Excerpt: The Overlord's Daughter

Chapter One

“Heredriah Lagaoh Nareneos”.
She didn’t need to read the words anymore, hadn’t for years, but there was something about the feel of the old book that brought her back here every day to hold it. It was so big, when she had first begun reading it as a little girl she’d had to climb onto her father’s chair with prop it on her lap, turning each ancient page so carefully to make sure she didn’t damage it. She’d memorised every word, though she had no idea what any of them meant.
“Your highness?”
Princess Angelina peered up at Sophie over the the top of the leather bound tome. Her young servant seemed to have a permanently bewildered look, probably because she had the important job of tending to the only daughter of King Phineas at such a young age. Daddy had thought it best his Angie have someone closer to her own age that she could relate too. Another girl that she could confide in and trust. For some reason he took a dislike to her previous servant Jonathan around the time Angelina had turned 14. He didn’t consider the young man’s behaviour to be appropriate towards a young lady. Jonathan was reassigned, and a few days later Sophie arrived. The day she came to the palace she put Angelina in mind of a trembling mouse, and now, four years later, she still didn’t seem to be any less in awe of her role.
“Yes, Sophie?”
“Um, it’s been an hour, your highness?” she pointed out, nervously peering through the crack in the door. “Don’t you think we ought to leave? If your father catches us in his study-”
“Just a few more minutes, I really think something is clicking with this one today, it might actually work.”
“Then, perhaps we could retire to your chambers so you can attempt it?”
Angelina glanced at the dusty old grandfather clock in the corner of the room. Sophie was right, it was late. Her father could be home soon, and the reason the dusty old grandfather close was so dusty was that Daddy forbid any servants to enter this room to clean it. In the thirteen years she’d been coming here she’d never been caught yet.
She made a mental note of which page she was on and carefully returned it to the page it had been left open on before placing it on the stand her father had specially for it. The twisted dark wood of the stand seemed to close around it every time she put it back, as if the branches of an ancient enchanted tree protected it, but after careful experimentation she’d decide it was just an illusion and the wood didn’t really move at all. It came as something of a disappointment.
“Very well, Sophie, let’s go.”
Her servant heaved a sigh of relief and quickly held the door open for her, bowing her head as Princess Angelina passed then closing it behind them. No sooner had the door clicked into place than a loud bang echoed down the corridor as another door slammed. No sound of footsteps followed. It was either just a servant leaving the area, or it was...
“Your highness,” a cool voice said before its owner had even turned the corner. Taylin, of course. Her father had never caught her in his study, but his strange assistant a come close a number of times. She’d been living in the palace with them for as long as Angelina could remember. Taylin wasn’t human, she knew that much, but she’d never had the nerve to ask her what she was. Every time she’d resolved herself to ask the question she’d been about to open her mouth when the sharp featured women shot her a look that could cut if she wasn’t careful. Her ice white hair and slitted silver-eyes went together with her pale complexion and light-step to give the illusion of a ghost staking the palace at times. Taylin didn’t walk the halls, she haunted them. Her large tapered ears reminded Angelina of sweet little elves and pixies she’d read about in books, but nothing else about her seemed even remotely ‘sweet’. She stared at her now with those chilling silver eyes as she turned the corner and faced them and Angie knew she could sense she’d been doing something she shouldn’t, but she couldn’t know for sure. If she did have some power to read her mind she would have told her father about these reading visits years ago. She didn’t know, she just liked making them nervous. That had to be it.
“Ah, Taylin, good,” said Angelina, making her voice sound as authoritative as she could. She was the princess, she was in change her, she didn’t have to explain herself to any servant. “Is my father home?”
“He’s on his way,” said Taylin slowly, arching a thin, white eyebrow. “That’s why I’ve been looking for you. You weren’t in your rooms like he asked, your highness.”
“I went to the library to study,” she said. It wasn’t technically a lie. She did go there first, as she did every day. There wasn’t anything to do in the palace except read, other than ride Blaze around the grounds, of course. “Did you know that the Juku bird can fly up to 50 miles a day and can even fly when it’s sleeping?”
“Can it really?” Taylin rolled her eyes with a disinterested sigh. “Your father wants to see you before he goes into session with the lords. Follow me.”
She breezed past them, not even acknowledging Sophie’s presence. It irked Angelina how she did that, just barking orders and expecting her, a princess to just follow them! She ought to be asking her if she wished to go with her. She really needed to have a word with her father about this. She wasn’t a child anymore. She was eighteen and a grown woman, old enough to marry even, she deserved respect. What would Taylin even be able to do to her if she just stayed put, or went the long way round to great her father? Well today wouldn’t be the day to find out, as despite her indignation Princess Angelina found her feet obeying Taylin even if the rest of her didn’t want to.