“What did the innkeeper do?” Elodie asked.
“He took the rod to me.”
She wasn’t sure the punishment had been perfect. Did it have to be so harsh?
Master Tuomo barked a sharp laugh and stood. “You’re better for it. My sons are fine young men because of the rod.” He returned to examining the books.
Elodie thought, How much do you truly care about your children? Might you steal the Replica and not worry about their safety?
Bees entered the great hall, the ones whom the high brunka had trusted to search the chambers. Elodie’s belly hoped they were coming for the midday meal.
An idea stunned her. What if Master Tuomo had told his sons to leave Zertrum after he had departed with Master Uwald? Masteress, did you think of this? His alarm might be nothing but pretense. When she’d first learned to mansion, Albin had taught her to feign fright and anger before letting her attempt anything else. There had been nothing to it.
Ludda-bee, holding a wooden spoon, entered the great hall. Another bee trailed behind her.
High Brunka Marya clapped her hands. “Come, everyone, the entire swarm of you. You, too, you herd of guests.”
Had she deduced where the Replica was?
Master Tuomo led Master Robbie and Elodie. Mistress Sirka followed more slowly. At the high brunka’s stool, the bees, except those guarding the doors, had already gathered. Master Uwald and Albin approached from across the room to stand with Elodie and Master Robbie.
“Dears,” High Brunka Marya began, “I’ve decided. I cannot apologize because this is right.”
“Apologize for what?” Master Tuomo sounded angry already.
“The thief or thieves—Masteress Meenore believes there may be two—is thinking . . .” Her soft voice hardened. “You . . . Thief, thieves, I’m addressing you. You are thinking that after Zertrum explodes, the danger will be over for you. You expect I’ll give up and let everyone go.”
“I’ll never give up,” Master Tuomo said.
Albin frowned. “None of us will.”
“Good. Then you won’t mind that no one will leave the Oase until the Replica is found and the thieves revealed, no matter how long it takes.”
“Preposterous!” burst from Master Tuomo.
“Reasonable, and as certain as snow in the mountains.” She waved the bees at the entrance away from it and jerked her arm. A rainbow arched from her hand to the entrance and sealed the door in many-colored light. The rainbow dissolved, but the door rainbow glow remained.
Elodie remembered how the rainbow had stung her hand. She doubted she could thrust her whole body through.
“Marya!” Ludda-bee cried. “We won’t live even a month without provisions.”
“Outside bees will bring us food. I’ll let them in and out. I’ll stay with you, because”—High Brunka Marya’s voice faltered—“I deserve to suffer as much as anyone.”
Elodie thought, I came after the theft. How can I be a mansioner or a dragon’s assistant from prison? It isn’t fair to treat everyone the same.
Mistress Sirka chuckled. “Not suffering for all of us.”
“I make an exception only for the kidlings.” The high brunka smiled a tight smile at Elodie and Master Robbie. “They may leave with the first bees to bring provisions. The rest of us are prisoners of the Oase. I may fail to find the Replica in time—a great defeat. But I will not fail to punish the thief, even if we have to die here.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
By noon a tired Masteress Meenore reached the stone house with the two chimneys and found it uninhabited. IT rose into the air again, seeking a brunka who could be anywhere or an ogre who could be anywhere and any beast.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
A stunned silence fell.
Observe! Elodie thought.
Master Uwald’s eyebrows were raised. He wagged his head from side to side as if he were considering a wager. But he seemed calm as ever, contrasted with Master Tuomo, whose face had mottled a dangerous red and white and whose eyes switched from the entry door to the windows high in the wall, too high to reach even standing on a table.
High Brunka Marya saw, too. “Master Tuomo, dear, if you’re imagining breaking out, you won’t succeed. You know how a rainbow tingles and stings. You won’t be able to go through, not even if you ram the door with something. The pain will be too great.”
“My sons!”
“You’ll get news of them. If the Replica isn’t found, they can visit you here.”
