Elodie blinked back tears, but she still thought she’d been right to investigate.
ITs smoke whitened gradually. “Tell me what you discovered.”
She shrugged. “Not so much.”
“Do not compound your error by wasting it.”
“I wouldn’t even have looked in Albin’s room if I had known it was his. I found a silver. A silver!”
“If you were determined to pry, you were correct to pry everywhere.”
“He shouldn’t have a silver!”
“I will keep his wealth in mind. It is suggestive, but he may have obtained the coin quite recently and reasonably. You must ask him.”
“But he’ll know how I know.” And feel hurt.
“Injured feelings are of no concern to us. We will not be able to evaluate the significance of the silver until we understand how he came by it. Come, Lodie. He is your friend. If he is innocent, I suppose you would like him to continue in that capacity.”
“I trusted him!”
ITs tone softened. “Perhaps you still may. His answer will reveal whether or not you can. What else?”
“Master Uwald, for all his just-so looks, scatters his things hither and yon. He is beyond untidy. Master Robbie, the reverse. His bed was neatly made.”
“Master Robbie is unaccustomed to servants.”
She whispered, “Master Robbie keeps a long knife under his pillow.”
“He feels endangered. I pity him. I suggest you confess to Master Robbie, too.”
“I can’t!”
“I am embarrassed for you.”
She swallowed hard.
“You must. Of all the humans here, I have determined he alone merits our trust. We should deserve his.”
She nodded, dreading his return.
“What else did you find?”
“Master Tuomo’s chamber was in order. He plays the lute.”
“Did you hear him play it?”
“No, but he brought it with him.”
“Likely he plays it, but assume nothing.”
“Yes, Masteress.”
Master Robbie returned with Nesspa. “He ate snow!”
The dog nuzzled Elodie, making her skirt wet. She felt undeserving of even his affection. He trotted off toward the back of the stable.
“Lodie?”
She confessed to Master Robbie, although she didn’t mention the knife, just that she’d been in their chamber.
His lips formed a thin, angry line. He looked away from her and said nothing.
She wished she knew what he was thinking.
“Mistress Sirka’s room, Lodie?”
“I didn’t have time to go in.”
“I’ve been there.” Master Robbie took his place on the stool again. He still avoided Elodie’s eyes.
They waited expectantly.
“She and I played queets in the great hall. Granduncle staked me with three coppers, and I won every game. I saw she hated to give me her coins, and I wanted to see a barber-surgeon’s tools, so she paid me by showing me.”
How kind of him, Elodie thought.
“If not for Nockess Farm, I’d want to be a barber-surgeon. A barber-surgeon travels. He takes people’s pain away.” He met Elodie’s eyes, and his face was no longer angry.
She let out a long breath.
“Sometimes he saves their lives. Even when he just cuts hair, people look better when he’s done. I still think it’s the best thing to be.”
Instead, he’d have to be a rich man.
IT scratched along ITs neck. “I believe fleas have made their wretched home under my scales. Master Robbie, what did you see in her chamber?”
“Her thumb-lancet has three blades. She said some have nine.”
Why, Elodie wondered, would anyone need nine ways to bleed people?
“Her pelican has a polished wooden handle. The rest is iron.” He pointed at a front tooth. “She showed me how she puts the claw over the tooth to pull it.”
Elodie hoped never to need the dreaded pelican.
“The dragon tooth,” IT said with a self-satisfied air, “is impervious to rot. Did you see anything that may have bearing on the theft?”
“I don’t know. She showed me a love bolus and said she meant to drop it into Dror-bee’s pottage. I don’t know if she has yet.”
“How curious that she announced her intention. Be so kind as to tell us what was in this pellet, if she told you. Elodie has an extensive knowledge of poisons.”
Master Robbie grinned. “Really? Poisons?”
She nodded and didn’t explain that anyone who lived on a farm knew the ordinary poisons, and anyone who read the mansioners’ plays learned the exotic ones. Let him admire her.
