Please join me in welcoming novelist Alma Alexander. Her featured character is Aris the Gleeman, from her anthology, Fractured Fairy Tales.

Aris stood just inside the door of the great hall, clutching his harp against his ribs, half concealed by the gleeman’s motley cloak. He watched a woman glittering with diamonds sink into a deep curtsey as she was presented; then what was obviously a family, a proud father cuffing the youngest son into a proper bow when the moment came. They, and others, came away from their presentations, and Aris could see the glow on their faces. They belonged here. They clearly did. Aris himself? It was the old story. He ran from magic, and magic always chased him back, and caught him. He had no idea how the invitation to this ball had come to him — but it was the sort of invitation one did not…