Chapter One
BOOM! BOOM! The sound of the battering ram crashing against the solid oak door to the keep echoed through the halls. Even up amongst the private rooms of the royal family it could be heard. Orianna sat on her bed. The sounds of the battle had awoken her quite sometime ago. She was quiet she knew that she had to be. Curled up next to her on the bed were two lion cubs and a hatchling dragon. She sceatched one of the cubs under his chin, "it's okay Xerxes. It will all be okay." The cub came close and buried it face between her knee and the bedding. She continued to stroke him hoping to sooth him. Suddenly she could hear footsteps racing down the corridor towards her chamber. She had already dressed. She grabbed a rucksack that had a few necessities and quickly put the lion cubs in it. Draen the dragon hatchling climbed up her arm and draped himself around her neck. Just as he settled down the door to her chamber burst open. Marelle raced in followed closely by a knight. Marelle was Orianna's nursemaid. The knight she recognized by the rearing stallions that decorated his golden armor. It was Sir Charles Bayless.
"My apologies, Princess," Sir Bayless turned to face the girl. His armor and his sword were splashed with blood. She could hear urgency in his voice but, under the urgency there was something else too. There was fear. This frightened Orianna. She had never heard fear or even anxiety in this man's voice. "Your father has fallen and I have to get you out of the palace. I'm afraid the battle has been lost. The castle is overrun."
"We better take the secret stair out then," Marelle had walked over to the corner and pushed a stone in. The door swung open slowly. Just as this happened the door leading to the corridor flew open again. Two more knights and a young boy fell into the room. Orianna recognized the two knights. One was Sir Tristan Tarrelton, his armor was silver and decorated with a phoenix. The other was Sir Edmund Aderly his armor was decorated with mermaids. The young boy Orianna didn't recognize. He couldn't have been any more than fourteen or fifteen but, she could see from the state of his clothes that he had been fighting. The three knights and the young boy barricaded the door. Then Sir Bayless lead the way through the secret door while the other two knights took up the rear.
The stair wound down a long way. Orianna knew that it went so far down that the bottom was below the dungeons. They walked in silence except for the occasional cry from one of the lion cubs. At the bottom of the stair laid a tunnel. As the came to the end of the tunnel and stepped out into the moonlight the wind swept passed. Turning to the left they could see the castle. The inner and outer baileys were both ablaze. The keep showed signs of the battle as well she could see great holes in the wall apparently from some seige machine. Sir Bayless laid his hands on her shoulder. She turned, and after giving one last look back to her childhood home followed the rest of her company into an uncertain future.