Haldrid
Youngest daughter of the Ligerian king entangled in the guileful politics of court, the ramblings of a ridiculed brother, and the torture of a loveless marriage.
BOOK EXCERPT
In the sky the twisting trail was plain to see now, though just where it ended she lacked the knowledge to tell. It was like her life’s journey, traveling from point to point with large spans of lonely darkness between, ending in uncertainty, and always the powerless probing at matters impossible to fathom. She could only hope to move from star to star, from light to light, and ultimately find the objective was worth the passage.
Below her wound the labyrinthine streets of Aruis, always more mysterious once they were illuminated by their own odd assortment of lights. The flicker from the street lanterns running almost to the edge of the sea could mesmerize a dreamer till hours had passed in silent staring. Here she had stood as a young girl, in a high window of the Palace, following the winding trails of luminescence, sensing their alluring call, excited at the potential for adventure. How many times she had slipped out to dream over the dark city, whose vulgarities and many imperfections were so cunningly swallowed by the night. She smiled at the memory of her maid looking for her here, the games of hide-and-seek, the screaming chase off to bed again. And in the comfortable darkness, against the wild beating of her heart, she loved the promise of those many little lights, though they could well have been kindled by imps bent on mischief.
