The Knight. Part 39

"Exactly. I am no warlike man, Sir Able. While you were learning the craft of knighthood, I was learning to read and to write, history, languages, and the rest of it. If Sir Garvaon, let us say, and I were to come to blows, I should feel no shame about being beaten. But a servant? I would whet my sword and seek a second encounter."

"I'm glad Svon didn't, My Lord."

"Are you? For Svon's sake?"

"You shame me, My Lord. He was--he is--my squire. I've got a duty to him." Beel nodded, making a steeple of his fingers. "I have told you this because I feel you are a man of honor. It may be that Svon will return to you. If so, you may be able to do something. I hope so."

"I'll try, My Lord. Just how it might be done . . . Well, I don't know. I'll have to think about it." I got up.

Beel indicated the folding chair. "Since you chose to remain, we have other matters to discuss. I will try not to keep you from your bed too long." I sat down again.

"Svon told me that you had set a demon on his track. Are you surprised?"

"I am, My Lord. I--I believe I know what he means by that, but I did no such thing. May I explain?"

"I invite it."

"I have another servant, My Lord. His name is Org. He is no demon." The thin smile returned. "One meets neither demons nor dragons in the worlds above Aelfrice, Sir Able. That's one of the things I learned while you were being taught to manage a s.h.i.+eld. I did not say Svon was pursued here by a demon, only that he had said he was, and said you had done it."

"I didn't, My Lord. But I have reason to believe that when Svon left, Org went with him. He might be an unpleasant traveling companion, My Lord."

"Is this Org a large, strong man? Big shoulders?"

I sort of picked my way among words. "He's big and very strong, My Lord. He's bigger than I am and his shoulders are wider than mine."

"You did not set him on Svon?"

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"No, My Lord. I wasn't there when Svon and Pouk fought and separated. May I try to guess?"

"Please do."

"Maybe Org is afraid Svon will try to hurt me somehow, and he's following him to stop him."

Beel nodded. "That seems likely enough. Svon was going back to Sheerwall, so he told me. He dined with us, bought a mount, and stayed the night. It would have been a fortnight ago. Something like that."

I nodded.

"That night one of our sentries reported seeing a very large man in the moonlight, some distance away. He called him a giant--an Angrborn. You know how those fellows are."

It seemed a bad time to say anything.

"When he told his sergeant, the sergeant went to the place and looked around. He said he found a footprint in mud. A very large foot, he said, bare, with long toes. He said there appeared to be claws on the ends of the toes. You can see why I'm curious."

"I sure do, My Lord."

"Is that all you have to say?"

I nodded. "All I'll say willingly, My Lord."

"Very well. Svon has my sympathy. Don't stand up again, please, Sir Able. I see you making ready to do it, but we are only just come to the matter I most wished to discuss."

The steeple vanished. Beel leaned forward, anxious and thoughtful. "My daughter and I were both in that accursed declivity when we were attacked. I remained with her every moment. There wasn't much I could do, but I was determined to protect her if I could."

"Naturally, My Lord."

Beel's voice sank to a whisper. "She shall wed a king before all is said and done. She shall wed a king, and our blood will be royal again."

"I understand, My Lord."

"She is precious to me, and so I kept her under my eye. At no time was she up on the cliffs where our enemies were."

"Naturally not, My Lord."

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"And yet, Sir Able, she talks almost as though she were. Those cliffs, she has told me, are littered with dead, hairy men of monstrous stature slain by you and your dog. I find it difficult to credit a dog's slaying even one such man, let alone dozens, but that is what she says. You have boasted of your honesty in the past." Seeing how I looked, Beel changed it. "Boasted is too strong a word perhaps, but you've laid claim to truthfulness. You told me that you had not lied to me or to Master Crol. Do you deny it?"

"No, My Lord."

"Can you make the same claim today?"

"I can, My Lord. I do."

"Then I would appreciate straightforward answers to a few questions." Beel fell silent, studying my face, then his own hands. He had eaten nothing and drunk nothing.

"I like you, Sir Able. I like you more than any man I have met since I met His Majesty. I hope that you are aware of it."

"I was not, My Lord, but I'm very flattered. May I say I know you're a really good man, a loyal servant of the king, and the loving father of your daughter?" Beel nodded. "It's my daughter who concerns me now."

"I know it, My Lord. I haven't hurt her, or tried to."

"You see the curtain that divides our pavilion. She sleeps behind it, and I before it. I wash and dress here, she there."

"I've got it."

"Thus we cannot see one another. But we can hear one another perfectly. The curtain is of silk, which has small weight and occupies but a little s.p.a.ce. It blinds us, if you will permit the expression. But it offers no resistance to sound." I nodded.

"Thus we often speak to each other when we lie abed. In the morning too, while her maid dresses her and Swert dresses me."

"Okay."

"This morning she spoke of the battle, and she spoke as one who had been on the cliff tops--of broken heads, and broken arms and legs, of men crushed and torn, too, as though by a lion's jaws. She said that you had killed many of these men, Sir Able. Is that true?"

