Officially, the Guinea Pig Did It

Your daughter Juniper is nine years old, unbeaten in forty-one consecutive practice swings, and completely unwilling to let a bramble-hob rampaging through the market ruin her morning. Your guinea pig, Sir Reginald, is riding in your satchel, universally beloved, and about to get credit for something he did not do — again. You're the one holding the actual containment ward. Nobody ever notices that part. Captain Vane arrives before the dust settles: four Bramble Deep incidents this week, something stirring the forest, and the Aspirants' Trials — the ones Juniper has been training for her whole short life — exactly fourteen days away. Somewhere in the chaos, a dragon named Emberwing that everyone thinks Sir Reginald slew four years ago is not, technically, dead.