More Than A Princess
Aislin of Eliasind is more than just a princess—she’s half-fairy and half-
pedrasi, with magical gifts from each side of her heritage. One day, as Aislin is venturing through the woods, she is alarmed to find that a band of humans has crashed past the guarded magical passageway that leads to her hidden kingdom. Mistaken for a human herself, Aislin is captured, and
soon realizes she’s being used as a pawn to help an evil king find a way to
catch his enemies by surprise.
Aislin must find a way to break free of this plot, while also minding the
human princesses she now shares a castle with—conventionally beautiful
girls who are all too ready to point out her differences. Thankfully, Aislin’s
inner strength goes beyond her magical qualities. And with a few loyal
friends by her side, she’s ready to stand up for herself and her kingdom
once and for all. A classic and original fairy-tale that celebrates beauty and
goodness in all its shapes and sizes, More than a Princess will resonate with
readers who love magic, suspense, girl power, and adventure.
A NEWSLETTER EXCLUSIVE! Please enjoy a short excerpt from my upcoming novel “More Than A Princess” available November 2018!
“Now open your eyes,” King Carrigan commanded.
Aislin gasped when she saw the glamour that her father had created. Nearly all her senses told her that she and all the other children who lived in the castle were perched on small, puffy clouds high in the sky, looking down at the mountains below.
“Look at that!” her little brother Timzy said, pointing at something on the ground.
Aislin glanced over the side of her cloud and saw that he was pointing at their very own castle nestled in the forest, its white walls glowing in the last sunlight of the day. She turned to Timzy and smiled when he gushed, “That’s our home! I’ve never seen it from this high before. Thank you, Papa. This is wonderful!”
It was Timzy’s seventh birthday, and their father had created an extra-special glamour for the party. King Carrigan of Eliasind was such a powerful fairy that the glamour was thoroughly convincing, even down to the cold damp of the clouds beneath them and the warmth of the sun on their backs.
“This is so beautiful!” said Poppy, a red-haired fairy, from the cloud beside Aislin’s. “I’ve never been this high up before. My wings aren’t strong enough to carry me this far.”
Poppy was the same age as Aislin; she had lived in the castle all her life and had been Aislin’s closest friend since the days when they played together as toddlers. Poppy had come into her fairy abilities just a few months before, and though Aislin was happy for her friend, she couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy every time she saw Poppy get small and sprout wings.
Aislin was half fairy, but she couldn’t do many of the things that fairies could do. Though she was proud of both sides of her heritage, sometimes it really bothered her that she was more pedrasi than fairy; her strongest connection was to the ground, not the sky. More than anything, she wished that she could fly! Pedrasi often joked that they had stone dust in their veins. Aislin wondered if it was true, and if it was actually weighing her down, preventing her from doing all the things she wanted to do.
A flock of birds flew below them, unaware of its audience. The sun was setting to the east, the darkness sweeping toward the mountains. Some of the children laughed and clapped their hands as a griffin flew past, looking surprised to see people so high in the sky. When Aislin turned to the north, where the land between the mountains stretched into the distance, she could see past her parents’ kingdom, Eliasind, to the mountain called Deephold where her pedrasi grandparents lived. A flash of light caught her eye as the sun’s rays reflected off Fairengar, the fairies’ crystal palace, far off at the northernmost point. Although Aislin knew this was all an illusion, it seemed so real!
As the clouds drifted above the landscape, something else caught Aislin’s eye.
She turned to her father. The golden-haired king appeared to be standing on a cloud with Aislin’s mother, enjoying the looks of wonder on the children’s faces. “What is that just past the mountains?” Aislin asked, pointing at the green hills that lay to the south of the mountain range.
“That’s Scarmander,” her father replied. “And that’s Morain,” he added, pointing to the east.
“Are those human kingdoms, Your Highness?” asked Bim, the tiny sprite boy.
“They are,” said the king. “Even before the fairies left the human world, those two kingdoms were always declaring war on each other.” The children shuddered.
“What if the humans see us up here?” asked a little fairy girl seated next to Aislin.
“They can’t . . . ,” Aislin began, but Timzy was already getting to his feet.
“Don’t worry, I’ll protect you!” the little boy cried. “I’m not afraid of any silly old humans.”
As children stood, following the example of their young prince, King Carrigan laughed. “Enough of that!” he said. “I hear we have some other entertainment waiting for you.”
Suddenly the glamour of the clouds dissolved and the children found themselves back in the Great Hall, with their parents’ smiling faces all around them. At a signal from the prince, four pedrasi men strode into the center of the hall and began to juggle brightly colored stones. Even without seeing them up close, Aislin could sense that the stones were rubies, emeralds, and citrine.
