Arion

Irilayne was born a princess. And she hated every moment of it!

So, when her father tried to betroth her to Lord Griblon, a greedy, arrogant and ambitious man almost twice her age, she ran away. For eighteen months she's been living in a tiny village as an ordinary peasant, and she loves it. Sure, she has to work hard doing all the things that servants used to do for her. She has to wear rough homespun instead of silk and velvet, and live in a cottage rather than a palace, but she feels, in her own words, real, for the first time in her life. In the palace she felt like a doll, something to be dressed up and shown off. Here, she feels like a person for the first time. She swears she'll never go back.

But now, her father has been assassinated, and her brother Arion, the new king, has disappeared. The country is convulsing like a headless snake. Irilayne thought she didn't care about Xanara, but she finds that she does, very much. This is her country, these are her people, and she can't just sit back and watch while someone destroys them.

And to top everything off, that same Lord Griblon is claiming the regency on the grounds of his betrothal to her. He even has the betrothal document, which he is using to convince the Royal Council to grant him executive power.

A document Irilayne knows she didn't sign.

But that will mean little if the Royal Council decides to ratify it.

Suddenly, Irilayne is faced with a quest to find her missing brother and help him to his throne - assuming he's still alive. If she doesn't succeed, she may well find herself as Queen and forced to marry Griblon, who will then use his position as her consort to take over. She isn't quite as weak and biddable as he seems to think, but she has few illusions about that will happen to her if she tries to block him. Finding her brother seems to be her only chance. To save her country, to save herself, she will have to give up the life she loves to find Arion and then return to the capital and the life she left to help him establish his rule and stabilise the country.

But Griblon has allied himself with the Athreeli, Xanara's historic enemies, and he now has Athreeli magicians to help him. If she is to succeed, Irilayne will need magic, too. And it's even more imperative that she succeed, to prevent her country becoming a vassal state of Athreel. But such power comes at a cost. She has already had to leave the life she loves. Will she be willing to make yet another sacrifice in order to gain the power she needs? Just how much will she be prepared to give up to save her brother and her country? Will she be able to learn enough magic in time to make a difference? Can she reach her brother in time and save both him, her country - and herself? There are too many questions and not enough answers. All she knows is that she has to try.

Join Irilayne, runaway princess, in an epic fantasy quest to find her missing brother and save her land and herself from a fate worse than death.

Dettagli