The Knight twk-1

by Gene Wolfe

  Anyway, I just closed my cloak around me the way you do and lay down. I did not even take off my boots, something I heard about from Uri and Baki later. They found me while I was lying there asleep, and so did Gylf, who went back to our fire and tracked me by scent. All three stayed around to protect me, I am not sure from what.

  When I woke up, the sun was high and bright. As soon as I was awake Gylf licked my face; he had been waiting his chance, and it was something he did only when he thought I needed bucking up. I kind of grinned and told him I was okay, and when he did not say anything back to me I knew somebody else was around.

  Baki waved from a shadow when she saw I was looking her way, and Uri waved from under the same tree. “We feared that you might come to harm, Lord. All three of us were afraid for you.”

  “Thanks.” I stood up and looked around for a stream, hoping I could get a drink and splash some water on my face, and maybe even take off my clothes and take a sponge bath after they had gone. There was not any, so I asked where I could find Pouk and Svon.

  “I do not know where they are now, Lord,” Uri said, “but Baki and I will search for them if you wish us to.”

  Baki said, “Gylf might know,” but he shook his head.

  Uri drifted toward me, a pretty girl about as slender as girls get, dark red but transparent in the sunshine. (Think of a naked coppery-red girl in a stained-glass window.) “Why did you go into this forest alone and by night? Surely that was foolish.”

  “It would have been foolish to stay where I was. Is there any water around here?”

  “No,” Uri told me, “not for a league or more.” But Gylf nodded.

  “You had water where you camped,” Baki pointed out. “It was in your water bottles.”

  “If I had stayed there, Svon and I would have fought,” I explained. “Besides, I knew Org had killed, and I wanted to see what it was.”

  Baki said, “Oh, we can tell you that.”

  “It was a mule,” Uri said. “A woman came up the road on a mule, and Org rushed at it. I do not think he was going to kill her.”

  Baki added, “But she thought he was.”

  “The mule reared and threw her. Then Org got it. That was what you heard.”

  “He ate it, too. A lot of it, anyway.”

  I thought that over. “The woman escaped?”

  “Yes.”

  A cloud passed between us and the sun just then, and Baki came forward, very real. “She had a sword, but she ran just the same. I cannot blame her for it. Who would want to fight Org in the dark?”

  “I would,” I said, “or at least, I did. Maybe I’ll want to again someday. I don’t suppose you know where he is right now?”

  Both shook their heads.

  “Then find him for me. Or find Svon and Pouk. When you’ve found somebody, come back and tell me.”

  They faded to nothing.

  “You said you knew where to find water,” I told Gylf. “Is it very far?”

  He shook his head. “A nice pool.”

  “Please lead me to it.”

  He nodded and trotted away, looking over his shoulder the way dogs do to see if I was coming.

  I had to trot too, to keep up. “Nobody else is around, are they? You can talk?”

  “I did.”

  “Did Uri or Baki know about this water of yours, too?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “But they wouldn’t tell me. It can’t have been because they wanted me to die of thirst. This is a forest, not a desert, so it can’t be very hard to find water. Why didn’t they want me to know about this water of yours?”

  “A god’s there.”

  That stopped me dead for a minute. Parka was the first thing I thought of, then Thunor—he was one of the Overcyns that people talked about a lot. “Nobody calls the Overcyns gods,” I told Gylf. “Nobody around here, anyhow. Was this Parka? Do you know who Parka is?”

  He did not answer, and by that time he was almost out of sight. I took off after him, running as hard as I could, but I never caught up until he got to the pool and stopped.

  I looked for a god then, but I did not see one, so I knelt down and washed my hands and my face (I was sweating a lot) and had a good, long drink.

  After that I splashed more water on my face, and spooned some up with my hands and poured it over my head; and while I was doing that, the sun came out again. Sunlight turned the drops that rained from my fingertips to diamonds and struck deep into the pool. At the bottom, way, way down, I could see Uri and Baki. They were in a room that seemed to be about the size of an airport. It had swords and spears and axes all over the walls and in stands and long racks, so that you saw the gleam of steel everywhere you looked. They were talking to something big and dark that writhed like a snake. Uri turned back into a Khimaira while I was watching.

  Soon it faded out. The sun was still bright but was not shining straight down anymore. Or that is what I think. As soon as it was gone, a cloud came—or what seemed like one—and Gylf said, “The god’s here.” He got excited sometimes and he sounded excited then, but quiet and polite too.

  I looked up, and there was no cloud. It was a wing, so white it glowed and a lot bigger than the Western Trader’s biggest sail; it was coming from the back of a man in armor sitting at the edge of the pool. I could not believe that the wings—there were four—really belonged to him. Just by looking at me, he knew that I could not; so he folded them around him. When he did it, you could not see his armor—he looked like he was wearing a long robe of white feathers. He said, “I too have been sent away.”

  “You too!” I was so surprised I really did not know what I was saying. “I’ve been banished from Duke Marder’s court until there’s ice in the bay.”

  “Thus I come to you.”

  He sounded like he knew all about it. My jaw dropped so far it almost hit the buckle of my sword belt.

