The third class of the morning added a couple of Herald Trainees to the mix; Abi vaguely knew them, and they gave her quick nods of recognition as they took their seats. Then it was time for lunch. She thought about approaching one or more of her classmates—but no. Not just yet, anyway. Let them get used to me, to the idea of me being one of them. Maybe let some of them come to me first.

Besides, she was starving. She spotted Kat and Trey immediately when she entered the dining hall; they spotted her at the same time, and waved at her. She wove her way through the crowd, and found herself sandwiched between them, being plied with food and what was evidently a burning question.

“Did you really break Dudley Remp’s finger?” Kat asked, half laughing as she passed Abi the bowl of cooked cabbage and bacon.

“If he’s a particularly repugnant blond bully who likes to put his hands where they shouldn’t be, yes,” she said tightly, willing herself not to give in to the anger she really wanted to feel. “Good luck him proving it, though. No one saw me. Or him, for that matter. He took advantage of the crowd at the door to make a grab for my chest. I did the same to apply Master Leandro’s little-finger hold—and then I went all the way with it.” She gave both of them a warning look. “If anyone but a teacher or a Herald asks, though, you don’t know anything. And if anyone but a Herald asks me, I’m going to say there was a lot of jostling, I thought I felt someone pawing my chest, and I swatted the hand away and didn’t think anything more about it. Accidents happen in crowds.” She helped herself to pickled beets. “And he’s lucky he didn’t try to grab for anything lower. I’d have broken his whole gods-bedamned hand for him, and the wrist with it.”

Kat stuffed her hand into her mouth to keep from laughing. Trey, however, looked serious. “Master Remp is very wealthy,” he said, with a warning tone in his voice. “And what he wants, he generally gets. He owns a lot of property in Haven, and he rents it out, then lends the money he gets to powerful people. That’s where he gets his fortune.”

But Kat snorted. “He’s a skinflinted landlord is what he is,” she said. “He may own a lot of property, but most of it is in the poorest parts of Haven, where he’ll neglect his buildings, knowing that if he doesn’t make repairs, eventually the tenants will do it for him for free.”