:I certainly am. I've got half a dozen servants out here gaping at me.:

:They're not being that obvious about it, but yes—ah, someone's bringing the boy!: Pol heard two sets of footsteps, one lighter and quicker than the other, and stood with a swirl of his cape that he knew would be particularly effective.

A different servant, probably the housekeeper, had brought young Owyn to him. She curtsied with great diffidence and immediately absented herself, leaving Owyn alone and distinctly uncomfortable.

A bookworm, Pol immediately assessed, looking at the ink-stained fingers, the slight stoop of the shoulders from bending over reading, and all the other little signs of the confirmed bibliophile. And a ready target for a bully. Young Owyn was small for his age, with large, dark eyes and curly dark hair. Pol approached Owyn, held out his hand with his warmest smile, and said, 'I am Herald Pol, Master Owyn. I would like you to answer a few questions for me.'

'About what?' Owyn replied, suspicion warring with the fact that he had always been taught that Heralds were to be trusted utterly. The war was visible in his shifting expression, and Pol turned up the sympathy a trifle in his own expression.

'I would like to ask you a few things about Lavan Chitward, and about your school.' He still held Owyn's hand in a firm clasp; he used that now to draw Owyn forward and to one of the two inglenook seats at the hearth. There they could speak without any danger of being overheard.

Owyn sat nervously on the edge of the seat as Pol removed his cloak and hung it over the corner of his, then sat down. 'Lavan was in my class and my Form,' he said, and didn't elaborate.

'I know.' Pol decided to treat the Healer's suppositions as fact and see what information that elicited. He didn't want to use the Truth Spell this early in the game, nor on such a young boy who hadn't, himself, done any wrong. 'I know a great deal about what was going on, in fact. I know that Lavan was being bullied by the Sixth Form boys, I know that they had taken him down to that classroom to beat him, and I know he wasn't the only one, nor the first one, to be bullied and beaten. Was he?'

Owyn's eyes had grown rounder and larger with every word of this recitation, and when Pol concluded his statement, the youngster blurted out, 'You Heralds really do read people's thoughts!'

:Ha!: Satiran said triumphantly.

'No, we don't—not without permission, Owyn,' Pol replied gently. 'Those were all deductions, but I need more facts, if I'm to be able to do anything about what has happened to Lavan, and the situation at your school. I hope that you can help me.'

That opened the floodgate. From what Owyn told him, Pol was very glad that he had gotten to the boy without the presence of the parents, who would either have dismissed what Owyn said completely or try to hush him up. The situation was even more out of hand than the Healer had guessed. The older boys, the biggest bullies, virtually ran the school in all matters except lessons. Pol took copious notes to turn over to the Council, who would probably keep the school intact, since it served a very useful purpose, but would put someone in charge who would see that the money collected from the parents went to the purposes for which it was intended rather than into the Master's purse.

The boy became quite emotional before his recitation was over; small wonder, considering the number of times he'd been humiliated and frightened into submission by what was, essentially, a gang of thugs. Pol hardly dared think what the younglings who had been physically abused would be like.

:Probably in tears,: Satiran observed. :My advice is to take Elenor with you when you interview them.:

Owyn was a keen observer and a good judge of character himself; Pol got a list of those who had been caned, who had been assaulted, and who had had mean-spirited pranks played on them to humiliate them, but he also got an assessment of who would be likely to talk freely and who would have to be supported and reassured.

'But I don't know anything about what happened to Lan,' Owyn said when he had finally run out of everything else he had to say. By this time, the boy was exhausted; venting so much emotion had worn him out, as well it should have! He slumped in his seat, but never took his eyes off Pol's face. 'I was home by the time they found Lan in the classroom.' Once again, conflicting emotions warred on his face, and by now Pol thought he had a good idea what they were.

'You didn't want anyone hurt, but you can't help but feel glad that the worst of that lot is never going to bother you again, right?' he said into the uncomfortable silence.

The boy let out a huge sigh and nodded, looking horribly ashamed and yet defiant.

'Owyn, that's a perfectly natural way for you to feel. I think in your position, I would feel exactly the same way.' He sat up and rubbed his hands, easing a little stiffness in the joints. 'How can you not feel that way? They certainly deserved punishment. One could almost say that they brought their fate on themselves.'

'I didn't—' Owyn stopped, and flushed. Pol nodded.

'You were going to say that you didn't want anyone to die, but you did, didn't you? Of course you did! But you, yourself, would have helped them if you had been there, wouldn't you?'

Again the boy sighed deeply. 'I guess so,' he replied slowly, then repeated, with more assurance, 'yes. I would have.'

'So there you are. You have no reason to feel guilty. But trust me, the adults who were responsible for letting the situation get to this point are going to be made to feel guilty, and acknowledge their guilt, before this is all over.' He stood up, and let that sink in. 'All of the adults, including the ones who wouldn't listen to what their children tried to tell them. And I believe that we—the Heralds —will see that there are some apologies tendered.'

As it dawned on Owyn that Pol meant his own parents would be confronted with the facts in the case, a certain glee crept into his eyes. Pol didn't blame him in the least; how else would a boy react to being told that his parents would have to apologize for not listening to and heeding him?

:It isn't going to do them, or him, any harm,: Satiran observed. :I think we're finished here. I will meet you in the courtyard.:

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