Princess Song & the River

By Samantha J. Rose and Creed Rose

When a princess is kidnapped like her mother before her, a daring rescue is launched to save them both...

It's been eleven years since Princess Song's mother was kidnapped by masked men atop horses made of purple water. Now the men and their eerie horses have returned-and have taken the princess.

• Language: English
• Publisher: True Stories Fiction
• Release date: Jul 2, 2022
• ISBN: 9798218023638

Book preview

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Written by Samantha J. Rose

Illustrated by Creed Rose

For Canon, Dexter, and Oliver—you are my angels.

Thanks for helping Humpty Dumpty put

herself back together again.

-S.J.R.

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Long ago, there lived a king and a queen in a castle by the sea. They had two children: a son and a daughter. They named their son Sky, so he would always remember that the stars were within reach. They named their daughter Song, so she would always remember that her life was a treasured gift, like music. 

Not many years after her children were born, the queen took them with her to tend the garden. This was her favorite place in all the world. It brought her great joy to care for it as her little ones played around her. It was full of sunlight and covered in colorful flowers and vibrant trees that danced in the ocean breeze. From the edge of the garden, she could watch the waves crash against the shore and create stories with her children of what kingdoms could exist along the horizon. 

On this afternoon, as she stood near the edge of the garden to watch the sunset, she was ambushed by a group of masked men dressed in black, riding horses made of purple water. She cried out, reaching for her children as the sea parted and the men carried her down into the waves. 

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The king knew his ancestors had come from the sea — surely it must have been them, jealous of the happiness and strength of his family and kingdom — and he vowed revenge.

By and by, the king and his children grew older. He built a large wall around the garden to protect it, throwing it into shadow most of the day. His efforts to venture into the depths of the water were always met with failure. His counselors told him that such a feat was impossible and instructed him to move on. But his children’s tears for their mother kept his heart broken; her face haunted his dreams, and her voice sang songs to him in his sleep. He would not rest until she was in his arms again.

One day, Song was in the garden with her ladies-in-waiting, even though she hated the place. For years, she couldn’t enter it without hearing her mother’s scream and seeing her frightened eyes as she reached out for someone to rescue her. However, over the last two years, Song had tried to enjoy the garden the way her mother used to, though it looked nothing like it had when she was there. Many of the flowers her mother used to grow had been smothered by the shadows of the massive wall. Still, she’d go there often, sure that by confronting it, she could make the screaming stop — and it had. Mostly. 

But even on that day, her skin crawled a little, and she refused to go anywhere near the edge.

The sky gradually turned a dark gray as Princess Song laughed with her ladies-in-waiting, stealing glances at her favorite guard, Zhen, who was also her childhood friend. She talked about how disgusted she was with the princes vying for her hand in marriage — they were so pampered. She stood and did stunning impressions, mocking these princes, taking requests from everyone as they doubled over with laughter.

The sea parted at the cliffs below, and out of its depths rushed masked men in black clothing. They rode horses made of strange purple water that had empty, hollow eyes. They soared over the garden wall as the guards shot arrows that bounced off their strange clothing, jolting their bodies but doing no harm. They landed next to Princess Song, and one of them swept her up onto his watery steed. She cried out, elbowing the man in the neck and then the face. He dropped her, and she stumbled away. With an expression of fear and panic, Song’s favorite guard