Prologue

43.4K 1.3K 121
                                    

Dear Readers!

As this is my first attempt at a world-building novel, I'm grateful for all your feedback! I do hope you enjoy the story and the slightly unconventional protagonist (Leyla) who for all her Warrior abilities can be a little slow when it comes to anything to do with feelings :)

Oh, and while the story starts with a young girl, events that follow lead her to age quite rapidly, so the bulk of the novel follows the protagonist her in 20's.

Happy Reading!

Mina

- - - - - - - - - -


The final ten contestants in the Officer Training exam stood side by side in the inner keep's courtyard. Silence pervaded the five floors of banisters encircling the training ground; spectators were not allowed, so said the Warrior King.

A Roka bird circled overhead, its angry cry sending a tremor down Leyla's body. Having lived in the King's orphanage these past nine years, she was used to all manner of tricks and abuse, but she couldn't remember ever being more nervous than at that very moment.

If she passed this test, her life would change.

Officers were untouchable in the Warrior Kingdom. Once she became an officer in training, no one would be able to steal her rations until she passed out from hunger. No one would be able to lock her inside the animal cages or make her sleep on the cold floor. Once she was an officer in training everyone would have to treat her like an equal, like a real Warrior. They wouldn't be able to hurt her anymore.

"Raise your bows!" The Sergeant's voice echoed between the inner keep walls.

Leyla pulled an arrow out of the quiver on her back and placed it on her bow. She glanced at the girls and boys around her, all poised for the next command. They were taller, older and more composed than her. Don't look at them, just focus!

"Aim!" The Sergeant called out.

Leyla pulled back the arrow, her eyes fixing on the target halfway down the training yard. Her fingers trembled for a short moment, before she controlled her nerves.

"Release!"

Her arrow flew forward, spinning through the air as it inched closer to the target. The Sergeant walked to the red circles, the crescents on the shoulders of his blue uniform sparkling as he inspected each arrow in turn. "Luca of the House of Copper. Sara of the House of Rock." He walked past four targets before hesitating beside hers. "And Leyla of the House of King's Wards. You three remain, the rest may leave."

Leyla exhaled the breath she had been holding. This was it, the final round.

Luca and Sara sent shocked looks her way as they all waited for the Sergeants aids to pull the arrows out of the targets. Leyla could understand their surprise. At 9-years old, she was younger than all the other contestants by at least three years. For someone of her age to pass the first two stages of the Officers Exams was a very rare occurrence, but to have reached the final stage of Special Skills...it had happened only a handful of times in Warrior Kingdom's history.

Of course, even if it weren't for her age, none of them would have expected her to get this far. She was, after all, a no-good mixed blood. 

In a sea of blond heads and blue gazes, her ash black hair and green eyes stood out like a sore. She was an embarrassment to the pure-blood Warrior race, a bastard child who had been left at the steps of the House of Kings Wards. They had found her in the midst of the War of Green Hills along with a simple note: This is Leyla. May you forgive my sin.

Warrior's Heart (Book 1 of The Warrior Chronicles)Where stories live. Discover now