The Wizard (30 page)

I said, "I don't think he did, Your Majesty. The ambush wasn't intended for them. They came on it from the rear, and were wise enough to detect it." Marder said, "Sir Woddet's giantess did. I would have ridden straight into it." "Hela?" He nodded. "We were traveling without an advance guard. In retrospect, that was foolish." Idnn's eyes had never left my face. "If the ambush was not meant for His Grace's party, for whom was it meant? Us?" "I can only speculate. But yes. I think it was." "We don'twe were bearing Schildstarr's gifts to King Arnthor. Why would he . . . ?" "To get them back, to begin with." I glanced at Marder and Beel."Do you want to hear this, My Lords? Her Majesty and I can speak privately if you want to rest." Beel said, "I do. Very much," and Marder nodded. "As you wish. Second, we aren't popular in Jotunland. Before he got the crown, we were an asset to Schildstarr, fighters he couldn't afford to lose. That's why he helped rescue Sir Svon and his party when they were attacked in the market. Once he was king, we were a liability. His people despise us, and he was associated with us." Beel nodded. "It was one reason I was eager to go." "So was I, and I hoped that if we left at the earliest possible moment there wouldn't be time to arrange something like we saw today. I was wrong, of course. He waited until his ambush was ready before turning the gifts he was sending King Arnthor over to you." Mani rose and appeared to lick Idnn's ear, and she said, "Wouldn't it have been better to attack us piecemeal, while were still in Utgard? We wouldn't have had our horses, and some of us wouldn't have had weapons." I shook my head. "It would have been a violation of the laws of hospitality" "We know. But Frost Giants?" "I believe so, Your Majesty. While I was traveling with a certain friend not so long ago, we were attacked on our way to a castle belonging to giants. We fought them off, reached the castle, and asked for lodging. They lodged and fed us. And entertained us, for that matter. While we stayed there, it became obvious that they had been our attackers. We left stealthily, and so avoided the second attack they planned." Slowly, Idnn nodded. "We see." "It would have given Schildstarr an ill name among his people, something he can't afford. He was trying to wipe out the one he'd gotten already by associating with us." Marder added, "From what you've said, he'd have wanted to do it in public, anyway. Kill you in a place where his people could know of it." "I agree, Your Grace. But by waiting until his ambush was ready, he ran an awful riskyou might arrive, tripling our strength. He gambled, and lost only by a hair." Idnn sighed. "To get back a few trinkets." "Not really, Your Majesty. To humble the small folk who had beaten his more than once, pigmies they thought should be slaves or dead. Also to reclaim that diadem you wear. Gold plates, cups, and amber may seen like trinkets to you, though there are bold men and virtuous women who own nothing half so fine. But there's not a king in Mythgarthr who would think the diadem King Gilling gave you a trinket." Beel murmured, "He's right, Your Majesty. You must be very careful of it." "He loved us, didn't he?" I nodded, and Marder said, "He surely must have." "We didn't love him. Wewe tried to do our duty . . ." She pulled a handkerchief from her sleeve and wiped away her tears. "Be a good ruler to our people. For those few short, short days we believe we were." Gently I said, "He knew you couldn't love him. What he got from you was as near to love as Angrborn can ever come. Thus he loved you, and tried to show it." Marder cleared his throat. "You yourself are not one of those bold men who own nothing as fine as a gold plate or an amber necklace, Sir Able. You have a good horse, as you say, and a good sword. I would have said I had those too, if I hadn't seen yours this morning." "His bowstring," Idnn whispered. I said, "Yes, Your Majesty. My bowstring, as you say and though no one would count my bow as valuable, I made it myself and I treasure it. I have the queen of seven worlds' swords as well, and the best of all