There is no justice, nor the mercy of a quick death. Those who ask questions are forced iron down their throats. And those who are obedient serve as slaves for the Goddess of Lust, who reigns from sunset until the break of dawn.

He and Katla stood by helplessly as Leo let out a string of curses, dooming the Greenlander King to eternal life in the Seven Hells. Two more planks cracked under the weight of his lethal fists, the racket causing Doe to stumble down the stairs.

"What's all this racket?" she grumbled, her voice thick with sleep. "The Antler isn't open yet."

The tall warrior stopped attacking the woodwork. His face was entirely red, including his tear-stained eyes. "Panthera is dead, Doe. Felix has a terribly high fever. It's an attack on the crown, on this very kingdom."

"No." Doe gasped, bringing her two hands to her mouth. "This must be a joke. This..."

"But we're gonna save Felix," Fox assured her. "Katla and I will use magic to bring his fever down. I promise. He won't die."

"Actually..." Katla touched his beard, twirling the black hair around his fingers. "I think it's better if you stay with Doe, Fox. I don't think you can be of much help."

Fox pouted. "But Leo came to ask me."

"I'm sorry, lad," Leo mumbled. "If I can have your master, I'd rather take him. He's still the best Fire Magician in all of Moondale."

"But it's not fair!" Fox's lip trembled. "I want to help too."

Now that Katla was better, he wanted to spend time with him, make up for all the lost winter hours. The Gods of Patience and Greed were taunting him. They had given him a bit of Katla, only to take it away again.

"Hey." Katla bent towards him. "There's a very sick little boy who urgently needs help. We're not gonna fight over this right now, are we?"

"No, but..." He let out a large moan as he couldn't think of anything to say.

"I'll be back as soon as I can." Katla ruffled through Fox's hair. He briefly touched Doe's hand, muttering a quick 'thank you'.

Then he and Leo disappeared, and it was as if spring hadn't come at all.

The day dragged on endlessly while waiting for Katla to return. It took Fox twice as long to scrub the floor of The Antler because, with every passerby, he dropped the mop to look out the window. After lunch, he didn't go out to catch rats, but stayed inside, too afraid that he would miss Katla.

Slowly but steadily, the Antler filled with customers. The news about Princess Panthera and Prince Felix had spread fast, and people knew Doe's tavern was the best place to be for information. Luckily there were a few common faces too: Mallard, Corbin, and Falcon.

To keep up with the orders, Fox helped to serve pints of ales and bring bowls of soup. As a reward for not dropping anything, Doe gave him the first piece of her freshly baked apricot pie. A woman with sunken cheeks and raggedy clothes stared at him as he sat on the ground by the fire to eat it.

He gestured at the flames to increase their intensity, then he took some marbles out of his pouch and let them float in between his fingers. At first, there were just three balls dancing around his hand in circles, then three, and finally four. 

"You look like a natural." She curled her hair around her thumb. "Are you an Air Magician?"

"Fire Magician." He kept one eye on the marbles, the other one his pie. "But I've been practising."

"One of your parents must have been an Air Magician."

"No, my father was a blacksmith and—"

The bell above the door tingled. When he turned his head to see who had entered, his marbles crashed to the floor and rolled away. It was Katla. Katla had returned!

Fox rushed towards him but refrained from wrapping his arms around him. Katla's hair was glistening white again. He was walking with a slight limp, his face grimacing.

"It's alright, son," he said with a raspy low voice, beckoning him to come closer.

Some customers guffawed whereas others cooed as Fox flew into his arms and held him tight. But something was off—Katla was unnaturally warm. Hawk had explained during one of the council meetings that Fire Magicians often had a higher body temperature after performing magic, but the way Katla burnt was something different.

"Why are you so hot?" He laid his hand on Katla's forehead, reassuring him that his master indeed had a fever. "Is Felix...?"

"Dead? No, but give me a second," he croaked. "I've taken a large part of his heat on me." He squeezed Fox tight.

"What are you doing?"

He didn't reply, which wasn't necessary. Slowly, strands of black hair chased away the white. He was restoring his magical energy. Fox embraced the hug and restored his own energy too.

"Pour me a cup of your best wine," Katla said to Doe.

"Coming right up," she replied.

"Mind if I use your fireplace?"

"As long as you don't plan on burning it with us in it," a brown-haired man with an impressive beard said. He chuckled. "Isn't that right, Doe?"

"Sure is, Beaver."

"Watch me," Katla whispered to Fox. 

His master put him down and staggered towards the fireplace, where he halted and placed his hand on his chest and patted it repeatedly. Fox's jaw dropped as his master exhaled a well-aimed flame that filled the entire hearth. No flame of his had ever been this high.

