Prologue

Long ago in the Kingdom of Lorien…

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“…and…I now crown thee, Adrienne, daughter of Uriah, magnanimous jewel… heavenly flower… radiant beam sent down from heav—”

“Hannah!”

“Oh…sorry…I now crown thee, Prin-cess of Carmel.”

Hannah placed the homemade crown of wild dandelions on Adrienne’s thick mane of long brown hair.

Ten-year-old Adrienne pursed her lips clasped the ends of her fingers together as if she were royalty and rose slowly to her feet. Jutting out her chin, she raised her voice in an air of false bravado. “I thank thee, Hannah, Queen of Carmel. May I always serve with the utmost… um…” Adrienne’s face fell. “In utmost…”

“Dignity,” Hannah dished out the missing word.

Adrienne resumed her role. “Ah yes…dignity.” She peeked over at her best friend and they both collapsed down into the field of wild grass and giggled mercilessly.

Hannah adjusted her own crown of dandelions on top of her black hair that was braided in two half way down her back. She looked up into the sky. “Adee, do you think it’s going to rain?”

Adrienne raised herself to a sitting position and looked off into the distance where the mountains of Janiah divided the kingdom of Lorien into the quaint village of Carmel and the capital city of Selah, where the Holy Temple and the Palace gates were situated. The ominous black clouds creeping their way over the crest were answer enough. “Ay…mamie, will start to worry. And I’m not s’pose to be playin’ in the forest.”

The two young girls hopped to their feet daring each other to race. They hiked up their dirt trimmed skirts and took off furiously towards the woods which would lead them back to the main road.

Hannah was faster much to Adrienne’s dismay and envy. A loud clap of thunder startled her, but it made no difference to Hannah.

“Hannah…wa-wait…” Adrienne barely choked out the words as she lost sight of her friend behind a grove of trees and slowed down to a jog.

Suddenly, a lean pair of arms darted out from behind the tree she passed and tackled her to the ground. She let out a blood curdling scream and then all too quickly recognized the mischievous laughter coming from the person who had her pinned down on a pile of leaves. Adrienne narrowed her eyes and began thrashing her legs. “LUCAS! I HATE YOU!”

Lucas’s large brown eyes danced with glee. “Adee, whatcha doin’ all alone in the woods? I thought I warned ye ‘bout the ghosts.” Lucas snickered and relented his stronghold on her.

“There are no such thing as ghosts!” she spat at him furiously brushing the dried bits of leaves from her tangled hair. Adrienne glared at him. Three years her senior, Lucas Blackshire was the leader of the pre-pubescent boys of the village who had made it their sole mission in life to educate the masses about the real threat to society-or at least the secret forts they built up in the forbidden foothills-and that was girls…or more specifically, Adrienne and Hannah since they were the two who got out of doing their chores most of the day to spy on Lucas and his two best friends, Darius and Malachai.

Adrienne dug her claws into soil and grabbed a clump. She pounced to her feet and smeared the dirt wad through his wild mane of curly, overgrown, dark hair.

Lucas shoved her aside and his eye caught the lopsided crown of weeds on top of her head. A sinister smile broke from his mouth and he clutched the yellow halo from her head and took off in the opposite direction.

“Give that back!” she screeched and raced after him.

He turned around and waved it; taunting her. “Oh, this? Nope…don’ think so.” Spinning on his heel, he sprinted back into the thick of the woods towards the foothills.

“LUCAS! You know you’re not supposed to go that way!”

Adrienne faintly heard him respond with another jibe. “Fraidy-cat! Fraidy-cat!”

Completely enraged and determined not to let him get away with the ridicule…and her golden crown, she pumped her legs even faster, dodging the random tree branches that swung low and hopping over rotten logs.

And that was when the rain started. At first she didn’t notice it, but then the wind picked up causing it to violently swerve into horizontal sheets of ice. She finally slowed to prevent it from biting into her any more than necessary and hugged her arms. “LUCAS!” Adrienne screamed. Circling around, there was no trace of him. Now instead of hating the taunts, she desperately wanted them back because she wasn’t sure how far she had gone. “Lucas?” her teeth began to chatter as the rain continued its ruthless assault.

Adrienne bit her lip; determined not to cry. She wasn’t about to give him ammunition to call her “cry-baby.”

“FINE!” she screamed into emptiness as the rain smothered her cry.

Deciding that turning and walking in the opposite direction was better than just standing there like an idiot, Adrienne began her miserable trek back to the village. Now her mother was really going to be worried…and then the worry would probably turn into a few whacks on the backside with the rod. “Stupid, stupid…I hate him,” she mumbled through her shivers trying to concentrate on her loathing rather than the gnawing fear of ghost tales that Lucas and the other boys constantly frightened her with.

Stomping with ire through the small eddies of muddy water beginning to form, Adrienne suddenly felt the earth give a little too much and she lost her balance as the land beneath her crumbled and gave way to a large ‘CRACK.’

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Lucas slowed to a jog and turned back around in the pouring rain expecting to see Adrienne screaming up behind him. He just wanted to have a little fun with her. Lucas couldn’t help but admit that he liked the way her nose twitched when she was angry at him. It was cute.

Wait, did I just include the word 'cute' with the thought of Adrienne?

He wasn’t allowed to contemplate his rumination too long because he registered a faint scream.

