Part 18 (2/2)
”It was my fault as much as hers, Your Eminence,” Thom cut in suddenly. ”I knew how much she valued that pendant. I didn't want her to lose it. So I said I would take her into the Stacks to look for it.”
”Knowing you were breaking the rules?” His Eminence pressed.
”Knowing I was,” Thom agreed. ”I admit it. I hoped no one would find out, but Rufus was on watch, as usual.”
”Of course I was on watch!” the little man snapped. ”I am always on watch against the likes of you and your sister!”
”Rufus, Rufus,” Craswell Crabbit soothed.
”Well, it's true!” the other hissed.
”But we didn't get very far,” Thom added quickly. ”We were afraid to do something that bold. We only looked a little way before coming back. The Stacks are too huge for a search of the sort that was needed, and if the Throg Monkeys took the pendant-which they might have done, since they take things all the time-then I needed to confront them and find out what they had done with it.”
”Yes, yes, I'm sure that all this is true.” His Eminence looked and sounded bored. ”But rules are rules.”
”Your Eminence,” Thom replied, straightening. ”I will save you the trouble of making a decision on our punishment. A mistake has been made and a rule violated. There is no excuse. Ellice and I will pack our bags and leave immediately. After seeing my sister safely home, I will return and complete the remainder of my service working in the stables.”
Rufus Pinch looked pleased. But His Eminence held up both hands and shook his head slowly. ”No, no, that won't do at all. Your service here is not for mucking out stables, it is for cataloging and organizing books. You will stay and work as you have committed yourself to doing.”
He turned to Mistaya. ”As for you, Ellice, I have a different plan in mind. Because I am by nature a generous and forgiving person, I am going to make an exception this one time and give you another chance. You may stay to help your brother. But as punishment for your disobedience, you will do service in the stables every third day for an entire month cleaning up after the animals. Mind you, young lady, should you violate the rules again-any rules-you will be dismissed immediately. There will be no discussion, no excuses, and no further leniencies. One misstep, and you are gone. Do we understand each other?”
Mistaya hung her head meekly. ”Yes, Your Eminence.”
He ignored Rufus Pinch, who was looking at him with a mix of astonishment and rage, his face twisted, his fists balled, and his entire body arched like an angry cat's.
”You will begin your month of stable service tomorrow morning,” he said to Mistaya.
”Yes, Your Eminence,” she repeated.
”Very well, the matter is closed. Now get back to work, both of you.”
Once the door had closed behind the so-called brother and sister, Rufus Pinch wheeled on His Eminence, so enraged that he was hopping up and down. ”What are you doing? They were lying, Craswell! Lying from first word to last! Couldn't you tell that, you idiot?”
”Watch your tongue, Mr. Pinch,” the other cautioned, holding up one finger and touching his long nose. ”Or I shall have to remove it.”
But Rufus Pinch was too furious to take notice of what he perceived to be idle threats. ”They were lying!” he screamed.
His Eminence smiled and nodded. ”Yes, I know that.”
The other man stared at him. ”You know that? Then why aren't you doing something about it? Why don't you throw them out?”
”Because I wish to keep them working in the Stacks, Mr. Pinch. I am keeping them here for a purpose, though I am quite sure you don't have the faintest idea what it is. Besides, I want to see what they are up to. You don't happen to know, do you?”
”Of course I don't know!”
”Well, there you are then. You have your marching orders. Shadow them when they are together and find out what they are up to. They have gone to great pains to keep it from us, so it must be something important. We should know what it is before we decide what is to be done with them.”
Pinch shook his head in dismay. ”You take too many chances! We would be better off getting rid of both of them right now!”
His Eminence shook his head and s.h.i.+fted his long body to a more comfortable position. ”Oh, no, Mr. Pinch. We would be much worse off if we got rid of them. Trust me on this. They are valuable, those two. Not for who they seem, but for who and what they are.”
He winked at his companion. ”You do know, don't you?”
