Prologue
The sound of dripping water rang throughout the dank cells underneath Ostwick circle. Mice scurried and squeaked as they roamed the stone floors, looking for shelter from the cold that leaked throughout the open slits high up on the walls. A lone prisoner sat in the far corner of her cage, her knees held tightly against her chest whilst she rocked back and forth in a futile way to comfort herself. Sobs wracked her small frame as the tears fell heavily against her pale cheeks in uncontrollable streams.
Where was Aldric? He was there when the men in shiny armour had stormed through their home, he had hidden her in the pantry before pressing a firm kiss to her head and vanishing with the promise of return.
But they had taken her.
They had dragged her in a painful grasp of her arm, she was calling out Aldric's name in a repeated desperate plea as she passed her parent's hate filled gaze. And now she was here, tossed into a cell like a petty criminal all because of the curse the Maker had bestowed upon her birth.
Fear invaded her senses and shook her bones; a cold sweat had formed upon her skin. There was no light, why was there no light? Surely the men in their fine steel armour and winged helmets couldn't see in the darkness. For as long as she could remember, darkness had always shrouded her life, kept her hidden and consumed her thoughts, oh how she yearned for the light to warm her skin and melt the ice that she couldn't escape.
How she yearned to walk in the sunlight.