Mags didn’t give them a chance to object, either. In less time than it took to snap her fingers, Abi saw Dudley surrounded by the bright blue glow of the Truth Spell—a glow that was invisible to those inside it but clearly visible to everyone else. Dudley’s carefully groomed hair lay plastered to his scalp with sweat, and drops of perspiration ran down his forehead.

“Now, Dudley,” Mags said, voice soft and emotionless. “What did you tell your friends to do with Abi?”

“I told them to get her pinned between them at the door, where Master couldn’t see her, like we did with Brice a couple of moons ago, so I could teach him a lesson too.” The words came freely, though from the contorted expression on Dudley’s face, he was trying with all his might to keep them from coming out of his mouth.

“And what were you going to do to her?” Mags continued.

“Grab her booby, give it a twist, and show her it’s best not to cross me,” said Dudley. “I knew nobody’d believe her. I do grab boobies all the time, to show girls who’s in charge of them, and nobody believes the girls. When you’re rich, you can do anything, and they just let you.”

Well, this was a lot more than Abi had expected to come pouring out without a more careful examination by her father. She glanced at Master Ketnar, who was listening, slack-jawed with astonishment. She glanced at Dudley’s father—and quickly looked away. The man was in a white-hot rage. And she sensed it was not because of what his son had said but because his son had said it out loud.

“I think that’s sufficient, Herald Mags,” Ketnar said, before Mags could think of another question—as if another question was actually going to be needed at this point. “Master Remp, I have no option but to expel your son. Not only did he attempt to assault a fellow student and lie about it, he confessed to assaulting another. Such behavior has no place here. Please take him and leave. You do, of course, have the option of hiring whatever Master Artificers you choose to tutor him, but he is no longer welcome here on the Hill, and I will instruct the Guard to escort him off if he attempts to pass the Gates in the unlikely event you are tendered an invitation that includes him.”

Remp grabbed Dudley by the upper arm and hauled him bodily out of the room. They had barely cleared the door when the crack of flesh on flesh rang through the hall, there was the sound of a heavy body hitting the wall, and angry whispers. Abi winced. But neither of the adults said or did anything as the sound of two sets of feet, one stumbling, retreated down the hall and, presumably, out of the building.