Books had been her first love since she was small, but the older she got, the closer the palace walls pressed in around her, and Amalie retreated into tomes of myth and history more and more. She loved the stories of far-off places, of heroes and monsters and of pig-keepers becoming kings, of good triumphing over wickedness and of happiness coming to the pure of heart.

Meanwhile, rumors of war hissed through the halls and Amalie couldn't even walk in the castle town for her father's fears; she would never hurt her father or Valri for the world, but sometimes Amalie wished for a dragon or a dashing rogue to drop into her lonely tower and upend the silver snowglobe of her world.