Chapter One

The Break

Lady Cholis opened the door and poked out her head, “Andreya!” she called out to the dirty refugee camp. The small area was filled with shanties, each falling onto each other, the great dinning hall was on the far side of the camp, but many of the refugees cooked on their own kitchen fires outside of their lean-toes. Dirty snow littered the corners of the walled camp, and leaned on the tiny houses. Kids ran around wearing naught but rags, slipping and playing in the mud.

“Andreya!” Lady Cholis called, “I won’t call again!”

A sixteen year old scruffy looking girl came running from a group of kids. She was flushed and had a large streak of mud across her cheeks, her blouse was no longer any colour of white, and her breeches were fraying at the edges.

“Sorry Lady Cholis, I didn’t hear you the first time,” Andreya said smiling at her.

“I daresay you will next time,” Lady Cholis said ruffling her nose slightly takin gin her appearance, “look at you! Why a potato could grow out of the dirt behind your ears!”

“Good, we need more,” said Andreya wiping her boots on the mat outside the door and walking in. The Lord and Lady of Veii, their small but vital refugee camp leaders, lived in much more luxury then their charges, but like most of the other refugee camps, the inhabitants did not stay long.

“Rubbish,” Lady Cholis said, “no go up stair right now and change, and have a bath for goodness sake, wash your hair while your at it, you’d think that you’d spent your life in dirt.”

Andreya sighed but removed herself from the immaculate entrance way and scurried to her own room.

In truth Andreya had spent much of her life in dirt, at least all of her life, that she could remember in the refugee camp, from all that she knew was that she had been orphaned at birth and Lord Harld had taken her in to be raised, she was their ward and did her very best to behave like a young woman of higher society would. Though she did not always succeed. She opened the door to her bedroom and looked around.

The room was very small filled with very little, but each thing in there was special to her, she went to the wardrobe and opened the old wooden doors to look in side. Most of her clothes were not in there, but it did hold the three dresses that she owned. She pulled on of them out, a dark green in lined with black and laid in it on the messy bed.

Going to the bathtub she filled it quickly with water, and jumped in washing her hair and body as fast as she possibly could, being the middle of winter it was very cold.

She dressed quickly, running a comb through her soppy hair and running down stairs again.

“My goodness, Andreya,” Lady Cholis said taking a cloth when Andreya came in the room. She attacked Andreya’s nose with the wet cloth. “I thought I asked you to wash,” she said.

“I did,” said Andreya leaning back slightly as Lady Cholis rubbed the dirt off her nose, “it was cold.”

“A little cold water will do you good,” Lady Cholis said, “now, get your buns to Lord Harld’s room, quickly.”

Andreya sighed and adjusted the floor length skirt, she never liked wearing skirts, and they always seemed to constricting to her, what would happen if she needed to run away from an enemy? She’d asked Lady Cholis once when she was very little. Lady Cholis had only replied that Andreya would never need to run away from the enemy, this refugee camp would not be attacked because of the military bases around would be the first targeted, and Lord Harld would have had plenty of notice if they were going to be under siege, and then Andreya would be walking with the rest of them.

But if it hadn’t been for the Ciathan then they would not even be in this situation, the Ciaths was an island of the coast of the mainland of Hirota, where Andreya lived in her little refugee town of Veii. The Ciaths had, many, many years ago, taken one of Hirota’s princesses, taken her, did horrible things to her and made her become one of the Ciaths, forcing her to marry their King. Just like the King when the war started, their king now was vile and cruel, taking only what he wanted and leaving everything else in ruin. The people from that island could be no better. Raids from the Ciaths were constantly happening, throwing despair among the villages and towns of the Hirota. Veii, their small refugee town was one of many, but theirs one was the largest towns, but people did not stay in Veii, they moved on to the larger and more suitable towns.

All of Andreya’s friends were from the different towns that stream through the refugee camp of Veii; very rarely had Andreya had any true friends.

She knocked gently on Lord Harld’s office door.

“Come in,” he said and Andreya opened it to see that his advisors were still with him, “Andreya, just wait over there for a moment will you?” Lord Harld said.

“Yes sir,” Andreya replied and scuttled across the wall to sink into the chair that he had suggested.

“But, sir, if they are actually planning an attack, then we are in danger,” one of them was saying, as he banged his fist of Lord Harld’s desk.

