The Good Queen's Daughter

By Sylvie Vadimsky

Astrelle is the daughter of Queen Guinevere, King Arthur's wife. But who is her father?

 

In her quest to discover who she is, Astrelle meets fantastic characters including the wizard Merlin's daughter, fairy queen Morgan Le Fay, and even rides a unicorn! While the princess is falling in love with a common boy, wicked King Mordecai and the witch Vaneus plot to steal her kingdom. 

 

Can Astrelle stop them and take the throne, or will she walk away from her destiny?

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sylvie Vadimsky
• Release date: Oct 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215588390

Book preview

The Good Queen's Daughter

Sylvie Vadimsky

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Copyright 2014 by Sylvie Vadimsky

All rights reserved.

No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

Contents

1. The Girl in the White Dress

2. The Girl with Fell

3. The Girl in Disguise

4. The Girl with Magical Powers

5. The Girl in the Water

6. The Girl in the Stone Hut

7. The Girl Who Was a Witch

8. The Girl Who Looked for the Last Knight

9. The Girl with High Honors

10. The Girl Who Saw Sir Bedivere

11. The Girl Who Caught Me

12. The Girl Unicorn

13. The Girl Riding a Unicorn

14. The Girl’s Past

15. The Girl Looking for Fairies

16. The Girl at Castle Parien

17. The Girl with Queen Morgan

18. The Girl Who Knew

19. The Girl with the Prince

20. The Girl Who is Changing

21. The Girl’s Betrayal

22. The Girl with the King

23. The Girl on the Run

24. The Girl Delivering News

25. The Girl Learns to Fight

26. The Girl Returning Home

27. The Girl and the Great Battle

28. The Girl and the Evil King

29. The Girl Who Knew It Was Over

30. The Woman

About Sylvie

Chapter one

The Girl in the White Dress

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Y ou look beautiful, Lady Ellie! My friend and personal servant, Flick, gushed as she adjusted my long white wedding train.

I want doves, I mused, running my fingers through my dark hair, my delicate face framed with the long strands. Will there be doves, Flick?

Oh, most certainly, Lady Ellie. I’ll bet they’ll throw grains of wheat at you, too! Flick went on, moving to adjust my bodice in the front. She was the only one allowed to call me by my name, much less my pet name. That Lord Mordecai is quite the stallion, eh? She sighed dreamily, tucking a few tiny white flowers at my bosom for luck. I can’t wait until I can find a man, Lady Ellie! You must be so happy!

I smiled, but as I looked at my face in the looking glass, I thought the happiness was superficial. I didn’t want to marry Mordecai. I still suspected him of the dangerous mind Mordred had, and if he suspected I was not Arthur’s daughter, things could get very bad, very quickly, for the entire kingdom. I said the only thing I could at a time like this. Thanks for helping me, Flick. I appreciate it. I swallowed, almost nervous.

My service is to you, Lady Ellie, Flick curtsied, but by that she meant to say you’re welcome.

Are we almost done, Flick?

The girl nodded her bright head of hair, frizzy and matted. Her white skin nearly rivaled mine, but for the freckles that dotted her nose. Just finished. Are you ready to go down to him, Lady Ellie?

I gave Flick my hand. As I’ll ever be, I suppose. Take me to him, Flick.

Yes, Lady Ellie.

The ceremony was short and not very remarkable, except for the seeds of wheat getting caught in Mordecai’s hair and his failure to realize it until later, and the two doves that were released at our union.

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I closed my eyes at my vanity, clothed only in my birthday suit, ready for bed. The stone castle wasn’t insulated, but I felt safe and alone here. Mordecai was elsewhere in the castle, and I was floating in the clouds, in my bathwater, anywhere but my father’s house, my mother’s bed. We were to sleep apart until Mordecai had need of me. I was told so by my maids, and I knew exactly what Mordecai’s need for me would be. But Mordecai, for some reason, seemed about as interested in me as I was in him, which is to say, not at all. I didn’t know why, but I wasn’t about to question my good fortune.

I was about to go to bed, but instead I walked blindly to my small window in the dark. Clouds were thick over the moon tonight, and their shadiness obscured the stars. Somewhere down below, a fine hunting hound wailed. She was probably giving birth, or fighting over a piece of meat. Maybe she was dying.

