The Wizard (3 page)

Pain made him shut his eyes. It was childish to cry. He managed to stifle the sobs, but the tears came anyway, overflowing bruised and blackening eyes. His handkerchief was already sopping with his blood. He found what remained of the shirt, and though it was bloodstained too, dabbed at his eyes with it. He had thought himself handsome once, and he would never be handsome again; but he would cheerfully have consented to be hideous, if only the pain would stop. I should have brought wine, he told himself. Then he remembered that he had, and had drunk it, too. Moonrise, who had been peaceably cropping grass, raised his head, ears up and forward. Svon resumed his helmet, got to his feet, and loosened his sword in its scabbard. Thrust at his groin to make him lower his shield, then thrust at his face. But the rush of the outlaws It was only the boy come back, Sir Abie's new servant or whatever he had been, with his knife lashed to his stick and the cat (absurdly) riding his shoulder, and the monster dog at his horse's heels. Svon jogged to Moonrise and picked up the reins, but the boyToug?dismounted. "There's a farm that way." He pointed. "It's not very far. The giants have stopped there, and I'm going to sneak over to see if I can find out what's going on. After that we'll have to find Sir Garvaon and Lord Beel, and bring them here. I want you to look after the horses while I'm gone." "No," Svon declared. "We can hobble dem." "But I want" "I'm comin'. An' if you've god a man's good sense, you'll go for riders an' led me do de spyin' lone." Later, when the hulking farmhouse was in sight, Toug whispered, "There's supposed to be a old man here. A blind friend who's looking for Sir Able."

CHAPTER THREE A GREEN KNIGHT FROM SKAI

"Dis is Ber'hold, My Lord," Svon told Beel. "Doog here found him." "You found him," Toug declared. "You dold me he was dere, Doog. If you hadn'd, I wouldn'd haf known 'bout him, or known wad do make of him wen I came acrozz him." Beel asked, "What happened to your nose?" Svon managed to smile. "Doog broke id for me, My Lord. We had a dispude, w'ich he won." "Svon won the second one." "Wid words," Svon explained. "Ad blows Doog besded me, an' was gen'rous in vicdory." Berthold spoke then for the first time since they had dismounted. "He's not no bad lad, Toug ain't. Recollects me of my brother. Got many men, sir?" Garvaon snapped, "Say my lord, fellow' " "About sixty," Beel told Berthold. He sucked what teeth remained to him. "Might be enough. Good fighters?" "They'll have to be." Beel looked grim. "I'd fight. Only I can't see." "Your tongue may serve better than any sword. Are they going to stay the night? It will give us time for those of us on foot to come up."

"No, sir. They come to our farm and seen Master Bymir's gone. Sir Able Svon and Toug know himkilled him for us. Only the others didn't see. We drug him out with two yoke and dug where the ground's soft, and put a haystack on top, you know. The women hid, and I said he's gone and left me to look after the stock. I can't feed you unless he says. Well, they took it, sir, like I knew they would. While they was eatin' I made off 'til this Svon got me. Only they ain't going to stay. They'll move on directly." Garvaon started to speak, but Beel motioned him to silence, saying, "How do you know, Berthold?" "They'd of had me unload the mules, sir, and the pack horses. They never said nothing about it, only talked about killing me, and that's when I snuck off and went looking for Sir Able, hoping he might be around yet." Beel looked at Toug, who shook his head. "You're a friend of his?" "Aye! He was going to get us out, me and Gerda. It was him that killed Bymir. That's Gerda come to stay with me, sir 'cause Sir Abie's going to take us out when he's back from the big castle up north. Only he ain't come yet." "We've come," Garvaon said somewhat self-consciously, "and that may be good enough." "I do hope, sir." A distant sentry shouted, and Garvaon muttered, "They're going," and was on horseback before Toug had time to ask what that might mean for them. It had seemed best to wait until the Angrborn were clear of the farm, with its fences and pigsties. Then Garvaon ranged his riders in a broad crescent, strongest at its ends, that would envelop the Angrborn while leaving a slender and closing route of escape to the north. The objective (as he and Beel had explained at a length that Toug found wearying) was not so much to kill the Angrborn as to separate them from the pack animals. It was hoped the Angrborn would abandon their booty once they realized they were nearly surrounded. Svon was at the center of the crescent, with Toug on his left and Uns on his right. Privately Toug wondered