”No, I don't know!” Pinch spit at him. ”Why don't you just tell me?”
His Eminence laughed. ”And what fun would that be, Mr. Pinch? Tell me that. Why, no fun at all!”
His laughter increased until he was practically rolling on the floor. Rufus Pinch looked at him as if he had lost his mind, decided that perhaps he had, and stalked from the room.
CAT'S PAW Mistaya spent the remainder of the day working side by side with Thom in the Stacks, and although they talked about it at length-keeping their voices at a barely audible murmur to avoid any chance of being overheard-neither one attempted to go outside the a.s.signed area. Rufus Pinch was lurking close by, sometimes visible and sometimes not, but always a discernible presence. He would be looking for them to do something like that, something that would allow him to insist that they be banished from Libiris for good. Or at least that she she would, since it appeared that Thom was doomed to serve out his indenture no matter what crimes he committed. Whatever the case, she did not want to be the cause of either happening, and so for the moment she knew she must be content mulling over ideas for another nighttime foray. would, since it appeared that Thom was doomed to serve out his indenture no matter what crimes he committed. Whatever the case, she did not want to be the cause of either happening, and so for the moment she knew she must be content mulling over ideas for another nighttime foray.
The situation reminded her a little of her adventures at Carrington, where she was always in the forefront of one underground revolution or another. Except that here, she knew, the consequences of being caught out might be a bit more extreme than at a women's prep school.
By now, she had told Thom of the conversation she had overheard between His Eminence and Pinch, and together they had puzzled over the ident.i.ty of the unknown allies and the origins of the books taken from the Stacks and the nature of whatever magic was being used, but had been unable to come up with a reasonable explanation for what it was all about. Someone was using magic, someone was trying to get out, and somehow Crabbit and Pinch were involved. That was about all they could agree upon.
She had said nothing to him of the visit from Questor Thews. Nor could she think of a way to speak to him of what the wizard had confided about the origins of Libiris. Doing so would require an explanation of how she had come into possession of such knowledge, and she couldn't think of one that didn't necessitate her telling him who she really was.
She considered doing that, but quickly dismissed the idea. If he found out she was a Princess of Landover, it would change everything between them, and she didn't want that.
”We have to give it a few days, at least, before we try to go back there again,” Thom was saying as time wound down toward the close of the day. By then the discussion had been ongoing for hours.
”I don't think waiting is going to help,” she replied, sorting through the stack of books closest at hand. Another one was missing, she noticed. Another in an ever-increasing number. ”Pinch won't give up watching us no matter how long we wait.”
”He's like that,” Thom agreed. He brushed his dark hair out of his eyes. ”Maybe he'll get sick.”
”Maybe we could make him sick.” She gave him a look.
”Maybe,” he agreed. ”But he never eats anything he doesn't prepare himself.”
”We could get around that.”
”We could.”
They were quiet for a moment, thinking through various scenarios that would allow them to poison Pinch's food enough to render him temporarily unable to function. But poisoning was an uncertain science, and neither wanted to do anything worse than make him sick.
”This would all be much easier if we had a way to make ourselves invisible,” Thom said finally. ”If they couldn't see us, they wouldn't know what we were doing.”
Mistaya nodded absently, thinking that her magic would allow her to make them invisible, at least for a short time. But using her magic might give her away. Then again, maybe that didn't matter anymore. Her father and mother would know where she was by tomorrow at the latest, and they were the ones she had been worried about before. Still, she also found herself thinking suddenly of Craswell Crabbit, of whom Questor had told her to be especially careful. If he had the use of magic, he might be able to detect hers and determine its source. Not a pleasant prospect when you considered the consequences of being caught out.
She sighed. Questor had told her not to use her magic except in an emergency, and their hunt for the source of the voice probably didn't qualify. At least, not yet.
They didn't talk after that, concentrating on the sorting and cataloging of the books, their thoughts kept private until it was time to quit and they were walking toward the kitchen.
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