Snakes in the Water

Once upon a time in a kingdom that touched the clouds, there lived the nine princesses of Iselion. If you asked the king, he would say the gods had blessed him with strong, talented girls. If you asked the queen, she would say the gods had cursed her nine times over with no heir to be had. If you asked Hypatia, the fifth of the nine princesses, she would say her sisters were born to be cutthroat queens, eventually ruling the eight realms.

Sigrid could run faster than any man or beast on land. Eden hunted deer with a machete. Rosette could knock the most gifted swordsman off his feet. Carina would often jump from the cliffs of Andeen and into the Iselion sea, powering through the strongest of riptides. Meliora could shoot a rabbits eye with her bow and arrow from yards away. Ebony could mount any wild horse and ride it across the countryside. Iphigenia and Stellaria, the twins, were renowned for their political intelligence and success in warfare tactics. Hypatia was a gifted ambassador, with beauty, charm, and cunning enough to win over the sternest of foreign rulers.

Together, the nine princesses were an army, a council, an embassy, and the largest threat to the other mainland kingdoms. Kings and princes of neighboring realms knew well that their only options were to marry them or be conquered by them, though there wasn't much of a difference.

Our story begins on a boat with a cat, a scribe, and an executioner. In the middle of the ocean with no land in sight, Hypatia is on her way to cause the biggest uprising the eight realms have ever seen.