Spellbound

Prologue

        Claudia sighed. She had never wanted this to happen. Sure, she had had fun getting here, and had certainly met some interesting people… but she was supposed to be sitting on the throne, the old monarch dead, his reign of tyranny ended for good! Yet she wasn’t. She was trapped, alone, in a cell of the damp dungeon of the castle of King Könungr.

An hour earlier, when she woke up in this dark, musty cell, she had found that she was shackled, her chains preventing her from reaching the cell door. She was cold, but there was nothing she could do about it; her Cloak of Fallen Fires had been confiscated upon her capture, along with all of her other magic items.

          After a while, a guard came to her cell and slid a tray of food underneath the door. On it was a slice of stale bread, a few chunks of moldy goat cheese, and an earthen cup full of murky water.

          As she reached out to slide the tray over to her, the guard grunted, “You’re to be executed the day after tomorrow for your crimes.”

          Claudia glared at him, and he turned and walked away, muttering something about daggers.

Once he turned the corner, she looked down at the platter and picked up the stale bread. She attempted to bite into it, and found that it was almost as hard as a rock. She poured some of the mud-water onto it and let the bread absorb the water. If her magic had been working, she could have turned this poor excuse for a meal into a magnificent feast…. But it wasn’t. When she woke up, she had also found that her magic had been disabled, though she knew not how, nor did she know when her magic would return, if at all.

While the bread soaked in the water, Claudia scraped the mold off of the cheese, which took a few minutes, due to the fact that there was a thick layer of mold surrounding the small chunks of cheese, and that she kept needing to pick the mold out from under her nails every 10 seconds or so.

Claudia put the now mold-free cheese onto the bread, and folded the bread in half, forming a sandwich. She bit into it.

UGH! Claudia gagged and quickly spat it out of her mouth. The bread was mostly spongy now, but still hard in some places, and tasted like sawdust mixed with mud. The cheese seemed as though it was made from sour milk.

Claudia put the food back on the tray, not daring to try the water, and slid the tray back under the door.

Claudia was indignant. King Könungr was rich from all the towns and cities he had destroyed, yet this was all the greedy tyrant could spare her? Despicable! She might die of food poisoning before it was even time for her to be executed! At least back home they gave you a decent meal before killing you!

Home...

It had been almost a year since she had been home, and she had changed a lot since then...

No. She couldn't think about it. Not now.

She turned from the door and lay down on the tough mattress they gave her to sleep on, and slowly drifted off to sleep.

Now, you're probably wondering how Claudia got here, and who the interesting people she had met were. You're probably wondering why Claudia is locked in a dungeon. And you're also probably wondering who Claudia is! Be patient; all will be explained in due time.

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