Stolen Magic(31)

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.”