The Wizard (25 page)

fields and woods to either side, I found myself wondering whether that door would open to me. "That's it," Toug said, and pointed. "That's where they made the picks and the shovelsall the tools." As he spoke, he heard the deep and sometimes rasping voices of Angrborn. A moment later one lumbered around the corner of the house. He was carrying a mattock, but wore a long sword like the swords with which Skoel and Bitergarm had fought. Svon and Toug urged their mounts forward, but he barred their way with his mattock. "STOP!" Svon reined up. "We are on the king's business. You halt us at your peril." "The king's dead!" "That is a lie." The Angrborn raised his mattock. Svon clapped his spurs to Moonrise and shot past him, galloping toward the forge. Toug laughed. "You! Who're you?" Toug took his shield from the pommel to display its white griffin. "One of them foreign knights." "Since you call me one, I'll be a knight to you. Will you engage?" "A month back, I killed a dozen better'n you." "Then we fight as we are and where we stand. Single combat." Basing in his stirrups, Toug raised his voice as well. "Put aside your bow, Sir Svon." The Angrborn turned to look. Toug spurred his horse as Svon had. The war sworddrawn with one hand, wielded with bothcaught the Frost Giant below the ribs, and driven by Toug's strength and Laemphalt's thundering speed sank to the hilt and was torn from Toug's hands as he flashed past. He wheeled Laemphalt and let his gallop subside to a walk. The mattock lay on the road; the Angrborn who had held it knelt beyond it, bent double above a pool of blood. His hands were pressed to his side, and momentarily Toug wondered whether he was trying to draw out the blade that had pierced him or merely trying to ease his pain. He fell, and Toug urged Laemphalt forward until smoking, seething blood bathed his hooves, dismounted, and wading in ankle-deep blood wrestled his war sword free and wiped it with a swatch cut from the dead giant's shirt. An auction was in progress on the far side of the forge, attended by two score Angrborn, some of whom Toug recognized. For five minutes, he watched the bidding; then, having seen an open door and gaunt faces in the shadows beyond it, he spurred Laemphalt between two Angrborn and into the house. "A horse." It was one of the blind slaves from the forge. "There's a horse in here." "I'm riding him," Toug told him. "Are you afraid we'll get the floor dirty?" "I'll clean it up." A worn woman came forward and grasped Laemphalt's bridle. "Who are you?" Toug explained, and soon three blind, muscular men and two women were gathered around him. He cleared his throat. "Do any of you want to go back to Celidon?" "Get out o' here?" "Not be slaves no more?" "What's this you say?" "Yes!" "It's a trick!" The last had been from one of the eyeless smiths, and Toug addressed him. "It isn't a trick, Vil, but it may be tricky. To tell the truth, I think it's going to be. But maybe it can be done. We're going to try, if you'll help." "They're supposed to sell us," one of the other men said, "after the rest's gone. Master's dead." "I killed him," Toug admitted. "I had to. He was going to kill Etela and me." "You got her?" That was Vil. A woman said, "Her ma thinks she's back at the castle." "She is. I took her there last night, and your master tried to stop us." Toug drew a deep breath. "Listen to me, because we're not going to do this unless you're willing. The king, King Gilling, can take slaves whenever he wants them. That's the law. He" "Here you are!" It was Svon's voice, and he strode in from another room, his shield on his arm and his sword drawn. Toug said, "I thought you were at the sale out there." "Schildstarr's taking care of it. We were supposed to keep an eye on him, remember?" Toug nodded. "So I did, and he's playing a man's part as well as I can judge, buying up a lot of tools, and the tools to make them. I came back to help you . . ." "I think it's all right," Toug said. "They know I killed their master." "Diddid a certain person help you? Today I mean." Toug shook his head. "I'll teach you the lance, and we'll get you knighted as soon as I can manage it. His Lordship might do it." Toug was too stunned to say anything. "I thought he'd chase me, or anyway I hoped he