"Yes, My Lord."

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"May I ask what weapons you employed?"

I got out my dagger and laid it on the table, and drew Sword Breaker and laid it beside the dagger. Beel picked up Sword Breaker to look at it, and I said, "That's not a sword, My Lord. I know it looks like one, but it's a mace." He felt the corners of Sword Breaker's blade, tried to flex it, and laid Sword Breaker down again. "You are of low birth, I realize. But you are a knight, not a peasant, and a knight is ent.i.tled to wear a sword."

"When I've got the one I want, I will, My Lord."

"What sword is that?"

"Eterne, My Lord."

Softly he said, "The perfect blade is a legend, Sir Able. Nothing more."

"I don't think so, My Lord."

"Wizard, witch, or warlock." He sighed. "Which is it? I have some knowledge of the art myself, although I boast no great power." I did not say anything.

"I confess it in order that you may know I am not your foe. You may confide in me as a fellow adept."

"All I can confide is that I don't know a thing about magic, My Lord."

"Wizards never tell. It was a saying of my nurse's, but I didn't know there was so much truth in it. You've been on those cliffs, Sir Able? It was you who slew our foes there?"

"Yes, My Lord. Some of them. Most of them were killed by my dog. The arrows of your archers killed some too."

"Did you take my daughter up there? After the battle?"

"No, My Lord."

"Did you see her there when you were there yourself?" "No. If she's been up there, I know nothing about it."

"This is the deed to the manor of Swiftbrook, Sir Able." Beel held up the parchment. "Did you speak to her without my knowledge, telling her of the battle?"

"No, My Lord."

"Who was with you on the cliffs? Anyone?"

"My dog and my cat, My Lord. You've seen them."

"Who was it who told my daughter of the scene there? The men you slew, 353.

and the way they died?"

"It wasn't me, My Lord. Don't you think you ought to ask her?" He got quiet, and I knew there was not a lot I could say then without making it worse. Besides, I had things to think about myself. I b.u.t.tered bread, laid smoked sturgeon on it, and folded it over. At last Beel said, "You're hoping that I will send you off to find your servant."

"That's right, My Lord."

"I won't. You had better get some rest, if you're to shoot against Sir Garvaon." I nodded, stood up, and returned Sword Breaker and my dagger to their scabbards.

"You're still willing to contest with him?"

"Any time, My Lord." I did not say it, but my bowstring was putting me through h.e.l.l every night. It seemed to me then that it was high time I got something for it.

"I will judge your contest."

I nodded. "Sure, My Lord."

"I will do my utmost to judge fairly, Sir Able. My honor is at stake in that."

"I understand, My Lord."

"You may go." Beel sighed. As I was stepping out of his pavilion he added softly, "Yet I hope Sir Garvaon has the victory."

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CHAPTER 51.

ARCHERY.

I n the dream I had that morning, I was myself for a change, but very young, much younger than I had been when I came out of Parka's cave. I was sitting in a little boat and paddling up the Griffin. Bold Berthold stood watching from the bank, and Setr swam beside me, spouting water and steam like a whale. Up the river, Mother was waiting for me. Pretty soon Bold Berthold was left behind. I saw Mother's face among the leaves of a willow and in a hawthorn, beautiful and smiling, and crowned with hawthorn blossoms; but the Griffin wound on, and when the hawthorn was past I saw her no more. From time to time I glimpsed a griffin of stone from whose mouth the river issued. I tried to reach it, but came instead to an opening in a tube of thick green gla.s.s. And emerged at once, mounted on a gray warhorse and gripping a short lance from which a pennant fluttered. The stone griffin stood before me, tall as a mountain and more stern. I couched the lance and charged, and was swallowed up at once.

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It was past noon when I woke. I yawned and stretched, thinking about Mother's face in the willow leaves and in the hawthorn blossoms. She was only a girl, and although there was a lot of sleep in the thought, there was more sorrow than sleep. She was still a young girl, not a great deal older than Sha, when she went away. "You're awake just in time. I trust you slept well?" Mani was sitting at the foot of my cot, was.h.i.+ng his face with his paws.

I yawned again. "I thought you'd be with Idnn."

"Your dog wanted to cadge food. Since I'd had more than enough from Her Ladys.h.i.+p, he enlisted me to stand his watch."

I put my feet over the edge of the cot. "I'm glad you two are speaking now."

"Oh, we understand each other perfectly," Mani said. "He thinks I'm detestable, and I think he is. Doubtless we're both right."

"You've been talking to Idnn."

Mani's eyes (very beautiful green eyes that seemed to glow) opened wider.

"How did you find that out?"

"Was it supposed to be a secret?"

"Well, she wasn't to tell anybody. I made her promise." I had found my clothes. I laid them out on the cot and looked into the corners of Garvaon's pavilion to make sure there was n.o.body around except Mani and me.

"She told her father, and he reported me to you. Isn't that it?"