“I highly doubt that, Lord Fasit,” Lord Harld said, calmly looking up at his advisor through cold blue eyes, “the Knights of Unins will be able to hold them off, and besides, what damage could Ciathans do to us? It’s not like they are remotely human, they don’t know how to strategize; they only attack in animal frenzy.”

The advisors looked at each other in doubt, it was common knowledge that Ciathans didn’t know how to do anything in a group, they attacks and they raped and a they pillaged but they did very little else, none of them had any higher brain function. The only thing they had going for them, the only reason why they, the Hirotans of higher species fought them was because the Ciathans had greater numbers and looked vaguely human, a torso, two arms and two legs and a head, the only thing tying these two races together.

Andreya had never seen a Ciathan, she was not allowed outside the house should there have been an attack, or even a raiding party near the village. And she wasn’t entirely sure if she wanted to met one either.

“Well gentlemen,” Lord Harld said looking over to where Andreya sat quickly, her hand folded nicely in her lap like a proper young lady. “I think that we will have leave this conversation for another day, I have important business to speak about with Andreya.”

The advisors looked thoroughly unimpressed at Lord Harld’s quick dismissal of the issue at hand, but they removed themselves from his presense none the less and Lord Harld looked to Andreya with a smile that put a chill through her.

“Andreya, please come sit,” he said indicating to the chair in front of his desk, he had never called Andreya in and spoken to her, asking her to sit down in front of him, like equals, she had always been made to stand in front of him, with her hands folded against her back like a young school child in trouble.

Andreya got off her seat slowly and walked to the other chair, Lord Harld smiled at her all the way there, she smoothed her dress out from behind her and she sat down, then tucking her still wet brown hair behind her ear.

“Well my dear,” Lord Harld said, “I believe you know what it is a week from now?”

Andreya didn’t respond, she wasn’t sure if Lord Harld was waiting for her to say something or he was just stated a fact. But after a moment, he did not say anything, Andreya ventured forward to speak.

“It’s my seventeenth birthday sir,” she said finally.

“Exactly, amazing how time flies doesn’t it?” Lord Harld said much to cheerfully for Andreya’s liking. “And of course, every seventeen year old girl’s dream is too find a handsome, young, man with a significant fortune to take care of them.”

Andreya narrowed her eyes, “I don’t need a young man to take care of me.”

“Not, you my dear, with you, the two of you will certainly take care of each other,” Lord Harld said grinning to himself, “after all how could the girl named after the Goddess ever be completely submissive to a man.”

Andreya, true was named after the foremost goddess in Hirota, Andreyas Goddess of Adventure, but the rest of the sentence she could hear the sarcasm in Lord Harld’s voice.

“Andreya, you have played long enough in the much with those refugee peasants, it’s time that you move into higher society and meet some young gentlemen, or specifically one young gentleman which I’ve chosen to be your husband.”

Andreya stared, she couldn’t believe what she was hearing, “but sir-” she stammered.

“No, need to thank me,” Lord Harld said, “I understand your thankfulness completely, after all what young girl of your statue could want any more than to marry a courtier?”

“Sir, if you’ve forgotten, I am of those refugee peasants that you harbour for safety,” Andreya said forcing herself to keep her voice steady, she was so furious like she had never been before.

“I haven’t forgotten, but you’ve lived your life with myself and Lady Cholis, you can not under any circumstances not be grateful to us. You owe us to make a wonderful wedding and marriage, you have been like our daughter, even though we have had none ourselves, then you must act like one and do your duty, and marry,” Lord Harld’s said his voice catching a deadly icy tone to it.

Andreya didn’t say anything, just stared back at him, she did not know what to say, and could not say anything should she have know what to say. She was very much indebted to Lord Harld and Lady Cholis, but she couldn’t imagine them choosing a husband for her, he wasn’t even a knight! No one of any special circumstances, just a nameless pretty face who wooed the queen for fun and probably never even set eyes on the wild of the country, nor the way that people, real people of the country, breaking their backs with effort and sweating most unladylike, probably never seen the way real people lived.

“Well,” Lord Harld said, “there will be a dinner tonight, in the main dining room, where I expect you to be washed and dressed nicely,” his eyes raked the small dirt smudge that was still on her nose and her dangling wet hair, “Lord Carly will be there, he is your husband to be, and I want you to make a good impression with him, understand, he is giving a generous bride price for you.”