  “I do not. Yet I know you better than your mother ever could, because I hear your thought.” He raised his right hand. (Later I got to know King Arnthor, and he would have loved to be able to raise his hand like that, but he could not. No human can.) “Your mother never knew you,” he said. “I, who know so little, know that now. I make mistakes, you see. I am near perfection.”

  I was on my knees with my head down by then.

  “You have my thanks,” he said, “but you must stand. I have not come for your worship, but to your aid. I, too, am a knight in service to a lord. My name is Michael.”

  All I could think of when he said that was that it was a name from our world. It seemed like a miracle then. It still does. He had a name from Earth, and he had come to Mythgarthr to help me.

  “By putting my knowledge at your disposal.”

  I was so happy I could not think of anything to say. I stood up, remembering that he had told me to, and stared at him while he looked at me. There was no white to his eyes, and no black dot in the middle. It was like I was looking right through his head at Skai.

  “You think of Skai, of the third world. You believe I have been dispatched from the castle you see there.”

  It was not easy to nod, but I did. “I—I hope so.”

  “I have not. I am of the second world, called Kleos, the World of Fair Report.”

  “I didn’t even know the name of it, My Lord.” I just about choked, realizing that I was talking to him the way I had to Thunrolf. “I ... I’d like to get to that castle, if I could. Is that wrong?”

  “It is a higher ambition than most.”

  “Can you ...” I remembered Ravd and knew I was putting my foot in it. “Will you tell me how?”

  Michael studied me again; it seemed to take a long time. Finally he said, “You know the rudiments of the lance.”

  I nodded, too scared to speak.

  “You have been taught by one skilled with it.” Michael snapped his fingers, and Gylf came over and lay down at his feet, looking very proud.

  “Yes,” I said. “By Master Thope. He was wounded too badly to practice
with me, but he could tell me things, and one of his helpers would joust with me.”

  That made Michael smile. It was such a little smile that I could hardly see it, but it seemed like it made the sun brighter. “It does not trouble you that your dog prefers me to you?”

  “No,” I said, “I prefer you to me, too.”

  “I understand. Master Thope is skillful with the lance, but he will never reach the casde of which we are speaking. What lies beyond skill?”

  I started to say something dumb, then I stopped. I do not even remember what it was.

  “When you know, you will go there. Not before. Have you more questions? Ask now. I must soon depart.”

  “How can I find Queen Disiri?”

  There was no smile at that. “Pray, rather, that she does not find you.” I felt like I had been kicked.

  “Very well. I myself am less than perfect, as I have learned at cost. Learn to summon her, or any of them, and she must come to you.”

  “Uri and Baki come sometimes when I call them,” I told him. “Is that what you mean?”

  “No.” Michael stroked Gylf’s head. “You must call her, or any of them, as those you call Overcyns would call you.”

  “Will you teach me?”

  Michael shook his head. “I cannot. No one can. Teach yourself. So it is with everything.” He closed his eyes, and a one-eyed man with a spear came out of the trees, knelt, and laid his spear on the ground at Michael’s feet. Gylf fawned on this one-eyed man.

  Then he was gone, and the spear, too.

  “You see? How could I, or anyone, teach that?”

  I looked around at the bright pool and the sunlit glade. I was really looking for the one-eyed man—okay, for the Valfather, because that is who it was—but even then I knew I never could forget them. That was right enough. Later when I forgot about everything, even Disiri for a while, I still remembered them.

  “If you have no more questions, Sir Able, I will go.”

  “I have more, Sir Michael.” It was terribly hard to say that. “May I ask them? Three more, if ...”

  “If that is not too many. Ask.”

  “One time I was on—on a certain island, the island where Bluestone Castle used to be.” He nodded.

  “And I saw a knight there, for just a moment. A knight with a black dragon on his shield. Did I call him, the way you called the Valfather?”

  “He called you.” Michael stood.

  His wings opened a little, and I could see the gleam under the white glow. I said, “Can you fly in mail?”

  Something that was not very far from a laugh showed in his sky-colored eyes. “That was not your second question.”

  “No. I was going to ask who the knight I saw was.”

  “Yes, I can. But I have come here to descend, not to fly. As for the knight you saw, I tell you that there was no one on that island save yourself.”

  “I don’t understand that at all.”

  “Your third question is the wisest. Things always fall out so. Ask it.”

  “It was what question I should ask.”

  The smile returned. “You should ask whence came the tongs that grasped Eterne. Notice, please, that I did not say I would answer you. Farewell. I go to Aelfrice to seek that far-famed knight, Sir Able of the High Heart.”

  With that, Michael walked over the water to the middle of the pool and sank out of sight.

  Chapter 45. The Cottage In The Forest

  l spent the rest of that day doing something I had never done before, something I would have sworn on a stack of bibles that I would never do. I had seen a stone table at Sheerwall where they sacrificed before a war or battle, and I built one as much like it as I could beside that pool, carrying stones all day while Gylf hunted, and fitting them together sort of like a puzzle. I got it finished just before dark.

