The winds billowed across the skies, whispering messages to the birds of the air, seeking a maiden.
We seek a maiden, the Winds howled. One of flaxen hair and of the fairest beauty. In her chest rests a heart of stone.
Seek, seek! cried the birds. Seek by the plains of Eden. See, see! See she thunders through the villages of bewildered men, women, and their little ones. We have seen her. She is plagued by a journey of loyalty to the dukes.
We wish you to follow her. Watch her closely and report back to us so we may inform our King, replied the Winds.
We obey! chirped the birds.
The Winds and birds parted through a split in the white cloud. The Winds returned to the Garden of Eden, and the flow of birds winged through the clouds to the way north in search of the maiden. Through the white of the clouds, they saw a maiden of strange heart. A heart of stone. The maiden with a solid heart of stone twisted away from the path of the clouds into the hill lands of the Garden.
Lýes remembered that night when her mistress had fled. She had returned late from washing and pressing the Queen's linens and furs. All the servants had already turned in and all was quiet. The hall candles were blown out, smoke wafting in the air. She had arrived on the fifth floor to check on her mistress before going to bed herself, when she saw the shadows. Black blots sliding like wraiths along the night in the halls, toward the Queen's chambers. Quickly, Lýes had wrapped her fingers around a heavy gold candelabrum and followed the wraiths. She saw them gather around the bed like Death. Silver gleamed and raised, just as she'd brought the candelabrum down on the killer's head with a sickening crack.
The bed had been empty.
The men had turned on her, cloaks whirling in the moonlight. One had pounced on her, pinning her arms while he wrestled the weapon from her arms as she had screamed at them. That man had worn the crest of Varren. Varren had sent those men to kill her mistress.
The land steeped suddenly into a mountainous terrain and the air bought a bitter, cold wind, a warning to those nearing the cold lands of Tressden. The land around her began gathering into mountain peaks and fertile lowlands.
From a gap in the hills, Lýes saw the village and she reined in her horse at the Duke of White Hearts, Elijah, and asked unto the duke to deliver the true root of his loyalty to the King..
"Give me your sword and I will present all twelve to the King, overthrowing Varren's reign as main advisor."
"Truly, cannot even the King break free?"
"Jezreel is too young, yet he is the rightful king. With the power of the twelve swords, Varren's word is overpowered by the twelve against one."
Elijah's eyes bored into the maiden. "Are you not one of Stone-heart?"
Lýes' lips thinned. "Do not test my loyalty to the crown, my lord."
"Tell me why I should not behead you like the rest of your kin."
She bared her teeth. "Do not forget, my lord that I am under the pledge of Elaenas hand."
"The princess?" he asked. "Does she still live?"
"She lives. And will live to return to the Garden once she has avenged the blood."
"My lady, my sword is yours." With one fluid motion, he unsheathed his sword placed it into the maiden's white palms.
Lýes resheathed the sword in one of twelve sheathes she bore at her hip, and stretched out her pale hand again.
"Before I depart, give me the two stone hearts of the King and Queen of the South of the Garden."
YOU ARE READING
The Cursed Prince - Fire and Ice (Book One)
Fantasy"What she remembers can never be spoken... " A young prince is raised by a king. His adopted sister hides the dark secrets of her mind within her heart-one that is locked away-filled of secrets. But all secrets and promises made are shattered when t...