would. When he didn't, I circled around to surprise him. I'd left the road for fear of meeting another." Toug nodded. "Sure." "By the time I got back therewell, you know what I found. And you were gone." Svon stood straighter than ever, and squared his shoulders. "This is offensive, and should you challenge me when you're a knight, your challenge will be accepted. I thought you'd probably gone back to Utgard." "I didn't even think of it," Toug said. "Maybe I would have if I had. I don't know. But I wanted to find you, and I thought you'd be here somewhere." A gaunt woman in ragged black came out of the shadows, led by a smaller woman with floating hair; the smaller said, "Don't forget this one, Lord." "Baki?" Toug did not try to hide to hide his surprise. "Is that Etela's mother?" "Indeed, Lord." "I hadn't known she was so tall." Svon motioned to Baki. "Come here, maid. Are you a slave? You're dressed like one." "Indeed I am, sir knight." "No doubt that's why you call my squire 'Lord.' He's a free man, and any free man must seem lord to you." "I am his slave, sir knight. Thus I name him Lord." "I've seen many slaves since I've been here, and many of them women. Sometimes Utgard seems full of them. None I've seen have been as a pretty as you." "Beware, sir knight." Etela's mother had taken Toug's hand, and her large, dark eyes held a question. "She's back at the castle," Toug whispered. "She's been very good, and I haven't hurt her. Nobody has." One of the blind men said loudly, "You said we might get free." Svon raised his voice. "Listen, all of you. I speak here for the king. As of this moment you belong to King Gilling, all of you except the girl who belongs to my squire. We're taking you out of here and taking you to the market." Voices were raised in protest. "Not to sell you! We need to buy food to feed you once you get to Utgard, and I've got money for it. I'll buy sacks of corn and baskets of vegetables turnips or whatever they have here. And we'll buy meat, and perhaps live animals we can drive before us. You'll carry the sacks and baskets, and help drive the animals. The point I have to get across is that you've got a new master, the king, and I represent him. If you're loyal and obedient, we'll take good care of you. If you're not, I'm not going to play the fool for you with reprimands and beatings. King Gilling wants good slaves, not bad ones, and there's more where you came from. Follow me." Baki tugged at Toug's sleeve. "The sun is bright." He nodded. "I understand." "I fear she may wander away." A woman said, "I'll take care of her." "Do you think she might ride behind you, Lord? She is very thin. She cannot weigh much." "If we can get her up here." Etela's mother spoke. "Let me have your hands, maid." "I do not think I am strong enough." Baki spoke to the other female slave. "One knee. Let her step on the other." It was easier than Toug had expected; Etela's mother was soon seated behind him, her skirt hiked to her thighs while her pitifully thin arms locked his waist. "The rest will be going out a window on the other side of the house, Lord. That was how the knight entered, and his steed is tied there." "We'll join them," Toug said, and tapped Laemphalt with his spurs to signal that they were ready to go. "She is an Aelf," Etela's mother whispered as they rode through the doorway. "I know. How did you know it?" There was no reply. Once they were stopped as they rode through town, but Svon declared loudly that they were on the king's business, and the Angrborn who halted them grumbled and moved aside. The market, when they found it, was larger and poorer than Toug had expected, its stalls staffed almost entirely by humans. After some inquiry and bargaining, they bought a large wagon, heavily made and nearly new, and four bullocks to draw it. When it was theirs, Svon began buying every kind of food and having the slaves load it. A small hand found Toug's. "He's paying way too much." His jaw dropped. "What are you doing out here?" "Going with. I was afraid you'd get in trouble, 'n need help. I figured you'd come here 'cause you said, so this's where I came, too." Shaking his head, Toug picked Etela up and stood her on a barrel. "You know you shouldn't have. I told you not to. You've been bad." "If I got to be bad to help you, that's