The Wizard (42 page)

serve him even when defeat is sure. The Aelf ask that of you." Arnthor held out his hand. "Take off your sword belt, Sir Able. Surrender belt, sword, and all to your king." I heard Gaynor gasp but did as I had been told. "Your spurs you may keep." He called two knights, and told them where they were to take me. Although they guarded me with drawn swords, they had no need of them. ___ "No royal banquet here," said the first of the knights who had escorted me to the dungeon. He sheathed his sword and offered me his hand. "I'm Sir Manasen." The other gave me his hand as well. A gaoler came up as we were talking, and Manasen told him he had to put me in a cell at the king's order but that he was not to mistreat me, adding that he would send a servant with food, blankets, and clean straw. After that I was locked in a cell with walls of living rock, reeking, narrow, and very dark; and left alone there, I suppose, for eight hours. I entertained myself during that time by repeating those parts of my message I had succeeded in delivering, considering those that I had not, and trying to imagine how I might have spoken more skillfully. Mercifully I was interrupted by the arrival of Manasen's servingman, with food, a great bundle of clean straw, and a jug of wine. After he delivered them, he argued with the gaoler, demanding that I be given a cell with a window. This the gaoler adamantly refused, insisting that such cells were reserved for prisoners of noble birth. I heard them with little attention, although with enough to resolve that I would obtain such a cell for myself as soon as I could. I had not eaten much at the king's table, and by that time was ravenous. The food Manasen had sent to me was simpleroast beef, bread, a slab of cheese, and an applebut it was good and plentiful, and I devoured every scrap. I was gnawing the core of the apple when the servingman left and the gaoler came in. He was a burly man armed with an iron key not much shorter than my shin, but I knew I could overpower him if I wanted. He sat without being invited, put his key and his lantern on the floor beside him, and asked if he could have some wine. I poured him a good round tumbler. "They think pretty well of you up there." "Sir Manasen and Sir Erac spoke kindly to me, at least." "It's good to have friends when you're down here." This was said with heavy significance. I nodded. "It's good to have friends everywhere. I had many good friends in Jotunland and a good many more in Skai." He passed over Skai without a thought. "The ice lands? Was you really there?" "This winter. Believe me, I was glad to get out." "Is everything big up there? Big cows and all?" "No," I said, "only the people, and not all of them, because the Angrborn have human slaves. There's a dungeon under Utgard. I was never a prisoner there, but I went to look at it. I don't know how big your dungeon is here, but I'd assume it was bigger, since the prisoners were Angrborn. It was certainly worse than this has been up 'til now." He gulped my wine. "I'd like to see it." "Perhaps someday you will. It was a terrible place, as I said, but there were few prisoners in it. I was told that King Gilling had generally executed those who opposed him." The gaoler shook his head. "Not like that with us, only we're not full up, neither." "Some of your cells have windows. I'd like one." His manner stiffened at once. "We can't do that, sir. Just noble prisoners." "I'm a knight." "I know. It ain't enough." "I would be willing to pay a modest rent." "We was goin' to talk about that, soon as I'd finished this wine." He did, emptying the tumbler. I poured what remained in the jug into it. "You see, some's treated one way, some another. You take my meaning, I know. Now you, you got friends. When he come with straw and what you et, I never made no objection, you'll notice. I let him in nice as could