Stolen Magic(53)

He obliged and answered Master Tuomo’s questions about who had known.

When the subject was exhausted, Elodie persuaded Ursa-bee to say what had happened when she’d been guarding and had heard the weeping.

As soon as she finished, Elodie asked Master Robbie to lay out ITs theory about what had happened. While he spoke, she worried about the next step, the deducing.

If only IT would blow the door open.

But she might get ITs help another way. Maybe she could be IT—shape-shift in a mansioner’s fashion. Lambs and calves, could she?

Master Robbie ended with “Now we have to deduce and induce and use our common sense.”

Elodie cleared her throat and glanced at Albin. Help me.

“Masters . . . Bees . . . Mistress . . . We’d certainly do better if my masteress were here, but if I mansion IT, IT may help us all think.”

“Absurd!”

“Master Tuomo,” Albin said, “if your sons survive, you can tell them and your grandchildren that you were fortunate enough to be present when Elodie of Lahnt mansioned.”

Thank you, Albin!

“Oh, hush, Tuomo.” Master Uwald smiled benevolently at her.

If you rush, you will bungle. In her own voice Elodie said, “If Masteress Meenore were really here, ITs smoke would rise in tight white circles, which mean dragon happiness. IT’s always pleased to show off ITs unfathomable brilliance. Please imagine the smoke rings.” She wished she could recline as IT would have, but she might lose everyone if she began moving benches.

She made her voice nasal. “When an object of great value is taken, there is never a lack, I mean, dearth”—she needed all the hard words she could command. Luckily, the mansioners’ plays were a help—“of persons who would benefit from owning it. Let us consider you one by one.”





CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE



The fires on Zertrum lit the north face of Svye.

Goodman Hame spotted the caves. “See? There!”

IT saw. A minute later, IT landed on the ledge, while everyone outside dashed inside.

Master Erick and Goodman Hame disembarked, the latter by crawling.

Goodman Hame shouted, “You can come out. IT’s a good dragon.”

Masteress Meenore’s smoke reddened. Good at what? Good for what?

Lovers of the good ogre—everyone—poured out of the cave, eager to meet the good dragon, and began coughing.

“IT rescued us. IT lifted a boulder off me,” Goodman Hame announced. Then he fainted.

Several people surrounded him.

“And almost killed me.” Master Erick couldn’t keep the tidings to himself: “Uwald stole the Replica.”

After an hour of Master Erick, IT thought, everyone will forgive Master Uwald. IT spied Brunka Arnulf and lumbered to the edge of the crowd, where the brunka joined IT.

“Did Master Uwald really steal the Replica?”

“Yes. Where is His Lordship?”

“Back on Zertrum, finding people and bringing them here.”

“Is that why you lied to me before?”

“He’d been injured as a bird. He couldn’t fly back to the Oase. But he’s recovered, and I didn’t want you to keep him from rescuing folks.” Brunka Arnulf flicked out a short rainbow. “His heroism will live forever.”

“I prefer he not begin his afterlife tonight. He owes me wages.” IT stared across the river. In the chaos, His Lordship could be anywhere. Even a being twice his size might be impossible to find.

“The last time he delivered someone to the cave, I begged him to stay.”

IT pondered.

Leave now and fly to Elodie?

Arrive at the Oase too late to save His Lordship but in time—possibly—to rescue her from Uwald and his accomplice?

Allow Nesspa to lose his master?

IT sneered at ITself for thinking of the well-being of a dog.

“Masteress?” Brunka Arnulf said.

“I am cogitating.”

“His Lordship would search for you.”

“He and I are not alike.”

Although fire held no terror, IT could be buried if the mountain collapsed. A boulder could rip through one of ITs beautiful wings or shatter ITs skull and destroy ITs miraculous mind.

Moreover, if IT went after His Lordship, the folk of Lahnt would for all time dub IT a good dragon. That would gall.

“I have decided.” IT pushed off the ledge and flapped back toward Zertrum.

Over the Fluce, unexpectedly—uselessly!—from the depths of ITs prodigious brain, surfaced the location of the Replica and the identity of the second thief. IT remembered the puppet’s words: “Expectation misleads.”

Think, Lodie!

But IT doubted that even her penetrating mind would derive the answer.





CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR



Elodie tapped a claw (fingernail) on the table. “Mistress Sirka and Goodman Dror have been proposed as the thieves by Master Tuomo, so let us consider them first.”

“Again?” Mistress Sirka yawned.

“I beg your forgiveness, I mean, indulgence.”

Master Robbie giggled.

Elodie wished he wouldn’t. This wasn’t a mere performance. “Master Tuomo exposed their motives: rage at Goodman Dror’s family coupled with greed. The method—”