I only had one spare that day and
it was during second to last period. It wasn’t until then that I
got a chance to crack open Evander’s book. I went to the library,
found a cozy spot in the corner on one of the couches, and pulled it
out of my bag. The book itself smelled great. It looked great too,
just like one of those beautifully bound books on the shelf of a
nineteenth century library. I was excited as I flipped open the
cover and found the title of the first part. It was called The
Lord of the Capricorns.
Insert girlish scream—which was
immediately squelched by the grouchy librarian's glare.
I started reading.
Once upon a time, there was a
land of greenness unlike any other. It bordered no seashore, no
desert, and no mountains. It was a land touched by the grace of the
goddess of rain. There, the sun shone golden, covering the land in
light and beauty. It was a place of peace where the fields had not
absorbed the blood of war and where dead
warriors were not buried. Flowers were as valuable as
gemstones. Images reflected on a clear lake's surface
were more prized than those on foreign mirrors.
The kingdom was known as
Lilikeen. In the center of all gracefulness and goodness was their
greatest prize, Princess Sarafina. Her beauty caused aches of
longing throughout all the neighboring countries. Her head was
blessed with soft, sunlit, curls that fell in voluminous waves to her
slender waist. When she wore rings on her fingers, the rings seemed
enormous and made her fingers more elegant. Her eyes were green like
the green that unfolds in the curve of a newborn leaf.
Love for her was inevitable.
Reading it made me hate
Evander, too. Of course he liked that kind of girl. It sounded like
a female version of him, except for the green eyes. But even after
having my fears about him confirmed, my disgust didn't negate my
interest in what he had to say, so I kept reading.
At the age of fourteen, she
stood in her personal library. It was a beautiful room designed with
enormous panels of glass in the ceiling to let in the light for the
weightless vines that clung to the bookshelves, adding color and
freshness. She was meant to entertain a prince, but not just any
prince. The youth invited was the second prince of the Kingdom of
Bellique—a country with a strong political hold on Lilikeen.
Bellique lay to the south. It
was a great arching country that covered the entire continental coast
and cradled a multitude of small kingdoms in its arc.
It was the shape of a crescent moon and Lilikeen was
like a star dangling from the top corner of it. Bellique sat in a
rather difficult position, for it was constantly under invasion from
the countries across the sea. It was stained in blood
until the earth was red, and if Lilikeen and her neighbors wished to
keep their lands pure from warfare, they had to pay a heavy
tribute. The money kept Bellique's soldiers paid, their
weapons sharp, and their boats afloat. Each and every citizen of
Lilikeen paid some of their income to keep Bellique's war machine
ticking.
The morning Sarafina
entertained Prince Murmur of Bellique, the Queen of Lilikeen watched
with great interest from a balcony above.
Murmur entered. Sarafina stood
by an empty fireplace with nothing on her mind particularly. She had
already learned she did not need to exert herself particularly when
dealing with prospective suitors. She did not need to think of witty
conversation. They were happy enough to talk about themselves and
the time would soon pass.
For Murmur, the effect of her
beauty was devastating. Because she did not speak much, she opened
his imagination up for what she could be instead of exactly what she
was, which was bored, underdeveloped, and childish. He didn't know
this. The combination of her obvious acceptance of him and her
outward perfection made him believe, even though he was too young to
marry her then, that he could have no one else as his wife.
The next day he was carried
away back to Bellique's impenetrable capital, but two months later a
very royal missive was received by the King and Queen of Lilikeen.
It was an official request for a betrothal. An
excellent offer it was too, for it offered to have the tribute sent
to Bellique reduced by half during each year Sarafina
was married to Murmur. However, the King and Queen
did not accept it. The Queen knew what their
kingdom had—they had a daughter
capable of mystifying a prince in one afternoon. From that moment
on, the Queen began plotting for a better marriage for
Sarafina. What good was Prince Murmur? He was not the Crown Prince.
He would never be a king. Instead, she set her heart on his older
brother, Prince Tremor.
Tremor was a legend. It was
not Murmur who protected the entire continent from the threat across
the sea, but the Crown Prince. If Sarafina could have the tribute
halved by marrying a prince who would never be a king, how much could
she have it reduced if she married the man who would be? Tremor was
an unmarried soldier, a general, and a prince who would be a king.
The Queen wrote a letter
inviting Tremor to Lilikeen. There was no response for over six
months and when the epistle was received, it was opened to uncover
his refusal. He could not leave his fortress at Sealoch to go
courting. To the Queen, it was a minor setback. This was a
different kind of warfare, one for which a queen was well equipped.
She would have her daughter married to the Lord of Sealoch!
Welp, I hope y'all enjoyed that. Now please, be captivated, mesmerized and thirsty for more. Please buy my book on amazon. Here's the link to amazon.ca and below that the link to amazon.com.
https://www.amazon.ca/Behind-His-Mask-First-Spell/dp/1981024735/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1533585096&sr=8-1&keywords=behind+his+mask+by+stephanie+van+orman
https://www.amazon.com/Behind-His-Mask-First-Spell/dp/1981024735/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1533663990&sr=8-1&keywords=behind+his+mask
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