Ludda-bee announced, “It’s nothing to me.” Followed by another bee, she marched back toward the kitchen, passing Johan-bee, who was rocking more rapidly than usual. She jogged his elbow. “You look like a sea horse, you booby.” She disappeared into the kitchen.
A red-faced Johan-bee changed to shifting from side to side, foot to foot.
Albin whispered to Elodie, “The Replica will be found. Don’t worry.”
But she couldn’t help it. They both knew her parents’ Potluck Farm depended almost as much on him as on her father. If he were held here, the farm would fail.
He pressed a roll into her hand. “I saved this for you from breakfast.”
How thoughtful he was. She took a bite.
Dror-bee said, “You mean I won’t be allowed to help farmers in the spring?”
“I hope we’ll find the thief long before then, but otherwise, you will not.”
His voice rising, he added, “But that’s the joy in being a bee, the only joy. That’s what I delight in.”
“I know, pup.”
Mistress Sirka, always hovering, put an arm around his shoulder, and for once he let her, even leaned into her.
After another minute, bees and guests returned to their appointed tasks, except for Master Uwald, who lingered. He folded his arms and said nothing.
Elodie stayed to see what would happen. Master Robbie stayed, too.
The high brunka smiled. “Am I to be afraid, Master Uwald?”
“You may be whatever you like.”
Elodie hadn’t seen him angry before. His fury was cold, the frost evident in a whiteness around his nostrils and in the pinched lines between his eyebrows.
“I am Master Robbie’s guardian. I cannot care for him if he leaves and I stay.”
“You’d like to imprison him?”
“I will not be offered an impossible choice, a bet I cannot win.”
High Brunka Marya seemed to soften. “I’m sorry, dear.”
How strange for Master Robbie to be so loved by a man who was almost a stranger.
Master Robbie clenched the hand holding his cloak closed. He felt her eyes and shook his head at her. Poor Master Uwald, she thought, unloved again.
“Then you’ll let us go,” Master Uwald said.
“No.”
“You can’t think I’m the thief.”
“I can’t let you go and keep the others.”
“You can. I’m Master Uwald of Nockess Farm, Marya. They’ll understand.”
Elodie thought they probably would. The owner of Nockess Farm was above everyone else.
He went on. “I’ll make sure Tuomo’s sons are safe and come back here.”
“You’re staying, Master Uwald, dear.”
The chill fairly glittered. “The earl will be told you’re holding me. You’ll regret this.”
“I’ll never regret anything as much as letting the Replica be stolen.”
Master Uwald stalked away, but he stopped to pat Master Robbie’s shoulder. “Don’t fret. This isn’t the end.”
Deeter-bee shuffled to the high brunka. While Elodie watched his slow approach, she decided IT would approve the high brunka’s measure. She imagined IT saying, High Brunka Marya is roiling the murky depths of this theft and may force the thief to the surface.
Deeter-bee arrived. “Marya, if you keep this up, you’ll interrupt history. Events won’t progress as they’re meant to.”
“I won’t let the villains leave.”
?
??If you let them go, they’ll be more likely to reveal themselves. You may catch them recovering the Replica or selling it.”
“They may evade us for years. I don’t want them to have a minute of enjoyment.”
Elodie wondered if Deeter-bee could be the thief—just to make history.
He left the high brunka and made his slow way back to his bench.
Elodie stepped closer to the high brunka.
“You, too, lamb?”
“Is someone taking care of Nesspa and the other beasts?”
Her shoulders relaxed. “Certainly. The bees who searched the stable are caring for them. They’re also searching the area outside. They’ve all been here more than seven years, the most trustworthy, as Masteress Meenore recommended. The Oase has a cottage not far from the stable, which is where they’re sleeping at night.”
Satisfied, Elodie stepped back with Master Robbie to see who else might come forward, but no one did. Feeling bold, she took his hand and tugged him to the southwest corner of the great hall, where they’d be farthest from anyone, although the high brunka would be able to hear them.
“What have we learned?” She shivered and wished for her masteress. “We have to deduce and in—”
“And not be reckless,” he said, teasing her.
