The Silver Falcon

Book excerpt: Despite his mother's insistence, young William knows he is destined not to toil with a swordsmith's hammer in his hand, but rather to stride the open country with a falcon on his fist. And when he rescues a magnificent bird of prey belonging to King Henry himself, the boy finds in His Majesty's favor a golden opportunity. Neither the stigma of a clubfoot nor the powerful influence of prophecy will keep him from fleeing the smoky smithy to run the open fields...in the shadow of the sky's winged masters. But his journey will be a tumultuous one, marked in equal measure by triumph and torment. He will meet a lifelong friend and make a deadly enemy, be hunted through the wilderness and go hungry on city streets. And as he travels from the huts of the lowly to the castles of the highborn, growing from callow youth to experience-scarred manhood, he will fight -- with honor for what is right and with fury against wrongs no man should suffer.