Ellie sat in the ancient schoolroom staring at the blackboard in front of her. Professor Kosh was scribbling out, with his chalk, a difficult equation for her to work out. Ellie sighed heavily, she really didn’t understand this. She didn’t understand algebra. Then again, she reflected, I don’t understand maths at all. She dipped her expensive eagle owl feather quill into the ink pot and began to write out the mixture of confusing letters and numbers down, trying to make sense of it. She was sure she had been here for about two hours. She looked up at the clock then remembered it was broken.

She peered around the room as if in search for the answer. The giant, dusty blackboard hung on the front of the room where the Professor continued to mutter at Ellie. There were five desks spread out all made with the finest Eidew wood straight from Sapphashire. They were accompanied by stiff heavy chairs that were very uncomfortable. The pale walls were plastered with old posters that showed maps of the world, foreign languages, skeletons of strange animals, and times tables. In the corner of the room there was a rack of test tubes filled with a variety of disgusting things that Ellie didn’t want to think about.

She turned back to her parchment in frustration. What is the point in this? She thought to herself. I know I have to be Queen one day but surely I don’t really need to know this? I’m certain father has never needed it!

Ellie was a princess, the only heir to the Aissurn throne. A responsibility she desperately didn’t want to take on. Whenever she thought of her future her insides did a somersault.

Ellie decided she had been here long enough she couldn’t stand much more.

“I am very sorry Professor but…”

“What is it child?” he snapped.

“Well …er…you see…erm, Professor Wingshapp wanted me to be early to his …language lesson,” Ellie lied although her expression was surprisingly sincere.

“Cordelia it is luncheon in half an hour! Well, tell him that maths is a universal language that will soon shut the old fool up! Now, can you please tell me the answer to this question!” he exclaimed, and pointed to the complicated equation.

“Well, I-…You see I don’t really understand it…,” she said quietly but Kosh heard her perfectly well.

“Magic give me strength, Cordelia! Why are you so cursed with unintelligence! Why couldn’t you be more like your father! He was such a joy to teach, he learnt everything so easily! You can’t have got your appalling skills from your mother either!”

“You only said that because my mother is stunningly beautiful,” Ellie muttered under her breath, it was true though. Everyone said she was the most beautiful women in Aessurn if not the world. Sadly, Ellie’s looks came from her father’s side. She had slightly wavy, mouse hair when golden curls were the fashion, like her mother’s.

Professor Kosh turned back to the board and began to explain how to do the sum. Ellie was soon lost. She grimaced in frustration.

Whatever! I’m going! Ellie thought defiantly.

She grabbed her skirts and silently slid off her chair. She left her work and crept to the door. It stood ajar. She carefully opened it, it creaked, Ellie froze but Kosh hadn’t noticed and he continued to frantically scribble with his chalk. Ellie grinned in spite of herself and slipped out the door.

She felt elated as she hurried along the corridor; there was very little excitement in her life so she grasped the experience whenever she could. No one could make her do algebra!

Many portraits of long forgotten ancestors stared down at the girl as she rushed past. They all looked perfect and beautiful, not at all like real people. Ellie barely glanced at them as she scurried by. She reached some stairs and leapt up them three at a time as she held up her skirts. She encountered another long, highly furnished corridor before she approached her bedroom.

Ellie liked to think that her bedroom was her sanctuary, her place of freedom but inside she really knew it wasn’t. It was the same as the rest of the castle, full of rich décor. She collapsed onto her large four poster bed once again feeling oppressed by her surroundings. The castle was a crowd of material things that Ellie did not care for. Her family status demanded the best and that’s what it got, money almost glittered from the walls and the floors. Whilst her family relished in their superior surroundings Ellie resented them. She felt that there were far more important things in life.

Ellie wandered over to her window, below lay the stable yard and beyond that was the forest that appeared to stretch on forever. It was made up of dark, towering trees that Ellie felt hid many secrets. She relaxed a little as she watched a flock of birds fly overhead. It was early winter, the snow had not set in yet and once it had they would be trapped here for the winter months. Not that Ellie minded she loved it out here in the wilderness. To her it suggested adventure, an escape from reality. She hated the royal palace within the capital city, she found that it was even more claustrophobic than the heaviness of the castle. At least here the castle was surrounded by scenic mountains and woods that Ellie had grown up to love. The royal family spent their winters here and for Ellie it gave some respite from her princess life and the cramped, dirty, hectic city where they spent most of the year.