She shrugged. “That, too.”
“Why was Master Uwald—er, Grand—so angry now when he wasn’t before? Let’s deduce that.”
Elodie thought the answer obvious. “He doesn’t want to lose you.”
His nose turned pink again. “He knows me as little as I know him.”
Master Robbie probably reminded Master Uwald of his first love. He might imagine he did know his ward. And—this was less admirable—Master Robbie might represent a wager Master Uwald had won in the end, a wager with himself or with his fate.
Master Robbie had his own explanation. “Maybe he thought he could go home after Zertrum explodes. He still owns his land, and he trusts his luck. High Brunka Marya is taking his luck away from him.”
That was possible.
“Good fortune for Mistress Sirka,” Master Robbie said. “She may have years to spend with Dror-bee.”
The two were at the north-wall fireplace, talking. Or Mistress Sirka was talking and Dror-bee was nodding ardently.
Elodie said, “Could she have taken the Replica to make the high brunka imprison them?”
This seemed unlikely to both of them. Master Robbie said, “She couldn’t guess what High Brunka Marya would do.”
Albin, who had been deducing on his own, joined them. “Lady El, the lowly helper, foresees . . .” He abandoned the role of narrator. “Someone is likely to act rashly, perhaps violently, to get out of this jail. It may be the thief or anyone. Keep your distance from them all.”
“In danger from me?” Master Robbie sounded almost as outraged as Master Tuomo.
“From everyone.”
“Not from Master Robbie,” Elodie hastened to say. “My masteress trusts him. And I can’t keep my distance. IT asked us to investigate together.”
“Then I’ll remain with you both. Lady El, sit with me at meals.”
She nodded. She could do that much.
If harm came to her, Masteress Meenore would certainly find the thief and would show ITs rage in heat and fire. This idea gave little comfort.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
In early afternoon, His Lordship-as-a-horse swam the icy Fluce River with Widow Fridda and her daughters on his back. The donkey stood on the bank, brayed once, and plunged in, too.
On the other side, they climbed, crossed the road from Zee, and climbed again. After half an hour, a quarter mile above the Fluce, the horse knelt so his charges could dismount on a ledge in front of the caves of Svye Mountain. As they did so, the donkey arrived and began to munch snow a yard from where Goodman Otto and another man stood looking down over the river.
“How lucky you found a horse,” Goodman Otto said. “That ogre didn’t help after all. I’m not surprised.”
The oldest girl began, “He—”
“Hush!” The widow handed her baby to the girl and unloaded the pile of His Lordship’s clothes from the horse’s back. “Girls, close your eyes.”
The horse vibrated. After a minute, Count Jonty Um donned his homespun tunic, cloak, and boots. Goodman Otto had the grace to blush.
The twins and the three-year-old hurried to him and hugged his legs.
The older girl smiled shyly. “He saved us.”
Fee fi! His Lordship thought of becoming the monkey for happiness.
“I’m sure we’re grateful, Your Countship.” Goodman Otto touched the hood of his cloak in a gesture of respect.
“Grateful!” Widow Fridda picked up her satchels. “Grateful is a pebble. We owe him a boulder, a mountain all to himself.” Her grim face softened; her lip trembled; her eyes were wet. “Arnulf’s bees are nothing to him for aid.”
The bolder twin added, “There never was a nicer horse.”
“Are any bees in the nearest cave?” His Lordship tilted his head at it. The opening draped too low for him to enter without crawling.
“They went back to help others.”
The man who hadn’t spoken blurted out, “My brother! Sir . . . I couldn’t bring him. He’s mad and fought me off. The bees won’t be able to handle him. He’ll die unless you can get him.”
“Where is he?”
“It’s not far, not even a quarter way up the mountain.” The man gave him detailed instructions. “You’ll know him. He’s raving.”
His Lordship didn’t hesitate. Too late now, with the mountain so close to exploding, to fly to the Oase. Meenore, he thought, it’s all up to you.
