Alina: A Song For the Telling

You should be grateful my girl. You have no dowry and I am doing everything I can to get you settled. You are hardly any mans dream. Alinas brother Milos pulled his face into a perfect copy of Aunt Marcis sour expression primly pursing his mouth. He had got her querulous tone just right. I pinched my lips together trying not to laugh. But it was true; Aunt Marci had already introduced me to several suitors. So far I had managed to decline their suits politely.Maybe Alinas aunt was right. How could she possibly hope to become a musician a trobairitz as impoverished as she was and without the status of a good marriage?But fourteen-year-old Alina refuses to accept the oppressing life her strict aunt wants to impose upon her. When the perfect opportunity comes along for her to escape she and her brother embark on a journey through the Byzantine Empire all the way to Jerusalem.Alina soon finds herself embroiled in the political intrigue of noble courts as she fights to realize her dream of becoming a female troubadour.