The Knight. Part 54

"Maybe they bit him, when they were hurt. Did I ever tell you about the dragon? I mean, about Ga.r.s.ecg's turning into one?"

Gylf looked up in surprise. "Wow!"

"Yes, it jolted me, too. But when I had time to think about it more, which wasn't 'til we separated, it surprised me a lot more. We were on a really narrow staircase, and the Khimairas were diving down at us to knock us off, Uri and Baki and a bunch of others."

Gylf grunted to show he appreciated the seriousness of that situation.

"Dragons can fly. There were pictures in Sheerwall, one on one of those embroidered wall hangings they had and one on a big flagon that Duke Marder drank out of at dinner. They had wings, both of them."

"Uh-huh."

"Besides, I know Setr can. I've seen him do it. So if Ga.r.s.ecg could turn into a dragon, which he did, why not a big dragon with wings? He could have chased the Khimairas. You can't change yourself like that, can you? Besides getting a lot bigger and fiercer the way I've seen?"

"Nope." Gylf stopped, one forefoot up, to point with his nose at the enormous steeple-roofed house of rough boards we were headed for. "Maybe we should go 'round."

I thought, then shook my head.

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CHAPTER 67.

YOU LOSE TRACK.

T he interior of the barn was as black as pitch, but Gylf's nose found corn for the white stallion, and the stallion, almost as quickly, found a water trough for himself; I removed his saddlebags, saddle, and bridle. And while I was searching for a place to put them, by sheer good luck I b.u.mped into the ladder to the hayloft. Moonlight crept in there, so that after the blind dark below it seemed bright enough to read in. I forked down half a cartload of hay for Gylf and the stallion, took off my boots, and fell asleep as soon as I lay down. Thunder woke me up--thunder, lightning, and driving rain that came through every crack in the roof of the barn. I sat up, afraid and not knowing what had happened, and the next time the lightning flashed I was looking squarely into the ugly face of the Frost Giant I had seen years ago beside the Griffin--the giant whose face and towering stature had sent me running back to 454.

Bold Berthold's to warn him.

"Thought I wouldn't see your horse's tracks."

The giant's voice was deep and rough, and would have been terrifying if heard thus suddenly on a sunny summer day. It suffered now in comparison to the thunder. "Thought the rain'd wash 'em out, didn't you?" I shook my head, yawned, and stretched. He wanted to talk before he fought, and that was fine with me. "I didn't know it was going to rain, and didn't care whether you saw my horse's hoofprints or not. Why should I?"

"Sneaking. Hiding."

"Not me." I rose and dusted off the hay in which I had slept, wondering all the while where Gylf was. "Traveling late is what you mean. I've got urgent business with King Gilling, and I rode 'til my horse was fit to drop. If you had been awake, I'd have begged food and accommodation from you, but your lights were out. I came in here and did what I could. Can you spare a bite of breakfast?" The lightning flashed again, and I realized with a sort of sick relief that his head was not severed and standing on the floor before me, but thrust up the hatch in the floor.

"Knight, ain't you?"

"That's right. I'm Sir Able of the High Heart, and your hospitality has earned my grat.i.tude."

Another lightning flash showed a hand coming at me. I drew Sword Breaker and struck at the darkness where that hand had been; the sickening crack of breaking bone was followed by a bellow of pain from the giant. The whole barn shook when he crashed into some part of it. For a second I could hear the thudding of his footsteps through the rattle of the rain. A distant door slammed.

He would doctor his hand, I decided, and perhaps fetch some weapon; the question was whether he had barred his door as well as slamming it. No, I decided as I climbed down the ladder, there were really two questions. The other one was could I beat him?

Bold Berthold was outside, between the house and the barn, feeling his way through the driving rain with a stick and hugging something wrapped in rags to his chest.

"Here I am," I called, and trotted over to him, wet to the skin and nearly 455.

blown off my feet the minute I left the barn.

The stick found me, and he tried to give me his bundle. "Come lookin' for you last night, but you wasn't there. In the barn, you said, and I poked ever ywhere and called your name, only I never could find you."

"I was in the hayloft, asleep." I felt a sudden shame. "I should have thought about you. I'm sorry."

He took me by the arm. "You hurt my master?"

"I tried to. I think I broke a bone in his hand."

"Then you got to get away!" A flash of lightning showed Bold Berthold's contorted face and the empty sockets that had held kind brown eyes.

"Was he the one who blinded you?"

"Don't matter. He'll kill you!"

'"It does matter. Was it?"

"They all do it." His voice shook with urgency. "You got to run. Now!"

"No. You've got to get me into the house. Into the kitchen would be best." There were half a dozen knives in there, but they were of a size for the trembling women who served Bymir and not for Bymir himself, knives hardly bigger than my dagger.

"He's coming," one of the women called as I rummaged through a clattering drawer; and in desperation I s.n.a.t.c.hed a spit long enough for oxen from a vast fireplace. One end was offset to make a crank, the other sharp so it could be run through the carca.s.ses. I put that end into the glowing coals, feeling the sea of battle pounding in my veins, and waiting for the storm.

When Bymir lumbered through the doorway at last, his groin was level with my eyes; I rammed the sharp end of the spit into it.

When he bent double, into his throat.

He would have fallen on me, if I had not jumped to one side. When I got the spit out, I saw that he had bent it a little in falling. I straightened it over my knee.

"Was that him?" Bold Berthold gasped. "That what fell?" The women (there were three, all slatternly and thin) a.s.sured him it had been.

