The Wizard (34 page)

We laid Garvaon's body across his saddle; Uri (silent still, and I would guess very frightened) guided us back to our own world.

CHAPTER TWENTYSEVEN REDHALL

We could not return Garvaon to Finefield, however much we wished to; but a grave in Jotunland seemed a thing of horror. We resolved to carry him south so long as the cold weather held, and inter him as near his home as Parka decreed. The Host of Jotunland held the pass against us, as is well known. Fewer know that we interred Garvaon before the battle, fearing there would be too many to bury after it. We dug his grave and laid him in it, offered such sacrifices as we could make, and together sang our hopes for him. Hearing us, the Angrborn'sent a flag of truce to inquire. "Sir Garvaon is no more," Beel told the giant who carried it. "He was the bravest of my knights, and the best. We sing for his spirit, for we are not as you. And we have raised the cairn you see for him." He looked for it, but could not discover it 'til Marder indicated it to him, for it rose higher than many a hill. "You made that?" "I alone?" Marder shook his head. "No, I could not. Nor could Lord Beel, nor Sir Able, Sir Leort, nor Sir Woddet. We all did, working together." The Frost Giant leaned upon his sword. "I have to speak for those who sent me." We nodded and said we understood. "We're going to kill you and tear it down. There won't be two stones together when we're through." "You must beat us first," Svon declared, and grinned. "You know me?" Svon indicated the giant's bandaged hand. "You are Bitergarm, and you were one of King Gilling's champions." "That's my name," Bitergarm told Beel. "I fought them, him and Garvaon. You were there." Beel said nothing; Idnn told Bitergarm, "So was I." "I wanted to kill him myself." Bitergarm's deep rumble might have been a mountain's talking. "He was tough as your hotlands grow." Svon and I agreed. "So I'm sorry he's dead. That's for me. I'll tear it down along with the rest, only" He had caught sight of one of Idnn's subjects. Idnn herself advanced fearlessly and laid a hand on his arm. "I am their queen. Yours, too, Bitergarm." "Schildstarr's the king." "A king who'd have you war on your queen, your mother, your wife, and your sisters. I don't order you to fight for us against King Schildstarr. But I ask you, what sort of king is it who makes the right arm smite the left? You're never loved, you Frost Giants. Not even by your mothers. I know it, and I pity you. But is the canard true? Is it true that you yourselves never love?" He turned and left without another word. They attacked by night, as we had feared they would; but our Aelf raised the alarm long before they reached our camp, and the fire-arrows turned them back with many dead, for all the Aelf see in darkness as well as Mani. We sent Org after them when they retreated, telling him to kill any who came to his hand, and to strike their rear when they fronted us once more. The next day they held the pass against us, six of their grimmest shield-to-shield across the War Way, with a thousand more behind. There, in the pass I had held against the Black Knight who was Marder, those Mice they had driven out rained stones and spears on them until the sun was high. Three times we charged them with the lance, and each time they threw us back and harvested their dead. At sunset I knelt for Idnn's blessing, and on foot led their own women against them. Eterne drank their blood to the hilt, and the Knights of the Sword drank it too, some with two followers or three, and some with a hundred. Within an hour the snow began, and Baki's kin, with their bows and fresh fire-arrows, joined the Mice. The Sons of Angr broke and fled south into the mountains, where most who had not fallen, fell. As for us, we struck off the heads of hundreds slain, and heaped them around Garvaon's cairn, one on another until they covered it; and Beel and I, recalling his victory when he was young and how he had dragged a head behind two horses, wept. That night Idnn sent Hela for me. In the pavilion that had been Marder's, I sat with her (for she was gracious) and with Svon and Hela shared what little wine we had. "You are an honorable knight," she told me. "Sir Svon is, we believe, the most honorable we have known. But when we charge him with it, he says he's but your image in that." I did not know how to answer her, but Mani did it for me, saying, "To Skai this Mythgarthr we cherish is only likenesses and wind, Your Majesty. But a likeness cherished is more." His purling voice might have charmed a bird from its nest, I thought; yet I sensed that he meant all he said. "Hela here and her brother have been of great service to us," Idnn continued. "To us all, Your Majesty." "As have you. No man and no woman has been of greater service than you." "Kneel," Mani whispered; but I did not kneel. "We are a queen." Idnn touched the diadem she wore. "You have led our subjects against the foe." I remained silent, wishing that I might speak with Gylf. Cloud's mind