dogs." Mani made a sound of disparagement, which I ignored. "But no squire," Marder continued, "now that Svon has become Sir Svon. And no land." "No, Your Grace." "When Lord Beel wanted to see you, we discussed the advisability of rousing you from sleepand missing some ourselves. You've heard the questions Her Majesty and Lord Beel had. I didn't have any so urgent that I felt justified in keeping you up." "I'm always at your service, Your Grace." "Yes, I've noticed. Ahem! I can't offer you a new squire. Not here and now. I brought no boys, save my own squire. As for lands, well, the deed's at home, locked in a drawer. But the place is yours, and I'll give you the deed as soon as I can. Redhall's one of the best manors in my dukedom. Quite fertile, and nicely situated on the road to Kingsdoom. I see you've heard of it." "It" I could scarcely speak. "It was Sir Ravd's. Reverted to me at his death, of course. I've a steward taking care of things. You may want to keep him on. Or not. Up to you." I doubt that I managed a nod. "I'll let him know you're coming, naturally, and give you a letter for him." Idnn spoke for me, prompted perhaps by Mani. "This is most generous of Your Grace." "Not at all." For a moment Marder seemed embarrassed. "I wish I could do more. No, I will do more. But I can't do it now, not in this wilderness. Later though. You'll see." I left soon after that, and left abruptly enough to see a tall figure steal off into the shadows. The next day we decided that the Knight of the Leopards should take the rear guard. We all agreed it was the post of greatest danger, and Svon, Garvaon, and he were all eager to command there. Garvaon led the advance guard, however, and Svon was wounded. That day I rode with the advance guard, and Sir Woddet with me. The Plain of Jotunland is a strange and unsettling place, as I have tried to make clear. One sees phantoms, at dawn and twilight particularly. One hears strange sounds, and finds inexplicable thingspaths going nowhere, and sometimes broken pieces of earthenware pots that were once crudely beautiful. Hela found such a pot about noon, running some distance from the War Way to pick it up, and exhibiting it to Woddet and me when she came trotting back. It had been broken at the lip, losing a segment of clay the size of my hand. The rest was complete. "Is it not lovely, good Sir Able?" I agreed it was, but explained that I dared not burden Cloud with anything beyond the most necessary. Heimir said that it recalled Idnn, which surprised me. "It's red andsomething like blue." Woddet took it from him and turned it so its winding stripe took the bleared light of the winter sun, azure, aquamarine, and royal. "I'd have said that Her Majesty's white and black, mostly except for the diamonds." I said, "I suppose so," or something of the sort. The truth was that I was scanning the road ahead and had stopped paying much attention to Hela's find. "Red lips, of course," Woddet finished lamely, "but her eyes are dark, not blue." "Do you count her friend?" Hela asked him. He grinned at her. "I don't like her like I like you. That's Sir Svon." "And do you care for him, Dearest Lord?" Woddet looked to me, baffled, and I said, "He does, but not in the sense you mean." "I meant what I said. No whit the more." Hela tossed the pot aside. "Do you count him friend, dearest Lord?" "More than that." Woddet cleared his throat. "He's someone I've wronged, Hela. Or I think he is." I said, "So do I." "There were rumors. I didn't like him, so I found it easy to believe them." If Hela understood, nothing in her broad, coarse face showed it. "Easy and a lot too convenient. It's wrong. It's something a knight shouldn't do. A man's honor is sacred, even if he's not a knight. You believe the best, until you see for yourself it's not right." On that morning, the morning of the day after we had left Utgard, this talk of ours seemed no more significant than Hela's broken pot. I have re-created it, however, as well as I can; reading it over, it seems clear that I ought to have realized that Hela was planning to do Idnn and Svon some favor, and that her favor would prove no small thing.

