'You will enter the city of Hart's Hope and the King's daughter will ride the Hart for you.
But above all: you will not be safe upon the throne until King Nasilee and his daughter Asineth are dead!
The wizard's prophecy inspired Palicrovol to set forth to seek himself a kingdom. And win it. He killed the king: as the Hart he rode the Hind, Princess Asineth, a child of twelve.
Ravished in full view of ten thousand eyes, Asineth's fury beat back at the shame that was thrust upon her.
She swore to have vengeance upon the Hart who had spilled her blood and who, in his mercy and his foolishness, let her live.
Asineth knew that justice could be cruel, and crueller yet necessity, but that mercy was the cruellest thing of all. For one day she would become Queen Beauty, and Palicrovol would remember possessing her, and yearn to possess her again. And then....