by Gene Wolfe
Forget the people, forget the girl with the cat. Think only about the target.
They gasped, and I lowered my bow and took a good, deep breath. That flat-flying arrow could never reach so far. I shut my eyes, knowing that in a second or two I would have to smile and shrug, and get myself set for my next shot.
A faint noise, like the noise that a pebble might make if it were dropped into a tin cup, reached us from far away.
Chapter 52. To Pouk
“Missed!” somebody shouted.
“Hit!”
“Hit the center!”
That too was contradicted, and I opened my eyes.
Frowning, Beel had raised both hands for silence. “If Sir Able’s shot struck the iron boss of the target, his arrow will have rebounded, and there will be damage to the point. The iron may be scarred as well. Master Papounce? Will you investigate for us?”
Papounce was in the saddle already. At Beel’s nod he galloped away. Someone near me said, “If it hit the middle it would’ve bounced off and I’d have seen it.”
“The distance was only a hundred paces when my archers and I were shooting against each other,” Garvaon whispered. “His Lordship had it moved way back for you and me, but he wouldn’t hear of Papounce standing near it and signaling any more. Armor and a few steps away, and he’d have been safe enough.”
I did not think so, but I nodded out of politeness; I was watching Papounce, who had reined up at the target and dismounted, seemingly to look at its boss. While I watched him, he walked behind it, and seemed to look at the trunk of the tree from which the target hung. “Going to win that steel cap, Sir Able?” It was Crol, still carrying his trumpet.
I tried not to smile. “I doubt it. To tell the truth, I’ll be happy if I don’t disgrace myself.”
“The king had one like it made for King Gilling,” Crol explained. “Bigger than my washbasin. His Lordship liked it so much he had one made for himself.” Crol gestured toward the helmet on the pole. “That’s it up there. King Gilling’s is on one of the mules.”
“It will look good on you,” Garvaon told me, “but you’ll have to beat me first.”
Papounce had mounted again and was trotting back to the camp. Idnn caught my sleeve and pointed.
“Yes,” I said. “We’ll know soon, My Lady.”
She got up on tiptoe; I saw she wanted to whisper and bent so she could talk into my ear. “Something’s happened! He’s not galloping. He needs time to think.”
I stared, then bent again.
“Your cat told me, and he’s right! Trotting, with Father’s eyes on him? Something’s afoot!”
Papounce dismounted and drew Beel aside. For at least two minutes they conferred, and I (I had been trying to edge nearer) caught Beel’s incredulous, “Split the rock?”
Then he raised his hands for silence. “Sir Able has three.” There were murmurs and shouted questions, all of which he ignored. “Sir Garvaon has the next shot. Clear the way for him!”
It missed the target, falling to the right.
This time Beel spoke to Crol, who bawled, “Sir Garvaon has three!”
I had shot my best arrow first. I picked a good one from those I had left and nocked it, telling myself firmly that I did not need to hit the middle again. If I hit the target at all, that would be enough.
I shot, and Papounce was sent off exactly as he had been before, and there was another wait while he galloped to the target and looked it over. I unstrung my bow and made myself relax, trying to keep from catching the eye of anybody who might want to talk to me.
I got another three. That made my score six.
Garvaon shot again. His third arrow hit near his first.
I was starting to feel like I was cheating, and I did not like that. Instead of shooting at the target, I aimed for the top leaves of the scrubby little tree they had hung it on. I shot, and watched my arrow fly true to aim. It passed through the leaves and hit the cliff-face behind them. A few pebbles fell, then a few more.
All at once the cliff face gave way, collapsing with a grinding roar.
* * *
Gylf found me about a mile away from our camp, and woke me by licking my face. I sputtered and sat up, thinking for a minute that I saw the old woman from my dream, the one who had owned the cottage, behind him. It was very dark. “Why here?” Gylf demanded.
“Because it’s sheltered, and I hoped it wouldn’t be quite so cold.”
“It” was a crevice in the rocks.
