Our kingdom is beautiful. However, it’s bordered on three sides by treacherous mountains that make travel in any direction but south impossible. To travel south requires entering Baelliles, the South Kingdom, our enemy’s territory. Instead, to leave Verdana, we’re forced to take a perilous route through the Florian Wood that borders Baelliles on the west. And traveling through The Wood requires protection.

My father holds the contents of the packet high. “The gods have bestowed upon us a miracle, Idalia. King Lachlan’s wife has died of the Gray.”

“She died?” I exclaim, raising a hand to my throat.

“Yes! Is it not wonderful?” He beams as he waves the paper. “The gods have not forgotten Verdana! We are saved!”

King Lachlan, a name I’m still not used to. And his wife, the poor girl, was barely even twenty. Taken by such a vicious disease.

“Why are you not celebrating?” My father finally notices my distress.

“Why should I celebrate the death of anyone? Especially the wife of a dear friend?”

“You silly girl! Do you not understand? Lachlan is without a bride! He seeks to remarry!”

My breath halts. “Remarry?” As I repeat the word, it sounds foreign to my ears.

“Now, do you see why this is such joyous news?” he asks. “King Lachlan is remarrying, and he has asked for your hand.”

I stumble to the nearest bench and sit, rubbing my fingers deep into my temples.

“Lachlan has asked for me. But, no…. he wouldn’t,” I murmur in disbelief. “His father said he must marry a girl from Aeradian. He declared it so.”

“His father is dead,” my father interrupts. “As is the Aeradian girl his son married. So, it is of no consequence what he declared when he still walked the earth. Lachlan has requested you as his new bride. It should come as no surprise! The two of you were always friendly. Too friendly. I saw the desire in his stare when you were barely older than children! He has wanted you all his days but was forced to marry another while his father lived. But he is a king now, Idalia. The power lies with him.”

“If this is true, then it will seal an alliance with Aeradian,” I say slowly as the full import of my father’s words hits me. “They’ll be forced to take our side and will no longer stay neutral. They’ll fight with us against Baelliles.”

My father throws the paper into the air with a howl of celebration. He lowers himself to his haunches and places a hand on my knee.

“We will finally know the time of retribution. Your mother shall be avenged; Baelliles will fall,” he says.

And I will marry Lachlan, the Prince—no, the King—of Aeradian. I’ve seen him only a few times since we were children. I remember a sincere, soft-spoken, and humorous man. Though truthfully, what I best remember are his sage-green eyes. The way they brightened when he looked at me. The way they burned against his dark skin and vermilion clothes. Yes, I’ll gladly marry King Lachlan. I will save Verdana.