The Knight. Part 35

"You bet," I said. "You and me are pals for life."

"Well, I need a new owner, and a knight might be nice, but you've got that big bow. Did the string get wet?"

"The string's in my pouch here." I picked it up and showed him. "It's probably still pretty dry, but I'm not about to take it out to see."

"You wouldn't like me."

I said, "I do like you. Honest."

"To eat. Possibly you hate us. Many men do, and your dog does." I tried then to think of something I really hated. When I had been where they kept the ropes on the s.h.i.+p I had hated the rats, but after a while it came to me that it was crazy. They were just animals. I tried to kill them, sure, because once or twice they bit me when I was asleep. But there was no point in hating them, and I quit. Finally I said, "I try not to hate anything, even rats."

"I am not a rat."

"I never said you were."

319.

The limbs of a bush over to my right trembled a little, spilling a few drops of water. When I saw that, I figured he was pretty small. In a way, that was right. But it was wrong too.

I said, "Are you invisible?"

"Only at night. Follow me."

"I can't see you."

"Follow my voice."

I did the best I could, leaving the glade where I hoped to build a fire and tramping though the wet forest. I felt like I was going to freeze solid. "Over here."

That was the first time I saw him (except it was really the second). There had been something black on a fallen log, but it was gone before I got a good look.

"Right here. See the little tree?"

I said, "I think so."

"Break a twig and smell it. Remember the smell. The sap will get on your hands and make them sticky."

The little knife I had carved my bow with was in the pouch with my bowstring. After I had broken a twig like he said, I got it out and cut off eight or nine branches.

"See how the sap runs wherever the tree is hurt?"

"Sure," I said. "Will it burn?"

"Yes, it will. So will the needles."

I carried everything back to where I had left my sword belt and so on, and whittled away at the branches until I had a big pile of shaving and pine needles, with everything soggy with sap. By the time I finished, my knife was black. So were my hands.

"I don't like it either," his soft voice told me, "but it's a nice color."

"The sap color you mean. It only looks black because dirt sticks to it." I was rubbing my hands with wet leaves, which hardly helped at all.

"Black is the boldest color and the best. The most dramatic." I said, "Okay, if this stuff burns good I'll love it no matter what color it is." I quit rubbing and got out my flint and firesteel. The first good shower of sparks got me a hissing, popping yellow flame.

320.

"See?"

"I sure do." I was picking up dead wood to throw on my fire. "You know, you're a really nice cat."

"You saw me?"

"Yeah, when you ran up into the loft. That was you."

"You don't hate us? Many men do." The cat popped up out of some wild-flowers on the other side of the glade. It was awfully small for a person, and it was a darned big cat, maybe the biggest I ever saw.

"I like you," I said. "I'd like to pet you. I mean, when I get my hands clean."

"You could lick them, couldn't you?" The cat did not seem very sure about that but was willing to try it on me. "My name's Mani, by the way."

"I'm Sir Able of the High Heart," I said. "Pleased to meet you, Mani." By the time I had a good big fire going, Mani was rubbing up against my legs.

321.

CHAPTER 47.

GOOD MASTER CROL.

"R abbits. Best I could do." Gylf dropped them near my head. "But I found it." I sat up, rubbing my eyes. "You found the War Way?"

"Yep."

"That's wonderful!"

Gylf grunted and lay down. I could tell he was tired. "People, too." I was cutting off the head and paws of the biggest rabbit so I could skin it.

"Nice people?"

"Tried to tie me up."

"I see. Were they woodcutters or something?"

He took his time with that one. Finally he said, "Don't know." I was busy pulling off the skin.

"Cook for me?"

"Sure. The whole rabbit if you want it. You caught it, after all." 322.

From a limb about ten feet up, Mani said, "You might pa.s.s that head, if there's no call for it down there."

Gylf growled.

I picked the head up by the ears and tossed it into the leaves where Mani could grab it. "Mani's our friend," I told Gylf.

He just shook his head.

"I think you'd better get over this business of not talking while he's around. It's not like he's a man or a woman or even one of the Aelf. He's an animal like you, and he's heard you already. In fact, you talked to him when I wasn't there."

"Right."

"Thanks." I rubbed his ears. "You're the best dog in the world, you know that? You're my best friend, too."

From up on the limb, Mani said, "Do you know some Aelf? That sounded like it."