“Hard here,” Gylf explained. “Tracking.”
“Hard sleeping, too. I’m p-pretty stiff.” The fact was that my teeth were chattering.
“Fires back there. Food.”
I said sure. “But I wouldn’t have gotten anything much to eat before. Everybody wanted to talk to me. I told Lord Beel I’d meet him in his pavilion later—”
“Give it to you?”
“The pretty helmet?” I stood up and stretched, and wrapped myself in my cloak, adding the blanket I had taken from camp. “I don’t know. Or care, either.”
“All asleep.” Gylf wagged his tail, and looked up at me hopefully.
“You want me to go back, don’t you? It’s nice of you to worry about me.”
Gylf nodded.
“But if I stay here ...”
“Me, too.”
“You’d keep me warm, anyhow. I wish I’d had you here earlier.”
He trotted ahead to show the way; and I followed more slowly, still cold and tired. I had hoped to find one of the caves the Angrborn called Mouseholes, and was mad at myself for having failed. Gylf would have found one for me, and I knew it. Or Uri and Baki probably could have, if I had called them and they had come. But that would have been Gylf finding it or them finding it. I had wanted to do it myself.
The moon had not yet risen, and the camp looked ghostly—Beel’s scarlet pavilion dead black, Garvaon’s and Crol’s canvas pavilions as pale as ghosts, the bodies of sleeping servants and muleteers like new graves, and the few tortured cedars like Osterlings come to eat the bodies.
A picketed mule brayed in the distance.
“I’m going to send you to Pouk,” I told Gylf. I had not decided until then. “Not right now, because you deserve food and a good rest before you leave. In the morning. I want you to find him and show yourself to him, so that he’ll know I’m nearby. Then you can come back here and tell me where he is and whether he’s all right.”
Gylf looked back and whined, and a sleepy sentry called, “Sir Able? Is that you, sir?”
* * *
When I finally got to my cot in Garvaon’s pavilion, I found the gold-trimmed helmet on it. After I had adjusted the straps inside, it fit like it had been made for me.
Chapter 53. Boons
N ext morning at breakfast, eating off byourselves because Garvaon had told some of his archers and men-at-arms to keep everybody away, he and Gylf and I were joined by Mani, who got in my lap and ate whatever I passed to him, just like a regular cat.
“Lady Idnn’s just about adopted that tomcat of yours,” Garvaon told me. “She may have him if he wants her.”
Garvaon stared, then laughed. “You’re quite a fellow.” The point of his dagger carried a sizable chunk of summer sausage to his mouth, and he chewed in a way that showed he was thinking about something. “Can we talk man-to-man?”
“May,” I said. “Sure. Of course.”
“I said man-to-man, but that’s not exactly it.” Garvaon could not quite meet my eyes. “I’m a pretty fair knight. I can outshoot and outfight any man under me. I’ve won a few tournaments, and taken part in seven pitched battles.” He waited as if he expected me to challenge the number.
“Seven pitched battles, and I’ve lost count of how many skirmishes like that scuffle in the defile. But you’re something else.”
“I’m a lot younger than you are,” I said, “and a lot less experienced. I know that.”
“You’re a hero.” Garvaon almost whispered it. “You’re th
e kind of knight they write songs and poems about, the kind that gets taken up to Castle Skai.”
I froze when he said that.
“You didn’t know about the castle up there? It’s where the Valfather lives.”
“I did,” I said slowly, “but I didn’t know anybody else knew.”
“A few do.”
“And they take ... take us up there? Sometimes?”
Garvaon shrugged. “What they say.”
“Have you ever known anybody who—who they took?”
“Whom,” Garvaon told me. “Not ’til now. But I know you, and they’ll take you.”
We were pretty quiet after that, I passing more food down to Gylf and Mani than I ate myself.
Finally Garvaon said, “You’ve got a boon coming, you know. I have to give you anything you want. Remember our side bet?”
I shook my head. “I didn’t win.”
“Bah! You know you did.”