be, didn't I?" "Certainly, and I appreciate it." "I knew you would. You're a knight and a gentleman, as anybody can see. Only I didn't have to. I coulda kept him out. I coulda said you get a order from the Earl Marshal, and we'll see. His master might have got such in a day or two, but if he'd told his lackey to, it'd been never." I nodded. "I'm a kindly man, but a poor man too. A poor man, sir, can't be kindly for free." His lantern, as I ought to have said earlier, shone out through my door, which stood open behind him, casting yellow light on the wall opposite. For an instant something large, dark, and very quiet obscured that wall and was gone. I asked how much his kindness cost. "Only one scield a month, sir. That's not much, now is it, sir? For one scield silver, mindat the full of the moon, you'd find me kind, and helpful too, sir. Only I can't give you one with a window. Not for that nor more, sir. It's the Earl Marshal. He won't allow it." "Yes he will. Does he come down here often?" "Every fortnight, sir, and makes sure all's right." "That should be sufficient. The moon is full now, isn't it? I believe I noticed a full moon the other night." The gaoler licked his lips. "Yes, sir. It is." "Then my first month's payment must be due." "Yes, sir. Always, sir. Or I count from the dark of it, sir, or the quarter-full, or whatever." "I understand." I nodded. "There's twenty-four scields in a scepter, I believe?" "Course there are." He licked his lips again. "Are you a man of your word? A man of honor?" "Yes, sir. I try to be, sir." "That's all any of us can say. I'm Sir Ableyou know that. May I ask your own name?" "Fiach, sir. At your service." I got out one of the big gold coins of Jotunland. "This holds more gold than a scepter. Since I don't know how much, I'm going to call it twenty-four scields. Will you agree?" "Not 'til I see it, sir." I handed it to him. He polished it on his sleeve, held it so his lantern made the gold glow, bit it, and gave it back. "Seems right enough, sir. I'll try and get 'em." I shook my head. "I'm going to offer you a bargain. You sell kindness at a scield a month, so this would buy two years' worth. More, but we've agreed on two years. I'll give you this for your kindness as long as I'm in here. For three years or five. But if I'm released in a week, you'll owe me nothing. The gold will be yours and we'll part as friends." He shook his head. "Why not?" "We don't do like that." I suppose I sighed. "You and the other gaolers?" He rose, picking up his key and his lantern. "You don't understand how it is. You give me a scield." "I haven't got one. I left small payments to my squire. He'll give you one if you'll let him in to see me." He grunted, started to leave, and turned again. "Give me that, an' I'll fetch you the scields, like I said." I shook my head. "You think your friends'll stand by you. I know how that is. They'll come awhile. Then they won't come no more and we'll have it all." With his big iron key, he pointed to the burse at my belt. I was tempted to say I would escape before any such thing happened. Perhaps I should have. "You lick those dishes, sir, 'cause that's the last good food you're goin' to see for years." I said nothing. "You give me that, and I'll take it to a moneymonger. If he says it's good, you'll get twenty back. And kindness." He paused, but I did not speak; and at length he said, "It'll be ours before the year's out, and I won't waste any more breath on you." The door of bars crashed shut behind him, and I watched him twist his big key in the lock. I was of half a mind to call out to Org to spare him, and of half a mind to call out that he might have him; in the end, I did neither. I heard Fiach walk away, six steps maybe, or seven; after those, the cracking of his bones. When I judged Org's meal over, I got him to unlock my door and hide the key and went out to explore my dungeon.

