23 Secret Agent

TITLE: Vastania
GENRE: Saga

Anne Wolfford, the king of Vastania’s eldest child by birth and the Duchess of Dolomir by marriage, steered her horse onto the winding pine-lined gravel lane. She caught site of Hansden Palace, her sprawling childhood home, as her heaving chestnut gelding rounded a bend. A light, powdery snow fell over the maze of gothic spires and smoking chimneys that capped the fieldstone complex.

Perched on a hill overlooking Hansden City, Vastania’s walled capital, the palace had served as the primary residence of Vastania’s kings for nearly three centuries. The backdrop of a century-long feud between the kingdom’s northern and southern gentry, Hansden Palace’s fortress-thick walls had witnessed a litany of assassinations, plots and bloody coups. Most of the men who ascended to Vastania’s throne presided in the ancient dwelling briefly before meeting violent ends at the hands of rivals or, just as often, backbiting kin.

Anne’s father, the long-reigning King Richard, was a notable exception to Vastania’s hapless monarchs. Exiled as a child when the tides of civil war went against his family, he returned years later to claim the crown by right of conquest. In the early years of his reign, he succeeded in quelling the country’s stubborn feudal wars and had since presided over a period of uncharacteristic calm and prosperity. As such, Anne had no first-hand knowledge of her beloved home’s grisly history. Her happy, formative years spent playing in the palace’s labyrinth of corridors and lush gardens contrasted sharply with the tragic fates of Hansden’s ghosts.