“We were supposed to shoot five arrows apiece. We only shot three.”
“And you missed on purpose with the last one.”
He was right, and I could not think of anything I could say that would not be a lie.
“You didn’t want to show me up in front of my men. You think I don’t know?”
I got busy eating.
“Maybe you think I left the helmet on your bed. It was Master Crol. Lord Beel told him to.”
“I should give it back. Sir Garvaon ....?”
“Keep it. You need it.”
I wiped my dagger on my sleeve and put it away. “I’d like to offer you a deal. You want to give me a boon.”
Garvaon shook his head. “I don’t want to, I owe it. I’m ready to pay, any time.”
“Your honor makes you, you mean.”
Garvaon nodded.
“I have honor, too.”
“I know. I never said you didn’t.”
“Then let’s take care of mine and yours together. I’ll grant you a boon, whatever you want. And you can grant mine. How’s that?”
“May. Name it.”
I took a good, deep breath. “I want you to teach me swordcraft. I’m flunking there, and I know it.”
“Is that all?”
“I think it’s a lot. Will you? We could start tonight, once we’ve made camp.”
Gylf got up, laid a paw in my lap for a second, and trotted away. “Now I’m supposed to ask a boon, too,” Garvaon said. “Only I don’t really need it anymore. All right if I tell you what it was going to be?”
“Sure. I’d like to know.”
“I was going to ask what made Lord Beel so sure you were going to win. Only I know now. Can I reserve mine?”
“Absolutely.”
“He wants to see you before we go, by the way. I was supposed to tell you.”
* * *
Beel and Idnn were still eating when I came in. Mani jumped off my shoulder to reclaim Idnn’s lap.
I bowed. “You wanted to see me, My Lord?”
Beel inclined his head. “Yesterday you promised you would speak with me later.”
“I tried to, My Lord.”
“You left the camp.”
I nodded. “So I could come back without being seen, My Lord. I waited too long, and you had gone to bed. I thought I’d better not disturb you.”
Idnn asked, “Did you come into our pavilion?”
“Not into your half of it, My Lady. I would never do such a thing.” She smiled. “What? Never?”
Beel jumped in. “This was after dark, I take it.”
“Just at moonrise, My Lord.”
Idnn said, “I didn’t hear you, and I slept badly last night. Do you know what I was doing at moonrise?”
“He does,” Beel told her. “Look at his face. You went outside in your nightdress, didn’t you?”
It was hard to talk after that, but I did it. “You were looking at the moon, My Lady. I thought it would be better if I didn’t interrupt you.”
Mani grinned from Idnn’s lap as she asked, “Did the sentries challenge you, Sir Able? I didn’t hear them.”
“No, My Lady.”
Beel frowned. “You crept past them?”
“Yes, My Lord. Past the sentries at this pavilion anyway. I knew they’d delay me.”
“It should not be possible.”
I said, “It isn’t too hard for one man, My Lord.”
“In armor.”
I tried to change the subject. “Yes, My Lord. But without a helmet, because I had none—I have one now, thanks to your generosity.”
Beel ate a coddled egg without saying another word, while Idnn smiled at me.
When his egg was gone, Beel said, “The black cat suits you. Your dog would suit me better, I think. Where is he?”
“I sent him to Pouk, My Lord.”
“Refresh my memory, please. Who is Pouk?”
“My servant, My Lord. He went north to wait for me in the mountain passes.”
“The servant who beat Svon.”
“Yes, My Lord.”
“Will your dog do that? Go to someone whole leagues away, just because you told him to?”
“I don’t know, My Lord, but I think so.”
Idnn was looking down at Mani. “Your cat thinks this is very funny.”
“I know, My Lady. He probably hopes Gylf will get into trouble. I hope he doesn’t.”
“Will you ride with me today, Sir Able? I should be delighted to have your company.”
I shook my head. “I’m deeply honored, My Lady. But I have to ride ahead to make sure we don’t get dry-gulched by the Mountain Men again.”