what I'll do. I'm not really little like you think. Give me your hand." He did, and she put it to her breast. "Feel that? Mama says I'll be big any day now." Despite his good intentions, something stirred in Toug. "We slept an' you never touched me, only it wasn't how I was hoping. I wanted you to hold me, and maybe we'd kiss." Toug gulped, "I think we ought to wait 'til" Someonean Angrborn with tuskswas pointing at him and shouting at Svon. Quickly he turned and advanced on them with outstretched hands. And fell. Svon's sword had struck too swiftly for Toug to see it, but half its blade was red with blood. The Angrborn writhed on the trampled mud of the market, roaring, dragging himself with his arms, still toward Toug. "We're going!" Svon shouted. "Slaves on the wagon, all of you. You women, one of you drive." The barrel top was empty. Toug drew his war sword and severed two fingers from a huge hand that reached for him. Without thought he found himself in Laemphalt's saddle. A long whip cracked like the breaking of a lance, and he saw Etela's mother on the seat of the wagon with Etela beside her. An Angrborn with a sword fronted it, shouting for them to stop and catching a bullock by the horn. The whip licked his face, and he staggered backward. Toug rode for him and drove the war sword home. And all was confusion: Giants pouring from the houses around the market; Svon clearing a path with horse and sword and deadly courage; booths tipped over, baskets spilled and warty brown roots rolling underfoot. Slaves scattering or screaming while others boarded the wagon. "Marigolds and manticores! Marigolds and manticores!" A shrieking demon drove the wagon with a curling, cracking viper that struck and struck until it roused the bullocks to its own frenzy and they charged head down and bellowing, threatening to overrun Svon, then rushing past him. They were in sight of the great gate when the wagon lost a wheel. Schildstarr and his followers saved them for the moment, checking their fellow Angrborn with their voices and their spears, and in that moment Garvaon cantered down the arch of the wooden bridge, trailing white-faced archers and men-at-arms. Seeing them roused the Angrborn to new fury. Toug, who had felt that he had fought often and hard, learned that he scarcely knew what it was to fightto slash and stab and have the stallion he loved die under him. To fight on foot, the arm that should have held his shield useless, voice gone and strength gone and nothing left but the knowledge that Etela was somewhere in the madness. The knee before him was higher than his waist. He swung Sword Breaker with all the force that remained, and when the giant did not fall held her with both hands and swung again, though the pain left him half blind and he felt the grating of his broken bones. "The castle!" It was Svon, and Svon was gripping his arm; the pain was excruciating. "Come on!" Toug shouted, "Etela," but Svon was not listening and nothing Toug said afterward made sense even to him. An arrow flashed, followed by another and another. A clear voice rang over the shouting and the clash of steel. "We are your queen! Hear us, all of you! Stop this! We command it! We, Queen Idnn!" "Hot slut!" The insult brought another arrow, and the arrow a scream that might have been the very stones of Utgard crying out. Silence fell, or something near to silence. Looking up, Toug saw a gray mount above the Great Gate of Utgard, a gray that pawed air, its reins held by a knight who held a bow as well. A woman in a riding skirt sat behind him; and although we were silhouetted against the noon sky Toug recognized her. "By the authority of King Gilling, we command you stop! Is that my husband's trusty servant Schildstarr below?" "Aye!" roared Schildstarr. "Restore order, Schildstarr! Hear us, you sons of Angr! He who strikes Schildstarr strikes us, and he who strikes us strikes the king!" When Toug and Svon, with Etela between them, hurried through the Great Gate, the gross body of a Frost Giant stretched on the filthy mud of the bailey. Toug did not pause to look at it, although he was vaguely and weakly surprised. Crownless, clothed in bloodstained bandages, stripped of honor, it made little impression until he heard Svon's awed whisper: "That was King Gilling!"

