“We need all the loose stones piled on either side of the break,” Master Padrick said. “And any stones that are still in the wall, but loose, knocked out and added to them. First we’ll need to address why the wall cracked in the first place before we can allow you to repair it.” He looked down his nose at Benjon. “Give the orders, please, then run on ahead of us. We’re going back to the mayor to properly present our credentials, including the petition he signed that brought us here in the first place.”

By now, a crowd had gathered, and although it wasn’t particularly friendly, it seemed that Jicks’s commonsense words had fallen on ears willing to hear them. There was a lot of murmuring, and it looked to Abi as if they were going to get the benefit of the doubt, at least for now.

Benjon got rather red in the face, but he’d had his orders from the mayor, so there wasn’t much he could do. He bustled off, his spine radiating how indignant he was.

Abi and the other three Masters prowled around the ruined wall, but she saw Padrick was right. There really wasn’t much they could do until they uncovered the site of the original problem.

“And this is something you will encounter constantly as a Master,” Padrick sighed to Beyrn and Abi. “People who are taken in by charlatans who promise to do something free or very cheaply. Then they come wailing to you when disaster strikes.”

“I think there’s more to it than that,” Stev said, glancing over his shoulder at the crowd that had gathered and still had not dispersed. “The people who did this didn’t ask for money. So why did they do it?”

“That’s not our problem,” Vance said dismissively. “We’re not able to read thoughts—well, all right, you can, Herald, but the rest of us can’t. Our problem is to repair the reputation of Valdemar, fix the original problem, and get these people rebuilding their bloody wall.”

But Abi didn’t agree with him that it wasn’t their problem, and from the look she got from Stev, neither did he.

•   •   •

Credentials presented and sheepishly accepted, crew assigned to move the stones, they accepted quarters in the massive building that was both the Town Hall and the Guild Hall for every guild in the town. Abi found herself paired with Jicks, sharing a smallish room that at least had two separate beds. And it was going to be nice to be in a bed that she didn’t have to curl herself up in to fit.