Stolen Magic(16)

“What?”

“I’ll show you.”

How could he show her something that wasn’t there?





CHAPTER ELEVEN



“Elodie?” An unmistakable round baritone. “Lady El?”

Her pet name, which she loved. “Albin? Albin!”

In an instant he rushed to her, lifted her by her waist, and spun her around, exactly as he used to after they’d mansioned a scene particularly well. When she sailed by Master Robbie, she saw his expression close.

She pitied him, but Albin came first.

He set her down.

Master Robbie left them, his shoulders hunched as he went to the just-so man, who had seated himself in the middle of the row of benches, two benches away from the elderly bee.

“Are Mother and Father here, too?”

“I’m alone. How did you get here?”

“It’s too much to tell.” What could she tell him? She could trust him with anything. Even IT would have to agree. She beckoned him to bend to hear a whisper. Certainly she could divulge this, which he’d find out soon anyway: “I came with a dragon.”

Albin straightened. “No!”

Theft or no theft, she smiled her widest smile. “Yes.”

He looked puzzled and pleased. “Lady El—”

There wasn’t time for his questions. “Why are you here?”

“Because”—he began to narrate and mansion, as he often did—“the farmer sent his helper”—he bowed awkwardly, portraying the lowly helper of Elodie’s father—“here to secure enough coin from the good brunkas for passage to Two Castles to bring his daughter back.”

She’d sent a note to set their minds at rest, but it might not have reached them.

“Why didn’t they ask Brunka Wilda?” She was the Dair brunka.

“Brunka Wilda said no, and so did the high brunka. They think Bettel and Han shouldn’t have sent you to Two Castles.”

If Elodie had had a tail, it would have twitched. The brunkas had judged without understanding.

“What is this, rousing people in the night?” The voice, loud and angry, issued from the doorway.

Elodie turned to look.

The speaker addressed the just-so man. “Has High Brunka Marya told you, Uwald?”


Elodie tilted her head at Albin. The just-so man was Master Uwald? Master Uwald, the richest person on Lahnt after the earl?

Albin whispered, “The very same.”

Master Uwald’s vast Nockess Farm spread across the south slope of Zertrum Mountain and into the valley. With the Replica gone, he stood to lose everything.

He’d called Master Robbie son, but Master Uwald didn’t have a son. Everyone knew that.

“Marya hasn’t told us anything yet,” the just-so man—Master Uwald—said, “but I’ll bet it has to do with our new arrival.” He gestured in Elodie’s direction.

Still in the doorway, the newcomer demanded, “Who is she?”

Albin added, still whispering, “That’s his steward, Master Tuomo.”

Elodie curtsied. “I’m Elodie of Potluck Farm on Dair, Master.”

Rudely, Master Tuomo said nothing, just swung into the great hall with a rolling gait. He reminded Elodie of the knave in a pack of cards: his cap tight against his forehead, his face any age between thirty and fifty, a thick fringe of brown beard, wary brown eyes, short neck, barrel chest, thin legs. A rich man in a brown cloak with a silver pin at the neck. He, too, wore mourning beads.

Might he be the thief? Elodie thought. If he had taken the Replica, it would have been in anger. She returned to wondering about Master Robbie. How did he and Master Uwald come to be together? Master Uwald had been jilted by his first and only sweetheart. He had no children and thus no grandchildren.

The steward sat on Master Uwald’s other side from Master Robbie.

In a whisper, Albin added, “Master Uwald’s true love was Master Robbie’s grandmother. He’s now the boy’s guardian.”

Everyone knew the story of young Mistress Lilli and Master Uwald and laughed over its irony. She turned down the marriage offer of a poor peddler (Goodman Uwald then) because she disapproved of wagering, and he bet on anything. Soon after, he threw the dice and won the most prosperous farm on Lahnt. He’d been rich ever since.

Was the grandson going to get the riches?

Did Master Robbie love his guardian?

Two bees entered with the barber-surgeon the high brunka had mentioned earlier, her occupation revealed by her linen cap bleached to snowy whiteness. She was a large woman, young, with ripples of light-brown hair below the cap. Her face was broad with widely spaced tawny eyes, flaring nostrils, a round chin, thick neck.

She smiled at the chamber, and the smile tightened her chin and raised her cheekbones, making her handsome. Such a smile it was, mouth half open, a blazing smile. Elodie thought, When I smile that way, I’m running full tilt or standing at the prow of the cog in a strong wind with flying fish leaping about.

The woman stood behind Master Tuomo, while the bees who’d brought her sat one full bench away from the guests.

High Brunka Marya called into the kitchen, “Ludda, come. Breakfast can wait.”

Did that mean all the guests were here?

Ludda-bee, a serving spoon in one hand, entered the great hall and sat with the other bees.