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When he hears the music, at first, he wonders if he dreams it.

But no. It is real. And it’s so familiar that he aches. It gets clearer. Pipes and drums. It makes him want to dance. It makes him want to…

He recognises what he’s hearing with a wild thump of his heart. He leaps up. And he runs.

He runs uphill in the morning mist and finds himself looking down into a dell. And there, unmistakeable, Copperhead Circus.

It’s beautiful. Tobi’s heart leaps into his throat to see it. It’s like something from a dream. But it’s been less than a year’s turn since this was his home. Less than a year’s turn but so much has happened since he last saw the big marquee, the brightly coloured tents and caravans dotted around, the tattered flags flying in the wind. And the people. Too far away to make out clearly. But the people. People he knows.

His throat is thick with emotion. Tears prickle in his eyes. Home. He is home. Or one of his homes.

He races down the hill, legs moving so fast, slipping out from under him, but he is nimble and does not fall, just stumbles on faster and faster, until he is hurtling downhill.

And then he is amongst it. The colours, the smell of it awakening memories. The voices calling, making ready for the day. Someone somewhere is tuning an instrument. A strange discordant wheezing sound that fills Tobi with joy. He sees the mess tent and races to it. So familiar, like nothing has changed in the half year he’s been gone.

There, sitting at one of the tables outside the tent, is Darvo, in the middle of a crowd of people, all of them are looking at him. Some of them stand up.

Darvo rises too, taller than Tobi remembers, “Prince of Beasts,” he booms, his face cracking into a huge grin as Tobi hurtles into his arms.

Darvo is so big and strong. Tobi thinks he might even be stronger than Harok. The embrace combined with the force with which Tobi careened into him, topples them both to the ground and Tobi finds himself lying on top of Darvo, laughing. Tears on his face.

As if the emotions inside are too big for his body, bursting out of him.

Darvo kisses Tobi’s head, laughing too.

They break apart at the sound of a tight cough above them. Tobi turns his head. And sees Cyrus’s boots.

He looks up, shaking his hair out of his eyes.

Cyrus is looking down at him, arms folded over a neat red jacket, expression pinched. “Beast Tamer,” he says as Tobi scrambles to his feet.

Tobi stands straight as Cyrus looks him up and down. Tobi feels strange. Small in front of Cyrus. Like nothing has really changed. “So you escaped?”

“No. I…” Tobi looks at the faces all around him. Familiar faces. Faces from another life. “I fell in love.”

“You fell…” Cyrus pauses, as if he cannot understand what Tobi just said. He shakes his head as if shaking the thought away. “You look like some kind of forest savage.”

“Cyrus Copperhead,” says a voice behind Tobi.

Tobi turns to the familiar voice as Harok slides an arm around him.

Cyrus swallows visibly. “Your Majesty,” he says in Ambolk. “I trust we are not on your land.”

A pretty girl says, “If we are, I volunteer to be taken as the toll.” She speaks in Ambolk, badly, but her meaning is clear.

Harok laughs. He turns and bows to the girl. “I have no need for another kushir. But thank you.” When he turns his gaze back to Cyrus his tone darkens. “I remember you. I should kill you for defiling my kushir. It is tradition when an Irgo takes a kushir for him to kill any man that kushir has lain with.”

Cyrus goes quite pale. He looks as if he might vomit. “I am sorry. Your Majesty, I did not know.” Tobi is not surprised. Harok sounds quite serious, as if he fully intends to snap Cyrus’s spine. He looks like the fearsome king he is.

But Harok's stern expression breaks. He barks out a laugh and claps Cyrus on the back so hard he almost falls. “But in this case, I will forgive the wrongdoing. In return for you generously allowing us to break our fast with you.”

Cyrus’s voice is still quaking when he says, “Of course, Irgo, of course, please, come this way.”

Places are laid for them at the mess tent. Harok sits beside Darvo and both are served plates of roast meat by Myrtle, as Tobi helps himself to porridge with spices and honey.

He leans close to Harok and says, “Is that true? That an Irgo would kill all a kushir’s previous lovers?”

“It has been. For some Irgos. Your Cyrus Copperhead should be grateful for how you have sweetened me.”