The Princess and the Bard (Royals of the Realms #1)

Prologue - Eleven Years Ago

The child woke up screaming, her head drenched in sweat. The nursemaid was there in an instant, offering the girl a glass of warm herbal milk and soft reassurances. This was the third night in a row the queen's eldest daughter, Alori, had suffered the same nightmare.

Her siblings crowded around the bed, roused by the commotion. The two youngest, three-year-old twins Arias and Ira, begged for sweet treats of their own, but the maid explained that their sister's milk was enchanted to ward away the demons of dark dreams. "If used incorrectly," she warned them, her eyes round and serious, "you might sleep for a hundred years."

The second princess, Liahfey, snorted. "That's not true, she's making up stories. I've never heard of such a thing."

Not as easily fooled as her younger siblings, Liahfey sometimes acted more like an adolescent than a six-going-on-seven year old girl.

The young maid smiled, patting the tops of the children's heads with her chubby, freckled hands. "Be that as it may, Your Highness, now is not the time to whine about fairness. Just be thankful you're not the one up with nightmares, and give Princess Alori a hug for all she's done for you."

"I'm sorry, Ali. I'm glad the demons didn't get you." Arias flung his arms around his eldest sister's neck, ignorant of the renewed sobbing his words elicited.

Liahfey flicked his ear. "Arias, that's mean. Apologize."

"No, I was being nice. You're the mean one, Lia!"

"Stop it, you two," Ira whispered, laying her small head on Alori's lap. "Be quiet for Ali, she's a hero."

"That's right, my darlings, our Alori fought with the heart of a hero and the grace of a goddess."

The queen's elegant silhouette framed the doorway, backlit by the mageflame lights in the hall.

Their mother had finally arrived. She glided across the room and fell onto the bed with her children, enveloping all four in her arms, nuzzling into soft cheeks and freshly bathed skin.

Quiet moments like these were few and far between anymore for the queen of the Ville-Realms. The massacre in Ville-You had been a horrible tragedy that had taken all of her time and most of her magical energy to quell. That first night had been the worst, when her shield barrier had come down. Poor, sweet Alori had seen it all– the demons of legend and their dark, twisted magic, the sprawling fires and carnage, the dead and widowed survivors alike.

The queen could not stop the onslaught of doubt and self-loathing that consumed her. If only she hadn't taken the girl to the mountain realm for diplomacy and magic training earlier in the week. It had been a spur of the moment decision, one she would regret for the rest of her life. These were her children, her own flesh and blood. When it came to their safety, it didn't matter that she was ruler of the Ville-Realms and the Shieldmaker, the most powerful mage on Eala.

Status was no excuse for failure as a mother. Above all it was her job to protect her family at any cost, especially her heir, the future leader of the holy lands. Alori had fought bravely, but she shouldn't have had to fight, not a single infernal demon. She was not even eight years old.

"Mama, I wasn't strong enough," the girl rasped, clinging to her mother with white knuckles. Her golden blond head was buried so roughly in the queen's neck that the metal edges of the royal matrimonial choker bit into flesh.

"Shhh, my brave girl. You're stronger than I could have ever hoped. One day, many years from now, you will make a fine ruler."

If only she could have erased Alori's memories of the massacre. She'd tried, but her attempts at thought magic gleaned from arcane spells scrawled in an ancient Ville-Saean grimoire had failed as expected. Worse than that, the crown princess' nightmares seemed to be more frequent instead of less so, and there was nothing that could be done about it.

Only the goddesses held dominion over time and thought, and they hadn't been seen in the mortal world in five hundred years.

"Don't worry, Ali." Liahfey squeezed her older sister's waist, her long sandy hair falling in a curtain around them. "You'll be a beautiful queen someday, I know it. People will wait in line just for a chance to meet you."

"Yeah!" Arias crowed, a goofy smile brightening his ruddy, sunburned cheeks. "And you'll be such a powerful mage, enemies will cry when they see you!"

"You'll be a kind queen," Ira said softly, stroking the linen blanket covering her eldest sister's legs. "I know it, because I love you."

"And I love my babies." The queen squeezed her children, breathing them in. "Promise me you will always support one another. Someday you'll need each other, and I may not be around."

"Where will you be?" Arias' brown eyes blinked owlishly up at his mother.

The boy was so much like his father. The queen ruffled his dark downy hair, smiling ruefully.

"I might not be home. I could be away at a summit or protecting the Realms with Papa, and you'll need to stick together. Can you do that for me?" She regarded her children in turn, making sure each cherubic face met her eye. "Ali, Lia, Ari, Ira, can I trust you to look out for each other?"

They answered at once, a jubilant resounding, "Yes!" But it was Alori's voice that rose above the others, clear as a bell and determined as she sat up and swiped away her drying tears.

The queen patted her oldest on the shoulder, prouder than she could say.

Yes, the crown princess would make a fine leader someday, indeed.