CHAPTER THIRTY?FOUR MY NEW SWORD

I slept in my cell that night, and wished (if the truth be told) that I had some means of locking it from inside. I was back on the Western Trader. (This was not the first time that dream had recurred since my return from Skai.) I saw the vicious, famished faces of the Osterlings and knew they meant to land on Glas and that my mother was there. I went to the captain and ordered him to put about; he did not hear or see me, and when I knocked the hourglass from his table, it returned of its own accord. I woke shivering to find myself in the dungeon. Having no wish to sleep again until the dream lost its grip, I went looking for blankets. At Sheerwall it was hard to get into the dungeon without going out into the bailey It was different at Thortower; earlier I had found a stair leading to a barred door of thick oak. Now I climbed that stair again, took down the bar, and stepped into the castle kitchen, where a score of cooks and scullions snored on pallets. Clearly, the prisoners' rations were prepared here and carried down. I blew out my lantern, set it on a step, and shut the door as quietly as I could. A potboy woke and stared at me. I put a finger to my lips, and told him to go back to sleep; he nodded and slept, or at least pretended to. What he may have thought of a knight prowling the kitchen after midnight, I cannot imagine. Beyond the kitchen was a hallway, by no means cramped, leading into the great banqueting hall in which I had sat with Arnthor, Gaynor, and Morcaine. It made me curious about the entrance they had used; I found it, and in it a mirror, the largest I saw in Mythgarthr. Here (I suppose) the king, the queen, and the princess checked their appearance before making their entrances. It gave me an idea, and I filched a lump of hard soap from the kitchen, whittled a soap-pencil, and wrote on the mirror, "Your thoughtsour lives," first in the character of Aelfrice, and up and down the sides in the runes of Skai. Returning to my cell with stolen blankets, I slept again; and if dreams haunted my sleep, they were the merciful sort. Underground as I was, I had no way of marking the rising of the sun; but I heard new gaolers come, and heard them call and search for Fiach, and judged that it was morning. I rose and asked one for warm water and a towel. He hesitated but at last refused. "In that case, I'll get them for myself," I said. He laughed and hurried off to rejoin the search; when he was well away I went to the gaolers' room, drew water from their cistern, warmed it on their fire, and carried it to one of the cells reserved for nobility. The gaoler's room had yielded a clean tunic I used as a towel; I washed with these and with the soap that had served me for a pencil, returned to my old cell, and carried my clean straw to my new one. My window was small and high. Yet what a difference it made! Fresh air and winter sunshine found their way in; and although it was cold, the whole dungeon was as cold if not colder. Wrapped in a blanket, I was not uncomfortable. Furthermore, I could see out by standing upon the basin. There was little to see but frozen, snow-covered mud and an occasional pig, but I watched these with some interest. Aside from Manasen's servant, Uri was my first visitor. I called and she responded at once, standing very straight and meeting my gaze with frightened eyes. "You might be with Queen Disiri, Lord. Shall I guide you?" I shrugged. "Equally, Queen Disiri might be with me." "She is a queen, Lord." "And I'm just an ordinary kid from America." She looked more frightened than ever. "You are a knight, Lord. A knight of Mythgarthr." "More than that. I am one of the Valfather's knights." "I know n-nothing of that, Lord. As you say." "I thought that when I had delivered her message to King Arnthor, Disiri would come for me. I lay in my cell waiting for her, and I hoped to see her this morning. I washed, and dressed, all in the hope she'd come." "Y-yes, Lord." "Is there unrest in Aelfrice that might detain her? The rise of another like Setr?" "I know of none, Lord." "I embraced her when I was at Redhall. It can't have been long in the time of Aelfrice, a day or two at most." "Less, Lord. Come with me to Aelfrice, and we will see. I fear the queen but you will protect me, I know." I shook my head. "We played together as children, Uri. Disiri and me. I remember now." Her voice was tender. "Do you, Lord?" "I do." Until that moment I had not known I remembered. "I thought they wiped those memories away, Uri, but they only hid them under the message. She had a palace, and big trees were its towers. Her garden lay around them, a garden of wildflowers, mosses, little springs, and rivulets. I was stronger than she was, but I was careful to take no advantage of it, and she punished me when she was displeased, striking me with her little hand." I laughed at the memory. "It was like being kicked by a bunny, but if I giggled she'd threaten me with her guards, Moss-men