"Incoming!"

A trio of Earth Magicians scooped up the boulders by their feet and flung them into the wagon with a scraping bang. Despite their hair having lost much of their original blonde colour, the man and women carried the momentum. The next soot-faced manchild was already pushing over the wheelbarrow stacked high with rocks and mortar-like debris; a dozen more were waiting behind him.

"Incoming!"

A hooded passer-by paused as the ground reverberated. A bit further, a group of Air Magicians had torn down the last wall of the eastern wing. The hooded man carried on before being halted by the guards. They gesticulated at him until he showed them the hilt of his sword.

"Let him through," she whispered under her breath.

They lowered their head, parting ways.

Before entering Mage Tower and disappearing from her view, he stopped to stare at the high crumbling walls defying both weather and gravity. Once they had housed the centre of the castle, the throne room, from where the King of Silvermark spoke words that decided over life and death, that rewarded the virtuous and punished the sinful.

Five years had passed since the throne room had last seen its King, and fourteen moons had passed since King Storm had officially declared Moonstone Castle a ruin. All that would remain when the autumn storms transformed the lowlands into marches were the drawings and stories captured in books that would eventually gather dust and be forgotten, just like the long reign of the lions of Silvermark.

Hawk's eyes drifted from the courtyard to the little white-haired girl sitting in Cobra's arms. The toddler let out a giggle typical for her age as her tiny fingers grabbed her mother's necklace.

"No, darling, that's mine," Cobra cooed. She tugged to get the silver chain back.

"He's here," Hawk announced.

"He's here! He's here," the child repeated much more enthusiastically. She didn't wait for Cobra to put her down, but bolted out of the chamber with the force of a young colt.

"Be careful, darling," Cobra called. The tail of her swooping grey dress had already disappeared behind the corner.

Hawk leant against the window. "Why don't you use your daughter's name?"

The incipient crow's feet around Cobra's light eyes deepened. "Something wrong with 'darling'?"

"No, it just occurred to me that I've never heard you call her Lea or Leaena."

"It's one thing to adhere to traditions that others find so important in exchange for ships, soldiers and silverlings, but it's my own choice to ignore them when I can." Cobra placed her hands on her stomach. "I'm with child again, Hawk. Seven Gods of Sin be damned, if I'm blessed with a son, I want him to bear a northern name."

"May the Goddess of Kindness bless you thus," Hawk replied calmly. "But the name of your child will depend on the course of war. The Lords in the east were loyal to Caracal—they still find your husband a usurper. We need their harvest, need their men."

"A son of Storm and me is no lion. Let all the ships in the Eastern Sea sink. My boy will bear an Ician name, and there's nothing that you as Grandmaster can say or do to change your mind." Then Cobra added, in spite. "After all you've done, the least you can do is support me in my decision."

All she had done.

Sure, she had seduced King Ariel, assured his climaxing not once but seven times, borne him a son that she had pushed into his care. In her shoes, many would have done the same. She had loved that child, from afar, when he wasn't whining or snivelling or peeing his pants. In hindsight, her mistake had been not to embrace those parts of motherhood. Perhaps then, Cobra's brat would not have pushed hers into the churning waters of the Left Twin.

"My role is to support the magicians of this nation, Cobra, which includes your husband thanks to whom you are still Queen."

Cobra's mouth opened, but instead of speaking, she straightened the folds from her gown.

Pounding footsteps approached from the staircase along with chirp-like laughter. "Do it again! Louder so Mum-Mum and Hawk can hear it too!"

"The giant is hungry," growled the gruff voice. "The giant sees a piglet, round, juicy and full of fat."

Stomping noises mingled with the girl's snickering.

"The giant takes the piglet."

Shrieks of happiness filled Mage Tower.

"And then..." It turned quiet for a split second, then the hooded man appeared in the doorway, Leaena stuffed under one arm. ".... the giant eats the piglet whole."

He pushed his face against her stomach, nuzzling and tickling her. In her playful defence, she yanked his hood down, revealing not only the lanky man's bright red hair but also the rough, uneven patches on his skin and healing cut wounds destined to become scars.

