*AUTHOR\'S NOTE* I\'m sorry for such a short first chapter, and I promise to put a little more substenence in the next chapter. I enjoyed writing this, and I hope you enjoy reading it!

*Prologue*

The hem of her gown was soaked with the salty seawater, and her mass of dark wavy hair blew about her shoulders in the wind as she watched the ship sail farther and farther out to sea, never to know what would become of it. In fact, the only people that did know were the king and the captain, the latter of which would not return. Amory untied the leather strand from around her neck, kissed it, and tossed it into the water, watching it drift in the same direction as the ship went.

      “Come now.” Her father said as he placed a firm hand on her shoulder, directing her to the path that lead home. Amory absentmindedly followed him, even though everything inside of her screamed to stay put. The pair walked silently as they trudged the path.

      When Amory walked through the door of her father’s marbled-floor palace, she did not take a moment to say hello to her mother or sisters, but instead rushed to her room and refused to come out. She stayed there long after the sky had gone to its velvety shade of deep violet. When her mother beckoned for her to come out, she ignored the call, and when her youngest sister knocked on the door to try and comfort her, she pretended to be asleep. Never in her life had she ever felt this alone.

*Chapter One*

      Lucas had only been trying to help her, the night he was caught. They had only been trying to practice a new spell when the night went amiss. Lucas quickly tucked her wand under his cloak, but not before the guard had seen him. Amory cried out in fear as she watched him thrash in the guards arms, crying for her to run away- which she did. Cowardly it seemed now, very cowardly. She watched from the secluded place behind the tree, as he fought with all his might to loosen the wizard guard\'s hold on him, but to no avail. His screams echoed in her mind for hours after.

The next morning began with the tole of bells in the courthouse steeple, and with steady beat of drums down the mainstreet of Adeliani. Amory held her chin high and jaws clenched as her mother wrapped a sympathetic arm around her shoulders. Her father was standing in the king\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s customary place for when a criminal was brought before the royal court. The drums grew louder as they approached. Shackled and bound, Lucas was ushered before the wizard\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s court, looking much more hagard than Amory had ever seen him.

"What are the charges brought against this man?" Her father asked the head guard, who ushered Lucas forward.

"Endangerment of a witch, use of foreign magic within Wizard borders, and rape." The guard read off of the sheet of paper.

"He did nothing of the sort!" Amory yelled out. She couldn\\\'t believe what she was hearing! Rape? Lucas had not lain one innocent finger of his on her; she new her father was just looking for a reason to ship the fairy off to some distant country full of criminals. She felt her mother\\\'s grip on her arm tighten.

"You will do well to watch your tongue." Mother whispered into her ear. Amory could not stand to listen to anymore, she stalked off the balcony and called for a stableboy to bring her horse. From the courthouse. she galloped away, not looking back as she headed down an unknown path.

Amory rode for hours, trying to clear her head of the muck from the last few days. She didn\'t travel far, but rather traveled in circles. She knew already what punishment lay ahead in Lucas\' future; her father not only had a strict respect for punishment and the law, but also an extreme prejudice against fairies. Not only that, but since he was in love with Amory, her father would make sure that Lucas recieved the worst possible punishment for his so-called crime: shipment to the Ailieat Islands, where he would never be seen or heard from again.

I\'m not going to let this happen, Amory thought to herself. Lucas has done nothing, my father is just pigheaded. I refuse to run a country full of prejudice people. Father can pass the throne to Amaryllis or Adea. She knew then what she must do. Lucas did not deserve to rot in jail, and Amory would not willingly stand by and watch him do so. She knew exactly what she planned to do.

I must rescue him.

And so she sat in her room, putting on this display of extreme morose so her father would have no clue what she had done. Amory warned Lucas the night before the ship pulled out that she intended to break him out of jail and then the two would run for safety. It would be too risky to try and visit him tonight, she decided, so she curled upon her bed, planning the next morning as she drifted off to sleep.