“Please, Sir Able? As a favor to me?”
Beel cleared his throat. “I want to ask you about your bowmanship. Yesterday ...”
I nodded. “I understand. But I could explain how I got past your sentries a lot easier than I could explain how I missed the target as badly as I did with my third shot.”
Idnn smiled at Beel. “Wizards never tell, Father. Remember?”
Chapter 54. Idnn
T he morning sun had driven off the last chill of the night long before we broke camp. The mountains in which we had been ambushed gave way to a considerable valley, mostly wooded, through which a swift river flowed. Beyond it the War Way rose and rose as far as my eyes could trace its winding curves, which vanished at last among peaks whose summits were lost in cloud.
“Pouk will be there,” I whispered to the white stallion Beel had given me, “and Gylf with him.” I wanted to gallop then, but I was forced to settle for a quick trot. Tomorrow, I thought. Tomorrow we will be at the first of the high passes; but tonight, almost certainly, we will camp in the valley, where there is open ground and water.
Had Gylf crossed the river already? It seemed likely.
The trees, which had appeared a solid forest when I had looked down on them from the heights, were scattered groves when I reached them, too open at first for anyone to mount an ambush. I halted at the first such grove and waited until I saw the sun glint on Garvaon’s helmet, then turned and rode again, trotting for a long bowshot before I reined up and paused to listen.
A score such pauses got me nothing more notable than the wind’s sigh and the rustle of leaves, with a birdcall or two; but at the next my ears caught the steady tattoo of galloping hooves. Thinking someone was hurrying forward to speak to me, I remained where I was. Instead of growing stronger, the sound faded away altogether.
I thought then of stringing my bow; but I shrugged, loosened Sword Breaker in her scabbard, and rode on.
The road wound about a huge gray boulder topped with stunted trees, the moldy skull of a hill, with more trees huddled around it. Beyond, the War Way ran nearly straight for a league and more; and there, in the middle distance, a rider waited.
It was an excuse to gallop, and I took it.
Idnn smiled when I reined up, and Mani sprang from her saddle to mine.
“You shouldn’t risk yourself like this, My Lady.”
Idnn�
�s smile widened. “How is it best to do it?”
I took a deep breath, half minded to offend her for her own good. “By—by ... Oh, never mind.”
“You wouldn’t ride with me, so I decided to ride with you.”
I nodded.
“I lagged behind, back among the mules where I belong, and then when we got into the trees I went off to the left far enough that they wouldn’t see me when I passed. This is a lovely wood to gallop through. You knew who I was as soon as you saw me, didn’t you?”
I nodded again.
“Because you didn’t draw that sword thing. You just hurried to me. Now you’re going to send me back.”
“Take you back, My Lady.” It was hard to say, although not as difficult as the thing I had not said.
“Because you don’t trust me to obey your orders.” There was something heartbreaking in her smile.
“I’m a lowborn boy, My Lady. My father was in trade, and my grandfather was a farmer, what you’d call a peasant. People keep reminding me. Your greatgrandfather was a king. I’ve no right to give you orders.”
“Suppose we were married? A husband has the right to give his wife orders, no matter who her great-grandfather was.”
“We’ll never be married, My Lady.”
“I didn’t say I’d obey, you’ll notice.” She stretched out her hand; and when I ignored it, she caught the strap that held my quiver. “Are you really going to take me back?”
“I’ve got to.”
Mani said, “But you don’t want to, do you? Doing things you don’t want to do always ends in trouble.”
Idnn laughed, the sad something that had crept into her smile forgotten. “I’d been wondering whether he’d talk to us when we were alone together.”
“He’s right,” I told her, “doing what you don’t want to do generally brings trouble. But there are times when you’ve got to, and face the trouble.”
Idnn nodded her agreement. “That’s why I won’t separate myself again and ride south instead of north. Go back to Kingsdoom.” As if she felt some explanation was needed, she added, “We have a house there.”
I tried to pull free, but she kept her sweating gelding beside my charger.