touched mine; although it was filled with love, she had no advice to give. "You have not seen the lands we rule," Idnn continued. "No more have we. Yet there are such lands, and they have been described to us." Svon said, "We're going there when we leave the court. Her Majesty, my liege Lord Beel, and I." "As a queen, we have power to give estates. As we have power to raise to the peerage, power we would have even if we had no lands to give. We will make you an earl, Sir Able, if you'll have it." Hela murmured, "Take the title and the lands refuse, if you will." "I will take neither," I told Idnn. "I know I can't refuse without insult, and I am loath to. But I must." "Your liege consents." "My liege in Mythgarthr, you mean, Your Majesty. He's the best of men. But no. I insult you because I must. Sir Svon must be your champion. I've sworn to engage him when we reach the court. He'll avenge you." Idnn glanced at Svon and shook her head, saying, "We wish to honor you, not to quarrel with you, Sir Able." "I have wished to honor you always, Your Majesty." Suddenly she smiled. "Do you remember when you came to my father to borrow a horse? You and Gylf and Mani?" "It was long ago," I told her, "and I have forgotten itonce. I do not believe I will ever forget it again." "It was in this present year," Idnn told me. "We don't think it's seen two moons. Certainly it hasn't seen three. But we want to say you've given Mani to us since, something we never dreamed would happen. Tonight we hoped to give you a great boon, for that and all your kindnesses, and for being an army on two legs. Instead, we're going to ask more. You know what Hela and Heimir have done for all of us. You let Sir Woddet have Hela, and she wishes to remain with him. You retain her brother. So he says." I said I would not keep him against his will, and that I had seen little of him since Hela had gone to Sir Woddet. "We'd like to reward Hela, and the boon she asks is that her brother be given to her." Hela herself said, "He is my brother, and as a brother I love him, Sir Able. I fear he would fare ill without me." "If he will serve you, you may have him," I told her. "If you have him, Sir Woddet will have him too. Though his tongue is lame, he's a first-class fighting man." She thanked me; when she had finished Idnn said, "Since you will not leave your liege for usyou will not? Not for an earldom? We offer it again." "I have to refuse it again. I beg you not to offer it a third time." "Very well. We must have your liege here. Will you fetch him for us, Hela?" "And Sir Woddet, Your Majesty? You know that I must tell him all I hear, and he ask me. Would you send me out when I have brought the duke?" Svon muttered, "I am with Hela, Your Majesty." "Sir Woddet, too," Idnn agreed, "as quickly as may be." When Hela had gone Idnn said, "We mean to examine you. Hela prompted it. The sister's mind is as sharp as the brother's is dull, we find. She's the edge of the bladehe's the back. We've given her mother to Woddet, too, and he's loaned her to us." I smiled, and she graciously smiled in return. "Sir Svon has told us of Aelfrice. How he went there with Sir Garvaon and found you with a fleet that vanished. About his squire as wellhow Squire Toug had gone down a stair between worlds in a haunted spire, where fair women had been held to draw mariners to its summit." "Sir Svon knows much of Aelfrice," I said. Svon coughed. "You must wonder how I learned it." "From Toug?" Slowly he shook his head. "Toug will scarcely speak. When His Grace comes we'll ask about the matter you and I spoke of in the wood. I might as well tell you. It wouldn't be right for us to surprise you with it." I said that I had surmised as much. Idnn said, "We'd hoped to question you as a vassal. Your honor might not let you evade my questions then." "It wouldn't, of course, Your Majesty, if they were questions yours let you ask me." Svon said, "I've questions too, about Aelfrice. You told me you'd been knighted by an Aelfqueen. Remember?" I shrugged. "It's true, though Sheerwall mocked me." "When we camped by the river." "You went to the inn. Pouk and I camped there." He flushed. I saw that the boy still lived in him and liked him better for it. Idnn said, "Do you mean the ladies mocked you? It was to get your attention. You may trust me here." I shook my head. "I don't believe they did. Perhaps they pitied me. The men mocked me, save for Sir Woddet." "Who's here with me," Marder said. "Did I mock you? If I did, I was drunk. We'll engage again if you wish it." "You did not, Your Grace." Svon yielded his chair and Hela fetched a bench. Idnn said, "He will not answer us, Your Grace. You must ask him who killed our husband. We know he knows." Marder frowned. "Do you, Sir Able? Yes or no." "Yes, Your Grace." He sat silent until Idnn said, "Will you not ask him?" "Perhaps not. If he will not speak, he may have a good reason. I'll ask that instead. Sir Able, much as I respect you, I ask as your liege. Answer as you are a true knight. Why are you silent on