Heartstone

The Heartstone

The Heartstone is a gift from the Heart, and an important part of the Mistmantle Religion. It is a pink, heart-shaped stone flecked with silver and gold. It can only be held by the true king or priest of Mistmantle. If the Heartstone is held by an ordinary animal or an animal who is not the true ruler or priest, if will drop itself out of the holder's paw.

History

Urchin and the Heartstone

The Heartstone is first mentioned when Brother Fir seeks it for Crispin's coronation. However, Fir knew the Heartstone's weight and feel, so he realizes that something is wrong with it. To test his guess, he let Hope play with it and as it didn't drop out of Hope's paw, Brother Fir declared that the Heartstone had gone missing, and been replaced with a fake, which was presumably made by Aspen and switched by Husk.

Needle puts herself in charge of finding it, partly to take her mind off Urchin's kidnapping. Sepia, Fingal and Hope also join in the search, though their attempts to find it fail.

Eventually, Hope accidently finds it when he is gathering pebbles on the beach and giving them to his friends. It is revealed that the Heartstone was thrown by Husk into basalt that was loaded onto a ship and carried away from Mistmantle, but then it returned on the ship that Urchin comes home to Mistmantle on.