Gene Wolfe - The Wizard

Next day, still early of a dark morning, when Cloud was eating league after league of the Plain of Jotunland with a swinging walk that pressed every other animal in the column, and Heimir and Hela were loping at my right and left like the Valfather’s wolves, I felt Thiazi’s gaze. I touched spur to Cloud and drew Eterne; and so it was that Thiazi, looking up from his crystal, could report to Beel (and to Toug and Mani, who had just come in) that Idnn and I were riding north at the head of an army.

Toug sat on the stone floor of the guardroom and listened to Thiazi, Garvaon, and Svon argue with Schildstarr. No one except Wistan paid the least attention to him; if they had, they might have thought him inattentive. Although he heard and considered all that was said, his eyes remained fixed on the darkest corner of the room.

“Won’t stand,” Schildstarr repeated stubbornly.

“Forever?” Thiazi’s bass voice was smooth. “You’re correct. It need stand only until His Majesty recovers.”

“How do we know he’s not cold?” Schildstarr leaned forward as he spoke, and his huge chair creaked under two tons of muscle and bone.

“You asked before,” Thiazi said. “You know our answer. I am his chief minister. If he were dead, I would declare a year of mourning for our fallen king and hail a successor. If he dies, I’ll do exactly that. He isn’t dead, and by Geror’s blessing may recover. You call yourself his loyal subject. Very well, he has need of you. Show your loyalty.”

“Give me sight a’ him and I will.” Schildstarr sounded as intransigent as ever.

Garvaon said, “He’s asleep. No man’s wounds heal unless he sleeps. You must know that—I see your scars.”

Schildstarr’s laughter seemed to shake the walls. “Nae half a’

’em!”

Mani lay curled in the dark corner Toug watched, his luminous green eyes opening and closing; the shadowy figure behind him seemed Idnn at times, at others an ancient crone, and at still others both, or mere emptiness. And though the fire on the broad hearth had faded to smoke and ashes and the windowless guardroom was freezing, Toug was sweating. Beyond or beside his fear he wondered whether Wistan could see the witch, too, and decided he could not.

“I’ve questions of my own,” Svon told Schildstarr. “We have answered yours. When the king wakes, we’ll take you to him, provided he consents to see you. I’ll answer one more, one you haven’t asked but should. I think it likely that he will consent. Do you concur, My Lord? Sir Garvaon?”

“I do,” Thiazi said; and Garvaon, “Yes.”

“In which case you can do one of two things,” Svon continued. “You can wait here like a sensible man, or you can leave this castle and return tonight with the others. You’re not a prisoner.”

Schildstarr snorted.

“You think we couldn’t hold you, and no doubt you’re right. But since we don’t intend to try, it’s neither here nor there.” Leaning back in the oversized chair on which he sat cross-legged, Svon shaped a tower from his fingers. “You’re the king’s loyal subject. Does your loyalty extend to the queen as well?”

“King Gilling’s nae wed.”

“You’re wrong. I won’t try to prove it to you. You wouldn’t accept my evidence, and there’s no need since he’ll tell you himself when he wakes. But when you hear it from his own mouth—as you will—will you be loyal to her? She’s a human woman.”

“One a’ you little hotlanders?” Schildstarr rubbed his huge jaw.

“Yes,” Svon said, “and your queen, whether you’re ready to believe it or not. When you believe it—when you have proof of it—will you obey her?”

“Depend on wha’ she wants, is my view.”

Garvaon grunted and would have pushed his chair back, had chair and table been smaller. “You’ll obey your queen if it suits you. Spoken like a true Son of Angr.”

“You pick chains and lock ’em on you.” Schildstarr’s tone carried deadly hatred. “My folk dinna take to chains. Somebody else has got to do it.”

“As you say. Someone does.”

Thiazi raised a hand. “Enough!”

“I agree,” Svon said. “We’ve need of friends here. We have plenty of foes already. I meant no insult, Schildstarr, and imply nothing. Do you know who struck down the king?”

Slowly the Frost Giant’s head swung from side to side. “I was there. Close by, only I dinna see it. There’s tittletattle noo. This one and that one, and some braggin’s wha’ I hear. Mebbe yes. Mebbe no. I don’t know.”

“Is anyone preparing to storm the castle?”

Cunning crept into Schildstarr’s eyes. “There’s talk. Tomorrow, mebbe. Why we come.”

“Eighteen of you Angrborn?”

“Nineteen wi’ me. Good fighters every one a’ us. How many knights you got?”

“It’s not we who have them, but your king.”

“We have Angrborn, knights, men-at-arms, and archers enough to defend His Majesty’s home against a determined assault,” Thiazi told Schildstarr, “and defend it we will. My fear is that young bloods, foolishly contemptuous of those smaller than themselves, will assail us without reflection. That could ignite a new rebellion.”

Schildstarr rose, a process that consumed some time. “You’ve nae a’ us.”

“That is not true,” Thiazi told him.

“Nae muckle to eat, neither. Month’s food?” He looked from face to face. “We might fetch some.”

“Lord Thiazi. Sir Garvaon. Sir Svon.” A slender woman dressed as slaves were had appeared in the doorway; a breath passed before Toug recognized her. “His Majesty has regained consciousness. He calls for the queen.”

The corner Toug had watched was empty. Mani looked behind him and grinned.

Baki stepped hastily out of the way when Schildstarr and Thiazi hurried out, and curtsied to Svon, Garvaon, and Wistan as they passed. Toug remained behind. “Is this a trick?”

Baki curtsied again, this time to him. “La, sir, and I am but a simple girl.”

“He’s really awake?”

“Yes. That is good for you, I think.”

“It would be better for me if he died.” For a moment, Toug was sick with fear. ‘I’m going to kill him, and since I am the man I am, I’ll have to do it in a fair fight.” The words came of their own volition, and the pitiful thing in him that cringed and wept was locked away. “That means a fight after he has recovered, a fight in which he has a chance to defend himself. I’m not looking forward to it.”

“Lord Toug,” Baki said, and knelt at his feet.

“Don’t do that,” Toug told her. “What if someone should see us?”

“I see you.” Mani yawned. “I’m wondering whether you see yourself.”

“Stand up, please.” Toug took Baki’s hand. “You wanted to bring Sir Able, so you could take him to Aelfrice because you can’t fight...” He had lost the name, and groped for it.

“Garsecg, Lord. Setr. We can fight him, and fight those who cling to him still. But we cannot win that fight without someone like Sir Able. Or you.”

Mani stepped in to rescue Toug. “What will Sir Svon say when he looks around for you?”

Toug gulped and nodded. “You’re right. They’re going to see the king. I better hurry.”

He found Wistan waiting at the bottom of the stairs. “You were talking privately to that slave girl,” Wistan said. “I stayed away, so I couldn’t overhear you.”

“Thanks.”

“This is a funny place, isn’t it?” They began to climb as Toug agreed.

“There were a couple things just now.” Wistan cleared his throat.

“Sir Garvaon and Sir Svon talking to that giant, you mean? I liked it better when we fought them.”