This is a very promising start (ending) to your story! I really enjoyed learning about the small kingdom and the people in it, from John scolding his people (but not with malice intended) to the man from the Browne family making shady deals, and I loved the mention of a young teen with his head held high as he hoped to tell his own great story! You've set up an interesting mystery behind who the youth with the wooden wolf head symbol, what his relation to the dying king may have been, just how that king came to be in such a state, and if this is the ending they've reached in their own respective journies - one reaching the end of his life and another carrying on to the next story he may one day tell - I can't wait to see what their beginnings are!

I think I like this part especially, coupled with the description of the aged man who looks more like a corpse. Time isn't waiting for this man calling for Sam, and like our narrator time must keep moving.

I really like how so far this feels like a personal tour through the city! I don't see books often that break the fourth wall to ease a reader into the story's setting, and it gives us a sort of omniscient viewpoint that doesn't feel out of place.