Katla ran the back of his hand along his lips. He was still a little shaky, but Fox beamed nonetheless. He stretched his arms above his head and cheered, "The dragon is back!"

"Yeah," Katla said, panting. He cleared his throat, then addressed the crowd as headed for the bar. "His Majesty expected all of you to be here—said there's no better place than Doe's. So he gave me permission to come with an official statement." He paused to pick up his cup and wait for the murmurs to stop. "It pains me to say that Princess Panthera is no longer among us. She was poisoned. Prince Felix was found, gravely ill but alive, and is now on the road to recovery."

"Who did it? What poison was it?" The questions came from many voices at once.

Katla took a sip of wine. Fox found it odd that he wasn't answering their questions. He wanted to know too. "Did Half-Ear—the Greenlander King—do it?"

"Nobody knows. Anything you'll hear is a rumour at best, but we'll figure this out. The perpetrator will not go unpunished."

"Tell His Majesty to declare war on Half-Ear if it's his doing!" shouted Beaver.

More people yelled, their voices clamouring through the tavern. The woman who had talked to him earlier blamed the King for being more concerned with The Greenlands than feeding his own people. Mallard added that he would rather not see his tax money go to warfare, as an honest businessman it was already hard enough to keep his head afloat.

Fox didn't understand what that meant. Mallard's head wasn't floating at all.

"I can't deal with this right now," Katla said to Doe. "I wanna go home. Ariel said I can take Fox back."

"You can!" Fox clutched Katla's hand, tugging it. He wanted to go home too, and he wanted it now.

"He's been looking forward to that since the beginning of winter. He's such a darling. I'm gonna miss him." Doe came from behind her counter to give him a good hug. She then turned to the quibbling crowd. "Oh, shut it! You're all a bunch of looky-loo's!"

Fox quickly packed as much of his clothes as he could fit into his small bag. Doe had knitted a new jumper and some scarves for him. Anything he couldn't pack now, he would come and fetch later. He was going home with Katla!

He and Katla snuck out while Doe was engaged into a hefty discussion. Fox danced around his master as they headed home. Princess Panthera may have died today, but he was happier than he had been in moons.

Not much had changed since he had last been in Katla's house. The table was still standing in the middle of the room, littered with half-finished drawings, pencils, plates, and a nearly empty bottle of wine. On the shelves in the kitchen stood but a jar of pickles that had gathered so much dust that the writing on the label wasn't readable anymore.

He scrunched his nose. The whole place had a musty and dusty scent to it.

"Yeah, son, this place could use a good cleaning," Katla said as he grabbed his sketches one by one and threw them into the fireplace.

Fox stared into the heath as Katla snapped his fingers, which ignited a bright red flame that quickly ate the papers. "I'll help. We can do it now—more time to play tomorrow."

Katla rubbed his eyes, letting out a yawn. "We should. Let's."

Together they scrubbed the floors, changed the beddings, did the dishes, and threw out all the empty bottles that Katla had gathered over winter. By the time the sun had set, the place was tidied up and smelled of brown soap instead of endless nights of sleep.

"How many houses are there in Moondale?" Fox asked as they were sitting outside, munching on those pickles for dinner in the light of a thousand flickering silver lights that moved from lantern to lantern. Despite living in the city for seven moons, he still had no idea how big it was or how many Lanebys would fit in one Moondale.

"I don't know," Katla said after a while. "You should ask the King in a couple of days. We're invited to the banquet after Panthera's funeral—as a thank you for saving Felix's life."

"Was it hard to save him?"

"It was." Katla stretched his legs. "The fever kept coming back, and even without the fever, the little Prince was very ill. Hawk and I had to work together. I kept his temperature down while she searched for an antidote. He's stable now, but the danger is far from over. I'm afraid his organs took a nasty hit. He'll be sickly all his life."

"You and Hawk worked together!"

"Yes, is that so hard to believe?" Katla snorted. He put his arm around Fox and pulled him closer. "She's a powerful magician with a wealth of knowledge."

"But I don't like her. She's mean. Will there be other people at the banquet beside her, like Leo and Doe?"

"Of course," Katla chuckled. "All Lords and their families have been invited, so there will be a lot of children for you to play with. It won't be boring."

"So not like the council meetings?"

"Oh, no, it will be very different."

That night, Fox dreamt that King Ariel rose from his silver throne and turned into a vicious lion with sharp teeth and giant claws. He roared for all of Moondale to hear that it was his fault that Prince Felix was dead, that he should have been there to save the Prince instead of Katla.

Fox woke up, bathing in sweat and out of breath. He cupped his hands over his face, his hands shaking. Just a nightmare. The King had decided he could leave with Katla again, so he couldn't be a bad man. But he was scared too. All those moons ago, on his very first night in Moondale he had met King Ariel in person. He didn't remember much from it; in fact, he could recall the pain of Hawk looking into his brain and Seb... that thing about Seb...

