The Heir's Shadow
You stole a crown, but the prince you buried is hunting you from the shadows.
Condemned to the gallows for a petty theft, you seize a dead prince's identity to escape. But the grave is empty, and the real heir is alive—and determined to reclaim his throne. To keep the crown you stole, you must find a legendary treasure only the true prince could claim, while every noble in the court plots your downfall. Can you outrun the law, outwit the court, and survive the hunt?
The story begins
The throne room chandeliers blazed, but the cold in your blood had nothing to do with the draft. You stood in Prince Edric's boots, silk-lined and a half-size too large, and felt the weight of every noble eye as they measured the dead man who had returned to them.
Captain Voss circled you like a hound scenting a lie. "The prince's hand trembled when he swore fealty to the crown. Yours does not."
"Death steadies a man," you said, and the words came out with Edric's clipped cadence—you'd practiced them in a mirror for a week straight, until your jaw ached.
A murmur rippled through the court. The Dowager Queen's fingers tightened on her goblet, and you caught the glint of her rings—each one a fortune that could buy your passage out of Velden twice over.
Then a whistle sounded from the gallery above. Low, sweet, and horribly familiar.
The Whistler.
You didn't look up. You didn't flinch. But the crack in your composure was a hairline fault, and Voss saw it.
"Your Highness," he said, too softly, "you look like a man who knows that tune."
What happens next is up to you.
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