Chapter 1

The warm spring breeze wafting gently down the bustling streets of Ouest set hearts aflame, and young Mistress Jana Trence, the general’s headstrong daughter, burned with the need for adventure. A young lass of thirteen years, her days had been filled all winter long with musty old books and tedious studies, so when the sun melted the last of the snow from the ground, she knew she had to get outside.

Not just out of the house, but out of Ouest itself.

After breakfast, she cornered Merlie, her handmaiden and best friend, who spent the morning in the kitchen with the other servants. Jana found the older girl seated on a wooden stool by the fire, pinching boiled beans from their skins into a metal tin. Merlie’s long, blonde curls were swept up off her slender neck in an untidy tumble atop her head, and Jana had to resist the urge to pluck at the corkscrew strands as she snuck up behind the servant.

“Hey, you,” Jana whispered, coming up behind Merlie. “What ‘cha doing?”

If Jana expected Merlie to jump, she was disappointed. Merlie continued pinching the beans and, without breaking rhythm, blew a wayward curl out of her face. “Hey, yourself, mistress. What does it look like I’m doing?”

“Working.” Jana stepped around Merlie and pouted. “I’m tired of working. The ice is gone and the air is clear, and I’ll have no more of this working business on such a glorious day. How about we get out for a while?”

At eighteen, Merlie knew her place in the world was at her mistress’s side. But she also knew she had chores to do, and Jana had studies to attend to, so Merlie gently nudged Jana back with one elbow and replied, “You know there’s a lot to be done today…”

But Jana’s heart was set, and she brushed Merlie’s protests aside. “Exactly!” she said, waving his arms wide. “The whole world awaits! They say there’s a mysterious man who lives so deep in the Austral Mountains, he’ll give the first person to find him a set of magical runes. That could be us, Merle! I could find him!”

Merlie wasn’t impressed. “Mistress Jana, I have these beans to prepare, and soup to make, if you plan to have lunch today.”

“So we’ll take it outside, have a picnic.”

With that, Jana swept the bowl of beans from Merlie’s hands. When the servant reached to take them back, Jana jumped nimbly aside and raced past her for the door. “Come! The world awaits!”

“Young mistress!” Exasperated, Merlie chased after Jana, knowing that whatever her orders were, she could never tell the girl no. “Jana, come back here! Your father will have my hide!”

Jana’s girlish giggles rang through the courtyard of the luscious home then out into the crowded streets. Lifting her skirts, Merlie chased after her charge. When she caught sight of Jana, the younger girl leaned nonchalantly against the open gates of the city, munching on an apple she’d snagged from a vendor in passing, the bowl of beans in the crook of her elbow.

“Jana,” Merlie gasped, slowing to catch her breath. “Come now, we have to get back.”

“Aw, Merlie! Just a quick picnic!” Jana held the bowl toward Merlie, who saw it had been filled with fruit and cheese as the girl raced past the stalls lining the city street. No one would complain, she knew—Jana was the general’s daughter. Any food she took would be billed to him discreetly.

Merlie looked at the dingy cobblestones and the people hurrying about. “Here? At the city gates?”

Jana nodded out past the gates, where the land opened to a rolling meadow edged in by dense trees. “How about out there? It looks nice enough.”

Merlie shook her head. “Oh no, not outside the city walls! You know what your father said—”

“He doesn’t have to know.” Before Merlie could protest further Jana was outside the city, racing for the dark grass growing deep beside the forest.

With a sigh, Merlie trotted after her charge, praying under her breath that the general would linger at the palace and not come home early to find his daughter outside of the city walls.

