THREE DARK QUEENS
are born in a glen
SWEET LITTLE TRIPLETS
will never be friends
THREE DARK WITCHES
all fair to be seen
TWO TO DEVOUR
one to be queen
On the island of Fennbirn every generation three triplets are born, all equal heirs to the throne...
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UMBRA - the Shadow City, Home of Queen Arwen
PROLOGUE
19th December
A young queen stands at the edge of a cliff, her bewitching black eyes glassy and unblinking as she stares at the moon which bathes beneath a dark looking glass of calm waves. Concealed yet utterly exposed.
Arwen sighs, a long heartfelt sigh, as she knows this is the last moment of peace she will ever have. As in precisely five days she will be eighteen, for anyone else, for any other girl, this birthday would be enjoyable and celebrated for the fact that she was born during Beltane.
However, she is not anyone or any normal girl. She will one day be queen of the island because she is chosen to be by the Goddess, who decides when the next queen will be born and the powers that shall be bestowed upon her. That is what Cierra always tells her.
Arwen has the classic traits of each triplet queen with hair of the darkest black and unusual eyes to match. The Umbra priestesses expect her to sit, smile and act like the queen who was promised, for that is the purpose for which she has been raised for the past twelve years since she arrived in Umbra.
She hates it. She hates being a queen.
But none the less she is a queen. The first heir since the Queens of Old to be a shadow and not the usual elemental, naturalist, poisoner or even one of the even rarer war gifted, or a cursed oracle; she is the only heir to the isolated city of Umbra which is so powerful that is like another queendom entirely.
Rumour is the shadow gift was born from the Breccia Domain itself, directly from the Goddess. That is why shadows are so powerful and so incredibly rare that most of the islanders forgot about them as they do not involve themselves with most matters of the island if it doesn't concern them. Umbra mostly rules itself.
When Arwen was born and Queen Halia, the powerful war-gifted queen, had identified her triplets' gifts, the whole island had been shocked and astounded to hear that there was a shadow amongst the elemental and poisoner babies and even more shocked when six years later, two shadows emerged from the concealed folds of Umbra to collect Arwen, as no one had seen a shadow in years as they had cut themselves off from the rest of the island. Virtually hidden.
It makes the island excited for this years triplets, especially since it is only the second year of triplets since the Legion Cursed uprising. It involved Queen Halia's predecessor, Arsinoe the White Handed Queen.
Everyone on the island knows that tale and how the insane legion cursed girl, Jules Milone, tried to seize power after betraying Queen Arsinoe and spiting the Goddess and the natural way of the island. And the mad girl did, for a short while until she was found washed up on the shores near Bardon Harbour.
