Gene Wolfe - The Wizard

Thanking her, I declared that I was not.

“He’s well fed, Your Majesty. He’s the monarch of the dungeon, and gets whatever he wants. I’ve had to forgo my usual inspections, so I may say I saw nothing amiss. Perhaps Your Majesty would enjoy dainty fare while we confer?”

He rang, told Payn what he wanted, and turned to me. “I don’t know how much you know of our situation, Sir Able. His Majesty is in the east with the army. Were you aware of it?”

I said I knew he had marched away, but no more.

“We raided them this fall, slew their Caans and gained much plunder. Now the Black Caan will have vengeance, if he can.” The Earl Marshal smiled. “Every knight fit to ride has gone off with the king, and most of the nobility. His Majesty left Her Majesty in titular charge of his realm. I am her chief advisor. I am to supply remounts to his army, and fresh troops as they can be raised, and do a dozen other things. Among them, I’m to fortify this city.”

Idnn said, “For centuries, Kingsdoom has boasted that the shields of its knights were its walls. Now the east is stronger than ever, and hungrier. The king sent my father to pacify the Angrborn so he might march into Osterland with his full strength. Surprise and a crushing defeat would leave the old Caan’s plans in ruins—or so it was hoped.”

The Earl Marshal nodded.

“The surprise was achieved as planned,” Idnn continued, “the crushing defeat inflicted, and the old Caan killed. But Celidon’s triumph seems to have united the Osterlings around his last son, the Black Caan, and hastened their attack.”

I said, “A hasty attack may fail.”

“We hope so. They’ve taken the passes, and that’s bad. My father’s gone to join the king. So has Duke Marder.”

“Yet we’re reinforced with a hundred Daughters of Angr,” the Earl Marshal added, “Her Majesty Queen Idnn’s bodyguard.”

I said, “As long as the weather’s cold, that’s no small reinforcement.”

“Lord Escan engaged men learned in such matters to plan fortifications.” Idnn sighed. “They’ve presented the plan to my dear sister queen. It’s an excellent plan, I’m sure, but will take years. You’re no builder. I realize that. Do you know anything about siegecraft?”

I shrugged. “I was at the siege of Nastrond.”

The Earl Marshal leaned forward, his eyes narrowed. “Where’s that? I never heard of it.”

Idnn overrode him. “We must have something that can be done in a month or less. If the king triumphs, we can make merry. But battle will be joined before the next new moon, and if he returns with a beaten army, the Osterlings will be at their heels. What can you suggest?”

“Nothing,” I said, “‘til I’ve seen the ground.”

The Earl Marshal shook his head. “I have maps.”

“They’d mean zip to me. Most likely they’d lead me wrong. I need to ride around the city. A day at least, and two’d be better.”

The Earl Marshal wiped his face and his bald head with his hand, but said nothing.

Silence filled the room, a silence none of us seemed willing to break. I rose and examined its crimson hangings, and the bureaus of waxed wood the color of wild roses, and their enameled fittings.

At last Idnn said, “I want to tell you about Lady Linnet and her daughter. May I? We may not get another chance.”

I said of course that she might. Payn returned while she was speaking, carrying a tray loaded with dainties, a bottle of wine, and glasses. He filled them, and we ate and drank while we talked.

“She has reclaimed Goldenlawn,” Idnn said. “This was on our way south, of course, and we stayed there with her for a few days to help, all of us. She and Vil intend to rebuild it, and are wed. They—I’m sorry. You will win her.”

I agreed and asked Idnn to continue.

“He’s no nobleman, but what nobleman would have her now? He’s Etela’s father, too—or they say he is—and he loves her.” When I said nothing, Idnn added, “Lynnet’s still mad, though not so mad as she was. She talks more at least.”

“That’s good.”

“She thinks there’s another woman with her, a woman she calls Mag.”

I cannot say how well I controlled my face, though I strove to remain impassive.

“A woman no one else can see.” With a smile full of pity, Idnn spoke to the Earl Marshal. “Her husband’s blind, so he says that there is, too.”

I asked, “Are Berthold and his wife still with you, Your Majesty? I didn’t see them in the throne room.”

“No, I gave them leave to revisit their village.”

“It’s been destroyed.”

Idnn shrugged. “I didn’t know that. Doubtless they’ll return quickly in that case.”

“Perhaps it’s been rebuilt. I wish I could go there and see. Did Bold Berthold believe in Lady Lynnet’s friend?”

“Ah, I see.” Idnn spoke to the Earl Marshal again. “Berthold is a servingman of mine. He’s blind, too.”

I said, “But did he say the woman was there?”

“I don’t know, I never asked. Perhaps my sister queen could—could accept your parole. I’ll urge it.”

The Earl Marshal shook his head. “She will not dare.”

I escaped that night, although I did not think of it as escaping. Cloud’s thought guided me to her, and told me long before I reached her stall that Uns was with her; I woke him, and we soon found him a sturdy cob, saddled, and rode out. After circling the city by moonlight—it took a good three hours—we went to the inn, got Pouk, and ate breakfast.

They went to their work after that, and I went with them. A big ditch was being dug on the land side of the city for the foundation of the wall. Pouk and Uns were diggers, and it was already ten paces wide and so deep that ladders had to be used to carry the hard red clay out. We tied Uns’ cob so he could return it to the stable after work, and I began the circuit of the city again, seeing by daylight what I had ridden over a few hours before. I had completed about a third of it when I met a patrol.

We fled, Cloud and me. An arrow struck her neck, and she turned on them, terrible as Gylf. Two died. I was trying to control her when I was knocked from her saddle.

I was taken to a guardroom in Thortower, kept tied up there for three days, robbed, and kicked when I objected. After that I was brought before Gaynor. She was in mortal fear of Arnthor, and ordered that I be chained in a cell on the lowest level of the dungeon.

Strictly speaking, her orders were not obeyed. Neither Ged nor the men-at-arms would go below the twelfth level; nor did they know how many might lie below it, for Thortower had been built upon the ruins of an older structure, and that twelfth level was as wide as Forcetti. A smith was brought, a silent, hardbitten man who did me no intended hurt but would not speak to me. He puffed his charcoal, put gyves on my wrists and ankles, and welded them shut. Then began my true imprisonment, because I swore that I would make no effort to free myself until Thortower fell or Arnthor triumphed, if triumph was the Valfather’s will.

As for him, not one hour passed in which I did not hope he would appear and free me from my oath. At first I felt sure he would, and I planned everything we would do before we returned to Skai—how we would set the whole world right.

Days passed in which I shivered, hour after hour, in the cold, and burrowed in Colle’s straw, and at last had Org sit with me, savage and silent in my cell, so I could warm myself from his heat; he hungered, and I gave him leave to kill any man whose name he did not know.

From time to time he went out; and from time to time he returned with bloodied jaws to crouch and warm me as before. Until at length a day came when no one brought me food.