"Goddess of Charity, how you have grown, Fox. I can see the moons at Sapphire Island have treated you well," Cobra welcomed him.

"The Old Viper sends his greetings, My Lady. Your father was a most formidable host and a great swordsman. I learnt a lot from him."

"Grandfa-fa taught him how to be a giant," Leaena commented in her squeaky voice. "That's why he is so tall now."

No, silly child, he's a proper Greenlander Prince, Hawk thought to herself before addressing Fox. "You're late. I sent a raven to Adder Manor weeks ago."

"There was a harsh afterwinter up north. I couldn't leave." He didn't blink as his sunken green eyes met hers.

She huffed. The kitten had grown, but he was still a fool. While the long winter night took near-Ician proportion, the island saw long days during late spring and summer. Snow had no impact on a Fire Magician's winter illness, sunlight did.

"I couldn't." He pursed his lips into a pout. "Fine, I didn't want to. The Old Viper had visitors from Bigtown, and I wanted them to see me."

"Oh, you Foamhead." She hardly resisted the urge to smack him with a good jet of water. "Do you want the Greenlanders to know where you are?"

"Yes," he insisted. "My sixteenth birthday has passed. Let my uncle believe that I'm spending my days on Sapphire Island instead of..." He glanced at Leaena, who smiled sheepishly at him, then gulped. "... instead of chasing him and my brother down."

"Well, that worked out fantastically, Fox. Now we know why Half-Ear suddenly put Sebastian on a ship to Alburkhan."

"Alburkhan," he said slowly. "That's all the way at the other end of the Jade Sea." His eyes lit up and he echoed himself, now understanding the implications.

"Your brother is getting married," Cobra added.

"A feast!" Leaena peeped. "Are we going? I wanna dance."

"I'm afraid we're not invited, My Lady piglet."

"Why not?" she put out her bottom lip.

"He's a wicked man who wants to hurt us, and who thinks all magicians are evil." He lowered down, kneeling. "But I will teach him a lesson, and then I'll be King just like your Fa-fa."

"Will you then marry me?" she asked.

He raised his hands. "That's for your Mum-mum and Fa-fa to decide."

She turned to her mother, her nose stuck in the air. "I want to marry Fox. You tell Fa-fa that I want it."

"First, you must grow, darling." Cobra chuckled as she scooped her daughter into her embrace.

"But I want to be big now."

Hawk edged closer to Fox. Leaena wasn't even in the picture to become his bride, Half-Ear's daughter had been until the Greenlander King had shipped her off to the south as well. Now the King had her on his mind. Her! Although the most she felt for the scar-faced manchild with overly large legs underneath his still-growing body was a vague kind of motherly affection, she understood the historic significance of their union.

"Do you want to freshen up first, or go straight to the war room?" she whispered to Fox.

"Err... perhaps not the latter."

"What else did you do?" she hissed.

"It's actually a matter of what I didn't do."

Gods and Goddesses of Virtue, why was this Foambrain the man to free magicians? She yanked him by the chin. "Speak up."

"I may have told the Old Viper to keep his army up north."

"What!" She squeezed his cheeks.

"I know what I'm doing," he said with a young man's adoration of Pride. "They need to keep an eye on Bigtown."

"Who cares about Bigtown? It's Sundale we must capture, and we need every capable man and woman for that."

"We don't."

"Then you have even more foam in your head than I feared," she spat, releasing him from her grip.

He scowled. "It was a mistake coming here. I should have just kept on walking until I'm standing at the gates of Sundale."

"And then what? Are you this stupid to think you can simply walk into Sunstone Castle and push Half-Ear off the obsidian throne?"

"Sort of."

Sick of his childish naivety, Hawk eyed Cobra, who was dangling the silver necklace in front of Leaena to keep her occupied. The Queen said, "Fox, that cannot be done."

"I had many talks about it with your father, My Lady," Fox said confidently. "All I've heard in the last six years is that Sunstone Castle is impregnable. Whether I take an army of thousands or ten thousands across the Horseshoe Mountains, it will never be enough. So yeah, I blabbed to the Icians that I'm ready to lead the biggest army in the history of Silvermark and conquer The Greenlands because that's precisely what I won't do."