He recited, “She said it contained hawthorn, southernwood, sage, dried rose petals, and silverweed.”
“Master Robbie paid attention, Lodie. Perhaps he foresaw a use for his own ends.”
They both blushed.
“Common herbs,” Elodie said. “Not poisonous. I don’t know why they’d make a person love someone.”
“Perhaps it is in the combination. She had other herbs, did she not, Master Robbie?”
“She had a sack full of little packets wrapped in burlap. She didn’t say what they were.”
“Keep this in mind when you return, both of you.”
“You’re not coming, too, Masteress?” Master Robbie asked.
IT didn’t answer. “My interviews yielded little. The so-called historian was as unrevealing as a clam. See if you can get more from him. The sugary Ursa-bee and the lumpish Johan-bee admitted to leaving their posts at the same time.”
“Lambs and calves!”
“Whales and porpoises!”
IT continued calmly. “Johan-bee frequently visits the privy and remains there interminably, attested to by all the bees I spoke with. Ursa-bee heard weeping, which she was unable to resist. That was likely the handkerchief you so ably mansioned, Lodie.”
“Thank you.”
“Johan-bee and Ursa-bee were the only two who confessed to abandoning their station, but others may have as well. Everyone was exceedingly lax, as if a theft could never occur.”
“After they returned,” Elodie said, “did Johan-bee and Ursa-bee look to see if the Replica was gone?”
“They did, and the Replica remained. We know then, at the very least, that at that time, the morning before the blizzard, the Replica still stood where it was supposed to—”
“Unless . . .” Master Robbie said.
Elodie stiffened.
ITs smoke reddened. “Do not interrupt me, boy.”
“Beg pardon!”
“Granted. I hope you have something important to contribute.”
“Unless there was a replica of the Replica that could have tricked them.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Silence fell.
After a minute, Masteress Meenore said, “This boy has an original mind, Lodie.”
Master Robbie fairly glowed.
Elodie felt a pinprick of jealousy. Which was better, she wondered, penetrating or original? “The recess in the chimney is darker than the rest of the room,” Elodie conceded. “There are no glowworms in the hiding place. A person could be fooled.”
IT blew green smoke, signifying dragon confusion. “A new possibility when there already are too many. Master Robbie, you have wandered the corridors of the Oase since your arrival, have you not?”
“Sometimes.”
“Can you incise in the dirt a map of the corridors around High Brunka Marya’s room? Include the chambers there, and do not omit either the storage area or the garderobe to which Johan-bee was wont to retire.”
Master Robbie fetched a coal brazier poker and crouched to scratch lines in the dirt of the stable floor. While he worked, Elodie strained her ears for any sound that might mean His Lordship’s return.
ITs smoke grayed. “Lodie, why do you think I have no difficulty deciphering the lines of a map and yet cannot make out a
single letter in a word?”
The tragedy of ITs life lay in ITs inability to read.
If they’d been alone, she’d have ventured to pet ITs leg. “I don’t know, Masteress.”
Master Robbie stood and backed away.
“Mmm. Fascinating. Mmm.” IT was silent. “Mmm.” More silence. “Listen well. If the thief, who, naturally, knew where the Replica was hidden, had merely picked the lock of the storage area—”
“Masteress—”
“Do not interrupt your betters, Lodie. What did you want to say?”
“I forgot to tell you—”
IT glared at her.
“The high brunka said the lock was made on the mainland and can’t be picked.”
“There is no lock that may not be picked unless a spell has been put on it, and perhaps one was. This lock may merely be difficult to pick, a lengthy endeavor, which the thief would wish to avoid. We will theorize along other lines. Assist me in my reasoning.”
Elodie knew from experience that IT wanted no assistance.
“If the Replica was an imitation, why not leave it there? But the recess was empty when you saw it, Lodie, yes?”
She nodded.
“Regrettably, you have not added anything to our deliberations, Master Robbie.”