whether Svon was capable of fighting; with a flash of insight he realized that Garvaon had put him there for his mail and helmetthat Garvaon hoped the giants would take him for a knight. "Where's Zir Abie's dog, Doog?" Svon's words were snatched away by a cutting wind. "We may need him." Although he agreed, Toug shrugged. "I don't know." "Whis'le for him, can'd you?" Toug whistled loud and long, without result. Uns waved. "Wear da big house is, mebbe,'n da barn. I seen da lady's cat. Mousin' in da barn, I reckon." A trumpet sounded, and the crescent surged forward, some riding too fast, others too slowly. "Keep line! Keep line!" Svon shouted. Few obeyedor even appeared to understand what he meant; he left his place, cantering up the crescent to restrain the impetuous and urge the laggards forward. Their ragged advance seemed to take hours. Toug nerved himself for the fight a dozen times, his states of readiness never lasting for more than three of the white stallion's strides. Then (and it was much too soon) the Angrborn came into view. The trumpet blew the charge. Toug leveled the lance he had made from my knife and a sapling, tucking its butt under his arm, and clapped his heels to the stallion. The next three or four minutes were a pandemonium of dust, noise, and confusion he was never able to recall with clarity. A pack mule ended his charge, the stallion crashing into it so that both fell amid thrashing hooves and rattling goblets the size of soup tureens. While he was scrambling to his feet, a sword as long as a weaver's beam flashed over his head, red already with someone's blood. He must have found his lance and caught the stallion, because he was mounted again, bruised and badly shaken. The Angrborn roared, horses and mules shrieked, and men shouted, bellowed, and groaned. An Angrborn rose before him. Perhaps he rode toward it; perhaps he thrust at it with his rude lance; perhaps he fled. Perhaps all three. The image remained in his mind, bereft of fact. Abruptly, there was a servingman in the saddle behind him. The reins were snatched from him, and they were riding away, streaming from the fight with twenty or thirty more; my knife was crooked on the end of Toug's staff, crooked and dripping, a drop striking him in the face as he raised his staff and the stallion dropped to a weary trot. He twisted and snatched the reins, wanting to say they were running but must not, that they had to fight again and win; but the servingman hit him on the ear, knocking him into a night in which there was no more fighting. When he was able to stand, he saw scattered, frightened men with bows. There was no dooming cloud of arrows, nothing that would fit the descriptions of battles he had heard. An arrow flew now and then, as a lone bird flies at twilight, a faint singing in the empty air. To the north, the lofty figures of Angrborn were making off through a field of millet, man-high millet that betrayed the presence of the animals they drove by frantic, irregular motion. An arrowhead of gray geese passed over animals and giants, three birds on one side of the leader and two on the other, creaking like rusty hinges as they rode a cruel wind. Their arrow seemed more warlike and more apt to be effective than those shot by the men with bows. The giant king was letting fly geese from the ramparts of his castle, Toug thought, a castle like the one he had seen when griffin fought dragon above the clouds, although doubtless larger. Almost idly he looked farther, shading his eyes, to where twono, four pinpricks of scarlet appeared along a range of brown hills. Darker against the darkling sky, a mounted man bent as if plucking something from the grass. He straightened, and held a light smaller than the blossoming scarlet that made his mount sidle away. Rising in the saddlean act scarcely discernible at such a distancehe cast the lesser light west, a spark arcing high against the cloud banks. A moment later, he wheeled his mount south, toward Toug. Driven by the wind, the crimson lights raced as fast as he; a breath, another, and the pungency of smoke. Hardly a bowshot away, the Angrborn halted and seemed to confer. One pointed. Garvaon was galloping toward them sword in hand, with Svon keeping pace and soon outreaching him. Toug began to run, shouting he knew not what and waving to the men behind him until a brawny arm scooped him up and plumped him down on the withers of a loping mule. "Ya ain't got nothin'." Uns' head was below his own. "Ya ain't got no sword nor nothin', 'n dey'd kill ya even if ya had dat sword ya talk about." Mules and horses were streaming toward them through the millet, animals driven as much by the thunderous shouts of the Angrborn as by the fires the Angrborn