She then opened the window and took in a deep breath of the ice cold fresh air, she wished that she could be outdoors more often but her father wouldn’t permit it. He saw it as unladylike. Surely no one would notice if she just slipped out to the stables…

Suddenly there was a resounding knock on the door.

“Princess Cordelia, please could I come in?” said Dama, Ellie’s maid.

Ellie closed the window and sat on her bed.

“Come in,”

“Your highness - ,”

“Please don’t call me that,” Ellie sighed, she had told Dama plenty of times not to.

“My deepest apologies…Princess Cordelia,”

“Just call me Ellie, okay?”

Dama’s round face looked forlorn. Ellie found that she wanted to say so much yet she chose to say nothing. She supposed that Dama was her best friend but she didn’t find this very comforting. She was her only friend. How could she moan to her servant? Ellie was thought of as the luckiest girl in the country so how could she complain to the girl sitting next to her who had almost nothing to call her own.

“Well …er… Ellie. You need to change for luncheon,”

“Surely I’m fine like this?” She looked down at her pale blue frock with the cuffed sleeves. She rather liked it as it was not heavy and restrictive like most of her dresses.

“It’s a bit plain, your Ladyship,”

Ellie resisted the urge to strangle her maid.

“Please do tell me how many dresses you have that are of this quality Dama?”

Dama turned red, even her best clothes were nowhere near as fine as what Ellie was wearing. Ellie immediately felt guilty and hugged her maid.

“Look Dama, I’m sorry I’m just in a bad mood,”

“Oh, Cordelia, nowadays, you always are,”

Ellie didn’t answer; she tried to push her uneasy feelings to the back of her mind.

“Okay Dama, I will change into another dress but on one condition,” Ellie’s eyes suddenly sparkled.

“What’s that m’lady?” Dama replied uncertainly.

“You try on this frock!”

“Oh Ellie, can I?” she tried to hide her excitement, “but no I can’t, it would not be right.”

“I insist,” Ellie smiled.

Dama’s face lit up as she admired herself in Ellie’s mirror, she spun round to see the skirts twirl pleasantly. Ellie was happy for her friend but could not do much more than grimace, she had been strapped up in a corset under her dining gown. She began to feel that she would forget how to breathe! Her mother felt that a corset was vital for her composure and her figure however Ellie did not agree. She rarely agreed with her mother but Dama’s job was on the line if she did not wear it. Ellie felt weak but she turned to go after telling Dama she could keep the dress, Dama was far too thrilled to say no. Ellie tried to not let pity swell in her heart as she left for lunch.

Ellie gingerly sat down with her parents in the large dining hall, trying not to think about what the corset was doing to her ribs.

“Hello darling, how has your morning been?” the King asked. The King was a large man who could not help but command respect. He was a handsome man that had become refined by age, his dark brown eyes hinted at the great power that resided underneath. Ellie was oblivious to the touch of cruelty that sometimes shadowed his features. His eyes became warm as he looked up at his beloved daughter.

“Fine father,” Ellie replied wearily.

“I heard that you abandoned your arithmetic lesson this morning! You really are becoming quite unruly Cordelia,” her mother interjected.

“Well…er…yes I agree,” her father said, Ellie felt that he didn’t. She tried to hide a grin, her father could lead a country and control armies but he would never dare oppose his wife in any way!

“Yes. You have not done well in lessons according to your teachers. Why have you been doing so badly?”

Ellie was not really listening, she looked around the huge hall full of people milling around between the many tables. It was not only the royal family who stayed at the castle in winter although it was a big family. The most important people in the country tended to be invited to stay here also. The King and his friends spent the winter hunting game in the forest. Hunting wolves was also very popular with the King. Ellie hated this but her father did not listen to her. That was one thing she planned to stop when she became queen. However the thought of being queen frightened her down to her very core.