CHAPTER TWENTYFOUR A RIDE AFTER SUPPER

We traveled all that day, the warmest any of us had enjoyed in some time. There was no sign of pursuit, but we agreed that there were surely Angrborn behind us, a war band formed around the survivors of the battle, strengthened from Utgard and gathering more from each of the lonely farms we had passed. These Angrborn would (we thought) trail us like hounds until we reached the marches of Jotunland, then fall upon us. If we ran, only the best mounted would escapeand perhaps not even they. If we fought, we might prevail; but ruinous defeat was more likely. If we scattered, we would be hunted down, and those who escaped the true Angrborn would almost certainly fall to the outcasts the Angrborn called Mice. We decided to fight, of course, if we could not out-travel them; but I, privately, resolved to ride back that nightnot to see whether the Angrborn did in fact pursue us, but to hinder their march if I could. The day grew warmer still, the sort of winter day one gets occasionally in Celidon, when it seems spring cannot be far behind, though spring is months away. The snow on the War Way softened to slush, and the horses' legs were muddy to the knees. Gylf panted as he trotted beside me. "This will slow them, dear Lord," Hela said. "It turns me sluggard even now." Her face was streaming sweat. Woddet reined up. "If you cannot keep the pace" "By all that I hold dear, Sir Woddet, I will never leave you." There was steel in her voice. He seemed taken aback. "I wasn't going to suggest it. I was going to say that you and Iyour brother, toomight go more slowly and join Sir Leort." I do not weary," Hela insisted; it was clear she did. I told her such weather could not last. "Nor can I, Sir Able?" Discomfited, I said nothing. "Know you . . ." Hela was panting in a way that recalled Gylf her tongue lolling from her mouth. "Why you name . . . My sire's folk Frost Giants?" "Certainly," I said. "It's because their raids begin at the first frost." "Would they not . . . War rather ... In fair summer ...?'" I tried to explain that we supposed they could not leave their own land until their crops were in. "I'd thought. . . Might teach you better. . . ." I slowed Cloud's pace, telling Woddet we gained too much on Garvaon. He agreed, though he must have known it false. "They swelter. . . ." I considered that for a time. Old Night, the darkness beyond the sun, is the realm of the Giants of Winter and Old Night, and it is ever winter there, as their name implies. Winter, and ill litfor them, the sun is but another star, though brighter than most. Thus huge eyes, which like the eyes of owls let them see in darkness; and huge bodies, too, hairy and thick-skinned to guard against the cold. Telling Woddet to go slow, I went to speak to Marder. "We needn't fear the Angrborn's pursuit in such weather as this, Your Grace. Hela and Heimir can hardly keep up with us, though they're of our blood as well. The greater danger is that we'll tire our horses. We used them hard yesterday." "I was thinking the same. If they overtake us with our chargers blown, they'll slaughter us like rabbits." "I agree, Your Grace. Wholeheartedly." "Then stop wherever you find water and grass," he said. We did and quickly, although we would not have found the spot at all if it had not been for Hela, who told us of it. It was some distance from the War Way, which was an added point in its favorit is difficult for any but a hound to track by night, and if our pursuers were not sharp-eyed they might pass us by. If that happened, we would take them from behind the next day, while our mounts were still fresh. Uns and Pouk made our camp while I saw to Cloud, and Mani offered to climb a treetall ones are rare in Jotunland, but there were a few thereand keep watch; for cats, as he said, see by dark nearly as well as Angrborn. Woddet's camp he and his men made for themselves, while Heimir and Hela stretched sweating on the clean, soft grass. We had camped so early that the pavilions were up and every rope tight while the sun was still a hand's breadth above the horizon. Uns had gone to Svon's fire to borrow a light for ours, for it seemed that Vil was uncommonly clever at fire-making, which I thought extraordinary in a blind man. " 'Taint no trick, Master," Uns explained. "You'd look fer smoke. So'd I. Dat Vil smells hit, 'n blows, 'n feels fer hit." Idnn came, with Berthold to carry her chair. I taught Uns and Pouk to drop to one knee, as one does for a queen, and bow their heads in the proper style. Gylf made his own bow, the dog-bow we are too quick to call groveling when it is in fact simple canine courtesy. "Arise, good people." Idnn smiled on all of us. "Will you dine with us tonight, Sir Able? His Grace will not be there, nor Sir Woddet, nor Sir Leort. Our noble father may attend, though we'll discourage it if we can." I had planned to be off as soon as I had eaten, and muttered something stupid about honor and my allegiance to