CHAPTER TWENTYONE A BARGAIN WITH THIAZI

You're young and healthy." I paused to study the wounded face turned toward the floor, the jaw set hard. "This will heal. The bone will knit. In a year or three it will be a lot easier to forget than that puckering scar on your cheek." Mani sat motionless save for his tail, which switched and curled and straightened again. I sensed that Mani, too, was waiting for Toug to speak; but Toug did not speak. "The broken ends didn't go through the skin," I said. "Sometimes they do, and that can be bad. Fatal, too often. When they don't, the break nearly always heals." I wound another strip of rag around Toug's shoulderpulling it tight, and knotting it more tightly still. Etela said, "He can't die. Don't die, Toug." "Do you hear us?" Slowly, Toug nodded. "Good. You have to understand the point of all this bandaging. Why am I doing it when you're not bleeding?" "He is!" Etela exclaimed. I nodded. A child at the edge of womanhood, I decided, and wondered whether Toug knew it, or knew what it portended. Mani said, "The bleeding's not severe or serious. Just skin lacerations and a little from the old wound because the bandage was torn away." "Cats can't talk!" That was Etela. "This is actually the knight speaking," Mani declared smoothly. "The knight can throw his voice." "I don't believe you!" Etela jumped to her feet. "But you must," Mani told her. "Cats can't talk." I watched Toug's lips, hoping for a smile. "Mani's right," I said. "The salve would be enough if the bleeding bruise were the only problem. Perhaps a pad to hold the blood. All these bandages, with the stick, are to keep the ends of the break from moving. If they move they won't heal, or won't heal right. Let them stay where they are, and don't assume they've healed because the pain is not as bad as it was. What's the moon, Mani?" "Almost gone." I nodded. "Let it go, Toug. Let it come back and go again. Then we'll see." There was moonlight in the eyes of the strange woman Etela called Mama; I wondered what those eyes would be like when the moon was full, and found myself hoping I would never see them by moonlight. Etela said, "He can't fight, can he? They're going to come in here after us, but Toug can't fight them." "He can fight," I said carefully. "He simply can't fight with his left arm. He can't hold a shield, or fight with a big sword like the one he used today. He's a knight, save for being knighted, and knights often fight in spite of their wounds. Toug could do that." Almost imperceptibly, Toug shook his head. "If you and your Mama were threatened. He may think he wouldn't. When the swords were out, it would be different." To my surprise, Gylf licked Toug's hand. "They know the king's dead," Etela continued hopelessly, " 'n they'll come, too many to fight. Too many for anybody. 'N we'll scream 'n run 'n hide. Only they'll find us, one 'n then 'nother one, 'n kill us." Toug raised his head. "Too many for Sir Svon and Sir Garvaon and me, Etela. Maybe too many for Schildstarr, too. But not too many for Sir Able. You'll see." "Well said!" Mani declared. "But I wish Baki was here." Toug's voice had dropped. "There's something I've got to tell her." I stepped back. "It's a good thing she's not. You may want to think your declaration over before you make it." "No, I know what I'm going to say. I just want to say it. I want to say you've got to stay here, stay with us. Baki wants you to go off someplace and fight somebody." "Aelfrice." I supplied the words. "Garsecg." "But you're here, and we need you. If you're not here we'll all die." "You're both wrong." I seated myself on the rung of a chair. "You take too dark a view, and so does this girl." "Etela, sir." I nodded and smiled at her. "Etela. I don't blame either of you, but you're wrong just the same." Speaking for the first time, the strange woman said, "I will not run or hide." "Correct." I nodded. "You were slaves here before. Why shouldn't you be slaves again? The Angrborn would kill Sir Garvaon, Sir Svon, and meif they could. They might kill our men-at-arms and archers, too, or most of them. They might even kill Toug, Sir Garvaon's squire, Lord Thiazi and Lord Beel. But why kill slaves? Slaves are loot, not foes." "Nor am I a foe," Mani remarked, "or at least they won't think so. Do you think they'll kill Queen Idnn?" I shook my head. "Neither do I." Mani considered, his sleek head to one side. "I'll do what I can for her, and I feel sure she'll do what she can for me. We'll come through all right. She'll want to save her father, too, and perhaps we can." I grinned at him, then at Etela. "So you see, Toug, Gylf, and I are the only ones present who're in real danger, and only Gylf and I are in much." Gylf's growl was loud and very deep. "He says they are in danger from him," I interpreted, "and no doubt he's right." "Is it all right if I pet him?" Etela asked. "Unless he moves his head away." Gylf did not. "Let's get to the other things you and Toug said. Toug wants to