“To keep anyone from leaving.”
“I see. Very well. Soon my rainbow will be able to do that again.” She turned from one bee to another until she’d met the eyes of every one. “No one is to tease Johan anymore. I forbid it. He committed an error, but he deserves better.”
“I just point out his faults to improve him,” Ludda-bee said. “If he weren’t such a bumbling clod, he’d—”
“Ludda, no more about bumbling.” She waited, but Johan-bee didn’t speak. “My head hurts. How long did I lie there? I dreamed the Replica was found. Has it been?”
“I’m the thief.”
“Master Uwald? You?”
“My Robbie despises me.”
“I do despise you.”
“Is the Replica back in place?”
Albin said, “We just found out it was Master Uwald.”
Elodie said proudly, “Master Robbie proved it.”
“Master Uwald, where is it?” the high brunka said.
“I won’t say.”
Master Tuomo shouted, “He wants to destroy the farm!”
“No, I don’t.”
“He wants people to die,” Master Robbie said softly.
“I don’t!”
Elodie frowned, believing him. Doesn’t want to ruin the farm, although it will be ruined. Doesn’t want to kill people, although people will be killed. Mmm. He doesn’t care, really, about the people or the farm. What does he care about, other than Master Robbie? Ah. Lambs and calves! “You want one person to die, the one who won Nockess Farm.”
He said nothing.
“He’s there, the new owner?” Master Tuomo said. “You enticed him there?”
“With his death, no one would have known of the lost—”
“Hush!” High Brunka Marya put her hands flat on the table, palms down. “I feel Zertrum.” She looked at Master Tuomo and Goodman Dror, the two whose homes were on Zertrum besides Master Uwald. “It’s very bad.” She blew her nose on her sleeve and wiped her eyes.
In the silence that followed, Elodie said, “Master Uwald, who was the other thief?”
“I acted alone.” His eyes were on Master Robbie, always on him. “It was an ingenious plan. I placed the magic handkerchief in the Turtle Room. Then—”
“Did you close the door behind you?” Elodie asked. The disturbed rushes hadn’t been mice!
“I left it ajar. Few come down that corridor. I waited there for Johan-bee to leave his post. When he did, I started the weeping and went into another room, which I also left ajar. I doubted Ursa-bee would notice, and she didn’t. When she came, I ran into your chamber, Marya.”
Elodie thought that a long dash for elderly Master Uwald.
He continued. “Later, after I had the Replica, I recovered the handkerchief.”
Master Robbie said, “How did you know Johan-bee left?”
“I heard him. His steps are noisy.”
“How did you learn where I hid the Replica?”
“How do you think, Marya? I purchased the information.”
Elodie’s mind veered off in a different direction. Her masteress believed the Replica might not be in the Oase, where someone could stumble upon it. “High Brunka, is there a door from the Oase to the caves and tunnels of this mountain?”
“No, lamb.” She turned back to Master Uwald. “From whom did you buy it?”
“I won’t say. Son, I didn’t mean . . .”
Elodie stirred her spoon absently in her bowl. If the Replica wasn’t in the Oase or in the mountain, then it was outside. Master Uwald hadn’t been out after the theft. He must have had help.
Who had gone out? Several bees had been to the stable to feed the animals, but the stable had been searched. A bee might have left the others and hidden the Replica in a tree hole, or might have dug a hurried hole for it, but that could be anywhere—not a useful line of thought. The high brunka said there was a cottage.
Without listening to what she might be interrupting, Elodie asked, “Has anyone searched the cottage?”
“Of course, lamb.”
In her bowl, the brown stew and the yellow beans and the dark red beet juice made a muddy rainbow.
The beets!
Elodie—recklessly, rashly—announced, “I know where the Replica is.” Unable to resist, she added, “I deduced and induced.” Masteress, you’ll be so proud of me. If you’re alive.
Around the table, all heads turned to her.
“The Replica is where the beets were. Johan-bee buried it. He’s the other thief.”
Everyone looked at the door.
“He left!” Master Tuomo cried.
“No, I haven’t.”
With surprising stealth, Johan-bee had edged around the table, and now stood with his longbow raised, nocked, and aimed at the high brunka. At this near distance, he couldn’t miss.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN