“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 shifted 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 assigned 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
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 identity 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.
