She got up from her desk and moved to the front of the class. This wasn’t as easy as it looked—the model was small, all the pieces were painted the same dun color to hide what they were made of, and the strain in it wasn’t anywhere near as obvious as it had been every other time her Gift had been at work. In fact, she had to slowly move her hand over and around the model before she sensed it, as a very faint unease, so faint she wouldn’t have noticed it if she hadn’t been concentrating. “Here,” she said, pointing to one of the under-supports. “That can’t take more than the weight it’s already carrying.”

Murmurs arose again, this time of surprise, as she went to sit down at her desk again.

The instructor swept all the pieces back into their box. “You all know about the bridge collapse, of course. What isn’t common knowledge is that Abidela was not only there, she is the one that sensed the bridge was about to collapse and helped Herald Trainee Princess Katiana get people off the bridge before it fell. And that is why a place was made for her here, among us.”

Now every one of those boys turned in their seats to stare at her. She licked her lips nervously. She’d never faced this much scrutiny before.

The instructor wasn’t helping; in fact, he stood there with his arms crossed as if he was waiting for her to say something. She swallowed and gave it her best.

“I’ve . . . got some kind of weird Gift nobody ever heard of before. The Princess was running an errand for the Queen, and we’re friends, so I came with her to help.” That sounds a whole lot less pretentious than ‘I came along to guard her,’ which they won’t believe. “My mother’s Companion let me ride him so we wouldn’t stand out as anything other than a couple of Trainees. So when I felt the bridge start to go, he picked that up from me, and told Ka—the Princess and her Companion, and we chased everybody off the bridge before it fell. That’s all.” She shrugged. “Really, it was the Companions that did everything. We just stuck to the saddles like a couple of annoying burrs.”

That got a couple of reluctant smiles.