Excerpt: Kingdom of Hearts

Prologue

The people dreamed of peace, hoped and prayed for peace, but England stood once again on the brink of war. Things had changed in the many years since the wars began, it was true, and many of them were good: the people had been freed from the tyrannical rule of Prince John and his associates, especially the Sheriff of Nottingham and Sir Guy of Gisbourne. Taxes and tributes were lightened - those who were still alive returned home from the Crusades to farm and family. But the pall of bloodshed hung over it all, and the peace was a tenuous spider web that seemed like it would not last through a single storm.

The Crusades were over, though - for now. But there always was and always would be unrest in the Middle East, and rumors of English caravans lost forever in the sands were creeping their way across the country. Richard the Lionheart would have seized on these rumors and been of on another holy war. But Richard lay dead in Westminster Abbey, finally at rest after a long illness and an even longer struggle for peace, and his son and heir King Henry had proven to be a more prudent ruler, unwilling to commit himself and the country to another bloody, endless war based on rumors and long-held prejudices. Besides, Henry had his own enemies to fight.

Prince John may have been deprived of power in England, but he had not been captured. The prince fled to France, where he had many allies, and from there crowned himself rightful king of England in opposition to Henry's reign. Henry now had to contend with a powerful threat to his throne, as well as the internal struggles this new development had caused. While many were glad to be rid of John and his corrupt, violent court, there were a few - nobles, mostly - who had prospered under him and who would not mind seeing Richard's whelp replaced again. John's supporters in England were not many, but they were powerful, and loud, and persistent, and their constant disapproval was beginning to wear on the young Henry.

Not all was sorrow and trouble, however. Over fifteen years ago two girls, young and frightened, had run away from their home and the abusive father who had stolen their childhood and trained them to be deadly weapons against the king. Soon enough the girls had come to find shelter, safety, friendship and, ultimately, love among the shady trees and rough outlaws of Sherwood Forest. The forest stood quiet now, the outlaws pardoned by their friend and king, Henry, and the families that had grown up among them were able to settle, finally, in lands of their own.

The infamous outlaw Robin Hood had returned to his long-desired family estate at Locksley. At his side stood his new wife, Lady Addison of Ashbourne, and their beloved daughter, Nichole. Lady Addison had struck the killing blow that removed her evil father from the world of the living. Some time had passed before she was able to come to terms with her deed, with its necessity and rightness, but the love of the outlaw leader and the responsibility of caring for her child had helped her gain a peace and joy that had previously always seemed far outside her grasp. She was content.

Lady Morgan, Addison's sister, had returned to Ashbourne with her husband, Much, a simple miller's son who served as Robin Hood's right hand man and best friend for many years, throughout their trials in the Holy Lands and their exile in Sherwood Forest. Much now ruled Ashbourne well, and he and Lady Morgan worked hard to improve the lives of the peasants who had suffered many hardships under the former Lord Chester. Three children - the twins Robin and Evangeline with their younger brother Edward Richard - made the place merry and alive as it had not been for so many years. The castle at Ashbourne was sloughing off its reputation as a place of evil and was instead gaining a new life as "Outlaw Castle," so named thanks to the constant presence of the rest of Robin Hood's outlaw band. Morgan and Much had offered Ashbourne as a new home to the men who had spent so long in the forest, and for Little John, Will, Alan-a-dale and Friar Tuck, it was as fair a home as any they had left behind them. The land was prospering, and as Morgan saw her children grow in safety and joy and her childhood home emerge from the darkness that had permeated it for so many years, she was content.

But the Word of God reminds us that there is a season for all things, and the shadows that reached their fingers over England warned that a season of joy may all too soon be changed to a season of sorrow. And winter was coming.