Fox murmured. Uncontrollably, he bounced on hard, uncomfortable leather. The stench of old vomit dominant. Beneath him, horse's hooves drummed, shaking him, swaying his bruised and battered body against another human being. Four legs with the sound of a thousand galloping stallions crunching twigs and kicking up pebbles. His head was too heavy to hold, too painful to keep his flickering eyes open for much longer. Above him, a panting breath in cadence with the loud beat of the hooves. An arm around his waist, sweaty and sticky, firm yet protective. Katla, not Storm. Safe.

"You came for me," Fox muttered to his master. "They're all dead. And then Storm..."

"Worry not, son. There are miles between us and Storm."

Fox's lips trembled. If there was any strength left in him, he would have cried. Let all the tears flow. For not being able to save Wolf. For Hawk's grief that had buried King Ariel, Queen Cobra, and Prince Felix beneath the stones of their own castle. And for Storm, who had saved him, then betrayed him in the worst way possible.

If Katla hadn't returned in time... He didn't dare to finish that thought, and he didn't need to. His master had come to rescue him.

"Hey." Katla pressed a bundle of dried-up leaves against his mouth. The mouldy yet sweet fragrance was strong. "Eat this, son. You'll feel better soon."

Fox took a bite off the leaves. At first, it was as bland as unsalted potatoes, then, as chunks got stuck between his teeth, came a bitter aftertaste that made his stomach churn. Before he could protest, he grew deaf and blind to the world around him. His pain dulled, replaced by warmth.

He floated through the water, soared through the air as the earth closed in on him. Sparks that turned into flames blasted from his fingertips, splintering the shell of ground before it wrapped around him. 

A maneless, limping lion approaching, growling.

Fox summoned his sword and shield. 

The lion clawed. He ducked. Then pushed his sword vertically through the lion's head.

A final roar of death accompanied by Wolf appearing from a cloud of fog, cheering, an oversized crown slipping down to one side of his face. In his hands, a red fox on strings, dancing. Shrill laughter, then shrieking that turned maniacal. The child's eyes flared up. Brown, blue, red, and a bright white light.

Fox shot awake, breathless. 

Just a dream. He was no longer sharing the saddle with Katla but lying in a dark cave. A bitter taste lingered in his mouth. His stomach growling, his throat demanding water as if forgotten the excesses of the Left Twin.

A faint glow peeked in from the corner, from where voices sounded, a clattering of cutlery on plates.

Supporting his fuzzy, foggy head, he rubbed his eyes and sat at the edge of the bed, or what had served as a bed. Pressed ground for a mattress, warm where he had lain. He kept the blanket around him, until he realised where the dry rotting odour came from. Moss.

Where was he? Roots were sticking through the walls; some small, crawling out like dirty pink worms, others more snake-like, only missing a head. The cavities filled by single flowers in minuscule clay plots, like a little girl's collection. Somewhere water trickled, but there were no puddles. 

Pain flared through him as he rose, expected yet still agonising. His left shoulder hurt most of all, moons of healing undone in a single day. A crust on the wound, surrounded by traces of dried up blood. His arms, legs, and chest more cuts and bruises than actual skin.

He limped towards the light, towards the noises, feeling every bruise and scrape. Each step a victory in itself. 

Thicker roots draped over the rock walls, united over the years or centuries. Beneath his feet, spiky moss and yellow flowers popped up from the trampled earth.

Despite the pain, he stepped over them.

"What other option do I have? I can't stay here. I refuse to go more north. I've lived there for nearly twenty-five years and survived," Katla said.

A female voice replied, "There's a reason you left, Katla. Think of yourself, think of the boy."

"I am."

Fox found Katla and Badger sitting around a tree stump table, remnants of bread and eggs on their plates, the chairs large pieces of wood that he would normally put in the fireplace to burn for longer periods of time. Fawn, the biggest Foambrain of a girl, on Katla's knee. 

She was the first to notice him. One glare was all it took him to drive her away from his master, and thus, for the adults to look at him too. While there was a certain fear in Fawn's eyes, Badger and Katla stared at him with a penetrating, almost surprised gaze.

Fox didn't blame them. They didn't know yet what had happened in the castle. His eyes the only ones in the room who had witnessed what he would rather forget.

"I wanted to show Felix the golden lion sword Wolf had shown me. Felix got jealous—he pushed Wolf into the river. I went behind him but..." The words got stuck in his throat, and he couldn't swallow. Tears formed.

Katla beckoned him to come.

Ignoring his pain, he flung onto his master's lap and cried, "They're all dead now—Hawk, Ariel, Cobra too. I failed as a Knight. My Greed for the sword killed them. I think that's why Storm wanted to kidnap me, to punish me. But I never meant for it to happen."

