—it’s not hers, it can’t be hers, she told herself fiercely—next to the motionless form of the bent-backed woman she’d seen pushing the apple cart. 

“Em,” Adelaide murmured, reaching for her sister. She pulled her into her lap and gave her a slight shake. “Come on, Em. We have to go.” 

Emma’s cloudless blue eyes fixed somewhere above Adelaide. She didn’t move, didn’t laugh, didn’t turn and tell Adelaide she was only teasing her. 

The horrifying truth dropped into Adelaide’s heart, panic exploding into grief and rage that tore her apart. 

The grief and rage never let go over the next few months. The only thing that kept the emotions from ripping Adelaide apart completely was the resolve hardening into iron that she must do something, anything, to stop this from happening again. Not just for Emma, but also for the orange-capped boy, the bent-backed woman, and the dozen others who had died because King Ganelon and his son had failed to protect them. 

Well, Adelaide would protect them—one way or another. The time to help her people had come. 

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Interested?

Find this book on Amazon, Goodreads, IndieStoryGeek.

Thank you so much for hanging out with us today! Hope you enjoyed this post about The Gift of Dragons. Connect with Rachel on TikTok, Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram and her website. Also check out her Etsy store to get some goodies (a map, character art of the main character with her hawk, bookmark, and a sticker).

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