The Companion's Tale

By Astrid V. J.

Elaine is thrown in the deep end and her life unravels before her eyes when the princess she serves dies in a tragic accident. All of a sudden, Elaine doesn't have a purpose. Alone and drifting, she realises the princess' death may not have been an accident at all, and things spiral even further into chaos.
Can Elaine find herself in the midst of it all, or will she let the stream tug her into het another life not of her choosing? And what of Raymond Dart, the king's chief investigator with a reputation for being the hardest, most intimidating man in the kingdom? Is the kindness he shows Elain real or is he acting to get her to confess to a crime she did not commit? Elaine doesn't know what to believe and her life could be on the line if she misses a step.

The Companion's Tale is one of The Wordmage's Tales, accompanying The Apprentice Storyteller. The apprentice has learned from master storyteller, Viola Alerion, and now he performs these classic tales from the Haldrian Empire in his own right.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Astrid V. J.
• Release date: Jul 9, 2021
• ISBN: 9789198706307

Astrid V. J.

Astrid V.J. is an award-winning and USA Today Bestselling Author from South Africa. She is also a trained social anthropologist and transformational life coach. She currently resides in Sweden with her husband and their two children.In early childhood, Astrid showed an interest in reading and languages—interests which her family encouraged. Astrid started writing her first novel at age 12 and now writes fantasy in a range of subgenres, exploring her passion for cultures and languages. Astrid writes transformation fiction, exploring the human capacity for transformation and achieving success in the face of adversity. She is fluent in five European languages, and when she isn’t writing, Astrid likes to read, take walksin nature, play silly games with her children, do embroidery, and play music.

Book preview

The Companion’s Tale

The Companion’s Tale

Astrid V.J.

Full Page Image

The Companion’s Tale

©Astrid Vogel 2021

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be

reproduced or used in any manner without written

permission from the copyright owner except for the use of quotations in a book review.

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First edition July 2021

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Cover design by Emilys World of Design

ISBN 978-91-987063-0-7 (ebook)

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Published by New Wings Press

Oluff Nilssonsvägen 10, Partille, Sweden

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This is a work of fiction. It is the combined product of the collective subconscious as transmitted by the students of human potential and transformation, including but not limited to, Viktor Frankl, Mary Morrissey, Henry David Thoreau, the Greek Philosophers and Napoleon Hill, and the imagination of the author. Any similarities to the real world are either a product of the human experience—we are humans with shared human emotions, experiences and responses—or entirely coincidental. Now, leave this boring real-world stuff and enter a new realm of suspense and intrigue.

To

Dreams

and lives loved

Love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire.

Viktor Frankl

Contents

Prologue

1. The Companion’s Tale

Epilogue

Afterword

The Apprentice Storyteller

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Also by Astrid V.J.

Jo looked out over the crowd. There were more people here than he’d ever seen in his life, all pushing each other and murmuring in a drone as persistent as the engines on the Startraveller’s Hope . He looked down at the throng from his vantage point on a balcony on the square’s southern side. The people milling below him reminded him of ants and he couldn’t understand how they bore the heat.

The sun beat down, blazing its incandescence onto the plaza and its ant-like people. The colonnades and shaded pavilions boxing in the square also teemed with spectators who sipped colourful drinks from glasses steamy with condensation. The colours assaulted Jo’s eyes. Everything was bright and garish, unlike the soft tones of brown and ochre he was used to from his home planet.

Jo wet his lips. The heat was oppressive and he wondered what it might do to his voice. Could he perform the whole story as he’d dreamed he would? Was that even possible under these circumstances? Sweat beaded under his eyes and along his hairline, inching its way down, compelled by gravity in a painstaking process.

Shaking himself, Jo tried to focus on the task at hand. He needed to keep this audience captivated and he had to, above all else, enthrall the city’s governor and his advisors, particularly the ambassador from The Capital. That lady was Viola’s enemy. In his dream this particular detail had been clear.

More sweat accumulated, muggy and constricting on his skin. The air here was nothing like the dry semi-desert of his home. There the heat stung and you could find shelter from it in the shade. Here, it thickened the air and hung over everything, not allowing breath to pass freely over one’s lips. You couldn’t escape from it.

Movement on a balcony opposite him brought Jo back to the task at hand. Several blobs of colour settled into seats as silence fell over the crowd. Everyone had been waiting for the governor and ambassador. Now that they were here, all eyes swivelled, searching out Jo on his high perch.

The boy closed his eyes. It took several deep breaths to steady him. I can do this, he thought. I’ve been doing this exact thing every evening on the Startraveller’s Hope, and I also did it at the merchant’s guild. Air filled his lungs and Jo’s mind played over the dream he’d had as the Startraveller’s Hope landed. He was meant to be here. He was destined to perform this story to these people. He could do this.

Suddenly everything came into focus. Jo opened his eyes and looked down at the people gazing at him. His lips parted and the words he’d practised for weeks on the road came pouring out of him with ease. His voice rang true, cutting through the thickness of the air and reaching every ear.

"In a kingdom far away, but not all that long ago, there lived a beautiful, kind and generous princess in a shiny palace of crystal glass. She was princess to a small kingdom, which was ruled by her doting father and exquisite, though stern, mother. However, this tale has little to do with the princess—for, in truth, it is about her companion.

"In this distant kingdom it was customary for the princess to be accompanied wherever she went by another girl her own age. This companion was of common birth and chosen for her unsightliness so she should not detract from the princess’ beauty and refinement. You may think it odd that a commoner should be elevated to such a position beside a princess, however in this kingdom it is quite normal. I suppose commoners make for appropriate companions when we think about their most important duty. They had to taste her food to ensure it wasn’t poisoned. Commoners are expendable, while nobles are not. With this greatest of honours possible to young girls of lower birth, parents of ugly daughters vied for the chamberlain’s attention when occasion required a new companion for the princess.

"The companion in question was tall and thin, features considered unsightly in this land of short, robust people. Furthermore, her flaxen hair and pale eyes were deemed ugly by the inhabitants who admired the variety of shades of brown to black hair and brown or green eyes that were common in that place. So this tall, pale girl was chosen at the age of five to be the princess’ companion. Although I do not know her name, I shall call her Elaine.

"By all accounts, Elaine was an excellent companion. She was loved by her princess and in turn doted on ‘Su Alteza’, the princess’ title when addressed by her companion. They went everywhere together, did everything in each other’s company