notify Baki that he'll no longer honor his promise to persuade me to go to Aelfrice. He feels I'm needed here to protect you and your Mama." "And me," Toug said. I ignored it. "He's wrong, because there's no reason for him to sully his honor. I won't go to Aelfrice or anyplace else as long as you need me. You have my word." Etela smiled and thanked me, but neither her mother nor Toug gave any indication of having heard. "I want to go to Aelfrice, I'm" The oaken door (one of five doors of various woods and sizes) opened, and Thiazi stepped into the room. I rose. "Your pardon, My Lord. This chamber wasn't locked, and I thought we might wait for you here." Thiazi went to the largest chair. "You think I leave it unlocked so that my visitors may wait in comfort." A slight smile played about his mouth. I shook my head. "I thought nothing of the kind, My Lord. Only that since your door wasn't locked you wouldn't object to my bandaging Toug here, if we did no harm." "I keep it unlocked as a boast. It has been my boast that there was no one in Utgard so bold as to come in without my invitation. These two slaves," Thiazi indicated Etela and her mother, "presumably know nothing of me. Even if they knew, they can't have known this apartment was mine unless you told them. Did you?" "No, My Lord. If I had I would've had to explain why I wanted them with me when we talked, and I wanted to bandage Toug instead. That was far more urgent." "You have bandaged him now," Thiazi pointed out. "I have, My Lord. This girl is Etela." I turned to Toug. "Is that right?" Etela herself said, "Yes, sir." "And this woman is her mother. I think I know her name, but it would be better if she were to introduce herself." Etela's mother seemed not to have heard. Etela said, "She don't talk a lot except just to me. Sometimes not even to me." Thiazi made a steeple of his fingers and smiled above it. "An exemplary woman." "Too much so," I told him. "Your art is famous. King Gilling was very near death, yet you would have saved him." Thiazi's glance darkened. "I could not discern the identity of his assassin, thus I could not." "I didn't mean that." "He's under a spell of protection. There can be no other explanation. I safeguarded our king, but he left his bed . . ." The steeple vanished, and the great hands clenched. "He heard that woman, and rushed from his bed. Pah!" "Toug thinks our situation grave. Don't you, Toug?" Toug lifted his head. "I guess I do. They hate us. I don't know what we did, but they do." "The Angrborn are descendants of those Giants of Winter and Old Night who had to leave Skai," I told him. "Those who forced them to go are our Overcyns." "Mythgarthr was made from the body and blood of Ymir," Thiazi added. "It's ours by right." Mani lifted an admonitory paw. "Gentlemen! Gentlemen! Surely you see that this quarrel is not in the best interest of either side." "The Giants of Winter and Old Night," I said levelly, "take whatever they can by force and keep it. The Sons of Angr behave in precisely the same fashion." "You wish to quarrel with me," Thiazi muttered. "Why, no." I smiled. "Toug reminded us of our ancient enmity. Can we agree to set it aside? For the present?" Thiazi started to speak, but fell silent. "Toug believes that thousands of Angrborn will storm Utgard, butcher everyone and burn it to the ground." Etela touched my arm. "It's rocks, mostly." "So it is. Nothing of the sort will happen, of course. Those who would have set up a new king attacked Sir Svon and Toug, whose force consisted of themselves and seven slaves, three of them women and one a child. All fought like men from what I saw. Schildstarr and a few followers joined them, and the mob couldn't overcome them. Hundreds against one knight, a squire, some slaves, and twelve or fourteen of their own people. Sir Garvaon arrived with a few men-at-arms, and the hundreds who would have overthrown King Gilling couldn't keep his supporters" Etela's mother said, "Fewer than fifty." "Right. They couldn't keep a scant fifty from reaching the gate. Queen Idnn appealed for peace, and by then they were eager to agree. Anybody who thinks they'll go to work tomorrow on a ramp knows nothing about war." "I never said I knew a lot," Toug declared. I nodded. "You fought to exhaustion and were wounded. Both have colored your thinking. You need to realize that." "It was Queen Idnn that got you to come back?" Mani's voice was smooth, "Indirectly, it was I. I moved my royal mistress, and she Sir Able." Toug nodded. "I think I see." I said, "Then we don't have to talk about it." Thiazi shrugged. "I won't try to plumb your secret. I can do it easily anytime I think it important. You've told us what won't happen, and I agree. What will?" "Will you seek the throne for yourself?" He smiled bitterly. "Would you support me if I did?" "That would depend." "I will not. It is a dangerous seat, and I am by no means popular." "Someone will. Someone popular or at least plausible. Probably not one of the