by Gene Wolfe
I had not even known that Pouk’s arm was broken.
“Lord Olof agrees that you should not be moved until you’re ready.”
Probably our voices awakened Thunrolf. He pulled the muslin off his face and tried to sit up. Vix and Aud ran to help him.
“I don’t know whether I can walk,” he told the leech, “but if you can get me on a horse, I think I might ride.”
“That won’t be necessary, Your Lordship. We have litters for you, and for Sir Able as well.”
“In which I will not ride,” Thunrolf declared. “No. Not if I must die here. Help me up, Aud. Where’s my horse?”
There was no horse but the leech’s. Aud and I helped Thunrolf mount, and I walked next to him holding his stirrup strap. I was afraid he would fall off, and I think he was afraid that I would fall down. When we were nearly there, he said softly, “A boon, Sir Able. You owe me none, I know. I crave one anyway, and you’ll not find me a worthless friend.”
I explained that I did owe him one. I had borrowed a ceptre and lost it, and promised any service I could perform.
“I’d forgotten that. Very well. I ask that you forgive me. Will you?”
I looked up at him. “Yes, My Lord, but that’s no boon. I’d done it already.”
“It is the boon you owed. Now I ask another, Sir Able. May I have it?”
“Sure.”
“Let me speak when we reach the Round Tower. Agree with what I say, and say nothing that will disgrace me.”
I was still trying to think of something polite, when half a dozen knights met us. Some were his, and some were Olof’s, but they had all caught on that something was going on and come out to see what it was. Thunrolf’s could not believe their eyes.
“We encountered a dragon,” he told them, “and I lost my sword. I would like to get that back, but not at the cost of another dragon. Had you seen a dragon before, Sir Able? I had seen them pictured, but the pictures are nothing.”
I said, “Once before, My Lord, but that didn’t help. I don’t think anybody ever gets used to them.”
He smiled. It was a twisted smile because of the burns, but a smile just the same. “I will not, if I have anything to say about it.”
Then we got the chain taken off; there was a lot more after that, but I am going to cut it short. He left pretty soon, going down to the port and getting a ship home. Nearly all his men had left already, going overland because of their horses. Pouk and I stayed until Pouk could walk, and Olof was very nice to us. He had Sword Breaker and my bow and quiver, and gave them back along with a lot of presents. When we left he loaned us horses, and sent some of his men with us to bring them back.
We stayed in an inn for three nights, I think it was, and did not like it much. After that, Pouk found an old man and his wife who would put us up cheaper than the inn, and better, too. The old man had been captain of a ship, but he had to quit when his eyes got bad. He knew a lot of stories. They were all worth listening to, and lots of them were worth remembering. We stayed with those people for over a month.
During the day I would practice with my bow, or with Sword Breaker, or I would go to the stable and get a horse. It was all day for a copper bit, or two for a better horse. I would ride around the country and gallop and trot, and so forth. I thought I was getting to be a good rider, too, but I was just getting started.
Pouk would go down to the docks and watch for a ship for us, and talk to the sailors and longshoremen. One day I came back and he was at the house, all smiles. He said there was a ship in port that was going to Forcetti, and it would take us there.
I said, “Fine! Let’s go and see how much they want. You think it’s a good one?”
“Aye, sir! That I do. Only I already booked, sir, by your leave. A snug cabin, sir, and straight up the coast to Forcetti.”
I wanted to know how much. Thunrolf had given me a lot of money but I knew there were a lot of things I would have to get in Forcetti. A knight’s mail is not cheap, and a horse like Blackmane (that was Sir Ravd’s) costs the world.
“You’ll like the price, sir.” Pouk was grinning like a monkey.
“You mean you paid it yourself? I was going to pay for us both.”
He laughed a little. “Aye, sir. I did.”
“Then I’ll pay you back.”
“Oh, that’s all right, sir. I paid wit’ what th’ dragon give me.”