“CORDELIA!” her father said. Ellie sat up startled.

“What?”

“Don’t speak in that inferior manner,” her mother said curtly.

“Yes, mother,” she replied starting to feel quite faint from a lack of oxygen.

“So why are you doing so badly with your education?”

“I don’t really know mother, I think it must be because I have bad teachers,”

“Don’t be impertinent! You just don’t try hard enough,”

Ellie began to tire of her mother’s voice. Her parents just could not accept that she just wasn’t like them. Ellie didn’t think of herself as unintelligent but maybe she was, of course her parents wouldn’t even listen to her when she suggested that. Perhaps it is understandable that they can’t accept that their future ruler cannot even do simple sums in her head.

“Look, I’m not that bad. I can do writing and comprehension. I understand poetry!”

“I’m sorry Cordelia but you need much more than that when it comes to ruling a country, you are going to be responsible for many people -,” her father began.

“Do excuse me, I feel quite faint. I think I should go…,” Ellie wasn’t exactly lying but the main reason she wanted to leave was because they had touched that subject of ‘ruling the country’ again.

“Darling don’t go, we hardly see you as it is, here have some water. You’ll feel better when you have eaten,” the King said. Ellie softened; her father was genuinely concerned for her. However her mother just sat there fiddling with her beautiful hair. Ellie wanted to rip it out.

“Varyssa she is older now, I think perhaps she should start joining me in court. She needs to learn about this country and its people. We should no longer treat her like a child she needs to see reality. It is time that Cordelia learnt about politics,”

Ellie got interested, this would be far better than her current lessons. And even better she would spend time with her father. Ellie barely saw him, and when she did mainly as a protective father not a King.

“No, she is too disobedient. She feels because she is a princess that she can do what she wants! She is rude to her superiors, how dare she walk out of a lesson? She refused to wear what I tell her to unless I threaten someone’s livelihood. We cannot reward her by giving her privileges. She needs to have an education before she can join government. Besides the ball that we hold soon is far more important, speaking of which we need to measure you for a gown,”

“I’ve got hundreds!”

“Don’t exaggerate Cordelia,” Ellie wasn’t; “Yes, anyway Roderick is coming so this is very important,” her mother continued. Ellie couldn’t care less and stopped listening as the servants served lunch. Ellie also found that she didn’t have the energy to be angry at her mother for ruining her chance of joining her father in court. It seemed her mother was out there to destroy anything good in Ellie’s life, which was little.

Ellie went to pick up her knife and looked down at it in surprise. Aissurn was well known for its decorative cutlery. It was said that no knife, fork or spoon looked exactly the same. It was also said that they were made by magic. Even so Ellie was still shocked by the beauty of the knife. You could see the bodies of wolves weaved together in minute detail along its handle. Almost every hair upon them seemed visible. The blend of gentle dents and lines seemed to turn the silver into wolf fur. The wolves’ faces were clear with calm, beautiful eyes. The whole knife was intricate and unique, it filled Ellie with wonder. It shows wolves as they really are, she thought. It didn’t show wolves as nasty, evil beasts as they were usually portrayed. Ellie couldn’t take her eyes off the knife. She adored wolves. She had great respect for all animals but none did she see as more divine than the wolf. Ellie decided she wanted to keep the knife. She turned her attention back to her parents but they were discussing Roderick’s family, they seemed to have forgotten she was there. Ellie carefully picked the knife up; on the blade there was a tiny symbol. She could just make out an outline of a hand and a paw print inside it. Strange symbol for a cutlery maker, Ellie thought.

Ellie noticed a servant hovering nearby and quickly hid the knife under the cushion of her chair.

“Excuse me, I appear not to have a knife, please get one for me?” Ellie asked whilst her mother turned and glared at the servant.

“I am sorry for this inconvenience your majesty. I shall get one straight away,” the young girl said, trembling as she did so. She gave an awkward curtsy and scurried off.

Ellie smiled but it soon faded on her lips. She still found little to be happy about; a long tiresome afternoon with Professor Wingshapp awaited her.