It was still gone.

When he asked Katla about it the next day, he said he couldn't remember either. And that was all they talked about it. The two of them easily slipped back in their old routines. If Katla's presence wasn't required at the castle, their mornings were spent shopping. In the afternoon they went to the muddy field just outside the city gates to train or play with fire orbs. Their evenings were mostly spent at Doe's.

The day of Panthera's funeral, rain came pouring down with such a force that it bounced back from the ground and splashed onto people's clothes. Despite it all, the streets of Moondale were crowded with men, women, and children—all dressed in various shades of grey and black. 

On the way from their house to The Antler, where they had agreed to meet up with Doe, Phoe, and Badger, Fox counted two hundred and twenty-three people. It could have been easily more because Katla rushed faster through the masses than he could count.

Earlier Katla had explained that all these people were coming to pay respect to Princess Panthera one last time before she sailed off to meet their Gods. The other day, in The Antler, Leo had said something very different, though. He had complained to Doe that the rats were only coming because of the free ale and bream sandwiches that were handed out from one of the many stalls that had been erected across town for the occasion.

The way many of them were practically inhaling those sandwiches, they looked more like a pack of hungry wolves than rats. It was no secret that many people in Silvermark were poor, but a lot of them looked like the bony woman in the tavern and ate like they hadn't seen food in weeks.

They passed a freckled man who smelled like he had taken a bath filled with ale. "His Majesty can host a feast like this any day. Sure, our Princess was a true beauty, but her pretty face never filled my belly."

"Until now!" The toothless man next to him chortled. The both of them clashed their tankards together, spilling the amber liquid onto their moth-eaten shirts and shoes. "Hail Princess Panthera! Hail His Majesty!"

"May his children fall like these raindrops, so we'll never have to go hungry again." The freckled man laughed, then burped louder a croaking frog.

Fox felt Katla's hand tightening around his. His master's eyes flared up, to which Fox shook his head. They had to go and meet Doe and the rest, or they would be late.

"It's treason," Katla hissed through his teeth as the two men began to dance a jig in the muddy pool that any other sane person was avoiding. "They might be the ones who did it—who killed Panthera and poisoned Felix. The King asked me to look around for clues and report any suspicious behaviour."

Fox nodded. "Okay, I'll help."

Katla didn't reply. He suddenly opened his arms. It was then that Fox moaned loudly as Fawn splashed through the groups of drunkards and other people already moving to the castle. Luckily, Badger, Phoe, and Doe were following in her wake too so he didn't have to spend too much time glaring at Fawn while she hugged at Katla.

The adults quickly decided to head to the courtyard too. Normally, the courtyard was forbidden territory for anyone besides those working or living in Moonstone Castle or Mage Tower, but since the funeral would take place on the Left Twin, the crowd had been invited in to mourn together with the royal family.

Fox danced on his tiptoes on the rounded cobblestones to catch a glimpse of the longship bobbing in the water. The boat was filled with hundreds of white flowers—the same kind that had grown in the fields of Laneby near the end of winter.

Fawn was frantically jumping up and down, squeaking and moaning annoyingly. "Can you see it too, Fox? They've put silverwork in her ship, and some books. And she's wearing the most beautiful dress in the world."

He shrugged. Snowdrop—that was the name of the flower. Seb's sister Lucy used to say that spring would come sooner if she kept one under her pillow. He and Seb then went to steal it whenever he came over to play, and they replaced it with stinky hellebore.

"Katla." Fawn patted his master's arm. "Can you shoot me into the air? It's really hard to see anything."

Fox took a step back and leant against Katla's chest, preventing him from granting Fawn's wish. This made Phoe sing, "Someone's a little jealous."

"I'm not," he mumbled, after which Fawn stuck her tongue out at him. He shouted, "I'm really not!"

"In the Gods' names, this is a funeral. Behave—the both of you," Badger yelled.

"But I was behaving until Fawn ruined it all!" Fox pouted. This wasn't fair. He was getting the blame for something he didn't cause.

Katla grabbed him by the collar of his jacket. "Fawn's nine years old, son. You're almost eleven. This kind of behaviour needs to end. Take Fawn to the front. You'll both get a good view of the river without having to dance like two fruit-drunk monkeys."

"But—"

"No buts, son!" He held Fox so tight he could barely breathe. "It's time you start acting like a proper young man."

Fox wanted to yell and stomp his foot on the stones as Katla released him. He trusted Katla. They were friends, and friends sure never choked other friends. Or yelled at each other.