I knew perfectly well that Setr had given him nothing but bruises.
It was the Western Trader, and I know you guessed it a lot quicker than I did. It did not look much better than it had a year ago; but it did not look much worse either, and when we went on board and had a chance to look around I saw that most of the sails were new.
Kerl and I hugged, and he told me how he had gone to the Round Tower looking for Pouk and me. That had been a week after we had gone down inside the Mountain of Fire, and he had been told we were dead, and Thunrolf was dead, too. So I told him most of what had happened, just saying that Thunrolf had wanted to shame his knights, which was true, and leaving out his trying to kill me when he saw Setr and I would not run.
I got the old woman to sew a pennant for me while we were waiting for the Western Trader to unload and load and get ready for sea again. It was silk and made of scraps left over from when she had made a gown for the daughter of the Captain of the Port. It was made of green silk, and she cut hearts out of red silk and sewed one on each side. Kerl flew it on the foremast for as long as I was on board. Later I put it away and sort of forgot it until I made a lance out of spiny orange. Then I remembered it and got it out, and put it on that lance. It was on there when that lance was hewn through.
Pouk and I stayed on shore with the old captain and his wife until the ship was ready. First, because we had gotten very comfortable there. And second, because I wanted to let Kerl keep his cabin for, as long as I could. He was not going to charge me anything and would not hear of our paying, but I had decided that when we got to Forcetti I would leave behind the Osterling knife Olof had given me. It had a silver hilt and a silver scabbard, both set with corals, and so it was pretty valuable, but it was too close to being a sword for me to like it.
I did that, too.
It seemed like we were never going to sail. The big spar broke, and Kerl had to find a long piece of good wood so the carpenter could make a new one, and he had to make it, and after that they had to load the rest and get everything stowed. Back when I was living with you, I read stories about sailing ships and pirates, and fighting Napoleon and all that, but it had never really gotten through to me how slow everything was. How long everything took. There are about a thousand things that have to be ready all at once, and when everything else is set you load the water, because the water starts going bad the minute it gets in the casks. Small beer is nicer, like Pouk said, because it keeps better. But it costs, and water is free.
Pouk and I had small beer in our cabin. Wine, too. The wine there is not real wine because they cannot grow grapes. But they make other stuff out of fruits they can grow, the same way we do cider. It had been cheap there in the little port town where the Mountain of Fire is, and we had gotten used to it. We had ship’s bread too, and cheese and jam, and three different kinds of salt meat, two kinds of smoked fish, and a lot of other stuff. The old woman had fixed a basket for the first day: sandwiches and fruit, and all kinds of pickles. There was so much in it we ate it for the first three days. The old captain gave me his brass marlinspike that he had in the seabag he carried onto his first ship. He said I ought to learn to splice rope while I had the chance. It was a handy thing to know, and I might need it sometime. So I did.
Because we finally did put to sea. When it happened we had been waiting so long it did not seem possible.
Most people here have never been on a ship, and some of them have never seen the sea. (Disira had not.) People in America are the same way, and it does not bother them. So there are some things I ought to explain, and one is about bread and cooking and so on
. There is a stove in the galley, and the cook bakes bread for the crew when he can. But he never lights his stove in bad weather because some coals could spill out and burn the whole ship. In bad weather you get ship’s bread and cold meat. Everybody does, even the captain. In good weather the cook boils your meat in seawater to get some salt out. But any cooking he does costs firewood, and there is only so much of that. In cold weather there is no heat except for the galley stove. None. It got colder and colder as we went north up the coast. Winter was about over, but it was still cold north of Kingsdoom. I had been gone about three years with Garsecg in Aelfrice, and one year exactly with Thunrolf in Muspel. Time always runs slower in the worlds underneath Mythgarthr, but you can never be sure how much. Sometimes it is just a little slower, but sometimes it is a lot.
