That morning’s practice went badly; he could not keep his mind on the more complicated patterns, and after dropping a hauk the second time—bringing the same angry yeoman-marshal out to scold them—he pleaded bad dreams that had kept him awake and went to breakfast with Mikeli only because Mikeli would expect him. He prayed steadily on the way that his hand would not light up in front of the king.

“What’s wrong?” Mikeli asked the moment the servants withdrew.

“I had dreams,” Camwyn said, and stuffed his mouth with a meat pasty. He nearly choked and had to spit out some of it and quickly drink water.

“Bad dreams?” Mikeli asked. “What about? Not the crown, I hope.” He said it almost as a joke, but Camwyn felt his face heat up. “Cam?”

If only he’d had a big brother who ignored him—or was not the king. “Not exactly,” Camwyn said. “I mean—I had been thinking about it when I went to bed—you said it talked to you, and I wondered how, and if it was a kind of magery, who had put it there—but it wasn’t in the dream, or I don’t think so. I can’t quite remember. Just that I woke up sometimes and it was hard to sleep after.” Which was a lie, and lying was, according to the Code of Gird, wrong, so no wonder he still felt the telltale heat of his face. But what could he do? And maybe his hand had been a dream—the whole thing.

“You’re maturing enough to start dreaming about girls,” Mikeli said. “That can be embarrassing the first time it happens. Finding that in the bed.” He wasn’t looking at Camwyn now. “If that happens, don’t worry about it. It happens to all of us.”

Camwyn felt his blush deepen. It already had happened more than once, and he hadn’t mentioned it to anyone. “So…” he said, hearing his voice waver. “It’s not—it’s normal?”

“Yes. Uncle said if our father had lived, he’d have explained it. He told me and told me to tell you—so now I have. Was it that?”

“I … guess so.” Partly. But he remembered now that magelords sometimes came to their magery about the same time.

“When I was your age, I started needing more sleep,” Mikeli said. “If you need to sleep later, just let me know so they don’t bring breakfast for two. You can tell your tutors—they’ll understand.”

“It was hard to get up this morning,” Camwyn said. He applied himself to a plate of stirred eggs. “And some days it’s hard to concentrate.”

“I know,” Mikeli said. “It was the same for me. You’ll get through this.”