Shadow of the Father

Yilon, a young fox noble resents his assignment to the remote mountain kingdom of Dewanne to be their Lord, but thinks that bringing his best friend Sinch will help him feel more at home. Problem is, his best friend is a mouse. While foxes, mice, and other species live in harmony in the capital city, mice in Dewanne are an underclass, forced to live in a slum outside the city. Upon his arrival, Yilon and Sinch are separated, and this is the last straw. The young fox conceives a plan to get himself sent back home: he will "lose" a sacred relic, proving himself unfit to rule. His plan works--too well. The loss of the relic is blamed on the mice, bringing the city to the brink of war. To make matters worse (from his perspective), the Lady Regent insists he stay to clean up his mess, even though the palace steward agrees that Yilon should be sent home, and a mysterious enemy has decided that Yilon should be sent on to the next world. The simplest way out of this for Yilon would be to return the relic. Unfortunately, the only person who knows where it is is Sinch. And he's on the run from killers, too.