Andreya nodded jerkily, unable to trust her voice in case she starting screaming at him for being a jerk.

“Well,” Lord Harld said after a moment of silence, “do you not have anything to say for this great honour?”

Andreya gulped and tried to steady her anger, “Thank you sir,” she managed and then could not resist asking, “how old is Lord Carly sir?”

“Thirty eight,” Lord Harld replied looking down to the paper that littered his desk.

“Thirty eight!” Andreya cried standing up looking shocked and abhorred, he was almost twenty years older than her. “Thirty eight sir? How could I ever possibly marry a man twenty one years my senior?”

Lord Harld looked up, his features were icy cold, “you can and you will,” he said dangerously, “You can not spend you life running around in the muck and dirt with those riffraff. Do not worry about your inexperience my dear, that is if you are still inexperienced, he knows perfectly well your age, and you will give him every opportunity to believe that you are inexperienced do you understand Andreya?”

There was silence in the room, there was no possible way for her to argue with him, but she wanted to hold her own as long as possible.

“Yes sir,” she sighed finally unclenching her fists and sitting in the chair again.

“Good,” Lord Harld said, “now, I am extremely busy Andreya, will you go out and do not, under any circumstances, get dirty. Andreya stood up and stiffly walked to the door. She went through the house, walking down the single flight of stairs, passing Lady Cholis who was arguing with the cook about that nights dinner and went straight out of the house into the dirty and packed yard, filled with chickens running around the yards, and cows, pigs and horses tethered beside the small campfire.

Andreya walked down the small steps and automatically headed towards where Mistress Solcin was stirring a large pot of stew. She was a hardy and plumb woman, her faced etched with scars and muscles showing the endurance she had standing through her entire life of the front lines of the war, it was only about two months ago when she and her brood had made the long journey to Veii and set up a little shanty and gained the respect from everyone else in the camp. She was their unofficial mother and advocate to Lord Harld, and Andreya thought of her like a mother.

“What’s the matter Andreya?” Solcin asked as Andreya walked to her in a daze, “it ain’t often that ye walk outside with one of yer dresses.”

“Lord Harld want me to go to a dinner tonight,” Andreya said looking into the cauldron that was bubbling merrily over the crackling fire. One of Mistress Solicin’s seven was clinging onto her skirt looking wide-eyed up at Andreya.

“Ah, that tells me little about why ye are walking around in yer dress? Shouldn’ ye be inside not getting full o’ muck?” Solcin asked watching Andreya carefully.

“He wants me to met Lord Carly.”

“And would this Lord be meanin’ anythin’ to ya?”

“Lord Harld wants me to marry him!” Andreya cried suddenly, “I can’t do it Solcin, he’s twenty one years older than me and I just can’t do it!”

Solcin looked at her concerned, “men in high society have a funny idea of what young girls want these days, surely he noticed your spirit would never go with a man not of your own choosin’.”

“He’s also a courtier,” Andreya said miserably.

“Surely not!” Solcin said with a frown, she disliked courtier as much as she disliked Lord Harld telling her how to run her own household and her children. “He didna pick a Knight fer ya at least? That man must be barking mad, sending an adventurer like ye self to a courtier? Yer not meant fer a life at court, yer not.”

Andreya sighed, “I don’t want to go to court, trust me, but what can I do, Lord Harld and Lady Cholis have raised me since a was a baby! I can’t turn by back on them now.”

Solcin scoffed and raised the large wooden soon, scooping out some of the stew and blowing on it before she tasted it.

“If I could tell ye what I thought, which ye know I can’t, I’d say that you’d could and would turn ye back on them for an adventure, which I don’t doubt will be happening soon,’ Solcin said with a twinkle in her eye.

“I’m sure you would,” Andreya replied with a smile, “but that doesn’t mean that it will happen any time soon, Andreyas has too much on her plate dealing out adventures to the knights to pay attention to a sixteen year old girl who doesn’t like the outcome of her future.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” said Solcin, “Andreyas works in various ways, I’m sure that she would look after a plucky young girl who shows potential and is named after her.”

“Whatever you say, Solcin,” Andreya said looking out to the enclosed walls of her what felt like prison. “I look forward to the day that I can break out of here.”