Elodie put her hands over her ears as if to block the news. Her eyes met Albin’s, and his were both worried and comforting.
Master Robbie watched her, too. His face was puzzled. He was probably wondering why she was shamming surprise.
Master Tuomo rose. The skin around his lips had paled. “Uwald, we can be on the road within the hour.”
No one can go! Elodie thought.
“Please sit,” High Brunka Marya said.
“My sons!” He remained standing. “I won’t reach them in time as it is. Uwald, we must—”
“Sit.” The high brunka’s soft voice held a note of command.
The steward sat slowly.
His sons are on Zertrum? Elodie thought. He can’t be the thief then.
Watch the bees, she told herself. IT suspects them the most. Keeping her eyes wide, her mouth sad, she turned their way.
The young bee jumped up, sat down, pumped his knees in agitation, his face tragic. Next to him, the barber-surgeon, Mistress Sirka, put a consoling arm around his shoulders. Her face looked untroubled, happy even. He seemed unaware of her.
A female bee put her fist in her mouth. Her eyes filled with tears.
The ancient bee half closed his eyes, although his face was alert.
Ludda-bee snapped, “If Johan could keep to his post, this wouldn’t have happened.”
First to blame. Was she directing attention away from herself? Or did she have a reason for the accusation, beyond the fact that he visited the privy while guarding? Surely everyone did that during a long watch.
The other bees seemed distressed in varying degrees, but neither their expressions nor their hands proclaimed anything definite—or anything Elodie could discern. Perhaps her masteress would already have named the thief if IT were here.
She turned from the bees back to the guests.
The genial expression had drained from Master Uwald’s face. His eyes were squeezed shut. “Oh. Oh.” But then they popped open. With a visible effort he brought his smile back. He stroked the top of Master Robbie’s head and murmured something to him, which Elodie deduced must be an assurance that all would turn out well.
Master Robbie nodded while looking straight ahead. If he had any affection for his guardian, he was keeping the feeling to himself. His sad face was no sadder than it had been, but, of course, he’d already known.
“I’ll stand with you.” Albin put an arm around Elodie’s shoulders and whispered, “How strange that you arrived for this. Is there”—he paused dramatically—“more to be revealed?”
Much more. She whispered back, “All will be told in the final act.”
“No one has left the Oase,” High Brunka Marya continued, “so one of you has the Replica or has hidden it. If you expect to profit from it, expect otherwise. We’ll catch you as a hawk catches a squirrel. Even if you leave Lahnt, we’ll find you and deliver you to the earl.”
The earl, who administered the king’s justice on Lahnt, wasn’t known for his mercy.
“But if the Replica is returned before anyone on Zertrum is hurt, then I won’t seek you out. You’ll have the satisfaction of having stolen it and no one—”
Master Tuomo stepped backward over the bench. “Uwald! We must leave. High Brunka, you know we must.”
Master Uwald stood, too. “Yes, yes. Robbie—”
“Sit, both of you. I’ve sent someone to warn Brunka Arnulf. He’ll raise the alarm.”
Had Count Jonty Um issued the warning by now? Was he on his way back? Elodie looked up at the distant windows to see if they’d lightened with dawn, and choked back a gasp. They had brightened, except one, which was emerald green. Pressed against the window, ITs eye.
Master Uwald sat.
Master Tuomo remained standing. “No one can travel fast enough to reach Zertrum in time.”
“This messenger will.” The high brunka didn’t explain.
Elodie hoped mention of a mysterious messenger would discomfit the thief, and perhaps it had, but everyone appeared equally dazed.
“Sit, Master Tuomo. No one may leave. The rooms of all the guests are being searched right now. Yours, too, Mistress Sirka.”
The barber-surgeon stiffened. “Hair and teeth! They can’t! Not without me looking on!”
“Mistress Sirka, dear lioness, they’re interested in nothing but the Replica.”
What in her belongings did Mistress Sirka want to keep secret? Elodie wished she could be there for the search—and here, too.
“If anything is harmed, I’ll lop off someone’s ear.”
High Brunka Marya seemed unconcerned.
“Who will search the bees’ belongings?” Master Tuomo asked. “You can’t leave anyone out.”
Master Uwald agreed. “The game should be fair.”
Was everything with him a game to bet on, even the destruction of his farm?
“Bees have nothing of their own,” High Brunka Marya said.
“They have their pallets,” Master Robbie said.
Brave, to disagree with the high brunka! Elodie thought.
He went on. “Don’t they sleep on the same one every night? The Replica could be stowed in a mattress. It would fit.”
IT would admire that observation, Elodie thought.
Master Uwald did. “Well done, Robbie!”
Master Robbie’s hand found his mourning beads. Elodie wondered if praise reminded him of his grandmother.
Mistress Sirka chimed in. “They have spare shifts, hose, undershirts, and boots for the snow. The Replica would fit in a boot.”
“The bees are searching in pairs. Mistress Sirka, you may go through the bees’ things with Master Tuomo. Master Uwald, dear, if you would be so kind as to search with Goodman Albin.” She didn’t mention Elodie or Master Robbie.
Albin bowed at Master Uwald. “At your service.”
“You may begin after we’ve finished talking,” the high brunka said.
Albin said, “Suppose the Replica is found by a person who isn’t the thief. Should he bring it to you? He won’t know where it used to be kept.”
Elodie felt a shiver of fear. Why did Albin think of this? The thief would definitely pretend not to know.
“Bring it to me.”
“Will you believe the finder, High Brunka?” Mistress Sirka asked.
“If no one has been hurt on Zertrum, I won’t care.”
“Will there be a reward?”
“Robbie!” Master Uwald said.
“Your farm may be destroyed. You may be poor,” he said, sounding untroubled. “I may be poor again. There should be a reward.”
Elodie thought he was right. “Everything possible should be done to recover the Replica.”
But High Brunka Marya tightened her lips. “Saving a mountain will be the reward.”
“I’ll give a reward.” Master Tuomo stood again and surveyed the guests and bees. “A hundred silver coins, all my money in the world.”
A fortune. The Replica was worth more, but if the thief preferred not to kill people and beasts, he or she might take the reward instead.
Elodie’s head swam. Was Master Tuomo trying to save his sons—or turning suspicion away from himself?
He added, “If anybody finds the Replica, bring it to High Brunka Marya, and I’ll promise you the reward. Uwald will vouch that my word is good. If you know something, tell me, and if it leads to the Replica, I’ll pay you.”
Master Uwald said, “I’ll pay the reward, Tuomo. I can afford it better than you.”
High Brunka Marya looked up at the ceiling as if she might see Brunka Harald’s ghost floating there. “Thank you both, but the hundred silvers will come from brunkas, and information will be delivered to me.”
“What are we to do after we search the bees’ things? I won’t sit still.”
“Dear Master Tuomo, you may look where you like, so long as you do so in the pairs I named, and so long as you remain in this chamber. And a . . . er . . . personage will arrive soon to speak with each of you, a personage adept at finding lost objects.”
“Who?” Master Tuomo demanded.
White smoke wreathed the entry door.
“The one who brought me to the Oase.” Elodie let pride infuse her voice, although she shouldn’t have, since she hoped to appear dull witted. “Lahnt is lucky. Masteress Meenore is here.”