Lucas could pinpoint that scream anywhere. Adrienne. Glancing down at the soggy crown, he tossed it aside and traced his way quickly back to where he’d left her.

“ADEE!” he cried.

A foreign fear suddenly squeezed the life out his lungs. Oh God. What if she’s hurt?

“ADEE!” he screamed once more through the pounding rain. His breath came in short gasps. If anything happened to her, who would be left to pick on? To pull her braids, stick frogs down the front of her smock. Hannah wasn’t as much fun to rile up as Adrienne. “ADEE!” God, I promise if You let her be okay, I’ll never be mean to her again. “ADEE?”

Lucas slumped against the wet bark of a tree losing all hope and then he heard it.

“Lucas?”

Did he imagine it?

“Lucas?”

“ADEE! Keep shouting! Where are you!?”

Her cries became more distinct and he doubled back and forth. It seemed as if her voice was right on top of him and yet he couldn’t see her. “Adee! Where are you?”

“D-d-down heh-here!”

Lucas turned to his left and saw a black chasm, hideously out of place on the floor of the forest. Rushing over, he realized what had happened. She’d fallen though an abandoned fortress that had been covered with wooden planks, but the wind and rain over time had rotted the wood. Her pale blue skirts and white smock were now completely soiled black and her face was stained with dirt and tear smudges. “Are ya hurt!?” he cried.

“Ma-ma-my ankle. I th-think..it’s broke-broken!”

“Hold on,” he darted his eyes around the thick sheets of rain for a tree branch.

“DON’T LEAVE ME!” Adrienne shrieked. She saw Lucas’s head reappear.

“You ninny! I’m not gonna leave you!” So much for his promises to be nice if God spared her life.

Lucas frantically darted to and fro and finally he caught sight of a large branch still attached to its mother tree, but completely hanging to the ground limply. Picking up a smaller but sturdier branch, he used it to hack away at the last remaining thread of life it was clinging to. After what seemed like ages and telling Adrienne five times to stop crying, the branch finally broke free. He dragged it over to the hole and slid it down. “Grab hold!”

“Ma-my hands are too cold!” she whined.

Lucas rolled his eyes. “Blow some hot air on them. Lord knows you have plenty of it!”

“You bite your tongue Lucas Shea Blackshire! It’s your fault I’m down here!”

He growled to himself. She knew he hated being called by his full name. “Do ya want to stay down there!?”

“No,” she pouted and blew some air into her palms and rubbed them together. Adrienne dugs her fingers into the gnarly bark. “Okay.”

Grunting, Lucas did his best to put one hand over the next. Adrienne was about a quarter of the way up when he slipped and lost hold of the branch.

Her resulting scream was one of frustration and thankfully not another broken bone. Gritting his teeth, Lucas dug his heels into the muddy earth, gripped the branch once more, determined not to let her fall back into the chasm. “Ye almost there!?” he gasped.

“Ye-yes!”

Lucas had never experienced such relief when he saw her tangled mop of brown locks peer over the edge of the hole. With one last burst of energy, he heaved her up onto the muddy ground. Rushing to her side, he leaned down and smoothed away the wet hair from her face. “Where does it hurt?”

Adrienne rubbed a muddy fist across her snotty nose and hiccupped. She pulled up her skirt to reveal a swollen left ankle.

Lucas touched it gingerly. “I don’ think it’s broken…c’mere.” He slung her arm around his shoulder and hoisted her up.

Adrienne winced in pain and buckled.

Heaving a large sigh, Lucas slid his arm under her knees and lifted her up into his arms.

When Adrienne slipped her arms around his neck, she felt a novel feeling rush through her. Safety. I feel safe in Lucas’s arms? Shouldn’t I be screaming in protest? Well…it’s his fault I can’t walk. Stupid boy. Wow. He’s pretty strong. “What did I fall down through!?” she asked as the downpour slowed into a soft patter.

Lucas adjusted his grip and creased his brow. “Erm…remember the tales my Pa used to tell us about Old King David?”

“You think that was one of his hiding places?” Adrienne’s voice peaked.

“Maybe, but it was only big enough for a handful of men. Can’t imagine him hiding for very long down there.”

“Why did he have to hide again?” Adrienne absent-mindedly played with the strands of hair on the back of Lucas’s skull.

“Don’t ya remember the story of Mad King Saul? Before David was king, he was the son of a shepherd, but everyone loved him because he single-handedly slayed the greatest warrior from the land of Tisbeth when he was only a boy. Saul made David the general of his legions. And David became extremely successful by conquering more and more land for the kingdom of Lorien. The citizens grew to hail him as their future king and King Saul went mad with jealousy. So David escaped fleeing from one land to the next. And legend has it that he hid out in the forests of Carmel.”

“Really?”

“Yeah…now we can go tell everyone its true!”

“Lucas?”

“Hmm?”

“Does the ghost of the Witch of Endor really live in these woods?”

In a moment of humility, Lucas shook his head. “Nah, Adee, ye know we jus’ makin’ fun.”

She stuck out her lower lip and turned her head away. “Meanie,” she mumbled.

Lucas kept silent knowing he deserved that one. “Adee…”

“What.” She scowled.

“I’m sorry.”

Adrienne swiveled her head to look into Lucas’s eyes. “Ya mean it?”

He nodded and hoisted her up again for a more secure hold.

It was the first time she remembered thinking he was rather handsome…even if he was an annoying clod.