A Tale of Two Castles(56)

South of the castle the hills rippled higher and higher toward the distant mountains. Below us lay pastures and cleared fields and fields that had not yet been harvested. Beyond was forest, evergreen and autumn orange. I wondered if all I saw belonged to His Lordship.

Approaching the forest, IT flew lower, and ITs wing strokes shortened. My ride became bumpy again. I would have fallen if IT hadn’t tilted to save me.

IT landed and ran. I jounced up and down but, luckily, not sideways. Wings still beating, IT careered directly at the woods.

I had seen IT land more neatly than this. IT was toying with me!

So I refused to be frightened. I leaned back and thought about how I’d roll off if we crashed into the trees that were rushing at us. At the last moment IT turned aside, slowed, and stopped. IT lowered ITself and folded ITs wings.

Enh enh enh.

I slid off, stood, lost my footing, and toppled, becoming filthy yet again.

IT furrowed ITs eye ridges. I dusted myself off.

IT whispered, “Kindly mansion Princess Renn’s voice, but softly.”

Her voice wasn’t soft. Still, I tried. “La! Perhaps I can. No, I can do better.” I thought about what she might say. “La, Masteress!” I raised and lowered my pitch without increasing my noise. “How brave you are to fly!”

“Please call to Thiel. Not softly.”

“What should I say?” I whispered, too.

“Desire him to come to you—to her.”

Why? I invented a reason. “Thiel?” I cried, loud enough to be heard a mile away. “Thiel? La! I cannot catch my breath. I have such news! La, Thiel, come!”

“You have set the trap. Now we must wait.”

A flock of geese passed overhead. I watched the ground, looking for a mouse. Dead leaves rustled in the woods. I raised my head and saw a shadow among the trees, and then Master Thiel emerged.

“Good day, Masteress Meenore, Mistress Elodie.” He sounded as if he’d expected us. “Young mistress, you had only to call me in your own voice and I would have come. You are a treat, however, at imitating Her Highness.”

I blushed. It made no difference that I knew him to be a thief. In his presence I had to blush.

“Lodie,” IT said, “not far into the woods you will find a sack, guarded by his cat. Please fetch it. If the cat snarls, kick him.”

“Pray leave the sack, Mistress Lodie, and don’t kick Pardine.”

I started into the forest.

“The sack holds a brace of partridges,” Master Thiel said. “Are you here to rob the poacher?”

“Return Lodie’s copper, answer my questions, and you may keep the partridges.”

I turned. “And return Master Dess’s cow.”

He snapped his fingers, and Pardine pranced by me with a sack in his mouth. I left the woods, too. Master Thiel took the sack, hung it from his belt, and lifted Pardine into his arms. I noticed again his twine ring. If anyone needed an eejis, Master Thiel was the one.

“Young Mistress Elodie, the cow is gone.”

Oh. For Master Dess’s sake, I hoped she’d been taken to a farm and not eaten.

“Ask what you like, Meenore. I am an honest man.”

IT snorted. “Bonay has told me what goods you bring him.”

“I appeal to you, Mistress Elodie. My father left me to starve. I think it my duty not to.”

I blushed.

“Here is my first question: Why would you not set the cats on His Lordship?”

“Rather ask why I would. Why would I hurt someone, even an ogre? I wouldn’t. I didn’t.” He paused. “What would I gain?”

That was the real question with him.

“What would he gain, Lodie?”

I touched the purse at my waist, which still lacked the stolen copper. “Revenge on His Lordship for owning your grandfather’s castle. Because you, too, hate ogres and—”

“I hate no one.”

I rushed on before his innocent look stopped me. “And you don’t want an ogre to be king.”

“What else, Lodie?”

Induce. Deduce. Think. “His Lordship discovered your poaching and was furious.”

“I am never discovered”—he bowed to my masteress— “except by a masteress of discernment.”

Enh enh enh.

“I didn’t harm His Lordship.”

Pink smoke curled up from ITs mouth. “You harmed him. In these woods the beasts were his companions. Now, tell me where you think he would hide and how he would act.”

“As a mouse?”

“And after, if a cat didn’t eat him.”

“As a different animal? My dear Meenore, you should ask Mistress Elodie. Sulow says I have no talent for mansioning.”

“I am asking you.”

“I can’t tell you that, but I can tell you something. I didn’t think of it until this morning. Walking here with Pardine, I reviewed the lamentable events of that afternoon, and I remembered seeing Sir Misyur flick his wrist.”

No! Sir Misyur loved the ogre. I looked at Masteress Meenore, but ITs expression showed nothing.

“I almost missed it and didn’t pay attention then. I was laughing too hard. Mistress Elodie, you and he might have been conspiring to keep us from seeing.”

What?