I had taken hold of Bymir's left boot and pulled the leg straight. "He doesn't seem so big now that he's lying here."

456.

"Lookit the blood," one of the women whispered. "Don't slip in it, sir."

"I'll try not to." I had been avoiding the seething mess anyway for the sake of my boots, although I was tempted to stamp on the ugly little creatures that swam in it. "Four and a half steps. I'm going to say a yard for each step, so he was thirteen and a half feet tall, or about that. It's good to know." I turned to face Bold Berthold, laying my hand on his shoulder. "I have to go to Utgard, as I told you last night, but I'll come back as quick as I can. In the meantime, I want you and these women to cut up this body and get rid of it in any way that works. If other Angrborn ask . . ."

"Yes, lad. What is it?"

"The wind. The wind is in the chimney."

A wild north wind moaned there as I spoke, as though it had heard me. "In a storm like this'n? 'Tis a big chimney, sir, an' the wind always gets in there."

"I've got to go. Gylf's gone already, it seems. After the Valfather's pack, though I didn't hear them tonight. Is my horse still in the barn?"

" 'Spose so, sir. Found it there when I was lookin' for you. Your saddle's there, too."

"I'll come back as soon--as soon as I do." I s.n.a.t.c.hed the rag-wrapped bundle Bold Berthold been holding, clamped it under my arm, and dashed out into the storm again.

The nearest wood, I felt sure, had been the one where Gerda and Bold Be rthold had met; I recalled that it had been on the side of the house opposite the barn. Keeping the wind to my left as well as I could, I spurred the stallion until water and mud exploded from under his hooves.

Lightning showed me moss-grown trunks, and I shouted for Disiri. There was no reply, but the rain stopped.

Not slacked, but stopped altogether. No lightning flashed, no thunder boomed, and no icy drops fell from the leaves above my head even when I stirred them with my hand. The darkness remained; but it was darkness less black than green. From the slope of some far mountain, a wolf howled. I rode on, and crossed a purling silver stream that was never the small river of Jotunland. No sun rose, and no stars shone; yet the green dark seemed to fade. Although the air around me hung motionless save where my breath disturbed it, a wind soughed among the treetops, chanting a thousand names. 457.

Among them, both of mine.

I reined up to listen, and rose in the stirrups to be nearer the sound. "Wa- lewein,Wace,Vortigern, Kyot.

The names that I had heard, my own, were not repeated.

"Yvain, Gottfried, Eilhart, Palamedes, Duach, Tristan, Albrecht, Caradoc ..." Someone was running toward me--running, stumbling, and running again. I heard the runner's gasps and sobs before the leaves parted and a teenager with staring eyes and torn clothes stumbled through to cling to my boot.

"Who are you?" I asked.

His mouth opened and closed, but only sobs came out.

"You're dirty enough, and scared almost to death, it seems like. Is somebody chasing you?"

Still sobbing, he shook his head.

"This is Aelfrice, isn't it?" I paused to look around. "It's got to be, but if that's your natural shape, you're no Aelf. Why were you running?" Pointing to his mouth, he shook his head again. "Hungry?"

He nodded, and it seemed to me that a glimmer of hope came into his eyes.

"I don't. . . Wait a minute."

Bold Berthold's bundle was a good-sized loaf of coa.r.s.e bread and a lump of cheese. I tore the loaf in two, broke the cheese, and gave the smaller halves of each to him. It was fresh bread and good cheese.

"It's polite to talk at table," I told him when I had swallowed the first bite.

"When I was little, my brother and I just dug right in, but that's not the way they eat at Duke Marder's castle. You're supposed to talk about the weather, or hunting, or somebody's new horse."

Pointing to his mouth as he had before, he shook his head.

"You can't talk?"

He nodded.

I dismounted. "Swallow that cheese and open your mouth. I want to have a look."

He did as he was told.

"Still got your tongue. I thought maybe somebody'd cut it out." He shook his head.

"Lord Beel told me once that if you hit somebody's face with witch hazel, 458.

you see the true shape. Maybe that would work on you, but I don't see any around here. Is that your true shape?"

He nodded.

"Maybe you were born like this?" He shook his head.

"You know, you look familiar." He did, too; I tried to recall the boy Modguda had sent for Pouk. "How'd you get to Aelfrice?" He pointed to me. "I brought you?" He nodded, still crying.

"Just now?" Taking a bite from what remained of the cheese, I thought about that. "You followed me from Bymir's farm?" The boy shook his head. "But I brought you?" Another nod.

I snapped my fingers. "Toug!" A round dozen joyful nods.

"I was here with you--it's been years ago. It doesn't seem like it, but I guess it has been. How long have you been here?" He shrugged.

"It seems like that's the way it always is. You lose track here. Maybe there really isn't any time. Let's see. Queen Disiri took you?" Looking frightened, Toug nodded.

"She said she had something to tell you, or to ask you. The two of you went off together, and you never came back." Toug shook his head.

"You did? When?"

Toug pointed to the ground at his feet.

"Now?"

Toug nodded.

"You just left her?"

He nodded again.

"Can you take me to the place?"

Another nod.

"Then let's go!"

He pointed to the stallion, his eyes questioning.

"You're right." We can ride faster than we can walk, even through these trees." I let him climb into the saddle and got up behind him. "Hold on to the pommel and point. Which way? I won't let him trot much." Crying again, he pointed; I clapped my borrowed spurs to the stallion's sides.

459.