feared. Struggling to control his own mule, Uns relaxed his grip, and Toug slid off, rolled, and sprang up. He found no dropped weapons, but he ran forward, dodging left and right to avoid panicked animals and buffeted by the loads they carried. He had nearly reached the nearest giant when a great dark beast sprang upon itToug glimpsed fiery eyes and a ravening maw. In a moment the beast was gone and the giant lay dead at his feet. There was a knife in the giant's belt, a knife with a wooden hilt as long as Toug's forearm and a blade twice the length of the hilt. He drew it, and though the grip was too big for his hands, it narrowed at pommel and guard enough for him to grasp it as he might have gripped a quarterstaff. Smoke left him weeping and coughing. When he could see again, what he saw was a knight in green and gold reining a gray taller than any horse he had ever seen. "Is that you, Toug?" The knight slung his shield on his back and removed his dragon-crested helm. "Who hit you?" "Sir Able!" More smoke wreathed us as I helped him into the saddle. "Watch that sword, buddy. Better hold it crosswise." Coughing, he did. "I got this from a giant," he gasped, "and Lady Idnn's promised me a shield." When we were clear of the smoke, I said, "One of the hardest things a knight's got to learn is how to use his weapons without hurting his horse. Master Thope told me that, but knowing it's one thing and doing it's another." Toug craned his neck. "Have you killed some giants?" "With my sword today, you mean?" I slowed Cloud to a walk and had a look at the battle. "Not a one. But Gylf's probably done for a couple." Idnn and her women had come up by the time Toug said, "Isn't the fire going to kill everybody?" "I doubt it," I told him. "The battle's drifting out of its way, and there's a storm brewing. From the smell of the wind, I'd say a snowstorm. We've still got work to do." We did it, but it would take me longer to write about everything than the fighting tookrounding up the mules and pack horses in the snow. We spent the night in the big house that had been Bymir's, with fires roaring in every fireplace and most of us as near one as we could get. Toug found me in the barn, where Master Egr and his muleteers were unloading, feeding, and watering their charges. "II wanted to talk to you, Sir Able. Can I?" "May." I stepped away from Cloud and looked down at him, trying not to grin. "Okay, you may if you're willing to work. Are you?" "Sure! Anything." "Only you're tired and your face hurts." "Svon's hurts worse, and he's been doing a lot." "Which hasn't included unsaddling his horse and seeing that it has water and corn. Not so far, anyhow." "He's been helping Lord Beel and Lady Idnn." "That's good." Reaching up to the level of my eyes, I ran the comb along Cloud's back; when I got to her tail I handed the comb to Toug. "Know what this tool is?" "No, sir." "It's a currycomb, the comb you use to groom a horse's coat. If I had a squire he'd take care of my mountnot because I don't think it's important, but so he could learn to do it. When he was a knight himself, he might not have anybody to care for his horse." "You have a squire, Sir Able. It's Svon. He told me." I shook my head. "If Svon was my squire, he'd be here, seeing to Cloud." "He's afraid of you. That's what I think." "There's something else here of which he ought to be a lot more scared. Does Uns know about it?" "The visible monster? I don't know, sir." "Tell him next time you see him. I'm going to teach you how to take care of your horse now. Are you ready to learn?" Eyeing my charger, Toug nodded. "Can you talk while I'm doing it?" "Sure. Are you scared of Cloud?" "A little bit. He's so big." "She. Size has nothing to do with it. A vicious horse is terribly dangerous, even if it's small. A gentle one may hurt you by accident because it's so much bigger than you and so much stronger. But it isn't likely. The man you told me about the one who hit youis more dangerous to you than I am. This's the same kind of thing." Hesitantly, Toug nodded again. "The first thing you have to do is take off the saddle and saddle blanket. His saddle tires your horse as long as it's on his back. If you've ever lifted one, you know why. The saddle blanket will be wet with sweat, so it comes off too. If he's hot, or outside in cold weather, you ought to cover him. Anything clean, dry, and warm is okay. In here, I don't think we've got to do that." "I understand," Toug said. "Good. A horse doesn't think like you do, but a good one hears your thoughts better than you hear his. You've got to listen hard, and your listening starts with knowing your horse gets thirsty, hungry, cold, and lonely just like you do. If you know that, your horse will