with swords who watched over us. They'd have killed me if she ordered it, but she never did." "You will not ask me to carry a message to her, will you, Lord? Baki could do it. They would not harm her." "I drank Baki's blood once." "I r-remember, L-Lord." "She said it would heal me, Uri, and it did. How would my life had been different if I hadn't drunk Baki's blood?" "I cannot say, Lord. These questionsyou are wiser than I. If you called me to trouble me with questions, I must endure it. But is there no other way I can serve you?" I told her then that I was concerned for Cloud and Gylf. I asked her to find them, to free them if they desired it, and report back when she had done it. My next visitor came so soon after Uri had gone that I wondered whether Uri had not fetched her. It was Morcaine, but she did not appear from the shadows as at Redhall; she came as any other might, save that she was accompanied by men-at-arms. These were not dead, but hard-featured axmen in brigandines and helmets who feared her as much as the gaolers feared them. She sent five to each end of the corridor, so neither they nor the gaolers could hear us. "This was none of my doing, Sir Able. No revenge of mine." I said I had never supposed it was. "You refused me at Redhall. I've offered love to few men. Only two have declined." She laughed; it was beautiful and empty. "Can you guess the other? Answer, clerk!" "No, Your Highness." "You're a miserable liar. He was much better. Do you imagine that resentment smolders and flares within this fair bosom?" She pressed her hand to her stomach. From her breath and her flushed cheeks, it was brandy that smoldered and flared there. I said, "Your Highness is too good a woman for that." "You've no notion." She paused. "You might overpower me, ravish me, and escape in my clothes. We're of a height." "I would never do such a thing, Your Highness." "You'd rape a peasant girlyou all do it. What's the difference? It might save your life." "No, Your Highness." "I'd have to lace you up in back, but I would if the ravishing went well. I've been told that many men fantasize about lying with a woman of royal blood." "As do I, Your Highness, though you are not the woman." Morcaine laughed. "Neither is she. You'll find out." Not wishing to contradict her, I bowed. "I'll have you yet. You'll see. When I've finished with you, you'll crawl, begging me to take you back." Her eyes shone. "Then I'll remind you of this. I'll make you bring me the head of the Man in the Moon, and when you do, I'll refuse it and mock you." She took my chin in her right hand. "Unless the Aelf try to feed me to another dragon, the little sons of worms. Then I'll scream oh-so-prettily and you'll kill him for me and die again. You're dead, you know." Although she still held my chin, I managed to nod. "That Valkyrie's kiss did it. Did you know that? It's an act of mercy. They don't take you unless you're too badly hurt to live. And now" Quite suddenly she kissed me, wrapping me in her long arms, her tongue gliding through my mouth and halfway down my throat. I fell to the straw, and she said, "Now you know how we feel." I managed to say that I did not think I was capable of making any woman feel the way I felt then. "Stand up!" She motioned imperiously for me to rise. "I'm going to ask my brother to free you. That's one of the things I came to tell you. I doubt he will. He doesn't like being told what a twisted little scoundrel he is, especially by the Aelf. The Aelf were our nursesbut you know that." I was getting to my feet; she crouched beside me, surprising me again. "He caught little fish and killed them in ugly ways. Sometimes I helped him. They punished us for it, and he's never forgiven them. You dead obey me, Able. I bring you all to heel, even you difficult cases." "I'm eager to obey, Your Highness." "But I doubt that he'll free you, even for me." She warmed my hand between her own, and seemed to want me to thrust it between her breasts, though I did not. "You may have to wait 'til I'm queen. You'll be grateful then. Very grateful, because this is a terrible place and I'll make you mine, and lie with you 'til no part of you can stand, and cast you away, and send you after the phoenix's egg. You'll bring it, and beg and crawl." She belched. "And crawl, and beg, and in the end I'll take you back and we'll go where nobody knows us, young lovers forever." I said, "You are kind at heart, Your Highness. I think I've always known that." She nodded solemnly. "I'm a good woman, Sir Able. Fortunately everybody else is evil, so I get to treat them any way I want. It makes it much more fun. Help me up." I stood and helped her rise; I do not think she could have without my help. "I thought you'd like to know how all this is going to work out," she said, "so now you do. Brush off my bottom, I think I got straw on it." I pretended to. "Harder, and say I've been a bad girl." Shortly after that she left, walking so well I might have thought her almost