  Next morning I collected a lot of deadwood, enough for a really big fire—that was a lot easier than the stones had been. I could break most of the pieces I found over my knee, and if I could not I laid them down so that they could not move when I hit them, and whacked them with Sword Breaker. Then Gylf and I went hunting together. He had brought in a partridge and a marmot the day before, but we were after something big for the sacrifice. Just about the time the sun touched the treetops we got a real nice elk. No antlers, of course, at that time of year; but it was a big bull just the same. If it had been in antler, they would have been good ones. I saw it on a ridge about two hundred yards away. My bowstring had about driven me crazy the night before, giving me other people’s dreams; and I had been thinking of throwing it away. When I saw the elk I got glad I had it very fast. My arrow flew like lightning, catching the elk in back of the shoulder about halfway down. It ran like the wind at first, but Gylf got out in front and turned it, heading it back toward our table until it fell the last time.

  I am big, thanks to Disiri, and lots of people have told me how strong I am; but I was not strong enough to carry that elk. I had to drag it, with Gylf pulling with his teeth over the tough parts. Finally I gave up. I told Gylf we couldn’t do it, and we would have to take part to eat and leave the rest. Then he got big and black, and picked up the elk like a rabbit, and carried it for me. The funny thing was that I could tell even when he was big like that, that he was afraid I would be mad. I was not. Scared, sure. But not mad.

  We got the elk up on the wood on the table, and covered it with more wood. Then we praised the gods of Kleos, both of us, and I set the wood on fire. It was only Gylf and me, but I had never felt as good about anything as I did that night.

  When I finally got to sleep, it was the same thing it had been the night before. I was somebody, then somebody different, and then somebody new. Sometime I was back with you and Geri, only all of us were older. To tell the truth, I was glad when Uri woke me up. I knew I should be mad, but I could not hack it. She said, “You spoke while you slept, Lord. I thought this best.”

  I told her yes, I had been a little girl that they were going to operate on, only I knew the anesthetic would not work on me and I would feel everything. “Okay, what is it?”

  Baki bowed. “We have done as you bid us, Lord.”

  Uri nodded. “I have found your servant Svon, and Baki your servant Pouk.” I said that was swell, and I would go in the morning.

  “To your servant Svon, Lord? Or to your servant Pouk?”

  “They’re separated?”

  “Even so.” Baki pointed. “Your servant Pouk is two days’ ride north along the road we followed until you went alone into this forest, Lord.”

  I knew I was going to have to leave the pool—I had known that all along—but I did not like it. “Where’s Org?” I asked.

  Uri said, “Your servant Org is with Svon, Lord.”

  “I see. Master Agr gave me a charger, a chestnut stallion called Magneis. Where is he?”

  Baki said, “I know him well, Lord. He is with your servant Pouk, Lord. All the horses are.”

  “Then I had better go to Pouk first. Which way to the road? Will I find him if I follow it north?”

  “I cannot say, Lord. He will travel the faster, I believe. But no doubt he will halt when he reaches the mountains.”

  “He’ll halt a lot sooner than that,” I said, “if you tell him to. Find him again, and tell him I said for him to turn back south.”

  Both shook their heads. “He will not believe us,” Uri declared. “He has not seen us, and will in no way trust us.”

  Baki said, “He will chant spells against us that may well destroy us, Lord. Will you send us to our deaths?”

  I laughed. “Are you telling me that Pouk—Pouk, of all people—knows spells that will work against you Aelf?”

  Uri looked around to make certain no one was listening, and spoke in a guilty whisper. “He is ignorant, Lord, and ignorant people are dangerous. They credit their spells.”

  Baki added, “He is of the old gods, Lord, even as you. His kind has not forgotten.”

  “You’ve got to obey us.”
It was a new thought for me.

  “Yes, Lord. Even if we have fed you, we must. As you obey the Overcyns, Lord.”

  That was a barbed remark if there ever was one. We obeyed the Overcyns, mostly, only when we were afraid we could not get away with not obeying. I had been here long enough to see quite a lot of that.

  The upshot was that I told them to go south and stay in Mythgarthr with Svon and Org while Gylf and I went after Pouk and the horses. Then I went back to sleep and slept like a baby.

  * * *

  While we were tramping through the woods next morning, Gylf wanted to know how it was that Pouk got all the horses.

  “He and Svon fought,” I said, “and Pouk won. He let Svon keep his money and his weapons, but he took the horses, Svon’s included, and the camping gear.”

  “No sword.”

  I shook my head. “Right, Pouk doesn’t have one. But there’s a woman with him, that’s what Uri and Baki said, and she’s got a sword. She had the point at Svon’s neck after Pouk knocked him down. That’s what they said.”

  I stopped for a minute to think about that, and then I said, “I believe she must be the woman who had the mule that Org ate.”

  Gylf grunted. “Why’s she here?”

  “Uri and Baki didn’t know. Or if they did, they weren’t telling.” Gylf did not ask about the things I had seen when I had looked into the pool. I do not believe he had seen them, and I had not told him about them. I asked Uri and Baki though, and they had admitted the dark thing I had seen was Setr, calling him Garsecg to make him sound less threatening. He was a new god, they said, and they had to obey.

  We reached the War Way a little after noon, and walked up it all afternoon without seeing anybody, and camped beside it that night.