It's been twenty years since I saw my home land. Twenty years since my family and the court gathered to celebrate my 5th birthday party. Twenty years since the raiders, lead by Ulrich the Liver Eater, burst into the throne room and slaughtered my father. Twenty years since I watched them drag my mother, screaming and crying, onto the feast table so the entire court could watch Ulrich prove how much of a man he was. Twenty years since they lined up the knights of my father's court and beheaded them one by one. Twenty years since the raiders took the sobbing ladies of the court and divided them up. Twenty years since my brother Avery, all of twelve at the time, shoved me out the passage behind the throne and told me to run to the stables. Twenty years since Jinto, the stable boy, shoved me and a bunch of other kids into a wagon and fled the town.
Everything else I know about that day I heard from Adele, one of the serving girls in my father's court. She was serving tables that day, and at thirteen she wasn't of much interest to the raiders. After Avery shoved me out of the room he apparently rallied the squires and pages in a last ditch effort to fight off the raiders. They managed to take down five raiders and Avery cut open Ulrich's face before he was slain. After that the raiders threw the bodies in the fire and forced the women to join them in finishing my birthday feast. Adele said that sometime during the feast my mother took a knife and slit her own throat, she would rather die than be with Ulrich.
Adele actually staying in the castle for a few months, helping some of the ladies smuggle other people to the Island that Jinto had taken me to. Eventually she was caught and only some quick work on the part of my mother's lady in waiting allowed her to escape with her life. I can't express to her how thankful I am that she saved so many, yet she is always wracked with guilt that she couldn't save more. She's actually why I'm doing this, so Adele doesn't have to feel guilty anymore.
Here on the island they call me The Winter Princess, after all my father was The Winter King, but I've never been sure what to think about the title. I was five when Ulrich and the raiders took over my father's kingdom, I've lived most of my life in exile, not as a Princess. Still, it's a title I bear with pride, pride for my father and mother, and for my brave older brother. And today I will prove that I'm deserving of that title. When we arrived on the island twenty years ago the oldest of us, Jinto, was only seventeen. Since that terrible day we've been training and studying.
Today is that the day that all changes. To celebrate my twenty-fifth birthday I'm going to take back Winter Kingdom. My army of orphaned children are ready for battle. This is what we've trained for. We've studied the raiders, we have spies in their kingdom, surviving ladies from my father's court. They've told us that Ulrich and his men have gotten lazy. It's been over ten years since they had to fight any of the neighboring kingdom. They are not ready for what we are bringing their way. Ulrich will pay for what he did to my family, for what he did to all our families. He sits on my father's throne believing his is king of everything, but he had no right to that crown.
The trip across the narrow sea was simple, and making our way to the castle was much easier than expected. It turned out that most of the peasants weren't too happy with the way they were being treated by Ulrich and his raiders. They were more than happy to help the orphaned warriors of the realm sneak up to the castle. I stood before the doors of the castle I'd been born in, surrounded by the bodies of the dozen or so guards that had already crossed our path. We were an unstoppable force, trained, focused, and filled with vengeance. I turned to regard the force behind me, they looked up at me with fierce determination, and almost as one they nodded.
I turned and shoved open the castle door.
I like the picture :)
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