The next few days were great fun until they got boring. The grown-ups were busy every morning talking with the wyverns. Cat and I, joined by the curious Owl and Willam, took turns using Queen Margo's gift. Cat and I quickly put Owl and Willam to work taking notes about the things we observed. After four days, we knew the guard routes and schedules, the Regent's work routine, and Magus Keleher's routine.

I am a patient creature. I can tolerate all sorts of human behavior but after four days, I was bored. We were also in another waiting game. Wren and Cloud Eye had left with Father Wyvern to find Gork's family of trolls. Everyone had agreed that leaving the wyverns up north with Gork's family was the best short-term plan. Willam, Cat, Owl, and I were sitting at the table in the room Willam shared with his uncle when my boredom was cured in the worst possible way. Cat had shifted to documenting the Regent's routine and schedule when we encountered some alarming intelligence.

The scene in the crystal showed the Regent, Queen Griselda Oster, at her desk in a large office. Magus Keleher stood to her right. A man in riding leathers knelt in front of the desk.

"Why do I even bother to pay you incompetents?" The Queen screeched. "What do you mean? Do you really not know where he and the Duke are?"

"We know the ballistae troop left Kizdangengar and went west but our agents could not follow it. Operating deep within Gorgurak is difficult for anyone who lacks green skin. We received one last bird from our man and then nothing. He is either dead, injured so badly he can't send news, or captured."

"His pendant did not work?" the Queen demanded of Keleher.

"His pendant appears to no longer exist," the mage replied.

"And Willam's pendant is still broken?"

"That appears to be the case. The last transmission was his mooning over some elven slut he found attractive and meant to chase. I stopped listening after that since we all know your son's formula for trying to pick up women. I moved on to other tasks. The next time I checked in on the Prince, the pendant was still in Gorgurak but it would no longer permit me to listen to his conversations."

Hearing this, Willam turned white.

"Is our messenger still being stalled in Kizdangengar?" the Queen asked.

"Yes. The current line they are feeding him is that the ballistae troops are actively hunting a wyvern nest in some small town in the western mountains near the border into the wilderness. There is still no response on the fate of Bishop de Ramnerberg, your three agents, or my own agent. The last we heard was when my agent sent the news that your agents were caught in the basement of the first minister's home while the Queen was present in the building. His pendant ceased to exist one day later, as you already know. And before you ask, no, the Bishop has still not used any of the magic tools I gave him to help him escape."

Willam and Cat looked at each other in concern.

"The Bishop may be lost to us then," the Queen scowled. "He was a good tool, but as you know, tools break, and then you must throw them out."

"He knew too much, your Majesty. This may not be a bad thing in the long run. I know you were fond of him but he was the hand that removed Queen Eleanor's children for you. He would always be able to hold that over your head. If the goblins have imprisoned him while Willam is still free, as suggested by the continued existence of his broken pendant, then our plan to have the goblins execute or imprison Willam and Sven for the murder or assault on the Queen or First Minister has failed."

"He must never return here alive!" she screeched at the Magus, who flinched and then recovered himself.

"His sixteenth birthday is not until the end of the summer. This gives us a year and four months to come up with a new approach to removing him before he can challenge the regency law and replace you. Once he is gone, it will be safe to finally remove the ailing Stephano. Your little Aricia gets married to her cousin Crown Prince Egbert Oster, and everything we have worked for all these years will fall into our laps. I will work on a new plan to remove Willam while we wait to see the results of our Gorgurak expedition."

"Very good," the Queen smiled with approval. "You may go now. It is time to have tea with my lovely daughter, the future Queen of Osterius and Nordweg."

Tears were falling down Willam's cheeks, "my own mother. I knew she was insane and selfish, but this, this is beyond redemption. I thought the worst that would happen is that I would be made king and then I would need to confine her for the rest of her life. I never expected to hear direct proof that she murdered Sophie and tried to kill you, or that she means to kill me, father, and Uncle Sven."

"How long have you suspected her motives?" Cat asked.

"Ever since the interrogation of the man who said he was hired by the Bishop to kill you with a bear. Uncle Sven had an agent in Herman's Close that he placed there at Father's request since father suspected my mother but lacked the proof. Father couldn't remove the King of Osterius' sister as Queen of Nordweg without the best of proof so he had to act with caution. Father planned to bring you home at the end of the trip we made to Herman's Close.

Uncle's agent determined the wound on your horse was faked. The Royal Hunstman who declared otherwise was in the Queen's pay. The huntsman mysteriously died in an accident a month later. Uncle's agent also found the bear in its cage off the western highway outside of Herman's Close. He reported that a divine spirit in the guise of a mountain cat had taken you away to a safer place. I always hoped it was true because I missed you and didn't want you dead. I also don't want to be king."

"You'd be a better choice as king than me," Cat said. "You're charismatic, well-educated, you can fight, you can ride, you can command troops, you have two legs, a working left arm, two whole eyes, and you don't look like you've been thrown in a fire. Being able to look one's king in the face and not feel disgusted is something to consider."

"You are not hideous to look at with a mask over the scar," Willam countered, "especially if you used something like a gilded mask. Put that flaming eye in there and you'd put fear into people who crossed you. I'm sure you could get a black glass eye from Cloud Eye that you could magic a fake flame to appear when you wanted. Scary. The mage king of Nordweg: you'd be mysterious and frightening to your enemies, like conniving Osterius. You're ten times smarter than me and you always have been. You make friends out of everyone you meet. You would come to the throne with already-made allies of the green elves and the goblins.

"You inspire amazing loyalty in those who follow you. And you have a guardian spirit beast sent by the gods to look over you. Everything about you screams king to me. How would I even dare to displace you from your rightful throne, brother?"

"What?" Cat laughed. "I don't have a band of loyal followers."

"You don't? What do you call your adopted family members who took you hunting so you could go adventuring and keep you safe at the same time? I don't know anyone besides my Uncle who would do that for me. Did you know that Roaming Wren swore an elvish blood oath, a dagger through the hand and everything, that your hunting party would duel to the death anyone who so much as insulted you?"

"Wren did what?" Cat's jaw dropped off his face. He looked at me: "Wren swore a blood oath?"

I nodded.

"You didn't tell me that. Why didn't you tell me that?"

* You would have been upset with her if you had known. I didn't want that and it did you no harm. *

"Fuzzy!" Cat looked quite vexed with me.

"My point, big brother, is that you have friends who will put a dagger through their hands for you. I certainly can not say the same. You inspire that sort of loyalty. Someone like you needs to be king." Willam started at his brother.

Cat stared back. They glowered at one another for several minutes until Owl got up, filled two mugs with water, and poured it over both their heads.

"What did you do that for?" Cat demanded. "I always win my stare-downs! You know that, Owl."

"I didn't want to wait that long. I don't have the money saved up for a coffin yet. We should talk to your uncle and Lady Magrat about this."