Terlamane

Aysha Alnaqbi

Description

Vell's life has been the same since the fire that ended her childhood and her father's life. Sew with her mother and visit the market in the morning, work at the bar late at night, meet with Ellis and scold him, and then fight until her fingers feel raw at Krion's assassin center. Up until now, all she wanted was to be able to provide for her mother and little sister. But when Vell is presented with the opportunity of a lifetime that would solve all her financial problems, she becomes tasked with her first major mission: kill the Maxim royal family without being caught. Disguised as a noblewoman, Vell finds herself entangled in a life of luxury she had never imagined herself being a part of. As she finds herself drawing closer and closer to Terlamane's Golden Prince, Prince Lyrith, she starts to doubt herself and her intentions.How far would she be willing to go in the name of her family?

Sujets

• Fantasy (canción de Mariah Carey)
• Fantasy

Informations

• Publié par: Sail Publishing LLC
• Date de parution: 28 avril 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781912924974
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 7 Mo

Extrait

Terlamane

Aysha AlNaqbi
Published by Sail Publishing L.L.C.

First published in 2019

Copyright © 2019 by Sail Publishing L.L.C.

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

ISBN: 978-9948-37-463-3

UAE National Media Council Permit #: MC-02-01-4626520

Age Classification: 17+
The age classification for this book’s contents is set in accordance with the age classification system issued by the UAE’s National Media Council.

This book was supported by 1001 Titles Initiative (www.1001Titles.ae)




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Contents
Dedication
Character Index
Prologue
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
Epilogue
About the Author
Other Books by the Author
Dedication
To my siblings
Thank you for keeping me insane
Character Index

Terlamane

King Javaris Maxim
Queen Cortina Maxim
Prince Lyrith Maxim
Bodyguard Ronwen Orriven
Assassin-in-training Vell Hersent
Vell’s sister Trojan Hersent
Assassin Krion

Ketol

Queen Hypatia
Delegate Ostia
Duke of the West Su Long
Duke of the North Wu Toa
Duke of the South Yuan
Duke of the East Lai Zhong

