Gene Wolfe - The Wizard

“Lord Beel!” Thiazi’s voice was like a great drum. “His daughter, Lady Idnn!” His golden staff pounded the floor; and Master Crol sounded his clarion as Beel and Idnn marched arm-in-arm into a banquet hall so vast it might have held the entire village of Glennidam, with half its kitchen gardens, barley fields, and meadows.

There was suppressed laughter as the Angrborn seated at long tables to left and right caught sight of them. Gilling, enthroned upon a double dais at the far end of the room, was a colossus in the smoky firelight.

Beel addressed him boldly. “Your Majesty, my daughter and I come in friendship. In more than common friendship, for we bring to you across forest, mountain, and plain the friendship of our royal master Arnthor. He salutes you, a fellow monarch, and wishes you peace in a reign of countless years crowned with every success.”

Gilling spoke as a distant avalanche might speak. “We thank King Arnthor, and welcome you to Utgard.”

Idnn’s lilting voice filled the hall as larks fill the sky. “Our king entrusted us with your gifts, Your Majesty, many gifts and rich. We proved unworthy vessels. We were robbed, and saved only a pittance of the precious cargo.”

That was the signal. Garvaon and Svon entered side by side in helm and hauberk, leading laden mules. Behind them, Wistan and Toug leading two more, and after them Crol, Egr, and Papounce, with the fifth, sixth, and seventh mules.

The voice from the throne roared again, filling Toug’s imagination with boulders that leaped like stags and trees smashed to kindling. “Come nearer. Are these the intrepid knights we’ve heard so much about? Who’s the little fellow with the tree on his shield?”

“That is our senior knight, Sir Garvaon, Your Majesty,” Beel replied.

“What about the other one, with the swan?”

“Sir Svon, Your Majesty.”

Mani appeared on Gilling’s barrel of a knee, grinning.

“These little animals, these ponies or whatever you call ’em, are they carrying stones?”

“Your Majesty’s penetration astounds us,” Idnn answered. “Many of these things are indeed set with precious stones.”

“Really?” Gilling leaned forward, his perspiring face touched by a smile that made Toug like him less than ever. “Diamonds? Pearls? That sort of thing?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Idnn had smiled in return, and Toug saw Svon and Garvaon stiffen as dogs do when they wind a partridge.

“Not only diamonds and pearls, Your Majesty, but rubies, moonstones, wood opals, bloodstones, sapphires, fire opals, emeralds, jade, jet, cat’s-eye, and many another.”

Gilling’s smile broadened. “Two cat’s eyes you’ve given us already, fair lady. We confess we like him almost as much as he likes you. Though now we come to think on it, his description of you was something wanting. Are you veracious as well as beautiful?”

Idnn curtsied in acknowledgment of the compliment. “We women are not famed for it, yet I strive to be.”

Beel said, “If I may speak to my daughter’s character, Your Majesty, her honesty rivals that of her patroness, and her wisdom the Lady’s. Pardon the partiality of a father.”

Thiazi’s gold staff thumped the floor. “Neither that false slut nor the witch her sister find favor among the sons of Angr, Southling. Remember where you are!”

The color drained from Beel’s cheeks. “Your Majesty, I had forgotten. Slay me.”

Gilling chuckled. “Do we need your permission for that, little man?”

The Angrborn roared with laughter, and Toug (who would have liked to think himself too brave for it) trembled.

“Let us turn to safer topics,” Gilling roared when the laughter had subsided. “A safer speaker, too. One safe from our royal self. Are you prepared to uphold the reputation for honesty your father gives you, Lady Idnn?”

“I’m glad Your Majesty asks no wisdom, for I’ve scarce a thimbleful of that.” Idnn, who had smiled the whole time, was smiling still. “But honesty I have in good measure, full cup and running over, whenever Your Majesty has need of it.”

Gilling’s finger, as wide as Idnn’s hand, stroked Mani’s sleek sable head. “First we’ll have you prove what you say. Diamonds and pearls. Jade. Let us see what you bring.”

Idnn went to Svon’s mule, and Svon hastened to assist her in opening the pack it bore.

“A ring, Your Majesty.” Idnn held it up; its flashing stone was the size of a cherry, and the ring would almost have made a bracelet for her. “It is woven of wire drawn from pale eastern gold, with your royal name worked in our own red sea-gold, a ring so cunningly wrought as to swell or decline to fit the finger on which you choose to wear it.”

“Very pretty. What is that pink gem?”

“Rhodolite, Your Majesty. Or rosestone—so many call it. No woman can long resist the man who wears it.”

Idnn had advanced toward the dais as she spoke. Gilling held out his hand, and she slipped it onto a finger.

“You are a woman, Lady Idnn. Tell us, is it true?”

“I scarcely know, Your Majesty.”

Several of the watching Angrborn laughed.

“I never met a man who wore that stone ‘til now.”

Gilling was holding up his hand to admire the rosestone. “It’s darker than we thought.”

“It reflects the strength of the wearer, Your Majesty. Red if he is a full-blooded man of great strength, gray or white if his nature is cold.”

Gilling chuckled again. “We should give it to Thiazi—that would test it.” The onlookers roared.

Idnn’s presentation of gifts continued, with assistance from her father and the knights: a great platter, of pewter edged with gold; a gold basin; an oversized silver spoon, its handle rough with gems.

“Enough!” Gilling raised the hand that wore the ring. “My thanks to King Arnthor, who has been as liberal to me as his country has ever been to our people.”

The merriment of the Angrborn shook the rafters.

“But we will see the rest of these fine things another time, when we in turn shall make gifts of them to those I find deserving. We would have livelier entertainment. Your knights have been described as masters of war. It made us catch our breath, for we had thought to find the masters of war here among the bold sons of Angr.”

The bold sons of Angr cheered, and pounded their tables until Toug feared they would break them.

“So we’ll have a trial of arms tonight. Your own king does it often, we hear, pitting one of his knights against another. Is that not so?”

Idnn answered bravely. “It is, Your Majesty. Our knights compete in tournament and joust, one with another.”

Gilling smiled tenderly, stroking Mani’s head. “You yourself have witnessed these tournaments, Lady Idnn? Your father likewise?”

Beel replied for both of them. “We have, Your Majesty, and can tell you much of them.”

“But you will not.” Gilling smiled again. “We’ll tell you, for we are king here. Our first thought was to have these knights fight two of our champions. Schildstarr—”

A huge Frost Giant leaped to his feet with such violence that he sent his enormous stool spinning across the floor. “Schildstarr is ready!”

“And Glummnir—”

Another Angrborn jumped up with a wordless roar.

“But I soon saw that would not be fair. You agree, I hope, Lady Idnn?”

“Certainly, Your Majesty.” For the first time, Idnn’s voice held a slight tremor.

“As do I. Suppose King Arnthor were to send us two champions. We might then oppose Schildstarr and Glummnir to them, and no one could call it unfair. Agreed, kitty?”

Gilling looked down at Mani, but Mani gave no sign of having heard him.