“I’ve never heard of Karsites coming this close to Valdemar outside of their own borders,” Jicks mused. “Then again, they haven’t made a major move in . . . years, if not decades.”

Stev and Abi both grimaced. “Well, you wouldn’t,” Abi replied. “And it hasn’t happened in my lifetime, but there’ve been Karsite agents inside Haven in relatively recent memory,” Abi replied. “Not the Mage-priests, though. They can’t handle crossing the Border.”

“Heard about that,” Jicks said laconically. “Makes you wonder what’ll happen to the Mages here if you people extend the Border the way you’re planning.”

Abi grimaced, because that suddenly interrupted her line of reasoning. She hadn’t thought of that, and she knew it was something she should have. What would happen to Steen, Albemarle, Korlak, and Evelie? It didn’t seem at all fair that they’d find themselves driven out of their own homes and businesses because the Kingdom of Valdemar itself, and not the people of Valdemar, didn’t want them there.

“It’s something we hadn’t considered, because we just don’t have Mages,” Stev admitted. “I’ll include that in my report tonight.” He didn’t add that it was difficult even to think of magic inside Valdemar, so it was going to be a bit difficult to get this properly seen to by the Council.

And I’ll nag Kat about it, Abi decided. Kat wanted to solve problems for Valdemar? Here was a very perplexing one for her to solve. And Kat had been exposed to the concept of magic a lot, because of associating with Mags’ family, so she wouldn’t forget.

“So I can think of plenty of reasons why Karse would want to discredit Valdemar,” Jicks continued. “And this is a good, cheap way to do it. Not only will it leave the people in this strip of land angry and disinclined to join your Kingdom, it’ll make your allies think twice about your promises. Karse doesn’t even need to move in here themselves. All they need to do is poison the well.”

“But how did they find out we were here in the first place?” Stev wanted to know. “And find out fast enough to get agents here as soon as we did?”

“It wasn’t a secret,” Abi pointed out. “We rode out openly, and plenty of people saw us go.”

“But it wasn’t well known either.” Stev drummed his fingers on the table. “There’s something we’re missing. I just can’t put my finger on it.”

“Karsite agents in Haven again?” Abi suggested. “All you need is one really good one and a network to relay information quickly.” And father will be turning the air blue with curses to think that he missed catching someone.

“Possible,” Stev admitted grudgingly. “I’d like to think we’re better at winkling them out than that.”