Prologue
She had heard the tales about him; about them all actually.
The eleven, once cursed, princes.
Their story had become a legend that went from mouth to mouth throughout the kingdom. Books were written about them and their beautiful sister that valiantly saved them all, risking her own life and happiness to do so.
Yes, the princess saved her brothers.
Almost.
Yet, nobody was really bothered about their beloved princess’ minor failure. The curse was lifted from all of them, more or less, and she was redeemed to the eyes of her king husband who was about to burn her like a witch because she couldn’t talk to her own defense. She became the Queen.
“Happily ever after” was achieved and there was nothing to worry about anymore. In the ten years that followed, the story of the twelve siblings was embellished with outrageous details. Nobody knew where the truth stopped, and imagination begun.
To her the whole thing was a lie. Another bedtime story that her father told her to make her go to sleep. Witches and curses were fairytales’ material.
There was no magic in this world.
Not anymore.
At least she had not seen any proof of it in the twenty three years of her existence. Still, her parents believed that ridiculous story and were repeating it since she was just a girl and each time they narrated it, it was slightly different.
The part about him was always the same though.
There were a few variations as to the extent of his deformity, but everyone agreed that after the whole ordeal he was left defected. It was said that his condition had taken a toll on his mental health; that he never truly recovered from his experiences, and he kept living as he did while he was cursed.
Since nobody had seen the prince for the last decade, no trust could be placed in such rumors. For all she knew he may as well not exist. Perhaps he died years ago. It wasn’t likely but it was a possibility all the same. One could use it as an argument that the kingdom was divided into ten equal parts: not eleven.
Each prince had his domain bearing his name and ruled for the last ten years, but the eleventh one was a mystery. While his brothers were all about publicity, he remained obscure.
Indeed, the ten princes were very popular, and their reign had brought what one would call diversity in the kingdom. However, she refused to consider them as demigods as everybody else did.
No. She chose to be observant and have a mind of her own. If that was a virtue or a fault, she did not know but she was bound to learn sooner than she thought.
