I felt like a bird that kept rising and then being thrown to earth.
“I will hate not to know. Not knowing will gnaw at my liver. Dragons have livers, too, Lodie.”
“Masteress, whoever mauled the ox wanted to en-
danger His Lordship, right?”
“I can think of no other reason.”
“Does that person know for certain that His Lordship lives?”
“It would seem so, but that conclusion is not proven either.”
I sighed, then yawned in spite of myself.
“Lodie . . . when Thiel was mending His Lordship’s plates, did you notice his satchel?”
I missed nothing when it came to Master Thiel. “It was at his elbow.”
“Did it lie flat?”
“No. I saw the angles of his tools through the cloth.”
“Think, Lodie.”
I was too tired to think.
IT waited.
The plate mender rarely came to our cottage on Lahnt. Poor people learned not to be fumble-fingered.
What were a mender’s tools? A glue pot. Thiel’s had been on the hearth. A glue jar. Next to the sack. Two or three clamps, which would occupy little space. I could think of nothing more.
No!
Yes. “Some of His Lordship’s goblets and bowls and such were in the sack.” I marveled. “With Sir Misyur in the hall, too.”
“Thiel is a master thief, light-fingered enough to steal a man’s beard.”
I smiled at the idea.
Enh enh enh.
“And Pardine is a master thief among cats,” I said. “He must have taken my copper.”
“Very likely.”
“Do you think Master Thiel is the thief His Lordship told us of, who made off with the linens, the wall hanging . . .” I’d forgotten what else.
“Also very likely.”
He had probably taken Master Dess’s cow, too. But we still didn’t know who the poacher was. Or, most of all, who had signaled the cats.
“How can Master Thiel make people like him and then rob them?”
“Speculation exhausts the mind, Lodie.”
“Do you think His Lordship discovered Master Thiel’s thievery?”
“Possibly.”
“And so Master Thiel set the cats on His Lordship and mauled the ox?”
“Perhaps, Elodie.”
“Elodie? But I’m speculating!”
“You are deducing.”
Deducing when IT called it so, speculating when IT called it so. How happy I was to be back in ITs company!
“Be wary of Thiel.”
I imagined him, not only his form but also his friendliness, his way of setting everyone at ease. “Is he the one you think the most likely?”
“There is an entire town and a castle to choose among.”
I couldn’t help yawning again.
“You would like to sleep?”
ITs voice had a lilt I hadn’t heard before. IT plodded to the new curtain and drew it back.
“Lambs and calves!” Three big pillows mounded under a linen sheet (no blanket needed in the lair). A small pillow lay at one end of the bed—a pillow for my head, such as rich folk had. I ran my palm across the linen, which was smooth as butter. The pillows were soft as white bread.
“I layered straw under the pillows.”
I sat. “I’ll float!” I had never slept in such a fine bed.
“The straw is fresh. The pillows are stuffed with down, and the linen is scrupulously clean, as are the pillow covers. Good night, Lodie.” IT pulled the curtain closed.
“Good night, Masteress Meenore.” I shed my kirtle and slid under the sheet in my chemise. My last memory before sleep is of pushing the little pillow aside.
I woke up remembering what I’d failed to report last night.
IT had cooked pottage for breakfast, and IT watched me closely as I put the first spoonful into my mouth. “Do you like it?”
I nodded and managed not to spit out the mouthful, but there were limits to my mansioning.
IT took my bowl away. “I will prepare skewers. What did I do wrong?”
“The beans have to be cooked first.”
“Ah. I enjoy them raw.”
Certainly, if you can cook them in your stomach.
“You may cube the cheese.”
I began to cut. “The princess is betrothed again.” I explained.
“Mmm.”
I hated Mmm! “What do you conclude, Masteress?”
ITs voice tightened, became mistressish, as Father would say. “It is not for an assistant to question her masteress.”
Mmm, I supposed, was sacred, so I asked something else. “Did you discover anything yesterday before I came?”
“I passed the morning,” IT said, not minding this question, “circling the castle, flying low, scanning for a fleeing mouse or any creature behaving in an untoward manner. But if His Lordship in any shape had been north of the castle while I was south or vice versa, I would have missed him. I cannot deduce that he was not there.”
“In the fields a hawk or an eagle might have caught him.”
“In the afternoon I visited Thiel’s brothers. After I threatened to boil away the water in their millstream, they were happy to answer my questions.” Enh enh enh.