Chapter 1

"THE KING IS DEAD! LONG LIVE THE KING!" shouted the exclaimer.

"Long live the king," the mass chanted.

My mother pinched my ear and made me chant with them. Long live the king.

What if my life will be as long as the king's life?

He was only twelve when his father died. Fortunately he inherited the crown, instead of his dreadful stepmother. She was a wicked crow, full of mischief and sorrow. She had long tried to give the late king another son, so she could kill the prince and become the next king's mother, which was a very desirable position. This meant that the new king — Alexander — had a lot of half sisters, which their mother could conjure for the king's attentions.

I was supposed to be his best friend and best friends we were until suddenly Alexander — or Lex as I called him — rose to this high position. I never saw him again. He apologised to me the day before his coronation, but was he the one to blame? I didn't forgive him, and he doesn't know now that I do not blame him. I wish that I could see him but that will never happen. Nobody will let me, a peasant girl, close to the king.

Now ten years have passed. I am nineteen, going on twenty, and he is soon to be twenty three. How old we suddenly are. If I met him now, he wouldn't recognise me. Farming the land makes your skin brown and weather-beaten. Your fingers grow thick and hard. I envy the ladies that sometimes visit the castle — they travel right past my village — with their pale blue skins and their shiny glossy hair. Their fingers are long and thin with pretty nails in different colours, although I believe they will snap if you give them a handshake.

My father has long since tried to marry me off. Nobody wants me. I actually wonder why, I may not be the prettiest girl in my village but I beat most of the girls by miles when it comes to looks. I do have the prettiest hair in town — my only possession I worship and care for. Maybe it is my wits. I have never been afraid of saying what I think. I never talk much, but if there is something I see is wrong, I'm the first to say it.

Lex hated that about me. Whenever we were playing a game he wanted to try with me I always pointed out at least one problem with the game. Lex always wanted to follow the rules, and I always wanted to go the easy way around so in the end we often ended up fighting. The last time we fought he gave me a peck on the cheek as an apology. That was also the last time we met. I guess it wasn't just an apology for our quarrel, but also a goodbye kiss. I wish I had known much more then.

There was going to be a war. The Wilijies — those beautiful creatures that lived in the land of Veriton — had been preparing for years, but we never believed they were going to strike for our country.

My brother was going to join the army — for a month now he had practised with me — almost beating the crap out of me, but I won anyway. The thought of becoming a soldier and rising in ranks seduced many young peasant men eager for wealth and fame. I thought them to be illusions; you didn't change once you possessed them. But Calem — my dear dear brother — didn't agree with me. He was going to be a soldier and be supreme on the field and maybe someday rescue the king in some hazardous scheme hatched by the enemy.

"You could come with me and become one of the wenches for the soldiers. I hear all of them will be tried out by the king first. You can finally get to meet your precious Lexxy," he taunted me.

"Be quiet, you tadpole!" I cried and knocked him down.

I knew that Lex wasn't that way. I was sure he didn't even allow prostitutes to come with the army. I still hoped that there were some good in this world left, and that Lex was trying to uphold it. But my father got an idea from what Calem said.

The next day Calem, father and I went to the city. Calem got recruited immediately — no problem. But my father was up to something. As soon as Calem was enlisted my father went over to one of the officers and whispered something in his ear. I was sitting on the wagon, anxious to get home now that Calem the bully was gone. It really nagged me the way my father could drag out the waiting for me like that. Suddenly I saw my father pointing at me and the officer looked my way.