Stolen Magic by Gail Carson Levine Read Free Book Online

hear me?”
    The high brunka nodded. “Ludda-bee said I was kind to give you a wooden rainbow. She told Johan-bee that he was too lost in his own concerns to be as kind.”
    â€œWhat did he say?”
    â€œNothing. The tooth remedy makes speech difficult. The bees all tease him about it and other matters, although Ludda is the worst. They mean no harm. He has to learn to command respect. You know that.”
    Elodie nodded. Bees sometimes had to tell farmers what to do and make them do it. But the teasing still seemed cruel. Johan-bee might learn better from kindness.
    The high brunka took a rainbow from the shelf. “Ludda-bee may ask to see it.”
    The rainbow was small enough to fit in Elodie’s purse.Her thoughts returned to the Replica. What else should she ask? She felt the usual pressure on her brain, and IT wasn’t even here. “Er . . . do all brunkas know where the Replica was kept?” Probably a silly question. A brunka would never take it.
    â€œWe all know. We decided together where to put it after the first theft. Lamb, a brunka could no more harm Lahnt than a rabbit could kill a deer.”
    But, Elodie thought, a brunka might tell someone who could. “Are any other brunkas here now?”
    â€œI’m the only one. My bees are all the help I need. Have you seen enough for your masteress?”
    â€œWas anything out of place when you came in to get the Replica?”
    â€œNothing. The room was as it always is.”
    â€œHave you opened the chest?”
    â€œI did. It’s not there.”
    â€œI guess I’ve seen enough.” Elodie hoped IT would know what to make of it all.
    Instead of leaving, High Brunka Marya sat on the bed. A rainbow drooped from her hand. “I half convinced myself that when I came back, the Replica would be here, that I’d imagined the theft. Come, lamb.” But she didn’t rise. “Brunkas are kind, but we’re blamers.”
    Elodie had to strain to hear.
    â€œIf anyone is hurt . . . if anyone . . .”—she left theword dies unspoken—“I’ll blame myself, and the others will blame me, too.”
    â€œYou didn’t steal the Replica.”
    â€œI failed to keep Lahnt safe.” She stood. “And now I must confess.”

CHAPTER NINE
    A band of gray brightened the eastern horizon as a swift settled on the slate roof of a stone cottage with two chimneys and an attached stable. Destination reached, the ogre within awakened and thought . . .
    Not about Elodie or the missing Replica or even Nesspa, but about his coming nakedness. Fee fi! He had to decide quickly, because he couldn’t stay himself inside a bird or beast for long. The only time he had, he’d been very ill.
    He planned and concentrated so the swift would remember, and then he receded.
    The bird tapped the shutters of one of the front windows of the cottage, rattling the slats and the window frame, not knowing about brunkas’ sharp ears.
    â€œEnough. I hear you.” The door rumbled open as a voicesaid, “Welcome. Always welcome. Enter. What’s— Bird?”
    A short, youngish personage—Brunka Arnulf—stood on the threshold, wearing a long undershirt with a blanket slung around his shoulders. Although he was half asleep, his expression was courteous and peaceful, and his mouth curved in a gentle smile—a brunka as brunkas normally were.
    The swift flew inside and stood on the floor between an oaken table and a man sitting up on a pallet.
    â€œPerhaps it’s feeling cold,” the man said.
    Brunka Arnulf crouched. “Look! It’s wearing Marya’s medal.” He held out his hand.
    The bird hopped across the floor to the hand but not on it and allowed the brunka to wind the chain off his neck. Then he began to vibrate and grow.
    Anticipating the worst, the man jumped up and flattened himself against the nearest wall while the brunka retreated to the