She bit back a retort that this didn’t matter. Because she was wrong. It did matter.

“I see you’ve taken my point. Remember what we Heralds do, besides all the day-to-day business of making sure the Kingdom runs smoothly. We literally save peoples’—our peoples’—lives. If we go interfering in matters that don’t concern us, our people could suffer and die. And I know it’s not fair, but you’re Mags’ daughter. You know there’s no such thing in life as ‘fair.’ But there’s no reason for us to trade ‘unfair’ for ‘worse.’ Sometimes doing your job means knowing when not to do it.” He chuckled dryly. “And technically, every time I would do something on the wrong side of the Border, I’d be violating agreements between the two Kingdoms in question. Vanyel was a legendary Herald, but he was sometimes terrible at the job.”

She hated hearing this. But part of her knew he was absolutely right. She went to bed with her head a complete mess, and only utter exhaustion allowed her to get to sleep.

The last thought before she did fall into a kind of stupor was, I don’t want to do anything from now on but keep my ears open and fix bridges.

•   •   •

The Mage traveled in the wagon with Korlak keeping an eye on him, and they pushed their speed as much as they could. They also progressively lightened the load by giving the hinnies more grain, which meant they needed less time to browse.

When they reached Korlak’s town, they got a new cover for the wagon, Abi left her daggers and Stev’s sword back with the Mage-smith Evelie, and she had a word with Evelie herself about what becoming part of Valdemar would mean to Mages.

They also got rooms in the inn this time. Good ones. And in the morning when they left, Abi saw that Stev had a certain cat-in-the-cream look about him. She cornered him in the stable.

“You’ve heard from Valdemar,” she stated.

He smiled grimly. “Every length of property and every copper belonging to Dudley Remp’s been confiscated, he’s been exiled, and the Border’s been closed to him. He’s stuck here, with only the money he has on him. If he comes back across the Border, he’s got nothing to draw on, and no one will help him. If he’s caught, he’ll be booted back across the Karsite Border, and bad luck to him.” He went back to hitching up the hinnies, and she went back to saddling. It was a good solution. After all, Remp hadn’t managed to kill anyone. And it was a solution that left a better taste in her mouth than the disposition of “Del.”

They caught up with the Masters and Bret and Bart back in Elliston. And that was where Jicks and “Del” parted with them.