Black Snow

Prologue

Attempts on the life of Prince Lucian Silverwing Viridian III were so common that young Prince almost looked forward to every new incident, tired of being afraid of the countless masked men who put their lives on the line to slaughter the young aristocrat. He often spent his free time wondering what his enemies would send next; would it be poison in his tea, or a dagger in his back that would finally evade this guards and send him into the afterlife? It was a morbid pastime for a fifteen-year-old, but in the turmoil that reigned throughout the Kingdom of Viridian, it was hardly strange.

Despite the overhanging thundercloud of death, the young Prince, although thin and somewhat sickly from all the thinking, was by no means a meek and melancholy child. The threat of death was balanced out by the sparkle of the life he enjoyed, and with the tentative wisdom of a child who had grown up too quickly, Lucian had long decided that he would enjoy his life, no matter how short it seemed to be. Among the serious, meditative scholars that drifted through the halls like worried spirits and the royal family who spent their days in drink and frolic to hide their panic was the young Prince, serene and content in his acceptance that his life was limited. He consumed the volumes of dusty books lining the spiraling gold libraries with hunger, determined to fill his brain like a starving man consumes a warm meal, fought with the young stable boys with carefree abandon of etiquette that his older brothers had never been allowed to shed, and made friends with the maids and cooks and servants and scholars alike.

Of course, as a bit of an introvert, most of the friendships were formed because of the fierce love the servants held for the quiet and kind child, and others were shoved down his throat when he was too shy to open his mouth. The latter defined the relationship he had with every child his age, particularly three; the Head Scholar's son, the Cook's son and the Fourth General's daughter.

The three children had already been friends since birth and were often seen giggling and cackling as the dashed down the hallways, barefoot with their silk robes billowing behind them despite their parents' commands to stay decent. The three kids had adopted the lonely Prince after he turned five and didn't have anyone to celebrate with and had stuck to him like glue ever since. Despite his being the smartest and of the highest rank of all the children, they treated him like their adopted child, which wasn't a difficult thing to do; the genius Prince was awful with words and a lifetime of pampering meant he could hardly tie his own robes. Alysia, the Fourth General's daughter, was his mother, Warren, the Head Scholar's son, was his divorced father (he refused to marry Alysia and to be Lucian's dad, but in the end he settled for marrying her first and then divorcing her right away), and Edmund, the Cook's son, with no other position left, decided to be his grandfather, and immediately bought a pair of spectacles and a cane to be authentic.

The little family lived with each other happily among quarrels and arguments with Warren constantly disowning his divorced wife and declaring that Edmund was Alysia's dad and not his whenever they had an argument. As domestic squabbles went, the four of them had managed to tear out half a head of hair each by the time they reached fifteen years of age, but the little family had never even once thought of separating.

Perhaps they never would have, for their bonds went stronger than those of real families. Warren and Alysia were constantly at each other's throats, but would defend each other fiercely if anyone tried to interfere. Edmund was the peacemaker, forcing the two to reconcile and batting whoever ignored him with his cane until they complied. And Prince Lucian with the beaming smile and few words was the doted-on child, the idiot genius who they adored and scolded on a daily basis. Though outside his little family Lucian was treated as the eldest, what with being taken to Council meetings and overseeing tests and competitions with his brilliant mind, inside the circle of four he basked in the attention showered by his parents that were the same age as he was. The sickly Prince glowed with his toothy smile grin whenever the other three were around, a feature that was noticeably missing when he was around the dismal scholars or the frivolous Royalty that was his family by blood.

The bond and friendship they shared was too good for fate to let untouched, however. It was incongruous among the depressing conditions of the Kingdom of Viridian, and soon fate was to take steps to tear it apart.

On the seventh day of the seventh Lunar month in the fifteenth year of the Prince's life, the tension that had supercoiled for the past year finally snapped, and rebels rent through the palace.

The four children had huddled together as the armored men on horses sliced through the guards and pierced through the bodies of every one of Prince Lucian's family. The castle was bathed in blood as every person from the Silverwing household was butchered, while the youngest Prince and his friends watched in horror, unable to move. Lord Errant Knightly, the King's scheming uncle, took over the Palace, ruthlessly obliterating every inch of resistance he encountered. It seemed that everything was over for the King and his family.

Yet the end of the Cold war, the open hostility and the oncoming threat seemed to be the very thing necessary to stir the sleeping Silverwing family. Impassioned by the murder of their own, the inactive Princes and Generals roused themselves and with the help of the Scholars, who hated the brutish and unintelligent Lord Knightly, mustered their forces for war. With promises of improvement and money, the ministers rallied the common people to their side. Incidentally, a kindly governor from the Silverwing family had been helping flood victims in the Eastern side of the Kingdom, and was in favor with the powerful warriors of the Eastern provinces. Inspired to see their rulers finally doing something other than drinking, the citizens took up arms and decided to give the Silverwing family another chance.

Within a week, the Silverwing family had stamped out the rebellion, and had emerged from the massacre anew, once again the legendary warriors that had come onto power so many years ago, admired and beloved by the ones they ruled over. The entire Kingdom celebrated; even the enemies of the Silverwings had joined in to avoid criticism. Everyone was ecstatic; everyone except the little family of four.

Alysia's father was one of the leaders of the rebellion, and was publicly executed the day of the celebrations. Alysia and the rest of his family were to be killed the very next day.