Recently, I read a book called "Damsel" by Evelyn Skye.

It was a random find at the library. Just browsing through books and I picked up whichever one caught my eye, and it happened to be this one. I could hardly put it down. I kept reading it until the story ended. Until now, the world of Damsel captures my imagination. That's why I'll write about it here.

This post is full of spoilers. If you don't want to know how things turn out, you probably don't want to read this post. In fact, don't read the story synopsis either. If you haven't read this book, you should definitely go read it.

Damsel starts off with a young women in the land of Inophe, whose name is Elodie. Her name is strange, but then, nothing about this story is usual from the perspective of real life. Elodie is a strong, confident woman. She can climb a tree like the best of them. Healthy and fit, educated, well poised for a grand adventure in a far off land.

Inophe is a barren, dry, poor desert land. People there are starving, but they make the best of it, including Elodie and her family. Imagine her surprise when one day her father, the duke of the duchy, comes back to inform her that she is betrothed to the prince of Aurea.

Over several months, Elodie and prince Henry exchange letters. This arranged marriage turns out to be a great deal for Inophe, and so she warms up to it over time. By the union of Inophe and Aurea, the people of Inophe will be provided for, since Aurea is a rich island, full of gold and an abundance of precious gems, food, and resources. Everyone who lives on that island is very well off, having everything they could ever want. That's in stark contract to the people who live in Inophe, who hardly ever have enough to meet their needs. All that will change with her marriage, however, and by the time she sets sail for Aurea, she's excited to meet prince Henry and be married to him. She goes, along with her stepmother and her sister Floria.

When she lands on the island, everything is even better than she could have imagined. The abundance of the island is evident everywhere you look. She is given a room to sleep in which is more beautifully decorated than any she has ever seen. Even the small trinkets found here are worth more than she ever had.

Now and then, however, she notices something is off. Dried blood on a hourglass. A strange procession of lights off in the distance. Another young woman in another part of the castle to whom she was never introduced. A young girl who makes a cryptic comment about how Elodie would need saving. Elodie brushes everything off as artifacts being nervous about the wedding.

The wedding goes through as planned. She is given the most beautiful dress she could think of to get married in, custom made for her. Still more unusual things happen during the marriage, however. By a strange custom, her hand is cut and prince Henry's hand is cut with a sort of ceremonial blade, and they join hands in blood. A scarf is wrapped over their hands to seal their union.

After the ceremony, there's a grand celebration, with more food than she could dream of eating in one night. Elodie drinks plenty of sweet Aurean beer and gets her fill of all the good foods provided for her. She's on cloud 9, in the most beautiful and expensive dress she's ever worn, eating the best food she's ever had, just married to a charming and rich prince, with high hopes that Inophe would soon be well taken care of and her people there would now have a share of the prosperity that the island of Aurea enjoys on the daily.

Her wedding night takes an unexpected turn. Instead of enjoying her first night as a newlywed with her new husband, she's taken to a dark chamber deep underground, with women chanting strange words. She figures it's some kind of solemn ritual for a new princess that Aurea has, and she doesn't question it too much, but goes along with it. They strip her naked and paint her body head to toe, then dress her in some very soft fabrics. When she finally gets out of the dark chamber, she meets her new husband outside, and they make her way up the mountain.

On she goes, marching up the mountain in her soft fabric dress, different from her wedding dress, but also very expensive and full of precious gems. All the while, she has no idea what they are doing or where they are going. After a long time, she finally makes it to the top of a deep crevice that has no bottom that can be seen, with a bridge crossing it. The bridge goes down into the darkness and ascends on the other side. She's told to cross it alone. While she is crossing it, she slips, but manages not to fall off the bridge.

When Elodie finally makes it to the other side of the bridge, what do you know, Henry picks her up and throws her into the crevice. She falls forever, but manages to arrive at the bottom mostly unharmed. Even having been thrown over the edge, she still has hopes that this is all part of a test of trust, or something like that. She thinks Henry is on his way down to come retrieve her and that she'll soon be just fine.

What happens instead? She makes her way through the caves and finds that she is not alone there. Her cave friends are swallows, who are on fire, having been set so by a dragon, who also lives there. Not a nice friendly dragon either. That's where the real action starts!