Marder. "That's what we thought you'd saywe'll dine with you instead. Have you royal fare, Uns? Answer us honestly." Uns bowed again. "Ya knows me, mum. I does wat I can's aw, 'n li'l 'nough ta do wid." "He doesn't," I said. "None of us do." "Then there's no shame in providing a queen with what you have, Uns. Whatever you'd eat yourself. We assure you we're hungry enough to dine upon the bats of Utgard." She turned to Berthold. "You may go. Go back to our pavilion and get what food and rest you can." He bowed and turned away, feeling his way with a stick. "Uns is to serve us, Sir Able?" "He does normally, Your Majesty, but I would have the honor of serving you myself, if I could." "It would not prevent you from eating? You're three times our sizeif we're famished, you must be starving." "If I may serve myself, too, I'll eat with a will." "Good. We ask that Uns and Pouk, though we feel certain they're both good men, be kept out of earshot." I told them to remain on the other side of the fire, and (there being small need of warmth on such an evening) to stay well back from it unless Uns' cooking required him to come closer. After that, I fetched two wooden trenchers and two jacks of wine that Uns had mixed with water. "They'll tell you when the meat's ready?" I nodded. "Yes, Your Majesty." "We'd like bread. Don't tell us it's hardwe know." I brought her half of one of the twice-baked loaves Svon had secured for us before war broke out in the marketplace. "One needs a Frost Giant's teeth to bite this," Idnn said, chipping off a piece with her dagger. "They have massive jaws, all of them. Did you notice?" I nodded and said I had. "We asked our husband about it. We were telling him how handsome he was. You understand, we're sure. He said they most enjoy the bones. It was a pity, he said, that we didn't eat them. We explained that we eat the bones of larks and thrushes, and he smiled. We felt so sorry for him! We ought to have asked whether the jaws of the daughters of Ang'r were as strong as those of her sons, but it didn't occur to us at the time. Nor would it have been politic, perhaps. Do you know, Sir Able? You must have seen a few since we told you of them." "No, but I've seen giantesses of the Giants of Winter and Old Night, Your Majesty." "Have you really? What were they like?" "In appearance? They change their appearance readily, Your Majesty, just as the men do." "The men of the Giants of Winter and Old Night, you mean? They must be fabulous creatures." Uns called that our soup was done, and I fetched it. When I had given Idnn hers, I said, "They are indeed, Your Majesty." "You said you'd seen them, the giantesses, at any rate." "I've seen the men too, Your Majesty. And killed a few. Of the women, Skathi is beautiful and kind, though so big in her natural state that feasts are held upon her belly." Idnn laughed. "You set your table there?" "Many tables, Your Majesty, and when we sing she sings along with us, and when we eat opens her mouth so we can cast dainties into it. Yet at other times, she seems only a tall lady, with strong arms and many plaits of golden hair, her husband's shieldbearer." "We think you mad, though there may be more wisdom in it than in the sanity of other men. What of the rest?" "Angrboda is a daughter of Angr, Your Majesty, though she wasn't banished from Skai like so many of Angr's brood. I have seen her many times, though only at a distance." Idnn smiled. "Do you fear her?" "Yes, because her husband is Lothur, the youngest and worst of the Valfather's sons. If she attacked meit's said she attacks all who come nearI would have to defend myself or perish." "We understand." "She's hideous, and they say that the time of her womb is a thousand years. When it's complete, she bears a monster and couples with her lord again. It may not be true." "Yet you think it may be. You were long in Skai?" "Twenty years, Your Majesty, or about that." "But you saw no more than those two?" "One other, Your Majesty." The memory darkened my mind, as it does even now. "Modgud guards the Bridge of Swords. If it were destroyed, no ghost could visit us, and there are those who'd destroy it. Thus Modgud, a giantess, protects it night and day. Because she does, the ghosts may come forth when Helgate stands wide." Idnn spooned up a little soup. "We take it she's fierce and well armed." "I don't know what weapons she may have, Your Majesty. She bore none when I saw her." "Is she very large?" I saw then that Idnn would question me until I told her everything; yet I hoped that by telling her much I might hold something back. "It's hard to judge the natural size of any of the Giants of Winter and Old Night," I said, "when one has seen them but once. When I saw her, Modgud was no larger than many Angrborn." "And in form . . . ?" "A maiden, fair-haired and slighter of limb than any Angrborn I've seen, small at the waist and not wide at hips, though womanly. Barefoot, and dressed as the poor dress." "Yet she frightened you." "Say that