Prologue

A storm tears the sea apart, waves crashing against the hull of a ship. Lightning arcs down and forks against the water, thunder crashing down around the lonely ship battling the elements.

"Prince Jesper! Step away from the taffrail!" A burly sailor shouts over the noise. A wildly laughing figure, merely a boy, grins at him, rain pelting down and drenching his plain white shirt.

"Oh please, Enok, I'll be fine. It's only a storm, isn't it?"

"Your Highness-"

A roaring wave breaks over the stern of the Ibis II and the belaying ropes snap. The sail is torn away, and the mast cracks under the hurricane-like wind. Slowly, the splintering sound is followed by the ship nearly cracking in half as the mizzen mast topples in a shower of wooden planks.

The boy-prince is swept up with the wave as the ship collapses. Enok's dead eyes glaze over as the experienced sailor's blood drips down the wooden stake his body is impaled on. The ship sinks into the forbidding waves. 

But the boy is still alive. His cries go unheard - everyone is silent. His screams are ripped away by the knife-like wind, cutting his cheek. And everything fades into darkness. The last thing he feels are gentle hands around his waist.

He awakes with the light streaming into his face, drying his salt-water ridden clothing. The warm, fine sand beneath him tickles his hands. And a shadow looms over him - a shy girl with a shawl wrapped around her head. Her calf-like eyes glimmer as she realises his identity. And it all fades back into darkness.

He sits up in a soft bed. He knows not his surroundings. Where is that girl that he awoke to on the beach? Where is he?

He had to find that girl. She must have saved him.