* * * *

Lying on her back in the cool grass, Jana watched the fluffy white clouds stretch lazily across the denim spring sky. Beside her Merlie sat straight-backed and cross-legged, wary and watchful. They were too far from the city gates, in the servant’s opinion, and too close to the still evergreens of the dense forest. She’d heard talk of magical creatures in the woods, and recent attacks on travelers at night had the city closing the gates after hours. She watched the leaves and branches carefully, waiting for any sign of movement. If the general knew they’d ventured this far…

But Jana seemed unperturbed and at peace, glad to be out from under the watchful gaze of her father, and because Merlie knew her place, she kept quiet. But her gaze never left the forest, where any number of dangers might lie in wait for her charge. How much longer before she could once again suggest they head on home?

“Merlie,” Jana said, breaking into the servant’s troubled thoughts.

Merlie turned her attention from the forest to the girl stretched out before her. Even at her young age, the general’s daughter was already a stunning beauty, more so because she had no idea just how pretty she was. Her thick auburn hair was worn in a long braid down the middle of her back—keeping it free from entangling in her bow when she had archery, and free from the grip of her opponents when she trained in the martial arts. A fringe of red tufts across her brow shaded her sun-kissed face, and her eyes were the same faded blue as the sky above.

Merlie knew in another two years, her mistress would be asked to join the junior cadet troop, where she’d probably meet the man—or woman—who would become her partner. In war, in peace, in life itself, and though Merlie would always be at her mistress’s side, she would always be just a servant to the girl, never anything more. This was the best she could hope for. At least she had some part of Jana, no matter how small

She shook herself free from those thoughts—no use dwelling on what cannot be. “Yes, mistress?”

Jana rolled over on her side and picked at the grass. “Merlie,” she sighed, exasperated. “I have a name, you know.”

“I know, mistress.”

“Then why don’t you use it? Even when we’re alone?”

Merlie smiled. “Because your father would have my hide if he heard me address you by your common name. A servant doesn’t speak to her mistress as a commoner—there would be no respect then.”

Jana sighed again. “But you’re my friend, Merlie, not just a servant. Besides, technically you’re my father’s servant, not mine.”

“Not true, mistress. Your father gave me charge of you—your studies, your health. I’m to protect you with my life. There is no greater service than that.”

An evil gleam crept into Jana’s eyes. “Then you’ll obey me? If I were to give you a direct order, you’d have to listen?”

Warily, Merlie replied, “As long as it doesn’t go against your father’s rules. As long as you aren’t endangered…yes.”

“Then call me Jana!”

The girl jumped up with a laugh and tackled Merlie, knocking her back in the grass and tickling her stomach. Merlie laughed breathlessly, but before she could recover, Jana was off and running, heading for the forest. She turned back and laughed at Merlie, an unspoken challenge to follow hanging in the air between them.

“Mistress!” A twinge of fear crept into Merlie’s voice. “I think we should start back—”

“Too late now!” Jana called. “Come on! Just a quick walk in the woods—what’ll it hurt?”

Merlie pushed herself up, brushed the grass from her skirts, and hurried after Jana. Maybe if she could catch up with the girl before either of them entered the forest…

Too late. Jana disappeared into the green growth and, with a heavy sigh, Merlie pushed past the first of the evergreens to follow Jana into the forest.

* * * *

“Mistress Jana,” Merlie began again, trying unsuccessfully to keep them from venturing further into the forest, “maybe we should be heading back into town. Your father could return at any moment…”

Jana continued onward. “Nonsense, Merlie. You know as well as I do there’s war brewing to the north. The Emperor will keep the generals up all night talking war games—my father will never know we were here.”

“Where is here, exactly?” Merlie glanced around them nervously. “I fear we may be lost.”

Jana laughed. “We’re not lost. I know where we are.”

“And where is that, exactly?” Before Jana could reply, Merlie added, “And don’t say in the woods. I know that.”

Jana laughed again, but this time the light, girlish sound was drowned out by a deeper roar and Merlie started, suddenly alert. Before them the trees shook threateningly—as they parted, Merlie pulled Jana back behind her, grabbing a fallen branch from the ground. “Stay back,” she cautioned, brandishing the stick as a weapon. “When I say, run.”

“I can’t leave you here,” Jana whispered.