“I’m sorry. I—”
“However, I admire your ingenuity. I continue my reasoning: When Ursa-bee said she and Johan-bee had verified that the Replica was still in its place, I suspected that the thief was concealed in the chamber with the two of them, but the storage room offers an even better hiding place. Let us assume then that the theft happened on their watch, and the blizzard frustrated escape. Master Robbie, your—”
“If that’s when it happened, that’s good, isn’t—”
“You have interrupted me again, Lodie.” IT sighed elaborately. “Yes. The later the better, although the urgency has hardly diminished. Master Robbie, your request to see the Replica again brought the theft to light. We may assume that the thief, or thieves—”
“Thieves, Masteress?”
“I will get to that, Lodie. The thief—or thieves—is alarmed, and frightened people may be deadly. Be sure to tell the high brunka that. Say deadly.”
She reminded IT, “Thieves?”
“A single thief may have done it. A pair would be more certain of success. The bees know Johan-bee’s routine, and the guests and the barber-surgeon do as well, do they not, Master Robbie?”
He nodded.
“When Johan-bee has left for the privy . . . But how does the thief know the precise moment he leaves? Although Ursa-bee said he often goes shortly before the end of a watch, this would have to be timed with exactitude.”
“The thief is nearby, listening?” Master Robbie suggested. “Johan-bee has a heavy step.”
“And the rushes make noise when anyone but a brunka walks.”
“True. The wretch places the handkerchief’s box in one of these rooms, most likely this one . . .”—IT tapped a room on Master Robbie’s map—“concealed in some way. The thief opens the box and touches the handkerchief. The weeping begins, but softly, allowing him or her time to exit, leaving the door a little ajar so the weeping may be heard. The villain rushes along this route”—a talon traced a path along the corridor that ran parallel to the one that led to the high brunka’s room—“passes the closed door of the garderobe, turns right, then left. The way is long but achievable. He or she hastens through the high brunka’s chamber into the storage room and waits for Johan-bee and Ursa-bee to come and go. The scoundrel then takes the Replica and exits through the storage room door to the corridor. If someone is in the corridor, the scheme fails. But the corridor is rarely traveled. The risk is small. The thief then retrieves the handkerchief and spirits it away, I know not where.”
“Oh,” Master Robbie breathed. “I can picture it.”
“But,” Elodie said, “if Johan-bee is quicker than usual, the villain is caught. I see why two are better.” With mounting excitement, she continued. “If the thief has a partner, the first thief can put the handkerchief here”—she touched a different room—“and turn into one of these side passageways. Thief two can wait here.” She pointed at the corridor IT had said the thief would have to dash through, near the turn that led to the privy. “Thief two—”
Master Robbie broke in. “Thief two has a shorter distance to travel to reach the high brunka’s room. But who are they?”
IT blew gray smoke. “Everyone has a motive to steal an item that is worth a great deal. Even the already rich are not exempt; they may want more. I am at a loss.”
Elodie had never heard IT say such a thing before.
“When you return, do not waste your energy searching shelves and cabinets. Let others do it, because it must be done, but these thieves are too cunning to have hidden the Replica there. Why is that? Think, Lodie! Think, Master Robbie!”
His face wore a strained look, which Elodie recognized.
Think! she thought. Prove I have an original mind, too! Ah. “Because the thieves couldn’t guess where the searchers would look first. Anyone might stumble on the Replica just by luck.”
“Excellent, Elodie.”
Elodie!
“But . . .” Master Robbie hesitated. “If it isn’t in the Oase, where is it? Outside is big.”
“Indeed. I do not say the Replica is outside. It is equally likely to be in or out, but we will find it most quickly through reason. Continue to deduce and induce and use your common sense, both of you. The thieves and the hiding place are twined together. We have uncovered the method. The motive is greed.”
Quoting the puppet, Elodie said, “‘Expectation misleads.’ Perhaps the motive isn’t greed. Maybe there’s another explanation.” She felt silly. “Something inside the Replica? Something it can do?”
IT lifted ITself off ITs belly. “Doubtful. Lacking in common sense.”
Elodie blushed.
