Chapter 1

One upon a time in a kingdom called Libra, there lived a king and queen and they had a son. They were very happy and were loved by all and everyone in the kingdom. On a sad day a man and woman, dear friends of the kind and queen, died a tragic death leaving behind a daughter called Carli. The king and queen decided to take the 13 year old girl in as a minder and friend for young Nagit, aged 8. Thus this story begun...

"Carli!" a woman's voice called franticly, "Caaarli!"

"Yes Amanda, I am right here!" I said sitting up from where I was polishing the floor.

"What are you doing down there?" Amanda asked, surprised.

"Esmerelda...I mean her royal highness asked me to polish the floor before the guests arrive for prince Nagit's party tonight.

"What?! The last thing you should be doing is polishing the damn floor! Come, we need you in the kitchen. Sophia can't handle all the custard pastries by herself and Mrs Spoon's grey hair is turning white!"

Mrs Spoon was the head of the kitchen. It sounded like things were quite bad...

I sighed, and followed Amanda to the kitchen. I knew Esmerelda was just messing around with me when she told me to polish the floor. I usually avoided her at all cost, but today I happened to run into her. Just bad luck. I have always known that she dislikes me, and the fact that I was a close friend to Nagit. So much happened since Nagit's mom, the queen, died 8 years ago. The doctor couldn't identify the illness she had. She just got weaker and weaker until her heart failed. It still hurt when I thought of that time. She had been like a mother to me. Nagit took it hard, and his father even harder. I remember the night the queen passed away. I found Nagit, then 10 years old, standing on one of the balconies crying. When he saw me he quickly tried to wipe his tears, but I told him that he should not be ashamed to cry. When he saw that my face was red from crying too he hugged me fiercely and we stood there for a long time. The years that followed were troublesome. Nagit's father, the king, couldn't cope with his loneliness and tried pursuing different hobbies in an attempt to forget about his wife.

One night he drank too much at a banquet and took a woman to his room. That woman would end up making life hell for all of us. Not wanting to cause a scandal, the king married Esmerelda who at the time claimed that she was pregnant. This was most likely a lie as she supposedly had a "miscarriage" early in the pregnancy. The doctor was the same doctor that had attended to Nagit's mother. I had a gut feeling that the doctor and Esmerelda had their heads in one hat, but without proof there was nothing I could say or do.

The king became a recluse, leaving the affairs of the kingdom in the hands of Esmerelda, who loved being in control. She very soon started changing things. My family's estate was taken as a 'payment' for the years I lived at the palace and given to a lord and lady that Esmerelda liked. I was forbidden to see prince Nagit and forced to work as a maid to 'earn my keep'. She had made it very clear to me that he was a prince and I was nothing. This didn't prevent Nagit and me from seeing each other in secret when we could. We hid messages for each other in the hollow tree-stump by the lake and occasionally went for a midnight ride on our horses, Knight and Denushka. The stable master was a kind man and never told on us. Those rides were the best times of my life. We were not a prince and a minder (or now a maid). Simply two friends enjoying each others company. Nagit was always mature for his age and we'd have very interesting conversations about all sorts of things. The king and queen in the happier days encouraged both me and Nagit to read us much as we could. We often spent hours in the royal library. Knowing I had a friend in him made all the hard work I had to do at the palace worth it. Sadly I was forbidden to enter the library as well. Nagit snuck out books for me to read and hid it in the tree-stump. It usually had to do with what he was learning from his private tutor. It gave us something to talk about.

Then one day we got caught when we came back from a ride. Esmerelda was furious. She pretended to be concerned about our safety in front of Nagit, but as soon as it was just me and her she had me whipped. I was warned that if I stepped out of line again there would be dire consequences. That sadly put an end to our nightly excursions. We still wrote each other notes, but not as much as before. Esmerelda made sure that both of us had much to do. Prince Nagit was always busy being tutored by someone or another to prepare him for kingship. He would be crowned king three months after he turned 18. It was Esmerelda's doing most likely that the king suddenly decided to abdicate the throne to his son. I was given even more work than before. Some nights my body would ache from the strain and I would cry myself to sleep.