When I think back on those days, all the days and weeks and months after we got out of the Mountain of Fire there are two things I remember more than any of the rest. One is how bad Pouk looked after we got him out. When he was lying on the rock waiting for the leech, and later in his bed in the Round Tower. He was not what anyone would call handsome, besides being pretty small. He had a big hook nose and a big lantern jaw. His blind eye looked terrible, and his good eye was little and squinty. But he looked so pitiful when he was hurt so bad, and he was so brave about it. When Thunrolf told him he would never do anything like that to him again, he just said, “Thankee, sir. Thankee.” And shut his eyes. I never knew how much I liked him until I saw him suffering like that, hurt so bad and trying to smile. He drank too much sometimes, but I could never get mad about it like I should have.
He was with me, on and off, until Disiri and I went away. After we had gone I saw what he had meant about my being his big chance. He was important (and Ulfa was, too) just because he had been with me so much. He was Master Pouk then, and worked for the king.
The other thing that I will never forget is seeing the Isle of Glas. The sun was almost down, and I was up on the sterncastle deck talking to Kerl. I thought I saw something and borrowed his big brass telescope.
And there it was. The tall, proud trees and the waves lapping a beach of blood-colored sand. I looked and looked, and pretty soon I started to cry If I could tell you why, I would, but I cannot. Tears ran down my face, and I could not breathe right. I took the telescope down and wiped my eyes and blew my nose. And when I looked again, it was gone. I never saw it again until I went into Thiazi’s Room of Lost Loves.
So those are the things. But I ought to say right here that I did not know Uri and Baki were looking for me. I had no idea, and of course my going to Muspel had made it really hard for them. They had searched the Western Trader three or four times, and had given up on it a long time before Pouk and I boarded it again.
Chapter 32. The Marshal’s Tower
“Keep your hand from your sword,” the man-at-arms behind me whispered, “and none of your cheek.” More loudly he said, “This here is Able, Master Agr.” I said, “Sir Able, sir.”
“He says he’s a knight, Master. He wanted His Grace, so I thought I’d better let you see him.”
That was what I got for not buying a proper warhorse in Forcetti. I had planned to get one, and Pouk and I had looked at a few that they had for sale. None of them had really suited me, and even though Thunrolf had given me a lot I could not have bought one of the pretty good ones.
The thin man behind the big table nodded and stroked his little mustache. He looked smart. He also looked like he did not like what he was seeing very much, meaning me. It always seemed to me that people ought to see right away that I was not really a man, just a boy that Disiri had made look like one. Only they could not. Pouk had not been able to, and neither had Kerl. Neither had Thunrolf. Now it seemed to me like I had stumbled into somebody that would.
“I am the duke’s marshal,” he said. He did not give a damn what I thought about him, and the way he talked showed it. He was telling me the facts. “I keep order among his horses, among his knights, among his servants, and among any others who happen to be here in Sheerwall.”
It did not seem like a good time to talk, so I just nodded.
“If it is needful that you speak to the duke, I will see that you gain audience. If it is not, you may speak with me. Or I will direct you to the correct person. Have you a wrong to lay before the duke’s court?”
I said, “I seek service with Duke Marder.”
“As a knight.”
“Yes. That’s what I am.”
“Really.” He smiled, and it was not a very nice smile. “From whom did you receive the accolade?”
“From the Queen of the Moss Aelf. From Queen Disiri.”
“Make your japes over wine, Able.”
“Sir Able, sir, and I’m not joking.”
“You’re a knight. We can leave the Aelfqueen out of it for the time being.”
“That’s right.”
“You have the build for it, at least. As a knight, you are an expert rider? It’s the management of the charger that distinguishes a knight from other men. I’m sure you know that.”
“It’s his honor that distinguishes a knight,” I said.
Agr sighed. “But the management of the charger is the fundamental skill of knighthood. Have you a charger?”
I started to explain, but he cut me off. “Have you funds to buy one?”
“Not enough for one I’d want.”
“I see.” He smoothed his mustache again. He probably did not know he was doing it. “Have you a manor from which you draw support? Where is it?”