I crept into bed and lay there amongst the pelts of many animals. I was exhausted, but my eyes wouldn’t close and my mind would not stop humming. I would call myself lost, but I knew where I was.

Presently, I knew exactly what I had to do. And I had no luxury to wait until morning touched the sky.

I got out of bed and began to dress myself—wrong, I expected. I had never before dressed myself. The dress I selected was light-colored, I couldn’t even see the color properly in the silver moonlight, and since I had no maid to pull my corset taut behind me, I had to do it myself, and I did it badly. The leather flapped open and wouldn’t tie properly. I let it alone and focused on pulling on my leather lady’s riding boots I had in my closet. Many of these clothes were my mother’s, fashioned to fit me for my coronation. I wasn’t sure what I thought about that, but I guess in the hurry to get someone on the throne, the contents of my closet were not a primary concern.

Once this was done, I began to tie together my bedclothes and garments I wasn’t currently wearing. I left my wedding dress because I didn’t have the heart to use it for such an unworthy purpose, and tied the makeshift climbing vine to my bedpost. Then I tossed it out the window, tugged on it to make sure it held secure, and began to make my way down the cloth ladder all the way to the ground.

Chapter two

The Girl with Fell

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O h, fie upon thee, rope! I cursed, almost forgetting the wall I was about to punch was stone. The rope I’d made was a tad bit too short for me to climb safely down to the bottom. In the dark, where the light of the moon couldn’t shine through the tops of the thick trees, I was blind as the bats living in the castle’s stuffy, freezing attic. I could take my chances with the ground below, but I had no idea if poison ivy or rosebushes would greet me. I was not particularly afraid of heights—I used to climb all the way to the top to escape my elderly nurse when I was young—but not knowing what was below me scared me.

Someone must have heard me. I could hear rustling down below. My only defense was to stay still, which I did.

Ho! I heard someone call up lightly. The grass is fine down here!

Not so loud! I hissed.

Are you scared to jump down? My visitor asked this in a lower voice.

Not really, I just don’t know how far up from the ground I am.

Not far. You should be fine if you just let go.

Should. Wonderful. But, my visitor’s word was all I had to go on, so I let myself fall.

It wasn’t foolish to trust the mysterious stranger, for I landed on soft ground. I turned to thank my stranger, and found myself looking at an attractive young man.

He wasn’t clean—far from it. He gripped a hunting knife tightly in one hand, as if he were going to rob me at its point, but his eyes were not overly unwelcoming—green as a feral cat’s. His skin was sunburned, his clothes simple; a dirty white blouse that could’ve been a woman’s and a furry brown vest the color of a hart’s pelt. His hair was bright orange, with a curl of a blonder color in the front to make it look like finely nestled fire outlined in faint ringlets. He smiled at me. You from around here? He was looking at my clothes.

No, I, I laughed nervously, I’m from the castle.

So I see. The boy looked me up and down, and then nodded. I’m Felinus, but everyone calls me Fell. It’s just easier. He gave a little bow that was almost sarcastic. Pleasure to meet you, Lady … ?

Ellie, I supplied. I thought of saying my full name to him, but maybe I didn’t want my true identity to be known. Although he had unknowingly aided in my getaway, I didn’t know everything about him just yet, and maybe I shouldn’t be so quick to give myself away.

I assume you don’t have a place to stay for the night, Ellie, Fell offered his hand. I can lead you to where I’m staying. It isn’t much, but …

I folded my hands demurely at my hips. Thank you, Fell, but I can follow you just fine without aid. Fell withdrew his hand nervously and cleared his throat. Lead the way.

The boy nodded dutifully and took off like a swift hart through the forest. His simple boar-skin pants flapped noisily against his legs. I followed after him as swiftly as I could, reflecting for the first time on what I’d done. If I wasn’t really Arthur’s daughter, this could’ve been my last night in the castle. My last access to a bath, to Flick, to all the animals, to my mother’s last home. As I ran, my moving feet jogged my memory, and I was pulled into it like a dream.

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Look at all the pretty flowers, Astrelle. My mother, dressed in a long, water blue gown, moved gracefully about like a proud mare in mating season, her head raised high like the hawk she held on her silver-gloved