Now Mags turned to face Master Ketnar, his true feelings showing in his expression. “What kind uv a school are you runnin’ here, Ketnar, when a pig like thet c’n run roughshod over weaker students an’ get away with ’t?” he stormed, his cultured manner completely gone as he reverted to the dialect of his childhood in his anger. “I’ve more’n half a mind t’ take all this t’ th’ King his own self and git you and yer Masters thrown outa here! We c’n find other tutors fer th’ classes they was teachin’ here at th’ Collegia!”

But Master Ketnar stood firm in the face of her father’s controlled anger, and he answered it with calm and regret. “You have no reason to believe me, Herald Mags, but I swear to you, there has never been a problem here like this before. But I’ll tell you this much—I am going to think twice and three times before I let someone with more money than ethics talk me into accepting his child in the Artificers college again! Those two friends that Dudley mentioned? They’re going to be expelled as well as soon as I can find out from Morell who they are and summon them here.”

Now he turned to Abi, to her surprise. “Abidela, I apologize for all of this, and I’d like to know what you want. After all, you are the injured party in this entire matter.”

Abi thought about it for a long while. Truth to tell, she didn’t have a hot temper, and her anger had cooled the moment her father had turned up. “I’d like to stay in the classes,” she said, at last. “It’s not as if something like this has happened before that they knew of, so I’d like things to stay the same for the Artificers up here.”

“I’m perfectly willing for you to invoke the Truth Spell on me or any of my instructors, Herald,” Master Ketnar said with immense dignity. Mags nodded.

Abi continued. “I’d like it if you expel those other two bullies, Master Ketnar, and I think you’re going to make sure that no one like them gets in again. And right now, I’d like to go home and start my studying for tomorrow.”

Master Ketnar looked at her father. Mags shrugged. “If that’s what ye want—”

She nodded. “That’s what I want,” she assured him, then gave him a tight smile. “If I let one stupid lout run me off of something I want to do, I’m not my father’s daughter.”

Mags barked a tiny, surprised laugh. She took that as a good sign and left the office.

Let them work out whatever they were going to work out. She had studying to do.

3