Book Title: THE COURT OF SHADOWS: Vampyria Saga Book One
Character Name: Jeanne Froidelac (also known in Versailles as baronette Diane de Gastefriche)
How would you describe your family or your childhood?
My name is Jeanne Froidelac and I had a happy childhood in the Auvergne, a secluded mountainous region in the center of France. My small town, Butte-aux-Rats, is so remote that I never saw a vampyre until I turned 17. Of course, as all commoners, I had to give one tenth of my blood every month to feed the vampyric aristocracy. My father, who was the town’s doctor, was responsible for puncturing me, my two brothers and my mother. The blood of all the villagers was then sent to Versailles. Yes: I really thought my parents were just ordinary servile citizens, doing the willing of the Lords of the Night.
Little did I suspect that they were in reality rebels belonging to the Fronde, the criminal organization that has pledged to overthrow bloodsuckers! One day, the soldiers of King Louis XIV, the supreme vampyre, burst into our house. They killed my whole family. I am the only survivor. I came to Versailles under the false identity of a noble baronette with one obsession in mind: revenge.
What was your greatest talent?
I’m petite, yes, and that can be misleading. Many courtiers in Versailles see me as an insignificant provincial demoiselle. The King himself once called me a “little gray mouse” (I was born with gray hair). But truth be told, I am more a weasel than a mouse, a predator than a prey. Being small, I’m also quick and deadly. My lonely hunting sessions in the forests of the Auvergne taught me to strike fast. At the Court, I must now learn to think fast: here, battles are fought with swords but also with words!
Significant other?
Did you pay attention to what I just said? I came to Versailles to take revenge, not to fall in love with a mortal chevalier or even worse, an immortal duke who would just play with me for a couple of nights before drinking me dry!
Well, to be perfectly honest with you, there is this one guy, another student at the school of the Grande Écurie (or Great Stables), where they train young mortal nobles before they make their entrance at the Court. His name is Tristan. I could not explain why, but I feel that he also plays a double game. Could he be an ally… or more?
Biggest challenge in relationships?
It pains me to say it: trust. My own parents never told me that they were rebels. Why did they lie to me? To protect me? Or because they thought I was not strong enough to join the rebellion? It does not matter anymore, now that they are all dead. I know that at the Court, I can’t rely on anybody but myself. Courtiers, mortal and immortal, are all treacherous serpents. They would stab you in the back without remorse to get the King’s favor.
Where do you live?
Currently I live in the girl’s dormitory, at the school of the Grande Écurie. The other girls think that my name is Diane de Gastefriche. How could they know that I killed the real Diane, took her clothes and stole her identity?
Do you have any enemies?
The list is too long! You should have asked me if I have any friends, we would have gained time. There is only one person in Versailles that I would consider as a friend: Naoko Takagari, the daughter of the Japanese ambassador at the Court (I mean the daytime ambassador, of course, as the nighttime ambassador is a vampyre.)
How do you feel about the place where you are now? Is there something you are particularly attached to, or particularly repelled by, in this place?
I despise everything about the school of the Grande Écurie and its students. All of these wealthy young nobles only have one goal: shine at the Court, get the King’s favor and obtain the right to be transmuted into immortals. They know nothing about the hardships commoners must endure every day, to sustain their society of rotten privilege.
Do you have children, pets, both, or neither?
As I told you, I’ve lost everyone… Even my cat, Tibert, went missing after the King’s soldiers slaughtered my family. “Liberty or death”: this is the Fronde’s motto. I choose death. Because liberty has no meaning in a world without my loved ones. Because death is the price to pay for attempting to eradicate the person responsible for their disappearance: Louis the Immutable.
What do you do for a living?
Officially, I spend my days at the school learning the five noble arts: art of courtly manners, art of conversation, art of equestrianism, art of weaponry, and the abject art of vampyrism. But I learn these skills only to get as close as possible to the King… so that I can drive a stake through his mummified heart.
Greatest disappointment?
