Ellice.”
“None of this is Thom’s fault. It is entirely mine, and whatever punishment you care to deliver I will accept it without complaint. But Thom was only trying to help me, the way big brothers do their little sisters when they discover that their hearts have been broken.”
“Is that so?” His Eminence sounded only marginally interested. “Please explain yourself.”
Mistaya never hesitated. “While working in the Stacks the other day, I lost a pendant, a family heirloom. A gift, actually, from my mother. I wear it everywhere, but somehow the chain broke and the pendant was lost. I didn’t realize it right away, and when I did, I looked for it and couldn’t find it. I was devastated. I searched for it two days straight, looking all around the areas in which we worked. I looked for it in the kitchen and all the common rooms and even my bedroom. But it was gone.”
She paused, taking time to look as if she were composing herself. “Then it occurred to me that one of the Throg Monkeys might have taken it. Maybe just to look at, but maybe to keep. So I begged Thom to go with me back into the Stacks while everyone was sleeping to see if it might have been carried back there somewhere. It was a foolish thing to do, but that pendant meant everything to me.”
She cried a little, real tears. “It was all I had left to remind me of my mother,” she whispered, sobbing softly. “We lost her not long ago …”
“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?”
