Princess Daya
Now one is happy forever. For every royal house that prospers, the gods decree that there must be one that sinks inevitably to its extinction. So it may be with the house of Roub, in Girionese realm which its people call Oxyer, but which appears on Minarian maps under another name.

Daya was born the only child of Rohlik, a weak and unwise king. Having no head for government, he suffered his kingdom to be ruled by one Lord Mashuga, a partner in the monarch's debauched behavior when he was just a dissolute prince, later raised upon the royal succession out of the gambling dens and sporting houses to stride insolently throughout the palace of the king. That Lord Mashuga so managed matters that his brother and himself were the great masters of the realm. By his overbearing conduct, however, he soon contracted the hatred of the barons and the nobles, and on one occasion, when he found it necessary to check, the opposition which these were raising against him, he informed the king that the unless he entered into an alliance and that unless he caused certain of them to be arrested, they could very soon drive him from his kingdom.

Whereupon, such was the influence of Lord Mashuga, that twenty of the chief barons of Oxyer were seized in one day, and had their head struck off without any cause. He had also succeeded, by his wicked counsels, in forming variance between his the king and his daughter. She had conspired with the executed nobles, the wicked counselor said, and the best way to an end to her foolish ambitions was to marry her to a man of strength in whom the king had absolute confidence.

"I trust only you," said the king.

"I marry royalty, Sire? Your enemies already say that I have risen above my station in your service."

"That is why they are my enemies!" lamented the foolish monarch. Swiftly, before he knew what he was saying, the king was urging Mashuga to take Daya to wife and become his heir.

So appalled was the princess that she was compelled secretly to retire to Yannagyhara, the country of her late mother, in the company of a few faithful friends and servants.

The princess arrived at the oasis city of Dahoon, where she was graciously entertained by the governor of the town and the high priest, and on the third day continued her route to the royal city of Harhl. Her cousin, the noble Horem, most gracious received her, and after listening to her lamentations and distress said, "Fair cousin, be appeased, for by the faith that I owe to the gods and the lars of our house, I will provide a remedy."

Horem then, taking his cousin by the hand, conducted her to an apartment which had been richly furnished for her reception and gave orders that everything becoming her state should be provided for her from his own treasury. Very shortly after this, Horem assembled his great lords and barons to consult what was best to be done in the business of the princess of Oxyer, his cousin, and their advice was that she should be allowed to purchase friends and assistance in Yannagyhara, and that Horem should provide her with gold and silver for that purposed. Secretly, however, so as not to bring war with Oxyer upon his country.

Unhappy is the country whose through a cowardly hope that kings can get no worse, or on account of corrupt purchase, the low-born to walk on the rug of kings. The pride of Mashuga had by now become so intolerable that the baron who remained alive in Oxyer could suffer it no longer. They resolved to forget all private difference amongst themselves and sent secretly to Harhl to inform the princess that if she could collect about a thousand men-at-arms, and would herself come at the head of them, into Oxyer they would immediately treat with her and regard her as their lawful sovereign.

But Lord Mashuga had not risen from the gutter to the high councils of state because he lacked cunning. He contrived to set Horem against his cousin, as he had set her against her own father, and the most slanderous insinuation caused Horem to command her to leave his kingdom at a moment's notice.

The unfortunate princess, perplexed and disconcerted, having no opportunity of defense given her, quitted Harhl as secretly as possible, accompanied by her little company, and journeyed north to Trading post, on the very threshold of Minaria, of which the Girionese of her household had heard much but had visited rarely.

But the idea of embarking for the north did not yet occur to her. She had led her train to Trading Post only to purchase safe passage to the Bazaar of Road's End, the only means to cross the Barbarian Frontier in safety, her intention being to seek the aid of King Siric of Moonrune, whose had persistently sought her hand for his son, Gormo the Short. This match had never appealed to Daya before, but now it seemed far better than a life of exile, or even a wedding to the low-born intriguer Mashuga.

As to the wealth of mine-rich Moonrune, the reality exceeded the expectations of Princess Daya. Siric stinted upon nothing for a welcoming banquet. His array was of gold and silver, consisting of plates, basins, porringers, cups, bottles, barrels, and other such things. He had likewise thirty young and gallant esquires, of the best families of Bakarm, to wait upon him and his guests. All those who sat at his board were handsomely served with two sorts of wine, and two sorts of spices.

But Daya did not know then as she learned with time that it is the courtesy of the Dwarf kind to buy time with lavish hospitality, and Siric was beset by many doubts. A marriage contract to the heiress of Oxyer was one matter, an alliance with that same princess in exile, whose kingdom must be won with Dwarven expenditures of blood and treasure was another. Besides, the greed of Lord Mashuga made him an easy object of bribery, which was a means of advancing the state craft of Moonrune at a price far beneath that of a war, which hardly could be decisive unless a revolt exploded behind Mashuga's army, or unless another kingdom might join in a coalition in Daya's cause.