sober if I had not been aware of the effort she was putting into it. One of my gaolers came in, bringing a basin of warm water, soap, and a towel. I laughed and told him to take them away. He did, locking my cell door behind him. Hours passed. All the things I thought of then have filled this book, and might fill a dozen more. At last two gaolers appeared. Addressing me through the bars as "My Lord," they asked whether I knew what had become of Fiach, describing him. They had found boots as well as torn and bloody clothes; and although they were not sure they had been his, they were afraid they had been. "Fiach refused to let me occupy this cell," I told them. "That's all you need to know. It is enough for you. Now leave me in peace and do your jobs." I had been on the point of calling for Uri when they had come to my door. They begged and flattered, and at last threatened. No doubt I should have smoothed things over, but I was half nuts with inactivity and told them what I thought of them. They left, but came back not long after with a third gaoler, opened my door, and came at me with their keys. The roar of the waves filled my ears. I knocked the first one into the two behind him before he could strike, wrenched his key away, and broke the shoulder of the second and the head of the third with two blows. It had ended almost before it begun. (They must have felt they had lost before they had begun to fight.) The two who were still conscious prostrated themselves. I put my foot upon their necks and made each declare himself my slave foreverat which point Uri appeared, laughing, to remind me that she and Baki been forced to swear the same way. She wore no disguise, but was a Fire Aelf plainly, with floating hair like flames, fiery yellow eyes, and skin like copper in a crucible. I doubt that the gaolers heard a word she said; but her appearance, with a slender sword in one hand and its jeweled scabbard in the other, reduced them to gibbering. "I'm keeping this key," I told them. "Since our king has seen fit to imprison me, I'll stay in this cell when I've no reason to leave it. I expect you to serve me loyally and faithfully, and I promise that your first lapse will be your last. Now pick him up," I used my key to point to their unconscious buddy, "and get him out of here." It was easy for me to say that, but not easy for them to do it. He was a big, heavy man, and the one whose shoulder I had broken could not help the other much. I wanted to talk to Uri; so after watching the efforts of the one whose key I had taken for a minute, I picked up the unconscious one and carried him to the gaoler's room. "I brought you a new sword," Uri said as we were walking back to my cell, "and you have not even looked at it." I explained that I was a prisoner and was not supposed to have a sword. "You can hide it under your bed." "I don't have one. I sleep on straw, on the floor." "But you could get one. Those men you beat will bring you one as soon as you tell them to. We could sleep in it, and you would have something to sit on." I flexed the blade deeply between my hands; it sprang back straight and true. "Do not cut yourself." "I'm trying not to. Is this your work?" "Mine personally? No. How about the bed?" "I'll think about it, but you won't be welcome to sleep in it. I know what I'd wake up to." She giggled, and I felt a sudden yearning for Aelfrice, for its crystal sea and the silent forest in which Disiri and I had run and shouted and tamed young squirrels. There was no room to swing such a sword in my cell. I stopped outside the door, making cuts in air and thrusting between the bars. Its hilt of silver and snowy leather was simple, even chaste, its narrow blade written over in the character of Aelfrice with words too small and dim to read. "I think it Ice Aelf work," Uri said. "It is old, no matter who made it, and I did not get it there." "You stole it here?" She looked at me sidelong. "I do not have to steal everything. You have seen this." She smoked, and in a few seconds she was smaller and not quite so slender, and her glowing copper skin had faded to white and peach, although her nipples stayed bright and looked too hot to touch. "I have," I said, "and resisted temptation. Are you saying you sold yourself for this? I don't believe it." "All right, I stole it." She held out the jeweled scabbard. "I refuse to tell from whom. You would make me take it back." "If I could make you take it back, I could make you tell me where you got it." "Please do not, Lord. Listen. The man who owned it will never know it has gone. Never, I promise you. He had locked it in an iron chest bound with seven chains and seven big padlocks. Do you believe that?" "No," I said. "Then you certainly will not believe he threw the keys into the sea, but that's what my friend told me. I reached up from Aelfriceyou know how we doand pulled it down. He will think it is still in there until the day he dies." I took the scabbard from her and examined it. I had