know you know it from the way you act. If you don't know it, he'll know that too." "Sir Able, you" "The difference will show up in little things, most so small you may not see them. Battles are won or lost because of small things. You want to ask a question?" "You were dead, Sir Able. I mean, we thought you were." I shrugged. "What does it matter? I'm here, breathing the same dusty air. Do you think I'm a ghost? If you want me to, I'll stick my finger so you can see it bleed." Toug shook his head. "That's good. I'm alive, Toug, just like you. When we ate tonight a couple of dozen people saw me eat. Eating is proof. Ghosts can't do it." "I didn't know that." "You do now. Is it this mail with gold in the rings? I got it when I got Eterne." I touched, but did not draw, my sword. "Her scabbard was on a belt fastened to this. I took sword, mail, and all. What would you do after you had taken off the horse's saddle and saddle blanket, and covered him if he needed it?" "Take off the bridle," Toug said. "Water him and get him something to eat, if I could find anything. That's what I did with your old horse when I had him." I nodded. "After that?" "That's all." "After that you should look at his feet. I want you to lift Cloud's right hind leg now, so you can check on her hoof. I'll hold the lantern." Toug did, looking like he thought Cloud's hoof might blow up. "You don't have to worry. She's used to having her feet checked. She knows you're doing it because you want her to be okay. Any stones in there?" "No, sir. Is it all right if I ask where you got her?" All around us, horses and mules stirred and stamped, and muleteers laughed and swore. At length I asked, "Is the shoe wearing out?" "No, sir." "Are the nails loose? Any of them?" "No, sir." "Good. Take a look at her left hind hoof." Toug did. "By now you must think I'm not going to answer. I am, but I was thinking how to. The Valfather gave her to me, but that doesn't tell you much. Have you ever looked at a pool and seen Skai reflected in the water? The clouds, the sun, the birds, and so on?" "Lots of times. This foot is all right, too, sir. Only who's the Valfather?" "Some people in your village pray to Disiri. Your sister told me." "Yes, sir. Are you going to get her out of Utgard?" "Your sister? Sure. That's one of the reasons I came back. Look at Cloud's right front hoof." Somewhat less hesitantly, Toug lifted that foot as well. "When I talk about Overcyns, I don't mean Disiri or her people. How many Overcyns do you know?" "Well, there's Thunor . . ." Toug hesitated. "And the Thunderer." "They're the same guy. Name some more." After a long pause: "Mother says Nerthis." I laughed. "Now you've got me. I never heard of him." "It's her." "Let's have some more." "I don't know any more, Sir Able. But this foot is all right, too. I'll look at the other one." "You've heard a great deal of swearing since you came in here, and that may be as good a way as any to find out who men ought to revere. What names have you heard?" "Uh . . . Frigg. And Forcetti? Is that an Overcyn, sir? I thought it was a place." "It's both. The city was named for the Overcyn, because people hoped for justice there. Is that all? You don't seem to have been paying much attention." "Fenrir and Sif, sir. And the Wanderer." "Nice going. The Wanderer is the Valfather. Now pay attention. You saw Skai reflected in a pool. But that pool and everything around it, all our world of Mythgarthr, is the
reflection of Skai. Lord Beel gave me the white horse that we left behind when we climbed on the griffin. Maybe I told you." "Yes, sir." "The Valfather gave me Cloud, just like that. You look sick. What is it?" "Your horse, the one I had until that man knocked me off. Inobody's taking care of him, unless he is." "I see. He's still your horse, Toug, even if he was stolen from you." "He isn't really mine, Sir Able. He's yours." "I'm giving him to you. I just did. The muleteers are supposed to be caring for all the horses, but if he's here I want you to find him and make sure he's been cared for. Tie him next to Cloud. Make sure his tether's plenty long enough to let him lie down, and make sure he has clean straw." Toug started to leave, but stopped. "You did all those things for Cloud before I got here, didn't you? Looked at her feet and everything." I nodded. "I thought so. If I'm going to be knight, I have to see about the man who knocked me off, too, don't I?" I nodded. "Sooner or later." "I want to do it before I sleep. I will if I can, as soon as I've seen to Laemphalt." As Toug vanished among the milling animals and men, I called, "Wash his legs when you've seen to his hooves. Warm the water." Some time after that, when I lay on the floor in what had been Bymir's