A Princess imprisoned for ten years.
A Chicken farmer who dares defy the High Sorcerer.
A Bard who’s just along for the ride.
Undersunne is a kingdom once ruled by a King and Queen who had one child: a daughter named Daphne. When Daphne was eleven or twelve, she was discovered to have powerful magic, and so required training. Because of the colour of her magic it was decided she would best suit sorcery: the mastery of potions and spells. The High Sorcerer at the time, a man named Regnery Deathcap, took it upon himself to train her.
Yet when she was sixteen, the High Sorcerer betrayed them all. He killed the King and Queen, and the High Druid. He tried to kill Princess Daphne, but one thing stopped him: the Halestone she wore around her neck. Furious, he imprisoned her instead.
The Undersunne of Erin’s world is ten years removed from these events. Druids have all but disappeared, where once they were the centres of every town and village. The sorcerers have become the judge, jury and executioner of any law, and the laws now benefit only them. Areas of Undersunne that used to produce food have been commandeered to produce magical ingredients. Any child with magic is taken away – ostensibly to be trained in sorcery only. There are no new druids, no enchanters, no magicians.
People cling to the story that the Princess is imprisoned and will one day be rescued. Didn’t the High Druid, before he died, say that a hero, one who is brave and bold, will rescue the Princess and defeat the High Sorcerer? Did they hear it in a story, or is it a prophecy?
It’s hard to believe in prophecies when the common folk spend their lives working, doing their best to scrape up enough food to last through winter, knowing the tax collectors come once a year at harvest to take everything they have. If they don’t have enough, or the sorcerers who accompany the tax collectors see they are hiding something, then the sorcerers will take more: they’ll drain your blood, or take your flesh, or choose the prettiest girls for themselves.
Erin knows this. Her friend Joyce was taken by a sorcerer. Her sister, Mairin, was also taken, and when her brother Oren tried to stop them, he was turned to stone. Erin has magic, and should have been taken by the sorcerers too, but her family hid her. Every year on tax day she has watched her family come home, having bled and shed body parts to keep her hidden.
She’s known hunger. The chickens they farm are rarely killed. Eggs are traded, used as money, and when their winter supplies run out, the only option is hunting in the forest, which is also home to wolves and elves. Erin’s brother used to be the hunter, before the sorcerers cut his fingers off, and Erin has learned to shoot a bow and arrow to survive. Nothing is wasted when it could be used or preserved. Foraging is normal.
The druids have never stopped looking for the hero who will save them. Or, at least, one of them has never stopped. The rest have gone. Some hid, others fled, while others were hunted down by the sorcerers and many just disappeared. There are rumours of Castle Bluff in the north, but they are rumours… aren’t they?
Alder is getting desperate. He uses a spell, woven into a story, to speak to people in Undersunne, willing them to stand up and fight, to rescue the Princess. But it is harder and harder to find someone who will try. Those who do are hunted down and killed by the sorcerers, stopping them before they get to her, or confusing them until they give up the fight. Sir Lorrus, once the King’s Champion, was persuaded to take the side of the Sorcerer.
And they are running out of time. The Halestone that protects the Princess is being drained of its power, and soon it will fail, and the High Sorcerer will be able to kill her at last. While she lives, there is some hope the kingdom will be restored, but if she dies?
Beech leaned forward and his eyes were earnest. ‘What do you think of Erin, then?’ he demanded. ‘If you know what we are looking for, tell me what you think of her?’
The bard licked his lips. ‘I’ve met many girls,’ he said. ‘They’re like rock candy in our kingdom: sweet but hard. They have to be, with the sorcerers around. Some can fight, some can shoot a bow, some are far cleverer than we are. But Erin… there’s something about her. She’s very determined, and she has a way of thinking about problems that I haven’t come across.’
‘But a girl?’
‘Why not?’ the bard sighed. ‘You’ve had no luck with us men.’