“Very well then,” Remp said, sounding bored. “Is there anything else I need to know?”

“Nothin’ Marster,” Shackle began. But he never got farther than that.

“Stand where you are! This is the Watch!”

The call came from somewhere near the front of the tent—and of course obeying that order was the very last thing that Remp was going to do. But Mags was no fool, as his children knew very well. They were already on their feet and scrambling out of the way as three Watchmen rushed for the back of the tent, and as Remp ran out a back flap, he ran straight into their arms.

•   •   •

“An’ we got all th’ littles back t’their families,” Mags concluded, as Amily and Perry gathered up the supper dishes and left them outside the door to be collected. “Thet’s what I call a good day’s work. Abi, iff’n ye hadn’t spotted thet all them littles was dressed alike an’ runnin’ a cantin’ crew on th’ same bung nipper, nobody’d have known it was organized. Well done. Perry, you an’ Abi run a fine bait-an’-trap. An’ Larral, good trackin’.”

“Ran roo,” Larral said politely from beneath the table, then went back to gnawing on his bone.

“What’s going to happen to Remp now?” Abi wanted to know.

“That will depend on the King, I think,” said her mother. “Someone as wealthy as Remp shouldn’t be handled by the City Courts. Sedric will probably convene a High Court to try him, so he can’t claim he’s not being judged by a jury of his peers.”

“Is that a good idea, though?” Abi persisted. “Brice said that Remp lends out money to important people so they owe him favors.”

“Then I’ll make sure that every juror has to undergo Truth Spell to ensure that they aren’t among that group,” Amily replied firmly. “The judges too.”

“What about the families of all those littles?” Perry asked. “Are they going to be all right? After all, Remp’s wife and Dudley aren’t being charged, and they own those properties. What if they throw the families out on the street? Or worse, so the younglings can’t testify?”

“I made certain sure t’bring thet up, no worries, Perry,” Mags replied. “They’ll be put somewhere safe.”

“I wouldn’t put it past Dudley to hire thugs to silence them,” Abi said darkly. “He’s worse than his father.”

Mags looked at her oddly for a moment, then nodded. “Yer Mama’ll make sure th’ King knows thet.”

“Well, what I want to know,” Perry interjected. “Is what else you have for us to do at the Fair!”

7

Amily came in to the family dinner late and looking resigned. “Well,” she said as she sat down, “it seems we are not finished with Fenris Remp quite yet.”

Mags put his fork down. “What happen’d?”

“It appears that more people than I would have suspected owe him money, and he has been putting pressure on all of them to somehow get the charges against him dismissed,” she replied. “It won’t happen, of course. He was running a criminal enterprise. But this is making things very complicated.”