Chapter 1

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A/N - I hate having to do this, but since NovelHD has already started to pirate some of my books, here we go. These works are mine. My poor little brain came up with the plots and characters, and I'd really prefer you to not steal them. If you're reading this on a site that is NOT Wattpad then it is most certainly stolen.

Thanks!

Loiosh

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"Don't pick at your food, dear." Came the directions from the other end of the table.

Knallia sighed and took a small bite of the eggs that were on her plate. Luckily, they weren't cold yet. Nothing is worse than cold eggs.

She liked to consider herself normal. I mean, other than being a princess, she didn't think she was special. She did the normal things that all her friends did, like reading books, learning about the history of the country that she would one day rule, and learning proper etiquette. She wasn't doing well at that yet. She also had to learn matters of state from her parents, which was much more of a chore than anything else. In fact, maybe that was worse than the cold eggs!

"Knallia!" her father called sharply.

"Yes father?" she asked, looking up.

"Pay attention, I had to call you three times. How are you going to find a prince if you ignore him at the dining table?" he said with a sigh that indicated just how many times that exact scenario had played out over the almost eighteen years of her life. "Now, we have three more princes coming to visit this week. Hopefully, you can find one that you like before your birthday next Sunday. Do you think you can be pleasant to them?"

"If they're not assholes, sure!" she said bitterly. Her mother gasped, causing Knallia to wince, she hadn't meant to say that out loud. "I mean, yes. I will be pleasant to them."

"Do you think that the future of this kingdom is a joke?" King Jaccob said, turning a lovely shade of red.

"Of course not father, it is just that I've been paraded about like a piece of meat in front of lions for these princes to pick over. It isn't the easiest way to find someone I'll like, let alone that I could fall in love with."

"Love has nothing to do with this," her mother, Queen Hewen, said sharply.

"Well, that is certainly inspiring," Knallia muttered bitterly.

"Knallia, I know this isn't to your liking, but it happens to everyone in the royal family at some point or another."

"Father, every one of my friends at least has the option to go fall in love with someone before getting married. How do you expect me to enjoy this process?"

"Your friends may have that chance, but even they're constrained by class and wealth. Do you think any of them will fall in love with a stable hand and run off?" the King retorted.

"Marnia did," Knallia pointed out. Her mother just lowered her head to her hand, and her father just sighed.

"That was a fisherman, and her family was very embarrassed about it."

"Why on earth would they be embarrassed about her falling in love?" Knallia cried out in frustration.

"Enough. You'll find a suitable husband and that is the end of it," her father said with finality.

Knallia realized that it was a losing effort. She had given up hope at being able to find love years ago, but it didn't make it easier. Why couldn't she have had older siblings that could rule and allow her to be free? Being an only child was hard enough without the weight of the country falling to her as well.

"Well can we at least do something to speed up the process? This daily parade of princes is annoying. Just line them up and I'll go blindfolded and pick one or something."

"Oh honey, we're not that demanding," her mother chided her.

Knallia kept her face still, though her eyebrow was attempting to arch all on its' own. But she kept herself calm.

"All right, but still. Give me something better than these boring dinners."

Her parents sat still at the other end of the table, then started whispering. She tried to overhear what they were saying, but it was no use, the table was too long, and their voices didn't carry.

"Are you sure about this?" she finally could hear her mother ask.

"It is as good a choice as any," replied her father. Her mother nodded in reply.

"I assume that you came up with a plan?" she asked them.

"We're hosting a party on your birthday, with all of the eligible men invited. During that party you will find someone to marry," King Jaccob announced.

"That is the idea? How will that work? Half of the princes I'll just kick out as soon as I see them because I didn't like them the first time," she noted.

"You won't recognize them. It will be a masquerade ball. We'll invite all of the eligible ladies as well, so your friends may find suitable matches among the princes that you don't choose."

"What? Everyone wearing masks? What if I choose that boor Martin of Ferral because I don't recognize him?" she yelled. "Am I allowed to kill my choice?"

"Trust me, with Martin's breath, you'll know him," her mother reminder her, trying not to giggle.

"This is true." Knallia didn't bother to not giggle. Martin had been by far the worst of her suitors.

"Your birthday in on Sunday, so you have five days to prepare. Let your friends know, and we'll send out invitations, and put up some posters. Will that be to your liking?" her father asked, his eyes wide with hope.

"I guess so, but you better not argue with whoever I choose!" she said clearly.

"Fine! If they're at the party, and you choose them, then we'll be ok with it," her father agreed.

"Then that works for me." With the conversation over, Knallia took the chance to have another bite of the eggs. Argh! They were cold now! A perfect representation of her life.

Moving slowly Aven peeked down from her perch in the tree. Other than a few birds, nothing stirred, so she finished climbing down and dropped lightly to the grass in a crouch. She stayed still for a few minutes, to make sure that her initial observations were correct, and that this part of the royal hunting preserve was still empty.

Was it stupid to hide here? Of course it was! But when you're a thief on the run, you don't have a lot of options. In her mind, the last place they would look for her would be even closer to danger. But that was also why she was such a good thief.

It wasn't like she had wanted to be a thief; she never went up to her father and said, 'Hey Dad, can you teach me how to pick a lock?'. Not that Yarvin would have understood her in his drunken stupor, but she still didn't have that as a life goal. Her mother had died giving birth to her, which no doubt added to her father's drinking problem, and perhaps not having her as an influence led to some of her life choices. Aven never even knew her name, her father refused to even discuss the matter as it was too difficult. When you're young, hungry, and trying to feed both yourself and a father who can't keep a job you only have only a few options. With the money her father owed, she knew that on her 18th birthday she would have been taken as an indentured servant by his debtor as payment. King Lobbark came by repeatedly to remind her of that fact, and leer at her just to let her know what he had in mind for a payment. She probably couldn't get enough money to pay off the family debt, but she had to try.