"No, you'll hand yourself to Half-Ear, and end any chance of a successful war," Hawk huffed.

"I'll infiltrate from within. King Ariel did so successfully—"

"With a serving girl who looked as bland as boiled potatoes. You're a giant redhead with a fox-shaped sword!"

Air expelled from his nose. "I'm taller than average for a Greenlander at best, and as for my hair..."

He looked down, scanning the floor, his eyes rapidly shifting from left to right and back to left. While grains of sand and dust gathered in a heap, the Fire Magician's hair shifted from bright red to midnight black.

"Mum-mum, Fox is doing the magic that Fa-fa can't do," Leaena said, as if sharing a secret.

Fox lifted his gaze. "I can change my hair. I can change the hilt of my sword. I can even change my name. Most have forgotten that my parents named me Henry. There are hundreds of black-haired Greenlanders called Harry—I'll blend right in."

The Old Viper had filled Fox's head with an idea that wasn't bad, in theory. If Fox were any smarter, it might even work. "Your hair will change colour."

"I'll be in the city where people cheered as Katla was murdered. It'll keep my hair black."

"Let's say you manage to infiltrate and kill the King, that still leaves the matter of your brother."

A soft smile crossed Fox's face, and instantly strands of his hair turned red once more. "That's the beauty—Let him come to me. I'll be the one occupying the impregnable fortress."

Hawk hummed. "And what about maintaining the city's supplies, the buy-in of the Greenlanders to recognise you as their leader? Rest assured that when you kill Half-Ear, every single royal guard will be coming from you."

"They'll obey me," he said quickly.

"Oh, they will. Good," she mocked him.

His lips primed with a pout. The God of Wrath shone in his eyes as he drew his sword and cleaved it through the air. Leaena's gasp was cut in half by the scorching wall of fire that separated the girl and her mother from her and Fox.

"I'm a rightful heir to the throne." He clenched his free hand into a fist.

Her throat tightened, hurt even. When she inhaled but found no air, she realised that he was choking her. In an unexpected, panicked frenzy, she sought for the cup of tea she had barely touched. She flailed the now cold liquid into his face, but to no avail. He shrugged it off.

"I'm a bastard Prince, a future King," he continued. "People won't obey me because they want to, but because they fear what I'll do to them if they don't."

She closed her eyes, finding the liquid in his head to penetrate with her thoughts. It would leave him with an excruciating headache for hours to come, but that thought only delighted her more. He was the beast the southerners thought her kind to be. Even if he succeeded, it would be a brief and bloody reign ending with a total setback for what she had strived for all her life: peaceful coexistence.

People will gladly give their life to kill you.

"Get out of my head!" he raged. "You promised you wouldn't do that anymore."

And you promised you would be the saviour of all magicians, the herald of a new dawn.

"I will be. You can't bake a pie without cracking a few eggs, and who cares if they're Greenlander eggs. They've killed enough of our kind."

Frightened animals attack.

"Worry not, Hawk." He unclenched his hand, and she filled her lungs with sweet air. "Let me do this. I'll send all the gold to Moondale for Storm to build a new castle. A roof over everybody's head. No Silvermarker will have to go hungry again."

She glanced at the ruins of mud and torn-down walls, the epitome of Silvermark's downfall. With Greenlander gold, they could start anew. But there was always a catch with promises of large sums of money. "And what do you demand in return?"

"Autonomy and respect." He looked down on her, not condescending but with a boyish charm that many before him had tried on her, and never worked. "Please, Hawk, defend my plan to the War Council."

"No," she said firmly. "At least not yet. We've trained you all these years to be a warrior, to prepare you to lead an army. But if your plan were to have any chance of success, you must master the art of persuasion and seduction. You'll achieve more if you're considered a leader instead of a usurper."

"I don't want to be liked."

"But don't you want to be a hero?"

She was sure she hit a nerve when Fox cocked his head, his brows frowning attentively. After all these years, he still clung to that preposterous idea. She had him right where she wanted him to be. Behind every Foambrain of a wanna-be King stands a clever woman moulding his fantasies into reality. And that woman would be her.

Queen Hawk.