front room, Mani left Idnn to stretch on my chest. "Are you awake?" Gylf raised his head to look at him, but did not speak. I said, "Yes. What is it?" "Do cats ever get to Skai?" I thought awhile. "Maybe. The Lady of Folkvangr's got four. How'd you know I'd been there?" "Oh, I know such things." I thought about that, too, and since I had been more than half asleep when Mani came, the thinking took a while. Finally I said, "I won't try to make you tell. I know you'd ignore an order. But if you won't tell me, I won't answer any more questions." "I probably shouldn't." "Then don't." I yawned. "Go away." "I have important news." Gylf yawned, too, and laid his head between his paws. I said, "What is it?" "Why should I answer your questions if you won't answer mine?" "You didn't answer mine," I reminded him. "Go away." "I wanted to. It's a delicate matter." "Better not to touch it. You cats are always knocking over cups and stuff, and I've got to sleep. We won't ride early unless I'm up with the sun." "It was my old mistress who told me, you see." Mani paused, studying my face. "Surprised you, didn't I?" "Of course you did. She's dead." Mani grinned; his teeth, which were white and as sharp as heck, looked red because of the firelight. "So are you, Sir Able." "Hardly." "I won't argueit's beneath me. Is it a nice place?" "Skai? Very." "Maybe I'll see it someday. This isn't. I mean, it's nice sometimes. But in general ..." "It isn't," I muttered. "No argument." "You can't have been there very long." "Twenty years or so." "You only rode away a few days ago." I sat up, catching Mani and settling him in my lap. "Tell me how you talked to your mistress, and I'll tell you a little about my time in Skai." Looking at Toug, who lay with his eyes tightly closed, I added, "I'll tell you some anyway. Nobody can cover twenty years in a conversation." "You must be explicit," Mani hedged. "Okay. I will be." "If you'll tell me about the cats there, I'll give you my important news too. But you first. Agreed?" "No, because I don't know much about them. Suppose I tell you everything I know. Will you say it's not enough?" Mani pressed an inky black paw to his inky black chest. "Upon my honor as a Cat, I will not. That is the highest oath I have. But you have to tell about Skai as well." "All right. Time is different there, just like it is in Aelfrice. I'm not a learned man, but it seems like time runs really quick in Skai. A month there is a few hours here, or less. Something like that." "That's not like Aelfrice." "I think it is," I said. "Time goes slow there. Toug over there spent a few days in Aelfrice, or that's what he thought. But it had been years here. The rule seems to be that time runs down, slower and slower as you get deeper and deeper. Skai's the third world, Mythgarthr's the fourth, and Aelfrice the fifth." "I knew that. How did you get to Skai?" "A nice girl named Alvit brought me. The Valfather collects heroes more or less as some men collect armor. His daughters and some princesses get them for him, princesses who've died nobly and been picked by the others. Alvit's one of those. The Valfather accepted me and gave me the cloud-colored mount you probably saw me riding today and my shield, with some other stuff. Is that enough?" "No. What did you do there?" "Feasted, sang, told stories, practiced the arts of war, and fought giants, the Giants of Winter and Old Night." "Lady Idnn fights giants, too," Mani said proudly. "She put an arrow in the eye of one today." "Hooray for Lady Idnn," I glanced at her across the cavernous room, "but the Frost Giant she blinded was nothing like the giants we fought. Let me tell you about a raid I went on. It's always cold and gloomy where they live, and that time it was windy, too. We took refuge in a cave." "So would I," Mani declared. "I'll bet. It was a big cave with five small ones branching off from it. They were all dead ends, and empty. We made a roaring fire in the big one and slept comfortably enough, with one or another keeping watch." "I would have gone scouting. You never know what you may find." "Exactly. I had the last watch, so I was up before the others. When my watch was over I woke them up, and I thought I'd have a look around. There was a range of hills to the north, and I climbed one. It was your lying on my chest that reminded me of all this." "Do tell." "I will, and I'm telling the truth, no matter what you think. When I got to the top, I saw a great big face to the west with its eye shut. The beard was like a forest, the mouth was like a pit, and the nostrils were like a couple of tunnels. I looked downhill, and saw my friends leaving the cave. I saw, too, that it wasn't really a cave at all, but the glove of the giant I was