While we waited for some clothes for the king, Cat did his sleight-of-hand trick with his glass eyes, leaving his poor father gaping. After that, the Black Cat hunting party plus Willam found their rooms upstairs. Cat was tired enough to fail at walking but energetic enough that he was grumpy when Owl carried him up the stairs. It didn't help that Owl teased him about it. That left the five grown-ups sitting around the front sitting room of the Bishop's Palace in relative quiet.

The event of the Elven King and the King of Nordweg sitting in the same room sharing chit-chat was one of those improbable events presaging the end of the world as we know it, or at the very least heralded a new age of history. Given the bitterness of the last war with the Elves, it was nothing short of a miracle. Uncle Sven and Storm Eagle had to pry Duke Valgard and Uncle Proud Elk apart before they ended up in a fist fight. That was a little tense but when the two old warriors resisted words of tact, Father Garshom conjured a torrent of cold water to fall on both of them. They behaved after that. It took two days to dry out the carpets.

Then King Stephano made his peace with Storm Eagle.

"To be truthful," Stephano eyed the soaking wet Proud Elk and Duke Valgard, "I can't make up my mind whether to be angry with you or not. I was looking at my son Andray just now and I can barely recognize him from the wreckage of the boy who barely survived that terrible fire. He's amazing and most important, he looks like he's happy. Happiness is a rare commodity for a royal."

"Your boy is a good egg, Stephano," Storm Eagle stretched out his long legs. "Fuzzy rescued him from the men hired to murder him. My daughter found the two of them living in a cave at the base of the Great Escarpment. She brought them to Elvenhome and I adopted your boy, so he would at least have a safe place to grow up. I'm not going to apologize for snatching your heir. He wasn't able to defend himself when he was 12. Now at the age of 16, he could easily take out a small army on his own. What I don't understand is why you didn't have him trained as a mage. It would have been a good move for a prince with just one leg."

"Ah, that," Stephano shook his head. "Well, it's too late now because he is a mage, and the prophecy that the Hermitess of the Shrine at Zill proclaimed at Andray's birth came to pass despite our trying to prevent it."

"There was a prophecy and you tried to stop destiny from happening?" Storm Eagle gave Stephano a look of disbelief. "You know that never works."

Stephano sighed, "Yeah, I should have known better."

The pause of silence that followed eventually eroded Storm Eagle's patience, "well, out with it, you miserable round ear of a king. What was the prophecy?"

Stephano grinned at his little victory, and then his face grew grim. "At Andray's birth, the Hermitess said that Andray would be a great mage; however, half of the royal women of Nordweg would perish, a quarter would come to a bad end, and the remainder would face a terrible grief."

"Ouch," Storm Eagle looked at Stephano with a look of sympathy.

"I know," Stephano sighed. "My beloved Eleanor died of the Sweating Fever. My eldest child Sophie died protecting Andray from the fire that killed her. My sweet Griselda, who I thought would mend the hole in my heart and be a good mother to my two orphaned children, fooled me down to my toes with a vile betrayal. And my youngest daughter has lived a nightmare under Griselda's damaging care, and now must watch her mother be condemned for treason."

"So you thought that if you kept Andray away from magic, you could duck the foretold fate," Storm Eagle just shook his head. "Prophesies are terrible things, Stephano, and you can't outrun the real ones."

All this time I had been lying on the floor, so tired I didn't even want to go up the stairs. I think I was waiting for Owl to come and take me to wherever my boy was sleeping because I knew Cat would say something about it and Owl would come and get me. In the meanwhile, I was content to eavesdrop. I found the whole prophecy thing interesting and it answered the questions I had after hearing Duke Sven mention it back when we were traveling to Whiffleblatt together.

"Are you asleep, Fuzzy?" Storm Eagle asked. I heard people walk into the room. I hoped Owl was one of them.

* Yes, I am definitely asleep. *

"Hungry at all?"

* How could I possibly be hungry if I'm asleep, silly elf king? *

"I'm so sorry, Aisha. It looks like you brought those cubes of raw venison in vain. Fuzzy says she's asleep."

"After all the trouble that Deer Foot and I went through to find venison this early in the day," the voice of Aisha with her exotic accent sighed. "Well, Mother Deer Foot, what should we do so the venison won't go to waste? I suppose we could donate the meat to the hospital run by the Order of Matadee's Hands."

I'm not sure how it happened, since I was officially already asleep, but I found myself in front of Suhkeena Aisha with my mouth wide open.

"I thought you were asleep, Fuzzy? Aisha smiled. She wasn't like Cat Rider with her smiles. Aisha's smiles conveyed intrigue and hints of dark conspiracies, secret trysts between forbidden lovers, and wild adventures in stunning but deadly locales.

* I am asleep,* I assured her. * The smell of meat triggers my bad habit of sleepwalking. You can only cure it by feeding me venison.* I opened my mouth wider, hoping for some of that meat.