So Daya's desperate petition went unanswered day after day, until word came that the Kelgans were raiding the in the south of his kingdom. The traditional weapons of the Dwarves were augmented by a thousand mercenary archers, and so the host of Moonrune met the traders, five thousand strong. on the slope of Mount Quentovic. There the daring raiders braved the hail of missiles and broke the Dwarven infantry with the shock of heavy horse. Lord Elmham, Siric's captain, fought under his banner as long as he was able, but being struck down he could neither get up again, nor procure his ransom, so he was killed on the spot. In a short time the forward array of Dwarves was totally discomforted, and they fell back an inhibited the reserve from moving up in the narrow defiles of the foot hills. The slaughter up ahead was so terrible that the lives of the front line could only be saved by a withdrawal of the reserve, which gave the Kelgans an advantage which they maintained all through that bloody day.

While Siric's defeat had nothing to do with Daya, his gloom disinclined Siric from any reckless adventure which would send his army to war far away. He gave the princess a letter stating his believe that she is the legitimate sovereign of Oxyer, and gave her many gifts -- all of which was a hedge in the event that her cause might one day prevail in Oxyer and he might renew their acquaintance profitably. This done, he sent her on her way.

Twice now the justice of her cause had been thwarted by the real politick of Girion's nobles. Warnings that Mashuga's agents were nearby inspired the princess to move her dwindling party as swiftly as possible back to Road's End. At the semi-permanent bazaar, they found passage with traders through the Pass Formidable, at the very edge of the civilized world, the northern gateway into the land of Anuwin, the last independent kingdom of the once-mighty Lloroi race. It was a risky throw of the bones that a people so strange and aloof might take interest in her cause, but she felt her options narrowing and, besides, might they not want a friend in the outer world if they could have one?

It is far too long a tale to tell, but in Anuwin's capital of Ir-Areth, Daya became a pawn in an obscure policy wrangle between two factions of the court. While statesmen intrigued, Daya made friends among the young nobility, who, as youths so often are, were curious about outsiders, all the more so since Anuwin was an insular country, isolated from foreign ways. One of these young noblemen taught her how to ride the pegasus, the knowledge of whose breeding was retained by the Lloroi scientists from ancient days. The Lloroi, in fact, had an entire elite troop of pegasus- riders, and these gave the small thinly-populated kingdom a fortunate advantage in its occasional wars with it neighbors. The warrior pegasus was a large, proud beast, but Daya trained to ride upon a small mare, one called Naara.

She learned much lore of the pegasus. It was much like the horses she knew, but more intelligent and easy to train -- or more difficult, if it disliked he who would train her. It is said that the pegasus has a talent above any other animal of finding water, and such springs discovered by pegasii are usually called "horse springs" by the Anuwinese.

Easier to direct than either the hippogriff, which the Lloroi knew how to make, but usually disdained, the favorite tactic of the Pegasus Troop was to shower enemies below with arrows while their well-trained steeds maintained a glide pattern. If a pegasus is injured, its masters, if they have any other choice, will not slay it like an ordinary horse -- they are just to precious. Elaborate constraints and harnesses are used by their veterinarians to arrest the beasts impatient struggles and permit healing to follow. Even the healthiest pegasus, even so, becomes all but earthbound up to three months of the year in the course of its seasonal molt. They rarely lose the power of flight completely at such times, no more than a hawk, but carrying the burden of a rider is usually beyond there powers until their plumage is renewed.

Otherwise the pegasus is handed much alike a horse, loving grooming and the stroking of its master. It eats what a horse eats, but its appetite is fantastic, to garner the strength that flight requires. Some say that pegasus, hippogriffs, and the like are at least half magical because such creatures could not otherwise fly. So may it be.

While Daya passed her long days in sporting, the sad news came that King Rohlik had suddenly died, and that Mashuga, having prepared his way by his repression of the aristocracy, had set aside her royal rights, and those of her older cousins, and placed a three-year-old upon the throne of Oxyer. He dared not take the throne himself without Daya for bride, but his stop-gap measure had assured that he and his brother would rule unchallenged for a long while.

But Mashuga had not forgotten Daya. His agents found favor with one faction of the intrigue-rife court and together they plotted Daya's abduction back to Oxyer, as their cruel master had not given up hope that he might make the thrown his own.

The plotters had the gates of Ir-Areth closed to Daya and her Lloroi friends grew alarmed for her as the plot began to surface. As the abductors prepared to strike, Daya's noble friend led her by night to the high-stables of the pegasii and saddled Naara for her, along with as much treasure in jewels as she possessed at that time.

"Where should I go?" the princess asked in sorrow.

So, alone, Daya fled the towers of Ir-Areth and dared skirt the mountain heights, though the cold made her hands so numb she barely could hold the reins.

