“Sit down,” said the dean without preamble. “I have only a few minutes now, and I need to tell you about our problems.”

“Do you think you could have a demon here?” I asked cautiously. I had been wondering what would be serious enough to make Joachim call me.

“Of course not,” he said with a faint smile, about all he ever allowed himself. “Would a priest ask for help from a wizard against the supernatural? I think the problem’s natural, but it’s magic.”

I was fine as long as I stayed away from the supernatural battle between angels and demons. “So you think someone’s practicing renegade magic?”

“That seems the most likely explanation. Construction on the new cathedral goes well during the day, but something happens at night. The watchmen have seen lights, even what looks like a flame flickering on the new tower. In the morning, the workmen sometimes find material moved around, stones, scaffolding, things no one should be able to move unaided.”

“The Romneys,” I said. “It must have something to do with what the Romney children saw.”

He nodded slowly. “Several members of the cathedral chapter have thought it was the Romneys’ doing. You must have seen them as you came in-are they capable of casting powerful spells?”

“Not the Romneys themselves. But I talked briefly to some of the children-I even made them an illusory dragon-and they seemed disappointed in my illusions. They hinted they had recently seen someone else doing much more powerful magic.”

“This band has been camped outside the walls for about six weeks. The bishop, the city mayor, and the constable of the castle have all been unhappy about having them there, but they do not hurt anyone so there has been no reason to drive them away.”

“What is it,” I said, “maybe ten years since the Romneys first started to appear in the western kingdoms? I wonder where they were before then.”