“But there may be an additional motive: rage, for example. Dror-bee has reason to be angry at his family for sending him away. Mistress Sirka may be angry, too. Her beloved is a bee because of the family. I suspect the two of a connection before they arrived here. Neither, however, professes to know where the Replica was kept nor has the means to purchase the information. Nonetheless, they are still possible thieves.”
Elodie asked, “Do we know what people did after Ursa-bee and Johan-bee’s watch and before the blizzard?”
“A useful question. Ursa-bee said that she and carping Ludda-bee as well as lumpish Johan-bee, after he returned from the garderobe yet again, dug up the last of the season’s beets.”
Master Robbie said, “A few bees also go out every morning to feed and water the beasts in the stable. One of them milks the goats. Master Tuomo stepped out after the snow began to watch the storm.”
ITs gray smoke darkened. “We have too many possible villains, including even your Albin, Lodie. I had hoped for His Lordship’s information to help me reduce the number.”
“Do you think something terrible has happened to him?”
IT never sweetened the truth. “I am resolved to find out. Shortly I will leave you.”
Then both her friends would be in danger. Elodie ground her teeth to keep from begging IT not to go.
“The danger to me is slight, Lodie. Fire cannot harm me, and I can rise above a rockslide. If I must, I will lift His Lordship out of danger.”
Elodie suspected that IT had an exaggerated idea of ITs strength.
“My fear is more for you. You may trust Master Robbie—”
“At your service.”
“Do not interrupt. You may trust him because he revealed the theft.”
Master Robbie bowed from the waist, a deep bow, much more respectful than the slight obeisance he’d given Elodie.
IT continued. “You may also trust the high brunka, who cannot gain by the theft. Share our discussion with her. When I am gone, she will be the only one holding back chaos. Help her however you
can.”
They both nodded. IT waddled to the stable door. Master Robbie jumped out of the way of ITs tail. The two followed IT outside, where a cold day had descended into frigid darkness.
“Lodie, sleep tonight. Master Robbie as well. The thief or thieves cannot leave, and you need your faculties. Lodie, consult with Master Robbie as I have consulted with you both.”
That is, not at all, Elodie thought.
Master Robbie dared to say, “You’d like her to discuss her ideas with me?”
“I would. Discuss yours with her as well. If your deducing and inducing lead you to the miscreants, apply common sense before you proceed. Master Robbie: Lodie may act hastily and without thought for consequences—in a word, recklessly. Restrain her for both our sakes.”
Elodie protested. “Masteress, I’m not—”
“To their faces, you called a cruel king cruel and an enormous ogre—before you knew his kind heart—unfair. You thrust your hand into the high brunka’s rainbow.”
“But—”
“Farewell.” IT leaped into the air; ITs wings caught the wind; IT beat ITs way north.
Elodie shivered against the loss of ITs warmth. Fly swiftly. Take care. Stay safe. Hurry back.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“These will do.” His Lordship stood in boots of a sort, a rough tunic, and an equally rough hooded cloak. “Thank you.”
Hours earlier, in midafternoon, Brunka Arnulf had told Goodman Otto, the hunter who’d shot the count, to ride to the nearest cottage for cloth to cover the ogre.
As soon as Goodman Otto left, the other men had departed, too, to gather their families and leave the mountain.
“Warn everyone on your way,” Brunka Arnulf said before they started off. He closed his eyes. “The rumbling is louder. Leave your herds and your flocks. There isn’t time.”
Fee fi! The poor beasts.
“Take refuge in the caves of Svye.”
Svye? His Lordship remembered, Bear Is So Zany, No Dogs Lie. Svye would be the mountain just south of Zertrum.
The hunters left.
“Master Count, the closest cottage belongs to Widow Fridda, who has five children. When you are no longer naked, will you help them?”
“Yes.”
He gave directions to the widow’s cottage. “Take them to the caves and then come back. She’ll tell you who else needs aid.” Brunka Arnulf mounted his mule. “Good luck. May the Replica be found.” He flapped the reins and started up the mountain.