I will always resent the fact that my parents did not tell me they were rebels. If I had known, maybe I would have been able to save them when destiny struck, rather than being the helpless witness of their death.
Greatest source of joy?
There is this girl at the Grande écurie, Hélénais, who apparently can’t stand me. She goes out of her way to make me lose face in front of the teachers and the other students. She thinks of me as a crass baronette from the countryside who does not know the good manners of the Versailles court. She’s right about this: her world is totally alien to me. But recently, I was able to defeat her in a verbal joust – this was a joyful moment for me, I won’t lie.
What do you do to entertain yourself or have fun?
Back in Butte-aux-Rats, I used to read adventure novels. You see, my life then was so simple and even boring. I had to escape in my imagination to get the thrills I was longing for. Oh, I miss these long afternoons of daydreaming so much!
What is your greatest personal failing, in your view?
I have not been able to save my family, and nothing will bring them back. It especially hurts that I was totally blind to the secret liaison entertained by my favorite brother, Bastien, with the real baronette Diane de Gastefriche. She is the one who eventually denounced my family as rebels to the royal authorities (you may understand better now why I feel no remorse after killing this traitor, who took everything from me). If only I had known that Bastien was involved in such a dangerous affair – he a commoner, and she a noble not to be trusted! – I would have done my utmost to stop it before it was too late…
What keeps you awake at night?
Revenge, of course. Not only because this obsession prevents me from sleeping. But also because the night is the only moment when I can hope to get close enough to the King to destroy him. You see, during the day, the whole castle of Versailles shuts down hermetically, to protect the bloodsuckers who sleep inside.
What is the most pressing problem you have at the moment?
I’m afraid that Raymond de Montfaucon, the severe director of the Grande Écurie, may have doubts about my real identity… He dispatched a crow to the Cathedral of Clermont, in the Auvergne, to request Diane de Gastefriche’s nobility papers. What will happen when he realizes that the portrait on these papers looks nothing like me?
Is there something that you need or want that you don’t have? For yourself or for someone important to you?
Justice! This is what I want. For me. For my parents. For all the commoners in the Kingdom of France and beyond, throughout the Magna Vampyria. I want a world free of bloodsuckers, where mortals don’t have to pay with their blood every month.
Why don’t you have it? What is in the way?
Louis XIV, the Immutable, the King of Shadows… He is in the way, he who became the first vampyre in history, he who instituted the iniquitous Mortal Code, he who has reigned over the world from his golden throne in Versailles for the last three centuries. If he falls, the Magna Vampyria falls. I’ve pledged to destroy him and I’m ready to die trying!
THE COURT OF SHADOWS by Victor Dixen
A fiery heroine seeks vengeance against a royal court of deadly vampires in this epic alternate history set in lavish Versailles.
Louis XIV transformed from the Sun King into the King of Shadows when he embraced immortality and became the world’s first vampire. For the last three centuries, he has been ruling the kingdom from the decadent Court of Shadows in Versailles, demanding the blood of his subjects to sate his nobles’ thirst and maintain their loyalty.
In the heart of rural France, commoner Jeanne Froidelac witnesses the king’s soldiers murder her family and learns of her parents’ role in a brewing rebellion involving the forbidden secrets of alchemy. To seek her revenge, Jeanne disguises herself as an aristocrat and enrolls in a prestigious school for aspiring courtiers. She soon finds herself at the doors of the palace of Versailles.
But Jeanne, of course, is no aristocrat. She dreams not of court but of blood.
The blood of a king.
Fantasy | Paranormal Historical [Amazon Crossing, On Sale: September 19, 2023, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9781662505690 / ]
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About Victor Dixen
Two-time winner of the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire, Victor Dixen stands at the forefront of French fantasy. His acclaimed series include Animale, Phobos, Cogito, Extincta, and Vampyria. A nomadic writer, he has lived in Paris, Dublin, Singapore, New York, and now Washington, DC, drawing inspiration from the promises of the future as much as the ghosts of the past.
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