So Daya found her way back to Road's End. Her pegasus attracted great attention of the merchant leaders of the bazaar and she was offered a great price for her, but Daya was making other plans. She feared to venture into the wild nomadic savannahs to seek the alliance of the Kelgans, and likewise doubted that the faraway Afgaari would help here. Their culture held that women their father, and after him her husband. As her betrothed Mashuga's agent would find it easy to achieve custody of her and drag her back unhindered to the hated usurper. Besides, the merchants of Road's End had told her that a kingdom even more powerful than Afgaar lay to the north and might hear her petition more favorably. They were speaking of Shucassam in Minaria.

Somehow avoiding waylaying and robbery as she and Naara cross hundreds of miles of Barbarian Frontier, Daya was alarmed to encounter others riders upon flying mounts. From a distance the princess feared that they might be her enemies from Ir-Areth come to claim her for Mashuga and she attempted to flee, but as her tired pegasus was rapidly overtaken by these fresh flyers. Only then Daya could see that these were not Lloroi riders, but human knights born through the clouds on the backs of beasts as she had seen pictured in Anuwin, part horse, part eagle -- hippogriffs.

From her time with the caravaneers, Daya had learned a little of the lingua franca of the South Plains, and in this tongue the surprised knights, who perhaps had never seen a woman airborne by herself, offered her their hospitality. As she could not flee and had known little in the way of hospitality since leaving Road's End, Daya warily agreed and she was conducted to the home of Minaria's most famous independent military order, the Order of the Hippogriff.

Ebersolt, the then-current marshal, received the Princess Daya with the courtesy for which his ancient order is famous. The exile was contented to remain at the Spire to the Sun for a while, learning enough language to communicate with the monarchs whom she hoped to petition, and acquainting herself with the customs of the strange northern lands.

As the knights' instructors were able in many disciplines beyond the arts of war, she was well-situated to achieve a broad, if of necessity, a shallow acculturation. But for the last year she had lived on the generosity of strangers and felt the sharp pangs of urgency to win new allies who would help her achieve what was hers by right, and to liberate her people from the tyranny of a low-born pretender.

The knights were sympathetic, for their history was a long one, and many a time they had seen kingdom wax prosperously under their rightful lords, only to fall into squalor and misery when a pretender takes command. A knight of valor and savvy wisdom, Winspear by name, accepted Ebersolt's office to be Daya's guide and interpreter in the courts of Minaria that she might deign to visit.

Winspear was a man of mannerly grace and manly beauty and Daya was quite charmed with him. In the course of many travels together their friendship would become close and true. Hippogriff and pegasus soaring side-by-side, the first capital that Daya made her call upon was Adeese, where the crafty Zanwee held sway.

As everywhere, Daya charmed all she encountered, and attracted adherents to replace those left far behind. But Zanwee had not held his thrown for almost twenty years by succumbing to charm. His hospitality notwithstanding, Oxyer was far away, across powerful kingdoms who would not love an interloper from the north. Only the sea promised efficiency of travel, but Shucassam's fleet was not large, and it had lately been savage in a war with Rombune. Without proof of strong internal support, Zanwee could not commit his people to adventures far away or promising so few tangible returns. But he did offer an younger son os his in marriage to the princess. After all, there might be a revolt someday against the hated Mashuga, and that was the time for the prince to lead an army to Oxyer and assume the purple there -- in both their names of course.

Daya, who, since the death of her father, considered herself the rightful sovereign of a great kingdom, did not take eagerly to the offer of peonage to the dynastic aspirations of Shucassam. The disappointed monarch reduced his guests staff of servants and limited access to her as a form of pressure, but she had taken the measure of the house of Shucassam and decided to importune it no longer.

But Daya, still accompanied by Winspear, found the reception much the same wherever she went, be it in the courts of Pon, Rombune, Mivior, Hothior, or Muetar. Her novelty value wore off and her claim to royalty came to be doubted. Some say she sought no kingdom, but fine apartments and free meals.

As her hopes soured, Daya nonetheless continued to draw friends and admirers, some who traveled with her for a time. Some of these were of great fame in their own right: Juluute Wolfheart, blunt and virile, the Black Knight, wise and courtly, Eloia, beautiful and woodswise, and Schardenzar, mystic and awe-inspiring.

It was the latter magician who urged the discouraged princess not to despair, but to seek out the Temple of Kings, where the gods who held sway over mankind's fate might judge her a true monarch, might give her a weapon of might magic power. Minarians respected magic, Moreover, her brave act could renew the confidence that those whose help she needed had lost.

So, with Winspear at her side and accompanied by the mighty Schardenzar, the Princess from far away departed from Castle Altarr for the rugged mountains beyond the border, where barbarians raid and goblins roam. Only when she returns can this story of one woman's strange odyssey be completed.


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