Prologue
Vell’s father took advantage of the fact that his wife and youngest daughter were not home. The moment he heard the creak of the door closing shut, he made his way to the kitchen and took a lantern. He didn’t bother to make himself breakfast, but instead he climbed down the shabby wooden stairs that led to the basement.
Vell’s mother hated when her husband spent more time on his inventions than he did with his family. However, Vell loved it when her father’s eyes twinkled with delight and pride, every time she asked him about his work. He loved answering her questions. From as early as she could remember, she had followed her father around, helping him while he worked. She’d learned how to mend a piano before she learned how to talk in full sentences. She’d memorized the names and purposes of every tool her father used before she had learned how to sew. He loved that his daughter took interest in his work. Nobody in the village wanted to be associated with him, but Vell wasn’t like the rest of the villagers.
Placing the lantern on his work bench, he walked apprehensively toward his latest creation. He was making a custom piano, just for Vell, to celebrate her fifteenth birthday. With both hands on either side of his creation, he swiftly pulled off the piece of white cloth covering it. He immediately saw that it was already complete. Last night, he had deliberately left the strings and the pedals unfinished—a task that he deemed easy enough to finish the next morning—but, standing in front of him was a completed wooden piano.
“How…?” he asked, as he walked a full circle around the piano, his mind clouded in confusion. “…I left it incomplete last night.” He took off his spectacle and rubbed the inner corners of his eyes.
“I took the liberty of finishing it for you,” Vell came down the stairs holding a rusty silver tray with his breakfast on it.
“Oh, Vell,” her father sighed, taking the tray out of her hands and setting it down on the bench bedside the lantern. He pushed aside a few of his tools before doing this and the sound of metal hitting the floor echoed around them.
“You didn’t have to.” He took the bread knife and proceeded to cut the small loaf of bread before spreading the homemade jam on it. He plucked up a nearby candle, lit it and placed it in the middle of the bread he’d just prepared. “Happy Birthday,” he sang, his smile growing wide.
His daughter was all grown up. Soon, she would have to marry and he wouldn’t see her again. Thinking about that, his eyes began to well up with tears and immediately, Vell turned away from her makeshift birthday cake and hugged her father.
“I love the piano. Thank you so much,” she breathed. She was still clinging to him when she blew out her birthday candle.
“Made a wish?” her father asked jokingly and began to eat the bread.
“No. I find them silly,” Vell replied.
“Does that make me a silly man?”
“It depends on what you wish for.” She walked over to the piano and pressed a finger to one of the notes before continuing to speak. “If you wish for something you don’t have, you’re weak. You’re relying on a small flame to do the work for you.” She let her hands start a melody he instantly recognized. “But if you wish to cherish something you already have, then . . .” She didn’t finish because her mind wandered off to the pattern and notes of the song she was playing.
It was a song, the singing of which could have the singer put to death if the public ever heard it. In the kingdom of Terlamane, there were two forbidden things, for which a person was executed instantly: dancing the Banned Dance and singing the Banned Song.
Vell’s father has taught her how to play the Banned Song at a very young age. Ever since then, it had been their little secret and they kept it between themselves.
As her fingers came to a halt, the door to the basement opened up and Vell’s little sister, Trojan, came down. In her hands was a bouquet of flowers, tied together with a pale-pink ribbon. The ribbon was smooth and silky, nothing at all like the bendy twigs they had used before. It must have cost her mother dearly, even for that small portion of ribbon.
Trojan ran to her older sister and wrapped her skinny arms around Vell. They didn’t look like sisters at all. Where Vell had dark, rusty-brown eyes, Trojan’s were a bright shade of blue, like their father’s eyes. Where Vell had light-brown hair, Trojan had pretty, golden locks that would turn heads one day.
Vell lifted up her little sister, which earned her a delighted scream from Ro, as they called her at home.
“Happy Birthday, Vell!” They were both a spinning mess with their hair flying and Trojan’s screams and giggles filling up the room. Vell set her down and picked up the flowers, smelling them one by one.
“Oh, you shouldn’t have! How did you know black roses were my favorite?” Vell asked, taking that rose from the banquet and placing it behind her sister’s ear.
“Because you keep talking about them, Silly!” Trojan beamed with pride, knowing that her sister was pleased with her choice. “Come upstairs, Mother’s waiting for you both!”
She climbed back up the stairs, leaving Vell and her father alone, with the remnants of the bread that would turn stale in a few hours.
“Let’s see what your mother’s done this time, shall we?” He extended an arm as a gentleman would do when he escorted a lady.
With a nod and a grin, she took his arm and they made their way upstairs.
Their small chalet wasn’t the best home in the village, but it was decent enough. The walls were cracked and the roof needed a good fixing. The tarnished windows would never close completely, so Vell’s mother had draped some cloth over the frames to stop the flies and insects from entering the house.
Moments later, the family sat around the dining table, enjoying the cream cakes that Vell’s mother, Isobel, had spent some of their hard-earned family savings on. As Vell wiped cream off of Trojan’s face, she sneaked a glance at her parents, who were silently arguing about money. This season, taxes were being raised because of the war. Ketol, the neighboring kingdom to Terlamane, was invading them constantly, and some villages had been raided and burned as a result. Luckily, Vell’s family was far from the villages, on the borders, that were in danger.
“Mother?” Vell asked. “There’s something that I’ve wanted to tell you now that I’m old enough.”
Her mother set down her wooden fork and gathered up all of the plates. Trojan’s ears perked up at the comment and her eyes grew curious. Her father saw that and picked her up to take her away so that his wife and daughter could have a private conversation.
“Mother, you can’t keep avoiding me.” Vell picked up a vase that she found, stored away inside one of the cabinets. She filled it with water from a bucket.
“Vell, we have been over this before. I cannot let my daughter become a tutor. Do you know how much money it would cost us, to get you through a proper education?” Isobel cleaned the tabletop and placed the roses in the vase. She saw how her reply saddened her daughter.
“Vell, I love you, and I always want the best for you. But this is a request I cannot grant. Besides, you’re already a smart and beautiful girl. One day, a nice husband will come and provide you with everything you want.”
“But that’s the thing, Mother. I don’t want to rely on a man to give me money. I want to do things myself, so I can make you proud.”
“Our family doesn’t need pride, Vell. We have enough of that from your father.”
“But we do need food in our stomachs, and the only way to get that is for me to become a tutor and earn my own money.”
“You’re so stubborn, just like your father.” Isobel hugged her daughter and stroked her hair. “One day, you can have all that you want. But for now, you have to stick to what you have.”
“I know, I know,” Vell replied with a weak and joyless smile. She had thought that once she finally turned fifteen, her mother would turn a blind eye and let her pursue her dreams of educating others. But it would take more than becoming a year older to get what she wanted. However, this was not the one thing, on Vell’s mind, that she had wanted to tell her mother about so desperately.
When she was thirteen, Vell had secretly managed to land a spot in a training school for assassins run by a man called Krion. He was one of the most ruthless and powerful assassins of the kingdom and he had accepted Vell as one of his students. To enroll was free, but one h