He noticed the people around them staring, so he bumped his shoulder into Katla's arm and left. When he quickly glanced at him, his dark eyes stared right back at him in disapproval. Let his master be angry. Katla had betrayed him more than he had him.

"I want you back here after the ceremony," Katla shouted as he crawled through tiny gaps in the crowd. He didn't feel like replying so Kata yelled again, "You hear me, Fox?"

As he pulled his hood over his head, Katla called out to him one more time. Soon he was too far away to hear his master. Fawn was following right behind him. He tried to lose her by slipping past people and not caring whether he hurt anyone in the process, but no matter what he did, she always managed to pop up shortly after.

"I'm sorry for getting you into trouble," she said when they were standing as close to the river as they were going to get without tramping children half their age. "Katla and Badger were really overreacting. They all seemed so upset when Panthera died. Badger even cried when she heard the news."

"I talked to her a couple of weeks ago," Fox said, surprised by Fawn's sudden apology. "I gave her a strange letter that I found near the Right Twin. Maybe the one who left that note killed her too."

Fawn gasped. "Do you think so? What was in that note?"

"I don't know. It was very weird, but Panthera seemed to think it was important."

Fawn grew quiet as four brawny men in the grey military uniform of the guards came down the grey granite stairs that led into the castle. They carried the bier on which the Princess rested in a bed of snowdrop flowers, appearing to be fast asleep. A procession of blond-haired men, women, and children, clad in elaborate black dresses or suits with silver buttons, trailed behind them.

There were quite many members of the royal family that Fox had never seen before. He only recognised Queen Cobra because she was walking at the front, holding hands with a sobbing Prince Felix. Her face was veiled in a light fabric that showed her outlines and strands of her practically white hair. King Ariel suddenly seemed a lot smaller and a lot less intimidating than the lion from his nightmare.

The only one who didn't share the light colour of hair was a small brown-hair boy who walked right at the back, even after Leo. The boy was staring into the crowd with a frightened look on his face. It wasn't surprising. He too would be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of fingers that were pointing at him.

"It's little Lycaon," an excited old lady whispered loudly. "Spitting image of His Majesty—disregarding the brown hair. This must be his first official ceremony. They never show him."

"Maybe his mother has persuaded the King," her equally annoying friend replied. The woman had such a shrill voice that Fox edged closer to Fawn to spare his poor ears.

"His mother?"

"Oh, Ewe, haven't you heard? If that boy shows any talent for Water Magic in the moons to come, then it's evident who his mother is."

"Grandmaster Hawk? You've drunk too much of that free ale, Squirrel. She couldn't be the mother. You're seeing things that aren't there."

Fawn turned her head towards him and rolled her eyes. He didn't. The conversation had suddenly become interesting. If Hawk had dirt underneath those pointy fingernails of hers, then he wanted to know.

"I mean it," Squirrel said under her breath. "Killing Ariel's trueborn children is her way of ensuring her puppet gets a claim to the throne. That's what she has been after all those years—she wants the magicians to rule. Can you imagine, a kingdom reigned by a magician. Then we'll all starve."

"But there's still Lord Caracal. The King's brother comes before little Wolf."

"Lord Caracal only has daughters." She gestured at the three sour-looking girls in the middle of the procession. They were copies of each other, all with blond hair and blue eyes; one was slightly taller than the other two. "Mark my word, Ewe. In the end, you and I will be nothing but bones and ashes, but the bastard cub will be the one swaying the silver sceptre."

Fox looked back at the small brown-haired boy shuffling behind Leo, biting his lip and appearing clueless to what was happening. Could he be the future King of Silvermark? Either way, he had to tell Katla about this.

The four guards lowered the bier onto the longship. While the women around him marvelled at the bright red dress with silver patterns, Fox only had eyes for the broadsword with golden lion hilt that King Ariel unsheathed from his scabbard.

That was the sword from Corbin's shop—the sword he gawked at every day when he passed the shop. A sadness settled in the pit of his stomach. Now that King Ariel had it, he could no longer look at it. 

Holding the sword flat in both hands, the King crouched in front of Prince Felix and presented him the weapon. The blond boy glimpsed at the crowd. He wobbled a little as he picked up the sword and headed towards the edge of the river, all alone. By Panthera's longship, he halted and leant on the crossguard, visibly struggling to breathe.

Simultaneously, a bow and burning arrow were presented to King Ariel by another tall blonde man who had the same crooked nose as the King, but a much shorter beard. Fox didn't know who he was, but when those two old ladies started jabbering again, he learnt that he was Lord Caracal, the King's younger brother.

Prince Felix raised the sword and cut the rope that had kept the longship from drifting downstream.

"This is it, Fox." Fawn tugged at his arm. "She's about to meet the Gods."