I said I did not have one.
“I thought not.” Agr stood up and went over to his window to look out. “His Grace has need of fighting men. Sir Able. On what terms would you serve him?”
I had not even thought about that, or how to explain how I felt about it. After about a minute I said, “I want to be his knight, or one of them, anyway. I didn’t come to ask him for money.”
I could hear steel hitting steel outside, and Agr leaned out his window so he could see what was happening. When he turned around again he said, “No monthly stipend? Merely to cover your expenses?”
I shook my head. “I’ve got a servant, Master Agr. Pouk is his name.” When I had told Thunrolf about Pouk I called him my friend and got us in trouble. I was not going to do that again.
“I don’t pay Pouk and sometimes I can’t even feed him or get him a place to sleep. He looks out for himself then.” I thought about when I had been hurt so bad, and lying in the cable locker, how little bits of light came in through cracks and how the rats came smelling my blood. “Sometimes Pouk looks out for me too, when I can’t look out for myself,” I said. “If I were one of Duke Marder’s knights, I would be ashamed to treat him worse than Pouk treats me. If he wanted to give me something, I’d take it and say thank you. If he didn’t, I’d try to serve him better.”
That was the first time Agr looked at me like I was a real human being. He said, “That was well spoken, Sir Able. There’s a baron with the king who prattles of the Aelf in his cups. I think he’s as mad as a hare in spring, and I think you are too. But I cannot help wishing you were sane. With a little training you might make a first-rate man-at-arms. Can you use that bow?”
I said, “Yes, sir. I can.”
“There’s another master out there in the practice yard. His name is Master Thope. He’s master of arms, and if you address him as ‘sir,’ as you have been addressing me, he’ll break yours. Do you know what a master of arms is?”
I said, “No, sir. I don’t.”
“He trains our squires and men-at-arms in the use of weapons and the management of horses. I provide him with horses for that purpose. They are not good enough for a knight to ride in war, you understand; but an inferior horse can actually be better training for a rider than a good one, as well as making a young man appreciate a good one more. I want you to joust with Master Thope.”
He saw that I did not understand, because he added, “To ride against him with
a practice lance. He’ll lend you a horse, a shield, and so forth. If you do well, we’ll see how well you can shoot that bow and what you know of swordcraft.”
After that, the man-at-arms who had brought me to Master Agr took me down to Master Thope. He was as big as I am, but going gray. I told him who I was and why I was there, and explained that I was supposed to joust with him. He squeezed my arms. He had pretty big hands, and they were strong.
“That’s muscle,” he muttered, “not fat. Can you use a lance, young ’un?”
“I can try,” I said.
“All anybody can do.”
He got me a practice shield. They are a lot heavier than the real ones because they are a lot stronger, too. “I’ll aim for that,” he told me while I was adjusting the strap, “and you aim for mine. Nothing tricky.”
I said, “Okay.”
My horse was a fat chestnut gelding that was sweating already. It knew all about jousting, and it did not want to do that anymore. I did not have any spurs, and I had the shield on one arm and my practice lance in my other hand, so it was not very easy to get it into position. That would not have been so bad, but one of the other knights that were watching called, “Prick him with your lance!” and I looked at the end of it before I remembered it was not sharp. They thought that was really funny, and I started getting mad.
The place where you joust is called the lists. It is not really a list of anything. Those are thin wooden things that make the fence for it. Each jouster rides with those lists to his left side, so that the two will meet shield-to-shield. It is like football. You are not supposed to want to hurt anybody. Jousting is about as dangerous as tackle, and the person you are jousting with will be on your side in a real battle.
Like I said, I had quite a bit of trouble with my horse, and once I got him into position he knew exactly what was up. He was scared and trying to be brave, just like me. I tried to say something that would make him feel better. None of it was his fault, but he was the one who had to run and carry me and the big jousting saddle, and he knew he could get hurt.