With her slim, boyish figure and natural athleticism and dexterity, she made a lot more money stealing from the wealthy in the kingdom than most of the ladies plying their trades on the street corners. Not that she could fault them, had her figure been more like theirs, and her curly brown hair longer instead of being cut short to fool people into thinking she was a boy, she might have been right alongside them. If King Lobbark had his way, that is exactly what she'd be doing once he took her anyway. He was the ruler of Ferral and had cheated and stolen almost all the public land available. Most of the people there were so in debt to him that they were not much better than slaves. His son seemed to be just as bad, so the prospects of a rosy future for the kingdom didn't seem too bright.

With her father not contributing much to the family, she had been the main money maker from an early age. She had taken to visiting anyone in town who would teach her something, so she was proficient at both her letters and numbers, sewing, basic carpentry and cooking. She also managed her own garden to provide some food and was good enough with a bow and arrow to get the occasional rabbit or squirrel to add to the pot. On those rare occasions that her father was sober, he would always hug her tight and cry. He knew that the life they were living wasn't much, and he would always feel guilty about it. Until another bottle would appear.

But now that she had been successful at stealing, she had to admit that the freedom it gave her was kind of nice, even if her conscience didn't have the same feelings towards her profession. It made her miserable. She had left home a few months ago, just before her birthday, after dumping out all the whiskey in the house while her father was passed out drunk and left all her meagre savings for him to use to start over. She even left a note saying she was headed south to the kingdom of Ossea as an apprentice weaver, but then headed north to the kingdom of Glavriel, just to help keep Lobbark off her back in case someone heard about the note.

The people here in Glavriel had been much wealthier than those back home, and she had made quite a few coins while on the road to the capitol. Unfortunately, a run in with a guard while leaving a moneylender's house had necessitated the hiding in the royal hunting preserve. Luckily, she had developed a taste for sleeping outdoors, and she always carried a hammock with her to make it more comfortable.

After two days in a tree, she thought she might be in the clear, and now she could keep going along her journey. If she played her cards right, she could be in the capitol by mid-afternoon, and then find an inn with a warm dinner and a hot bath. She didn't know if she would stay in the area, but she could at least make a good amount of coin before things became too hot for her and then she could head out.

A game trail headed off to the north through the trees, cutting through the underbrush and allowing her to move faster. She kept an eye on her feet, careful to not step on any leaves or twigs. She didn't think anyone was about, but it was better to be safe. She enjoyed the preserve; it was nice and peaceful to be able to walk undisturbed through the forest and be surrounded by the towering oaks and maples. Whoever was able to spend time here was extremely lucky! She didn't like the idea of hunting, especially for sport. It was one thing if you were hunting to put food on the table, but entirely different if you just wanted a trophy on the wall. The tavern she used to go drag her father out of had a bear's head and two racks of antlers on the wall, and they always made her sick to see.

A rustling to her right made her pause, her stomach in her throat. A small bunny was hopping through the grass there, and she breathed a sigh of relief. Not a guard! Normally she would attempt to throw her knife and have a rabbit stew for dinner, but with the city so close and the moneylender's gold in her pocket, she kept moving down the path.

Before long, she could see the tops of some buildings through the trees, and she could tell that she was get close to the edge of the forest. She moved even slower now, her dark clothes helping her stick to the shadows. There was a good chance there could be people or guards in the area, and she didn't need anyone able to identify her. She wasn't prone to violence, so she would be right back on the run in such an instance.

She crept closer to the city until she could see the gates to the preserve. As expected, there were guards there, though only a pair. Still, they had swords and armor while she only had a knife that she wasn't going to use on them. Moving off to the right, she kept carefully walking until she found what she wanted, a good-sized maple tree that was close to the wall. She scanned the area once more, then jumped up to a low branch and pulled herself higher. She kept climbing carefully trying not to rustle the branches too much, until she was even with the top of the wall. She walked out on a thick branch until she was close enough to the wall to jump over to it and paused for a moment to listen.

It was nice and quiet, just what she needed. She took a slim, black rope out of her pack and looped it around the branch, and then hopped over to the wall. She looked over to the other side and saw that there was an alleyway between the buildings close by, and only a few people walking out beyond that. If she timed it right, she could get down and to the alley before people realized she came from over the wall. Luckily, she could hear some yelling over on the street, so most people were looking towards the commotion.

Taking a firm grip on the rope, she quickly made it down the wall, jumping the last 10 feet when nobody was in front of the alley, then let go of one end of the rope and coiled it up and stuffed it back in her pack. She stood up straight, and walked out of the alley, just another ordinary citizen.

Across the street, a man was banging a poster onto a sign board while people stood about trying to read it. Other people were happily murmuring to themselves as they wandered in the square that she had found herself in at the end of the alley.

"I hope that the princess can find herself a nice prince! I wish I could go to the ball!" a passerby said.

A pair of elegantly dressed girls passed by all giggly, "I'll have to get a new mask for this ball, I can't wear the same one again!" said the taller of the two.

Wait a minute, a mask at a ball? She hurried over to the sign, squeezing her slim body through the crowd. Oh my. A masquerade ball? Aven's mind began to whirl. A reason to wear a mask around the wealthiest people in the kingdom? No doubt they would be dressed in their finest apparel and adorned with their nicest jewelry. If alcohol were involved, she could make more in one night than she would need to live out the rest of her days! She hummed a little tune as she set off to find an inn. She still wanted food and a bath, but her mind was formulating a plan to sneak into that palace and get the treasure she needed to save her family and herself!