Gene Wolfe - The Wizard

“I don’t know who it was,” Mani told Toug. “I didn’t see it happen, though I wish I had.” After another step, he added, “I doubt it. Org breaks necks, mostly, from what I’ve seen. You might not think anybody would be strong enough to wring the necks of these giants, but he is.”

“The king was stabbed. Stuck deep, so a sword or a big dagger.”

“The king killed Master Crol,” Mani said thoughtfully.

“I know.” Toug struggled to the top of another step. “This would be easier if there was something to hold on to.”

“I’ll speak to them.”

“Org’s supposed to do what Sir Svon tells him. Somebody told me that. I think it was you.”

“It may well have been.”

“Killing Master Crol wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair at all. So why shouldn’t Sir Svon tell Org to kill the king?”

“I see no reason at all,” Mani conceded. “However, he did not. I was eavesdropping, you see, when Svon gave Org his instructions. No mention was made of the king.”

“It’s not nice to listen in when other people talk.”

“Though I hesitate to disagree, I must. I often find it pleasant, and at its best it can be quite educational. A cat who keeps his ears open learns a great deal.”

Toug climbed farther; he was nearing the floor he wanted and their talk would soon be at an end. He stopped, waving his torch to brighten its flame. “I think you ought to tell me everything. I need to know a lot more.”

“About what Sir Svon told Org?” Mani sprang from Toug’s shoulder and stretched. “Well, it was while Sir Svon—”

“About what you and the witch are doing. She wants me to kill the king. If I do, we’re going to be in a lot more trouble here than we are already.”

“She wants you to save Queen Idnn,” Mani objected. “That’s rather a different thing.”

“But she wants Sir Able to come back. She told Thiazi.”

“Whom we’re supposed to fetch? Didn’t I hear that? I assume Sir Svon wants him, since he sent you.”

Toug would not be deterred. “She told him the king ought to hire him if he wants to stay king, and that sounds like she’s on the king’s side.”

Mani smoothed his whiskers. “I doubt it.”

“Doesn’t she tell you?”

“She confides in me from time to time,” Mani said stiffly. “However, she has not confided that. I was to accompany Sir Able and his awful dog. I was to serve Sir Able to the best of my poor ability, as I have. Sir Able gave me to Queen Idnn, and I transferred my loyalty to her without a murmur. She in turn gave me to her royal husband, another step up the social scale. You agree?”

“But you’re still the witch’s,” Toug declared bitterly.

“Certainly.” Mani sprang up the next step. “Oh, I see. You’re afraid I’ll tell King Gilling you plan to kill him.”

Toug, who had not thought of that, gaped.

“I won’t, of course. The point you fail to grasp is that I’m a loyal friend. If someone tried to kill him again in my presence, I might interfere. Or not. It would depend on the circumstances.”

“It was a scene of indescribable confusion,” Idnn had told us the previous evening. “You can’t understand what happened if you don’t understand that. The torches had gone out, or most had. Sir Svon and Sir Garvaon were fighting the champions His Majesty had matched them against, and others, too, because others had joined the fight. Some were fighting each other, drunken quarrels and settling old scores. His Majesty straightened up as if in a fit. He threw his head back and shook. That’s when we knew something was terribly wrong. He bent double, and we slid off his shoulder. A moment later he was lying at our feet. His minister came, and we supposed our screams had brought him, but he told us afterward that an Aelf had said our husband was in danger.” Idnn paused, searching my face and Marder’s. “He wasn’t our husband then. Have we explained that?”

“No!” The Knight of the Leopards could keep silence no longer.

I said, “Proceed, please, Your Majesty.”

“It was horrible. Thiazi told us to look after him and disappeared. He’d gone to get people to help carry him into the castle, but we didn’t know that. We stood beside him and shouted, trying to keep the rest from stepping on him. Our father came, and Thiazi with a litter and slaves to carry it. They were blind—blind men, and we want to put a stop to it. But they were blind and it was dark and everyone yelling and fighting, and the blind men and Thiazi rolled him onto the litter and they carried him away, with us trying to guide them, and we thought he was dead.”

Gerda said gently, “You haven’t eaten nothin’, Queen Idnn, when that deer haunch is awfully good. And there’s onions! Onions is a real treat up here.” Idnn pecked at her food dutifully.

Watching her, I wished I could paint. The rocks behind her caught the dying light, and she in her diamond diadem and black velvet, with Duke Marder’s aged face to her right and the Knight of the Leopards in his leopard-skin pelisse to her left, would have made such a picture as artists dream of.

Woddet whispered, “Are we going there?”

“I believe I am,” I replied. “I would not compel you.”

“If you go, I go.”

“And I,” the Knight of the Leopards declared.

Marder looked up from his plate. “We must comprehend the situation. Do you, Sir Able?”

I shook my head, and Marder spoke to Idnn. “Do you know who struck the blow?”

“No.” Idnn laid aside the silver-mounted dagger she had produced when we sat down, a bite of venison still impaled on its point. “We were on his shoulder. Some of the... of our folk were fighting, and he was commanding them to stop when he was stabbed from behind. It was dark, very dark, though a few torches were still lit.”

“That’s the key,” Marder said. “If we’re to help you, Your Majesty—and I for one will do everything in my power—we must grasp it. Questions cannot but seem impertinent, yet I must ask them. Will you forgive me?”

“Certainly.” Idnn’s fingers warred in her lap.

“We must know, and I am a friend no matter what answer you make. Did you yourself stab him?”

She looked up, her hands extended to the sunset clouds of purple and gold. “Lady of Skai, witness our innocence! If we have done this thing, strip us of all favor!” Slowly she lowered her hands, stared at the palms, and held them up to Marder. “We will not ask whether you’ve cut off a woman’s hands, Your Grace. You have not, we’re sure. But if our husband’s blood is found on these, you may cut them off and welcome. Or have the headsman do it.”

Marder nodded. “I understand, Your Majesty. It had to be asked, though I expected no other reply. Another now, repellent as the first. Who do you think the assassin might be? I understand that you did not see the blow struck and can offer no proof. But have you no conjecture?”

“None, Your Grace.”

From the other side of their fire, Hela gave me a significant look. “Sir knight?”

“Yes.” I cleared my throat. “Your Majesty, I must speak. Hela there knows all that I intend to tell you. Sir Woddet and Sir Leort know but a part, as do these others save His Grace, who knows nothing of it. Will you hear me out?”

“Gladly,” Idnn said, “if it will cast any light on our husband’s misfortune.”

“It may cast more darkness,” I told her. “I’m afraid it will. This chief minister, is he trustworthy?”

Hela muttered, “Is anyone?”

Bold Berthold rumbled, “My stepdaughter talks too much truth, Sir Able. You can trust me, but no Frost Giant can.”

Idnn nodded. “Just so. Our husband trusted Thiazi, and we would guess that he was right to do it—Thiazi wouldn’t betray him. But he’s a son of Angr’s. We’re a human woman.”