she impressed me, Your Majesty. Injustice to her, I must add that she didn't oppose our coming in, nor our going out. Thunor blessed her and praised her for her care of the bridge, and she received his blessing and his praises graciously and seemed glad of them. Thunor was our leader." I cleared my throat. "Many think the Overcyns are always at war with the giants, but that isn't true. There's friendship at times, as well as strife." Idnn nodded solemnly. "We know of that. Won't you tell us what we want to hear? The thing you're holding back?" "Modgud's face is that of death. It's naked bone, save for a maiden's eyes. Perhaps it's just a mask. I hope so." Idnn stirred her soup and sipped a spoonful. "We are glad it was you and not we who saw her, Sir Able." "You will see her, Your Majesty, when you cross the Bridge of Swords." "We hope for better." Again Idnn sipped, spilling soup from her spoon. "We didn't examine you to pass the time." "I never thought you did, Your Majesty." "Will you stand a few more questions? What think you of Hela? She was your servant once." "Only briefly." My own soup was cooling; I tasted it while I considered. "She's an outcast, and knows she must always be one. Her brother's an outcast, but not sensible of it. Hela is, and there's poetry in her because of that, and sorrow. In the warm congress she's a slattern, and yet I believe she truly loves Sir Woddet." Idnn nodded, her dark eyes on the glowing embers of our little fire, or perhaps on Uns and Pouk, who sat eating and talking beyond it. "Go on." "He doesn't love her as I love Queen Disiri. Yet his tenderness is real" "And she warms her hands before it." "Indeed, Your Majesty. Like every poet, she's a clever liar, but too clever a liar to lie much or often. I wouldn't trust her the way I would Pouk or Uns. But maybe I'm being too hard on her." "It may be that we are as well. She came to us tonight, calling us queen, and asked what we knew of our subjects." "About the Angrborn, Your Majesty?" "So we thought. We told her we had no subjects, that the Angrborn follow King Schildstarr, that though a queen we do not rule. You're anxious to be off, to ride your wonder-steed among the stars. So would we, in your place." She had seen through me like glass. I pretended not to be surprised and said, "The stars are too far for Cloud and me, Your Majesty. Nor am I as eager to depart as I was." "You may go soon. Where are the Angrborn women, Sir Able? The women who named us queen when we wed?" "Your Majesty must know better than I do." Idnn shook her head. "We stayed in a farmhouse on our way to Utgard. Our servant Berthold had been a slave there. You'll recall it, we're sure." "I do, Your Majesty, though it seems very long ago." "It wasn't. There were slave women, too, as Gerda was on another farm. But of the owner's own women, none. No wife, no sister, no mother. Hela says the womenfolk of the Angrborn remain our subjects." I asked whether Idnn hoped that I could add to what she already knew about them; when she did not reply, I assured her that I could not. "She said she'd bring some of our subjects here, and so saying went into the night. Do you think us in danger?" "From your subjects? I can't say. We're all in danger from the Angrborn, Your Majesty." "Of course. When Hela left, we called for Gerda. She's lived among them most of her life, and she kept her eyes. We asked where the women were, the wives of the Angrborn we see. We won't tell you all she saidmuch of it was foolish. She said she'd seen them from a distance, and they frightened herthat they have their own land, far away." No doubt I looked incredulous. "Your Majesty once said the same, I believe." "We did not, for that was not what they had told us. Our race would die out if we women lived in one nation and you men in another, and I know of no beast that lives so. Besides, if the females were so far away, how was it Gerda had seen some? So we popped her into the fireyou know what we meanand wouldn't let her out 'til she'd told us everything. You see them early in the morning, mostly. Very early, before the sun is up. Or before moonrise. For more than our lifetime Gerda had to rise and dress by firelight, milk four cows, and turn them out to pasture. Do you know what frightened us? When we were at Utgard?" "The place itself, I imagine, and the Angrborn." "Only some of them, the ones with two heads or four arms. We don't know why, they were no worse than the others, but they did." For half a minute, perhaps, Idnn gave her attention to her soup. Then she said, "Who killed our husband, Sir Able?" I told her I did not know. "We feel it was one of those monsters. There was one with a lot of legs. Did you see him? Like a spider. A big eye and two small ones." Idnn shuddered. "There was one covered with hair as well." "We hated himhated the sight of him, we mean. He may have been a perfectly worthy subject for all we know, and he was a member of our husband's guard. But when you rode over them