standing on." Mani licked his left paw thoughtfully. "I doubt that you believe me, but there's more. Want to hear it?" "Go ahead." "Our leader made himself bigger when I told him. Bigger and bigger until he was as big as the giant I'd climbed, and his hammer and helmet and everything else that was his grew with him. Seeing him, the rest of us made ourselves bigger too. I hadn't known I could, until he did it. But when he did, I understood how it was done and did it too. I couldn't make myself as big as he was, none of us could. We could make ourselves very big, just the same. And we did. I won't tell you the rest, because you'd never believe it." Mani completed the licking of his left paw and licked his right for a time, and at last said, "Tell me about the cats. As much as you know." "They belong to the Lady of Folkvangr, just like I told you. She's one of the Valfather's daughters, I think the youngest, and she's . . . Well, nobody can say how beautiful she is. There aren't any words for it." Mani grinned. "I noticed you choked, just thinking about it." "The first time you see her you fall on your knees and draw your sword, and lay it at her feet. I did that, and I saw a lot of others do it, too." "Touching." "She smiles and makes you get up, and tells you very sweetly that she understands you'd die for her, and swears she'll be your friend always." "That happened to you?" "To all of us. It was a wonderful, wonderful moment. I'd be tempted to say the most wonderful moment of my life, if it weren't for a moment that was even more wonderful. But honestly, Skai's full of wonderful moments. May I tell you what it's like?" Mani's voice smiled. "I wish you would, Sir Able." "I saw a cat at Sheerwall that had been born crippled. It had to hop like a rabbit, more or less." Mani nodded. "Now imagine every cat was like that. And after years and years something happened to you so you could run and jump the way you do. How would you feel?" "I suppose I'd go mad with joy." "Exactly. That was what Skai was like. Our lives in Mythgarthr had been bad dreams and now we were awake and the sun was shining, and those dreams had no more power over us. Do you want to hear about Folkvangr?" "Yes, if that's where the Lady's cats live." "Folkvangr is a beautiful hall in the loveliest of all meadows. Sometimes it's near the Valfather's castle, and sometimes it's far from it. They both move, but in different ways. There are gardens, and the meadow is the best garden of them all, always full of wildflowers. There are towers, rotundas, and courts, and a thousand hives filled with great golden bees that never sting anybody. There are special places for dancing and games, for singing, for talking and teaching, and for practicing the arts of war, both inside and out. You're forever finding something new there, and it's always something good. Secret stairs leading to rooms full of books and instruments you've never seen anyplace else, or windows with beautiful views you never knew were there." "It certainly sounds like a place I'd like," Mani said thoughtfully. "Are there only four cats? It must be a very big house for four cats." "I only saw four," I told him, "but maybe there's more. Even though I lived there for years, I didn't see everything, and it's possible nobody could see everything, even if he lived there a thousand years. Did I tell you that the Lady and the Valfather swap heroes?" Mani shook his head. "They do. The Lady's the Chief of the Choosers of the Slain. Some are brought to her, and she keeps a few. But she lends to her father sometimes, and sometimes he lends her a few of his. I was lent to her for a while." "What do her cats do?" I smiled just thinking about it. "Hunt in the meadow and sleep in the sun. Wander through her hall for purposes you'd understand a lot better than I do. They're her friends and messengers. On great days they draw her chariot." "Male or female?" "Both, I think, and that's all I know about them." "No, it isn't," Mani declared. "What colors are they?" "Two tabby, one black-and-white, and one all black like you. Now it's your turn to talk." "You're aware that cats see ghosts?" I shook my head. "I'd never even thought about it." "Seeing ghosts," Mani explained with satisfaction, "is one of the many areas in which cats are superior to you, and seeing ghosts was one of the chief functions I performed for my late mistress. Dogs also see ghosts at times, as do some birds. Cats, however, are far superior to either." Gylf growled softly. "He knows it's true. It goes along with our nine lives. Once you've been dead, it seems very natural to see ghosts." "That's interesting." "Isn't it though," Mani purred. "Now, dear owner, we must go outside. My news requires it."