"Yes, and when we met I thought you might be one. But there was a little suns.h.i.+ne while we were building the fire, and you didn't dodge it."

"I'm a cat," Mani explained.

Gylf curled his lip.

"I get it. Gylf, how about if you tell me what you and Mani were talking about when I came into the cottage? Is it something I ought to know?" He shook his head until his ears flapped. "Nope!"

"Are you ashamed of what you said? We all say stuff when we're mad that we're ashamed of afterward."

He was quiet.

"We say it," I said, "but it takes a big dog to admit it." I felt kind of silly then, but to tell you the truth I would a lot sooner talk to animals than to most people.

"He's ashamed of having spoken to me," Mani explained, "exactly as I am ashamed of having spoken to a dog. You will recall the meat you left in front of our fire."

That reminded me of the rabbits, and I got back to work.

"He was gobbling it," Mani continued, "when I, being famished, skillfully s.n.a.t.c.hed a piece from under his greedy nose."

"I see." I got up to cut a green stick.

323.

"He called me names, dog fas.h.i.+on. Vile epithets. I pointed out that he himself was a mere vagabond who had entered my mistress's home without the least invitation or exculpation in law. He informed me--I omit his insults--that he was the dog of a n.o.ble knight, giving your name."

I put the rabbit I was going to cook for Gylf on my stick. "I notice that you didn't try to steal any meat while I was cleaning this."

"I hope to persuade you to cook some fraction of one of your remaining rabbits for me," Mani said politely.

"But you're still eating the head," I said, positioning the rest of the rabbit over the fire.

"True. I thank you for that."

"So Gylf gets the first piece. After that, I get a piece, because I've never had any yet. But I'll give you another piece when we've gotten ours."

"I am confident of your generosity."

"Will you talk when there are other people around? Gylf won't."

"Good news! Let them come and silence him." Mani let the rabbit's skull fall.

"As for me, it will depend on who they are, I suppose. How they feel about cats and so forth. I'll have to see." He began to wash his paws.

"So will I. Do you object to a test?"

He did not reply, and I took his silence for agreement. I called, "Uri! Baki! I need you."

I was expecting one or both to step out of the darkness of the surrounding trees, but neither did.

"Uri! Baki!"

Mani coughed politely. "Yelling like that could bring us unwelcome guests, if I may say it without offense."

"They're mad at me for making them stay up here when the sun is out," I explained. "Suns.h.i.+ne doesn't really hurt them much unless they stand in it, but they don't like it."

"Uri and Baki are of the Aelf, I take it. Watch that meat of ours, please." I did.

"Do you really know Aelf? I mean, are you on friendly terms with them?

Normally?"

"I'm not as friendly as I'd like to be with one of them," I said. 324.

Mani wanted me to explain, and I did, a little; but I did not like it, and when he saw I did not he shut up. We cooked the rest of the rabbits, sharing them between the three of us, but there was not a lot said after that.

There was still rain on the gra.s.s when we struck the War Way next morning. Gylf ran in front to show me the way; when Mani was not riding on my shoulder, he trailed behind to stay away from Gylf. Half an hour's fast walking got us in sight of some pavilions where sleepy servants were tidying up and seeing to a hundred or more horses and mules. A man-at-arms with a partisan stepped into the road to make us stop.

"I'm Sir Able of the High Heart," I said, "a knight of Sheerwall Castle who's been lost in this forest. If you'll lend me a horse, I'll be very grateful, and I'll r eturn it as soon as I rejoin my servant, who has my own horses." The man-at-arms bawled for his sergeant, a somewhat older man-at-arms who had a steel cap and a hard leather s.h.i.+rt. I explained all over again, and the sergeant said, "You'll have to ask Master Crol, sir. That your hound?"

"Yes. His name's Gylf."

"We seen him last night and tried to catch him, but he give us the slip. Good huntin' dog?"

"The best."

"Well, you come along with me, sir." The sergeant patted Gylf's head, which Gylf tolerated to show there were no hard feelings. "Had any breakfast?" I shook my head. "We ate a couple of rabbits last night, and to tell the truth I was really glad to get them. But that was supper for Gylf and me, and for my cat. I didn't get as much as I wanted, and they didn't either."

"You got a cat, sir?" The sergeant looked around without seeing Mani.