"You couldn't have known," Katla whispered, stroking his hair. "None of us did. And Storm had no intention to punish, or hurt you."

"No?" Fox hiccuped.

"No," Katla assured him.

"He did hurt me."

His master gave him a wooden cup filled to the brim with water. He drank it all the way to the bottom in one gulp, washing away the bitterness of the leaves.

"Is he dead? Did you kill him?"

"No, I taught him a lesson, though." Katla put his finger on Fox's nose and poked him. "Never to mess with me or my apprentice. He'll remember it each time he looks in the mirror."

"Katla burnt off some of his hair, and a shoe too," Fawn blabbed. She let out that typical high-pitched shriek that came with her giggling.

Although satisfied, Fox ignored her. "But Storm is your friend. Why did he want to take me to Ice?"

His master looked over him, to where Badger was sitting. He sighed, wiping Fox's tears from his cheek. "I'm not sure. He's a prince who lost his crown. He could be in league with Caracal or the Greenlanders. Perhaps he's working for himself, I don't know."

"The Greenlanders," Fox repeated. A jolt of pain struck his shoulder. After Mallard the Marble Merchant, Half-Ear Tom had sent his brother-in-law to kill him. A magician too. Had the man fallen so low? And Seb too?

"You're Half-Ear's biggest threat," Badger explained. "A secret key to Sunstone Castle."

Fox remembered his dream, Wolf playing with the fox on strings. "I'm a puppet. Whoever holds me, holds the obsidian throne."

"Potentially," Katla said.

"I refuse to be the puppet others fight over. I wanna be my own King," Fox said. Felix was dead anyway, and even if he lived,  the way he had so mercilessly chucked Wolf into the water had ended any possible alliance or union.

His master smiled but said nothing. He studied Fox, ran his fingers over his skin, inspecting the bruises and the cuts. "You're healing nicely already.  We'll soon be on our way."

"Or you stay here," Badger said.

"A few more days, until he's fit enough to ride," Katla said cryptically. Holding Fox on his knee with one hand, he shoved the only remaining plate towards the pot and scooped up some scrambled eggs. "Eat, son, you need to regain your strength."

Unsure where the tension came from, Fox grabbed the wooden fork and began eating. Since they were cold, he hovered his hand above his plate.

His master jerked his arm back, which hurt like the Seven Hells. "No magic."

"Why not?"

"You better get used to it."

"But I'm a magician," Fox sneered.

"Katla, let him," Badger interfered. "You're not thinking straight. You said you would never go back there."

"Yes, when Ariel was a step ahead of his enemies. But not even he expected his own brother to betray him, to go join forces with a lower Lord to find an assassin that would kill his nephews and niece. Now the Gods have rewarded him too, the crown fallen onto his lap without even lifting a finger. But Caracal ain't no Ariel—The God of Patience unknown to him. I won't fight in an ill-prepared war that I'll ruin us all, that annexes Silvermark because the country has become too weak to govern ourselves."

"I'll die fighting." Badger pounded her fist on the table, not hard, but enough to make the earth tremble, for sand to fall down from the ceiling.

Fox held his breath, a flashback to the cave, to the stones falling and the walls crumbling. 

It didn't come to that; the rumbling stopped.

"I can fight," he said, "when I'm better. I know three out of four elements now."

Fawn's mouth fell open. "That's not true. You're too young."

"I'm a man," Fox defended himself. "While chasing Wolf down the Left Twin, I conjured a spiky rock out of nowhere."

"You must have dreamt that," Katla said, doubting him.

"I didn't! The eyes of my fox pendant glowed brown." Fox scowled at his master, just now noticing the lines that had formed on his forehead. Even though his hair was all black, he looked older, wearier, hardened by what he had experienced in Sleetwall. Still, Katla had to believe him. "I really did some Earth Magic. I can do it."

"It's unlikely," Badger said, "but not unheard of. Extreme situations unlock the dormant part of one's powers. An Earth Magician suddenly able to light a flame, a Water Magician able to twist the air. And Fire Magician—"

"... conjuring the earth," Katla mused. He shook his head. "It must stay dormant. He must learn to hide his powers."

"But I don't want to," Fox argued.  "I had to do it for so long, back in Laneby, and now I'm finally me! Being a magician is the best thing that ever happened to me."

"You're not safe here. Not with Storm, Half-Ear, and Caracal fighting for you. Some only wanting to use you, others wanting to kill you. I can't protect you from all three at once, not here, not under the current circumstances."

"Then where will we go?" Fox whispered. He was fine going anywhere, as long as he had Katla. He never wanted to get separated from his Master again.

"Whitecliff Bay, and then... Socota. I'm taking you home, Fox. To my home."

The Jade Islands.