The swarm of milling noisy bodies around the royal chambers would have announced the king’s miraculous recovery even if Lily hadn’t known firsthand; the news had evidently raced like wildfire through the Court. The bodies scattered when Will, Lily, and Lorre appeared in the hall, no doubt due to the abrupt arrival of two magicians and the king’s half-brother. No one commented on rain-damp hair or the presence of a wide-eyed baby in one of the magicians’ arms; Lily, adjusting that baby-weight, had never thought Merry had much magical talent, but was beginning to reconsider. Merry had seen Lorre before all of them, even in dragon-shape, and stayed calm and interested and quiet, drinking everything in without fuss or complaint.
That’d be a question for the future, though; they were already m