this?" I said, "Because no good can come of it, Your Grace. Only sorrow and wretchedness." At length Marder said, "We might punish him, might we not? Or her. The guilty party." "No, Your Grace." "We could not?" I shook my head. "No, your Grace. You could not." So softly that it seemed he wished no one to hear but me, Mani said, "Wasn't it for love?" I nodded. Idnn made a sound but did not speak, and Svon filled the silence. "There's a question I've been eager to ask. I hope you'll answer. I never questioned you enough when I was your squire, and I hope you'll forgive that. I didn't talk with Sir Ravd as I should have, either. I hated him for trying to teach me, and for that I will never forgive myself. I'd like not to feel as bad about you as I do about him. I told you Toug would hardly speak. This was before the fog lifted." I reminded him that he had just repeated it. "Perhaps I did. It's like what you told us about the Aelfqueen. It's true, so why shouldn't I say it? Butbut it's not entirely true. He said that when Sir Garvaon died, you saw something the rest of us didn't. He thought I might have, since I'm a knight too. He saidhe said . . ." Marder saved him. "That reminds me. Her Majesty's father is anxious to speak to you. It concerns young Wistan, Sir Garvaon's armor, and so on. He asked me to mention it." I said that I would wait on him that night if he were still up, and the next morning otherwise. Woddet coughed. "I'm a knight too. By the Lady, I wish to every Overcyn in Skai that I'd been there with you." Idnn said, "Sir Garvaon would have lived, we're sure." I said, "Don't you want to ask me why I didn't fight Setr? All of you? Go ahead." Hela said, "Then I ask. It was not fear, I know." Svon muttered, "He'd been your friend, you said." "He had been. But there was another reason. It was because I knew Setr had to die." To change the subject, I added, "When heroes die, they are carried to Skai to serve the Valfather. Sometimes at least. That's what I saw, Sir Svonwhat Toug saw I saw when he didn't and you didn't. I saw the Valfather's shieldmaiden descend, and Sir Garvaon rise and go with her. We humanswe knights, whether we're called knights or notget to Skai sometimes. Suppose that one of us, the best of us, tried to seize its crown." They did not understand; I waved Skai and its crown aside. "Setr had to die. For him to die, my friend Garsecg had to die too, because Garsecg was Setr by another name. Setr feared me. He could have joined me here any time, but he'd shaped me, like Disiri, and knew I could kill him." Idnn asked, "Is that the Aelfqueen who knighted you? What are you talking about, Sir Able?" I laughed, and said I did not know myself. The ghost of something taken from my mind had returned to haunt it. Hela said, "It troubles him." And Idnn, "Who is this queen?" "She's Queen of the Moss Aelf, Your Majesty, and she educated and knighted me. She did what she did for a good purpose, though I don't know what it was. Garsecg, who was Setr, shaped me too, and thought his purpose good, perhaps. I was to fight Kulilias I did, not long before he died." Hela and Woddet wanted to ask about her, but I cut them off. "Having formed me nearly as much as Kulili had formed the Aelf, he knew I'd kill him if we fought. Because he knew it, he would never have fought me. He would have fled, and I don't believe even Cloud could have overtaken him before he got to Muspel. Grengarm was trying to get to Aelfrice when Toug and I caught up with him, but I had no griffin to chase Setr on. So I said I wouldn't engage him and set Sir Garvaon and Sir Svon on him, hoping they would be enough." "We weren't," Svon said. I rose. "I should've entered the fight in time to save Sir Garvaon. I thought he was about to rescue you. Before I could draw, he was in the dragon's jawsthe one I'd said I wouldn't fight. Every word of blame you lay on me I deserve. I'll redeem myself when I can." I addressed Idnn. "Have I leave to go, Your Majesty?" "There will be no word of blame from us, Sir Able." I bowed. "May I go?" I left the pavilion and wandered alone, thinking about a death I could have prevented, and forgetting that I was to see Beel. At last I went to the fires of the Daughters of Angr, supposing that the women would be as conscienceless and violent as their husbands. I would goad them, all would fight, and I would leave Eterne in her sheath. Larger even than their men, they teased instead like girls and women everywhere. Having heard me shout Disiri's name in battle, they wanted to know whether I had kissed her, and a thousand other things. I ate with them, and drank the strong ale they spice with willow bark. Marder joined me there, speaking of wars fought before I was born and knights who had served his father. After a time he said, "They wished to question you on a matter we both understand. I would ask about another matter, though it bears on the first. I ask no oath. You wouldn't lie to me." I confirmed that I would not. "You know the Aelf better than almost any manthat much