Camwyn stared at him. “Aris, if I could call the dragon, that would be by magic, wouldn’t it? And that’s treason.”

Aris scowled. “I never thought of that. I just thought—maybe if you’ve ridden with him, he listens for you, and then it would be his magic, wouldn’t it? I didn’t mean I wanted you to commit treason.”

“That’s good,” Camwyn said, feeling much more mature than Aris. “Because if you did, I’d have to report you to the king, and then you’d be the one doing treason.”

“I didn’t think of that, either,” Aris said. “But anyway, you’re not going to be king. Once the king marries and has children—”

“I don’t want to be king,” Camwyn said. “It’s too much work being king.”

“Will you be Knight-Commander of the Bells?”

“I don’t know. I’ll be whatever the king wants me to be, and he hasn’t said. I don’t think he will until I’ve earned my knighthood.”

“I wish I were your age. You’ll be two years ahead of me whatever I do.”

“It matters less when we’re grown,” Camwyn said. He punched Aris in the shoulder, not too hard. “We’d better get these hauks back to the salle. Have breakfast with me?”

“I can’t,” Aris said. “Page duties. But I’ll be at riding, of course.”

“Good—I’ll see you then.”

Camwyn cleaned up and then went to breakfast with his brother the king—he had a standing invitation now whenever he wasn’t breakfasting with a friend. He had begun to understand Mikeli’s sense of urgency about his education since Beclan’s disgrace—or adventure, as he preferred to think of it.

When Camwyn came into the king’s quarters, he found Mikeli staring at a parchment roll embellished with colored inks and gold leaf.

“You should see this,” Mikeli said. “It’s from the king of Kostandan. He thinks I should marry his daughter Ganlin.”

“I thought Rothlin was interested in her,” Camwyn said, reaching for a hot roll. “He said she seemed to like him.” Then he remembered he’d heard that via Aris, his sister Gwenno, and Beclan, which made it gossip. He stuffed the roll in his mouth.

“Close to the throne isn’t the throne,” Mikeli said. He put the scroll down and picked up a tumbler of juice. “I hate this, you know. Girls are all very well, and I must have a wife, but I understand how Kieri Phelan felt when they pressured him. And now he’s married and happy with it. I suppose I will be.”