those who instigated the attack." Toug said, "The first one got killed." "Then I'm right." I spread my hands. "Somebody else. If we're lucky, he won't surface before His Grace arrives. If we're not, our position will be weaker. In either case, we'll offer our friendship and our king's, and ask him to let us leave Jotunland in peace. Since he'll have everything to gain and nothing to lose by that, I think he will." "What of me?" Thiazi asked. "You'll serve your new king loyally and ably, just as you served King Gilling." "He may have scores to settle." "If he does, he won't settle them, though he may think he has. Every king requires a sorcerer, and somebody who'll take the blame for unpopular decisions. You're both. He'll ask himself why he shouldn't make use of you, at least at first, and congratulate himself on his cleverness." "I congratulate you on yours, Sir Able. You make your speculations sound very plausible." "That's because they are. Have I earned a boon?" Thiazi nodded. "Several, if you want them." "Swell. I need three. First, the division of slaves" "You wish to claim some for yourself? Or for our queen? You must speak to Sir Svon now." Toug looked up. "You've divided them already?" Thiazi shrugged. "You were wounded, and we saw no need of your presence. I acted for you, in your interests." Toug started to speak, but Thiazi silenced him with a gesture. "First you should know that there were but six to divide, one having perished in the fighting. Another has an injured arm. Sir Svon got first choice, you'll remember." Mutely, Toug nodded. "He chose the sound man, naturally. I, acting for you, choose the other man. His name is Vil," Etela gasped. "A strong slave and a skilled one, from what I gather. When his arm heals, he should be a valuable possession. Sir Svon then chose one of the womennot this one. I, knowing your fondness for this child, chose her." "I was his already!" Etela exclaimed. Thiazi shook his head. "You were not, but you are now. Sir Svon took the other womanunderstandably, I'd sayand I was left with your mother for this squire. Thus you and your mother belong to him, together with the smith Vil." Toug said, "That's good. II never really liked you much. I was wrong." "You failed to understand me," Thiazi told him, "as you fail now. I do my duty as I see it. Will you give a slave to Sir Able? If you do, Sir Svon will surely give one of his to the queen. All of them, perhaps, but we'll have to see." "I don't want any," I declared. "I do want boons. This woman. What's her name, Toug?" "I don't know. What is it, Etela?" "Lynnet. I say Mama, only it's Lynnet really." The strange woman whispered, "Marigolds and manticores." "That's something she says," Etela explained. "I told Toug, 'n he said marigolds were flowers." Thiazi added, "Symbolizing wealth or the sun." Etela nodded gratefully. I said, "Manticores are beasts the size of Gylf here. Their heads are like the heads of men or women, but they have the teeth and claws of lions. Their tails are like the tails of scorpions, though much larger, and their sting is fatal." "Why does she say it, Etela?" Toug asked. "I don't know. Why do you say why?" Thiazi snorted. "I've a better question. What's the second boon you crave, Sir Able? I may grant it if I can." "Can you heal this woman? Toug's slave?" As I spoke, Gylf looked up at me. From Gylf's look I knew Gylf knew I could have healed her myself, that such acts violated my oath, and that he was far from sure my oath had been wise. "I can try," Thiazi said, "and perhaps I will. Whether I will or not depends on your answers to some questions. Can you tell me who stabbed His Majesty the night of the combat and who took his life? And what is the third boon you ask?" I sighed. "May I sit, My Lord?" Thiazi nodded, and I resumed my seat on the rung. "I can't answer your first question. If you want my opinion, the assassin was the same both times, though I'm not sure even of that. Is my final boonI didn't get the firstto be withheld?" "You may not get the second, either." Thiazi rose to pace the room, looking as tall as a tower. His voice boomed from the walls. "I will not believe that a man of your penetration cannot offer a guess." "I could offer a guess." I paused, sorting swirling thoughts. "I won't. I'm a knight, and a knight doesn't put the honor of others at risk. Suppose I did. Suppose I said that though I couldn't know, I felt it likely that the guilty party was a foreign knight, Sir Able of the High Heart. The accusation would spread as such accusations always do, and my reputation would never recover. Even if somebody confessed, people would say my character made the charge plausible." Thiazi paused in his pacing to say dryly, "You were absent, I believe, upon both occasions?" "I was. That's why I accused myself. Schildstarr has a friend with two heads. I don't know his name." "Orgalmir is the left, and Borgalmir the right." "Thanks. I don't say this, but suppose I did. I guess that Orgalmir wounded