The Conjurer Princess
by: Vivian Vande Velde
The Conjurer Princess is about a sixteen year old girl named Lylene
Delroy. Lylene's parents, the King and Queen of Dorstede, died of the red
flux when she was almost seven. Her sister Beryl was eight years old at that
time.
After her parent's deaths, Lylene and Beryl's aunt, Mathilde, and her son,
Randal (who is one year older than Beryl) inherited their father's lands.
Randal was the closest male relative.
By the time Randal was 12, he had proposed to Beryl. They were to be
married when she was 17 years old.
As soon as Father Tobias (the priest) had pronounced them husband and
wife, an arrow was shot from behind Lylene. It hit Randal in the heart. He
died instantly. Moments later, a rider came along and grabbed Beryl and rode
off with her. Beryl did not even try to struggle from his grasp. Aunt
Mathilde tried to grab Beryl from the man and pounded hard on his legs.
After a lengthy struggle he kicked her to the ground several times. She
later died from the injuries she received.
A month later, Father Tobias informed Lylene that Beryl had married a
prince from a nearby kingdom named lord Theron. It was then that Lylene
realized that she no longer had a home or a family. For Theron (now being
Beryl's husband was the closest male relative) was entitled to their father's
lands. Lylene made up her mind to rescue her sister from the evil lord
Theron.
Six months after the kidnapping, Lylene sought the help of a local wizard
named Harkta. Harkta told her that he would teach her magic if she would
agree to do housework at his home until he could perform the ceremony. The
ceremony was a ritual that must take place on an equinox. The closest
equinox was the vernal or spring equinox and it was still two and a half
months away. The ceremony was a way to "introduce" her to the magic world.
After Lylene worked and cleaned for Harkta nearly three months, he performed the
ritual. Lady Lylene Delroy of Dorstede was not only shocked at her appearance after the ritual was over, she was horrified! She decided not to go back to the wizard; she did not trust him and the way he had been looking at her lately. She stood up and ran to the nearby town of Arandell.
She desperately needed a place to stay the night, but she also needed to hire a few men to help her with the rescue of her dear sister and the assassination of Theron.
When she asked a man at the marketplace where she could go to hire men, the man gave her the name of an inn, The Happy Wench Inn.
Lylene can duplicate things. By duplicating things, I mean that she can
concentrate on an item and make twice as many of the same item. For example,
if she had 5 arrows and she concentrated on them she would then have ten and
if she did it again she would have 20 and so on and so forth.
Lylene duplicated her money so she could afford her journey to Saldemar
-- Theron's kingdom. After staying the night in an upstairs room in The Happy
Wench Inn, she walked into the public room (which is very much like a bar of
some sorts, now that I think about it...) and the manager, Marsh, demanded
her money. She had already paid him the money owed and told him this. He
told her that the money disappeared and that it must be some sort of enchanted money. He called her a witch. (When she duplicates things they cannot remain for more than a day; they disappear.)
In the public room that morning, she met Shile, a dark haired man not yet thirty years old, and Weiland, a blonde man who was a little younger than Shile. Soon Shile agreed to help her rescue her sister. Weiland also agreed, although somewhat reluctantly.
Their journey to Saldemar is a tricky one with many surprises. I cannot
really say anything more about the book that won't give the ending away.
I would recommend this book to people who like to read fairy tales and
books with a lot of action and surprises.
This is Shnngstar, saying, "Read the book... I think you will find the
reason as to why Theron kidnapped Beryl funny... in a warped way! Oh,
yeah!! Bye!"
