Gene Wolfe: The Wizard

Climbing the ladder without spilling oil from the lamp was anything but easy; yet I managed it, mostly by balancing myself, releasing the rung I held, and grabbing the next. It was a relief when Toug reached down and took the lamp.

“There’s an Aelf up here,” Toug said.

“I know. It’s Baki, isn’t it?”

Mani peered over the edge. “That’s right, Sir Able, and she’s suffering terribly. She’s most grateful to my mistress and me, but we’ve done all we can.”

“She wants you,” Toug added.

“She can’t have me,” I told him as I climbed into the loft. “I was hoping you’d fixed her by now.”

“I don’t know how!”

Somewhere beyond the lamplight, Baki moaned.

I found her and sat on the straw beside her. “She’s in pain,” I told Toug, “and you’re wasting time. Kneel here.”

He did.

“Run your fingers over her. Gently! Very gently.”

“I can’t do this.”

“Yes, you can. That’s the point. You’re a god to her. Not to me and not to Mani. But to her you’re a god. This world of Mythgarthr is a higher world than hers.”

Toug tried, and nothing happened.

“Think her whole. Healed. Imagine her healthy and well. Jumping, dancing, turning cartwheels. She did all that before this happened. Think about how she used to be.”

Toug tried, eyes tightly shut and lips drawn to a thin line. “Is anything happening?”

“No. It won’t happen gradually. When it happens, it’ll be over before it starts, and you’ll know. You’ll feel the rush of power that did it.”

“L-Lord,” Baki gasped.

“I can’t help you,” I told her, “but Toug can and will. Have you got faith in Toug? You’ve got to, or die.”

“You... drank my blood, Lord.”

“I remember, and I’d repay you if I could. I can’t help you now. Toug has to do it.”

“Please, Toug! I—worship you. They will kill me for it, but I will worship you. I will sacrifice, burn food on your altar. Animals, fish, bread.” Baki gasped. Her upper half writhed. “Every day. A fresh sacrifice every day.”

“Who do you swear by?” I made it as urgent as I could.

“By him! By Great Toug!”

“Not Setr?”

“I renounce him.” Baki’s voice had to a whisper. “I renounce him again. Oh, try, Toug! Try! I’ll build you a chapel. I’ll do anything!”

“I am trying,” Toug said, and shut his eyes again.

I bent over Baki. “Renounce him by both names, now and forever. Believe me, he can’t make you well.”

“I renounce Setr called Garsecg! I renounce Garsecg called Setr. Always, always, forever!”

“Your mother is... ?”

“Kulili!”

I laid my hand on Toug’s shoulder. “She’s a thing in your mind, and you can trust me on this. She’s a thought, a dream. Have you got a knife?”

He shook his head. “Only my sword.”

“I do.” I took out the little knife that had carved my bow, and handed it to him with the cup. “Cut your arm, long but not deep. I’ll hold the lamp so you can see what you’re doing. Your blood will run down to your fingers. Catch it in this. When it’s full, hold it so Baki can drink it.”

Shutting his eyes, Toug pushed up his sleeve and made a four-finger cut.

“Hold it for her. Say Baki, take this cup.” I steered it to her lips, and she drained it.

Toug’s eyes opened. “I did! I did it! Sit up, Baki.”

Trembling, she did. Her coppery skin was no longer like polished metal, and there was a new humanity in her smile. “Thank you. Oh, thank you!” She made obeisance until Toug touched her shoulder and told her to stand up.

“I wish Gylf had seen this,” I said, “but he’s heard it, and maybe that’s enough.”

Rising, I went to the wide hole in the floor through which Bymir had poked his head. “Here, Gylf! Get up here.”

Something huge and dark sprang from below, leaving mules and horses plunging and squealing. When it gained the loft, its weight shook the whole barn. Swiftly it dwindled, and was a large brown dog with a white blaze on his chest.

I scratched his ears and sat down again; Gylf lay beside me, resting his massive head on my knee.

“I’m going to have to explain a few things,” I said. “Most especially explain to Baki why I couldn’t help her after what she’d done for me. I don’t like explaining, so I’m going to make you do it yourselves as far as possible.”

Baki said softly, “I don’t understand about Gylf, Lord.”

“I don’t think Gylf understands either. Do you, Gylf?”

Gylf shook his head, an almost imperceptible motion.

“He doesn’t, so I’ll explain that. But you understand a lot that the others don’t, Baki. You must explain it now.”

“Must I tell them of Setr, Lord?”

“You must tell them a lot more than that.” I waited for her to speak, but she did not.

Toug said, “Who are all those people you talked about? Setr and Kulili, and the other one.”

“I don’t believe we mentioned Grengarm,” I said, “but we might easily have included him as well.”

“I renounce him, Lord.”

I shrugged. “I know you do, but he’s dead so it hardly matters. Who made you?”

“Kulili, Lord.”

Toug said, “Kulili made her?”

I glanced at Baki, and Baki nodded.

“I don’t understand that at all.”

“Mani’s mistress made him, too. Or I think so. Do you want to tell us about that, Mani?”

“I would if I could,” Mani declared, “but I can’t. I remember being a kitten and nursing, but I doubt that helps.”

“Could you talk then?”

There was a hush that seemed long. At last Mani said, “Of course I could.”

I nodded. “There are elemental spirits, spirits like ghosts, though they’ve never been alive. Can you see them?”

“Certainly.”

Cloud spoke in my mind. So can I, Rider. The men who were here are coming back with lights. Do you care?

No. Aloud I said, “Kulili’s the group mind of creatures who are largely unaware of their individual existences. Does that seem strange, Toug?”

“I don’t even understand what it means.”

“Let it pass. You’re a group mind, too, and it may be better if you don’t think about it. Kulili was thousands of creatures, but she had no friends. She made the Aelf to keep her company, shaping bodies of vegetable and animal tissues and chaining elementals in them to speak and think. They’re long-lived.”

Toug nodded reluctantly.

“Much longer-lived than we are. But short-lived as we are, we’re immortal. Our spirits don’t die. It’s not like that for the Aelf. Dead, they’re gone completely.” I spoke to Baki. “Is that why you embraced heresy?”

“No,” she said.

“Why did you? You have to tell me that. I don’t know.”

As Baki drew breath, Toug said, “I still don’t understand about Gylf, and I’d like to.”

“You will. Maybe you know that there are seven worlds. This is the fourth.” Toug nodded. “Mythgarthr.”

“Right. Baki, start with the creation of the worlds.”

“Do you think it is really...? All right. The High God made them. First He made servants for Himself, as Kulili did later. Then He gave them their own world. It was a reward for things they had done for Him. There was some evil in it. I don’t know why.”

I said, “It had to differ from Him. Since He’s perfect, anything that differs must be wrong some way. Go on.”

“They did not like that, so they collected as much as they could and put it into a place He made under theirs. Now we call their world Kleos, the World of Fair Report, because it is so nice. The world under it is Skai.”

“Where you were?” Toug asked me. “It didn’t seem evil. It sounded wonderful.”