"How many children do you have?" Galen says. "They will all get full to the brim today, and love every moment. Even the sensible food before the sweets."

"Lots," the boy Athalwin pipes up. "The kids from over there are here because the grown-ups are fumigating for moths at home -- but the know about the King and the Magic from the Mound, as they're the ones on whose farm the cats first thrived, and they came over when the king was here."

It seems to make sense to him.