Princes, Priests and Warlords

CLARREN sits fighting back tears as a priest plucks out one strand of hair for every year of her life. When he finishes, she starts to rub the sore spots on her head, only to have the priest slap her hand away, warning that she is inviting witchcraft. As he finishes he warns Clarren to have her hair cut so that it does not go beyond her knee and to watch that what is cut away is burned immediately in a fire so that no one may use it to cast a spell on her. Before departing he warns her among other things to take care no one in her household destroys a cobweb, and to avoid black dogs, cats and hens. What has brought Clarren to such measures?Shes getting married.She is taken from a very sheltered life to be a political pawn, where she is suppose to influence powerful people, as she is caught up in a power play for the throne from double-crosses to the return of an heir, long thought dead. Princes promise her loyalty, priests warn her of displeasing the gods, and warlords vie for more territory. Clarren must decide who she can trust.