Irilayne was born a princess. And she hated every moment of it! ‎

So, when her father tried to betroth her to Lord Griblon, a greedy, arrogant and ambitious ‎man almost twice her age, she ran away. For eighteen months she’s been living in a tiny village as ‎an ordinary peasant, and she loves it. Sure, she has to work hard doing all the things that servants ‎used to do for her. She has to wear rough homespun instead of silk and velvet, and live in a ‎cottage rather than a palace, but she feels, in her own words, real, for the first time in her life. In ‎the palace she felt like a doll, something to be dressed up and shown off. Here, she feels like a ‎person for the first time. She swears she’ll never go back.‎

But now, her father has been assassinated, and her brother Arion, the new king, has ‎disappeared. The country is convulsing like a headless snake. Irilayne thought she didn’t care ‎about Xanara, but she finds that she does, very much. This is her country, these are her people, ‎and she can’t just sit back and watch while someone destroys them. ‎

And to top everything off, that same Lord Griblon is claiming the regency on the grounds of ‎his betrothal to her. He even has the betrothal document, which he is using to convince the Royal ‎Council to grant him executive power. ‎

A document Irilayne knows she didn’t sign. ‎

But that will mean little if the Royal Council decides to ratify it. ‎

Suddenly, Irilayne is faced with a quest to find her missing brother and help him to his ‎throne - assuming he’s still alive. If she doesn’t succeed, she may well find herself as Queen and ‎forced to marry Griblon, who will then use his position as her consort to take over. She isn’t quite ‎as weak and biddable as he seems to think, but she has few illusions about that will happen to her ‎if she tries to block him. Finding her brother seems to be her only chance. To save her country, to ‎save herself, she will have to give up the life she loves to find Arion and then return to the capital ‎and the life she left to help him establish his rule and stabilise the country. ‎

But Griblon has allied himself with the Athreeli, Xanara’s historic enemies, and he now has ‎Athreeli magicians to help him. If she is to succeed, Irilayne will need magic, too. And it’s even ‎more imperative that she succeed, to prevent her country becoming a vassal state of Athreel. But ‎such power comes at a cost. She has already had to leave the life she loves. Will she be willing to ‎make yet another sacrifice in order to gain the power she needs? Just how much will she be ‎prepared to give up to save her brother and her country? Will she be able to learn enough magic ‎in time to make a difference? Can she reach her brother in time and save both him, her country - ‎and herself? There are too many questions and not enough answers. All she knows is that she has ‎to try.‎

Join Irilayne, runaway princess, in an epic fantasy quest to find her missing brother and save ‎her land – and herself – from a fate worse than death.‎