Gene Wolfe - The Wizard

Still looking at the gray gown, Toug nodded.

“Then where did this girl come from? Is she one of us?”

“She followed me, I think. She was hurt and I helped her. Sir Able told me how.” Memories of long rides through snow and freezing wind returned, and he added, “This was down south, just this side of the mountains.”

“You want me to help you find her now?”

There was a soft knock. Toug said, “That’s her, I’m pretty sure.”

He opened the door and handed the clothes out to Baki. “She’ll come in when she’s dressed.”

In a moment Baki did, smiling as she returned his cloak.

Ulfa stared at her. “I thought you said my gown would be too long.”

“She’s gotten taller,” Toug explained.

Baki made Ulfa a curtsy. “Thank you for sharing your clothing with me.”

Ulfa was looking at Toug. “This’s your—your...?”

“My friend, that’s all.”

“There’s a lot going on here that I don’t understand,” Ulfa said. A stubborn set to her mouth reminded Toug of their father.

Baki said, “There is so much that I do not understand either, Ulfa. You are Toug’s sister? That is what he says, and your faces are like.”

Ulfa nodded. “I’m three years older.”

“More than that. Why are you in Utgard?”

Toug said, “You were at home the last time I saw you.”

Ulfa nodded. “Do you want the whole story? It won’t take long.”

Baki said, “I do.”

“All right. A knight called Sir Able came to our house in Glennidam.” Ulfa sat down on a stool near the fire. “Do you know how many women would kill to have your red hair?”

“Certainly. I know Sir Able, too. Much better than you do. Did you want to marry him?”

Ulfa shook her head.

“Of course you did.” Baki smiled, not quite carefully enough to hide her teeth. “Why else would you chase him?”

Ulfa turned back to Toug. “You wanted me to dress your girl. I’ve done it. Do I have to look for your cat, too?”

Toug considered. “I don’t think so. For one thing, Mani’s looking for you, so the best thing might be for you to go on doing what you’d do usually, so he can find you. If he does, tell him we’ll be back soon.”

“Tell your cat that.”

Toug nodded. “He won’t talk to you, and probably he’ll pretend not to understand. But he will, so tell him. Talk to him exactly like you would a person.”

Baki giggled, a brass cymbal tickled with fingertips.

“Meantime you two will be looking for him.”

Toug nodded, and Baki said, “Yes. We will.”

“Listen here. You look for my husband, too.” Toug stared.

“Are you married now?”

“Yes. His name’s Pouk. I told you.”

“Sir Able’s servant,” Baki explained.

“I don’t know what he looks like,” Toug said.

Baki said, “I do.”

Ulfa ignored her. “Not much taller than I am, big nose, tattoos on the backs of both hands.” For a moment, Ulfa smiled; it was the first time Toug had seen her smile since he had found her. “You said you wanted my story.”

Baki said, “But you did not tell it.”

“No. No, I didn’t. I will now. I met Sir Able. This was when he took Toug away.” Toug himself nodded.

“We were all terribly worried about him, but my father wouldn’t let me look for him, and he couldn’t go himself and leave my mother and me alone. So I left after they’d gone to bed. I had money from some outlaws Sir Able and my father killed. It wasn’t a lot, but I thought it was. I buried half in the woods. I took the rest, just walking you know, with a long stick.”

“You could’ve been killed,” Toug told her.

“That’s right, but I could’ve been killed at home, too. There was a man who tried to rape me, and I got his sword and just about killed him. Except for that, it wasn’t too bad.”

Baki cocked an eyebrow. “You were not in love?”

“I thought I was. I didn’t say I wasn’t in love, I just said I didn’t expect Sir Able to marry me. He was a knight, and I’m a peasant girl. Or I was then.

“I asked about him everywhere I went, but it was years before I struck his trail, north along the War Way with a squire and a war horse and the rest of it. Sometimes at inns and where they’d stopped the people mentioned a manservant, too.”

Ulfa fell silent; to start her again, Toug said, “Pouk.”

“Yes, and I was interested in that because I was hoping Sir Able would hire me. I was a servant or a barmaid when my money ran low. He knew me, it seemed to me he’d liked me, and a servant—a woman who was willing to work and willing at night, too, you know what I mean—might be able to find out what he’d done with you.”

She smiled again, bitterly. “I used to imagine you starving in a dungeon. You’re thin, but I wouldn’t call you starved. What did he do with you, anyhow?”

“I don’t think we ought to get into that right now.”

Baki said, “What we must do right now—so I think—is tell each other exactly what we want most. What each hopes to do. I am going to make a rule, that each of us must name one thing and one only, the one thing that concerns—”

Toug said, “Won’t they all be different?”

“I am coming to that. Before we name it, every one of us must swear we will help the others. I will help you and Toug, Ulfa. But you must help me, and not Toug alone. Toug must swear to help us both.”

Ulfa said, “I don’t know about swearing,” and meant that she was not sure whether she should swear or not.

Baki interpreted it as she chose. “I do. Each of us will swear by those over us whose claim to our allegiance is sanctioned by the Highest God. Hold up your hand, Toug.”

Toug raised his right hand.

“Repeat this after I say it. ‘I, Toug, as I am a squire and a true man, do swear by those who are in Skai’...”

“I, Toug—” Something took Toug by the throat, but he gulped and pressed on, his voice stronger and stronger at each word. “As I’m a squire and a true man, do swear by those who are in Skai.”

“‘By the Valfather and all his sons, I swear, and by the Lady whose name may not be spoken.’”

“By the Valfather and all his sons, I swear.” For a moment it seemed to Toug that Sir Able had drawn Eterne; tall figures stood in the corners of the room, gleaming shades of dust and firelight; and he felt their eyes upon him.

Ulfa said, “Well? Are you going to swear or not?”

“And by the Lady whose name may not be spoken.” By some small miracle, the draft from the window bore a faint perfume—the scent of lilacs far away.

“‘That all that lies in my power shall be done for my sister Ulfa and my worshipper Baki, that they may achieve their hearts’ desires.’” Baki smiled as she spoke.

Toug saw her teeth as clearly as he had ever seen Mani’s, and the yellow gleam of her eyes. “That all that lies in my power,” he repeated, “shall be done for my sister Ulfa...”

Ulfa smiled too, and her smile warmed him as much as the fire she fed; the shadowy watchers were gone.

“And my worshipper Baki, that they may achieve their hearts’ desires.”

“Your worshipper Baki?” Ulfa asked.

“Because I cured her,” Toug explained hastily.

“Now it is your turn, Ulfa. Shall I repeat it?”

Ulfa shook her head. “I, Ulfa, as I am by rights a free peasant of Glennidam, do swear by those that are in Skai—”

“By the Lady now,” Baki whispered urgently. “By the Lady whose name may not be spoken.”

“As by the Valfather...”

“As also by the Valfather and his sons, that all that lies in my power shall be done for my brother Toug and his worshipper—”

“You must say ‘my worshipper,’” Baki whispered urgently.