“Wait!” The widow rummaged in one of her sacks. “Here.” She held a loaf of bread out to him. “Take care!”
His Lordship took the loaf and smiled his sweet smile, which caused the widow to blush. He began the descent to the river, devouring the bread as he went. On the riverbank, he stripped and waded in, holding his clothing over his head. Fee fi! The water was cold.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Masteress Meenore found Brunka Arnulf helping an aged couple into a sledge harnessed to an underfed donkey. Zertrum rumbled steadily beneath ITs claws.
The old people cried out in terror at the sight of IT, and the frightened donkey strained against its traces, beginning its slow progress downhill, the skis of the sledge scraping, bumping, and only occasionally gliding.
Brunka Arnulf pushed through the snow to IT. When he came close, he put his hand over his nose.
ITs smoke blued, an embarrassed dragon. “You are unsurprised and not much afraid at the sight of me.”
“It’s a time of marvels. A kindly ogre and now you.”
“What do you know of His Lordship’s whereabouts?”
“You are called Masteress . . .?”
“Meenore. What took place during his visit?”
“I answered his questions, and he flew away. Oh, and I gave him food.”
“Have you seen him since?”
“I repeat: He flew away.”
IT scratched ITs earhole. “You evaded my question, and thus I deduce you have seen him since.”
But the brunka wouldn’t admit to lying. ITs worry mounted that some ill had befallen His Lordship.
“Tell me what you told him.”
Brunka Arnulf ticked the items off on his fingers. “Dror may be angry at his family for sending him away. He’s gone to be a bee at the Oase. The barber-surgeon Mistress Sirka left, too. I was told that he and she were to be wed, but I don’t know the truth of that.”
IT wondered if Dror-bee had been feigning indifference toward her.
“No one here is angry at me or brunkas in general or bees or Zertrum itself. Master Uwald and Master Tuomo and his sons are off the mountain.”
“His sons, too? You are certain of this as unassailable fact?”
“I am.”
Master Tuomo lied about his sons? “You
have told me who the thief is, which His Lordship would have done long ago if he had returned to me. If you delayed him or caused harm to come to him and the mountain spews, the destruction will be on your head.”
Brunka Arnulf raised his eyebrows.
“Yes, on your head.” ITs smoke turned rosy. “On the thief’s head first and yours second, and, should you survive, a dragon’s wrath will be on your entire person, not merely your head.” IT rose in the air and flew south.
Tuomo, IT thought, you can give Elodie mansioning lessons. The smoke trailing behind IT glowed crimson. Did you have an ally? Who?
IT soared on, belching fire.
CHAPTER FORTY
The noon meal had not appeared, but now, midafternoon, Ludda-bee brought a loaded tray out from the kitchen, followed by a bee ringing a bell.
No one moved toward the table.
Clatter! Ludda-bee set down her tray, wrested the bell from her companion, and rang it furiously. “I did not cook for people to fast.”
Six pairs of bees entered through both of the interior doors, coming from their searches of the many chambers of the Oase. Soon everyone was seated. Ludda-bee took the stool at the bottom of the table, facing—a long way away—the high brunka, each of them half a table length from Elodie, who sat between Albin and Master Robbie.
The rainbow colors on the entry door had not diminished. Elodie wondered if her masteress or His Lordship were hungry and imagining a meal such as this, another feast: beets again, these pickled; pottage; bread; a wheel of cheese, of course; hard-boiled eggs rolled in oil and chopped rosemary; dried meats; and a savory bread pudding.
She ignored the lump in her throat and smiled at Albin. “What do you think of Masteress Meenore?”
“I think the heroine had an adventure in Two Castles, and her masteress was part of it.” He helped her to the pudding. “Home will be dull after that. I wonder if she’ll be sorry when we get there.”
“Sorry? I can’t wait.” She whispered in his ear, “But I won’t stay.” Then, in an ordinary voice: “I even miss the geese.”
He squeezed her shoulder. They both knew she hated herding. He’d told her she wasn’t meant for a quiet life.