Prologue

His name was Colin of Carter Hills and he was my best friend. I had been raised for the most part in the Palace at Corus, but I had spent my earlier years, 8 and younger, at my family's home in Southern Bridge near the border where Tortall touches both Tyra and Tusaine. I had been raised to appreciate what you have but always strive to succeed, wishful thinking for a girl of my era, I might add, but not completely futile. Alanna and Keladry had made that possible.

Alanna of Pirate's Swoop and Olau was essentially the groundbreaking individual that changed Tortall into a country that not only accepted women as warrior but embraced them. Reckon during her knight training she masqueraded as a boy and did not reveal herself until she was accidently unveiled during a battle with the infamous Roger of Conte, but she was still an inspiration to girls all across the country. On top of that, her best friend Jonathan became king shortly after and it became legal for girls to train to be knights. Alanna was in part my biggest hero.

Then there was Keladry of Mindelan. She was a girl with out-forth bravery and inhibition. After the law was passed opening training up to females she became the first girl to openly become a knight. She fought in war before she surpassed squirehood and unlike Alanna, who lived through war during her squire years as well, did it all without magic. Alanna was a mage and Keladry wasn't. But that didn't make her any less extraordinary: upon becoming a knight she managed to kill the man responsible for the taking of children's souls to feed the magicked metal beasts terrorizing the border between Scanra and Tortall.

When admiring Alanna I felt more awe than I did when admiring Keladry. With her I felt more of a connection, I supposed because becoming a knight in her fashion was more realistic for me. I was after all not interested in playing dress up as a boy and not a mage. However I dreamed of becoming Alanna probably because she was a so ground breaking in her ways. I wanted to do the same with something of my own. Maybe there was another reason though. Maybe that reason was because Keladry ended up dying. Alanna was still alive.

I met him when I moved into the castle upon my eighth birthday; the move was done in a sudden and life changing way. My entire childhood was spent dreaming of moving to the palace and when I finally did I never thought twice about it. There was no chance in my mind that anything bad could ever fall from living at the palace and that I would ever want to move home.

He lived there too, with his father; his mother was back in Carter Hills. I was in the stables petting the pages' horses when I heard a boy's talking to the stable hand. Climbing out of the hay when the voices stopped I looked up into the most beautiful sky blue eyes I had ever seen.

"Who are you?" he asked leaning forward over the edge of the gate. He was short enough that it only went to his shoulders.

"I'm Kaneen," I said as I stood up, shaking straw out of my hair. We were the same height. "Who are you?"

"I'm Colin. I live here."

"Well I live here too. Could we be friends?" I stuck my hand out to him like I had seen my father do.

"I'd like that," he smiled and took my hand.

From that day forth we were the best of friends. No conflict ever separated us and we never anything that was more than we could handle. We were the same age almost exactly; he was two months older. So when we turned ten, he became a page and his father went home. I wished with all my heart that I could train too, but I never got the gut to ask to my own father. I reckoned if I wasn't brave enough to ask, I wasn't brave enough to handle 8 years of vigorous training. I made it my goal though to become as strong as possible.

Colin knew my ambitions, all of them, so when he would get back from training at night he would teacher everything he learned that day. In exchange I helped, and most of the time did, his afterhour's book practice for him. I had managed to prevent my parents from sending me to the covenant but I still received daytime schooling inside the palace walls. My theory was that it occupied the time that I would have spent alone because Colin was in schooling of his own, but I honestly hated it. Nothing could have made me like it. There was one benefit at least, it made doing Colin's work effortless, giving me more time to be taught how to fence, tackle, fight with a staff.

By the time I was fourteen, I was able to beat Colin in 3 out of 5 sword fights. But then it all crashed. My entire life began to deteriorate the summer of my fourteenth year. That fall, Colin was leaving. He had found himself a knight master and one that thoroughly enjoyed field work. Basically, it would be months at a time before I would be able to see him.

That was when I decided to do something rash. I gathered all my bravery and went to ask my father if I could at least plead to be accepted for knight training. I was too old, but I knew a lot and I held that and prayed it would be enough. I was walked into my father study when it happened.

The arrow flew right by head. It only missed because I saw it coming and I put a hand up to catch it. When I caught that arrow, it was such a liberating feeling to be able to show that I was capable of something great that I knew my father would be instantly impressed.

Turns out I was wrong.

Very, very wrong.