Gene Wolfe - The Wizard

Garvaon let the sentence hang, but there was no reply from the king.

Schildstarr chuckled in a way that made Toug shudder. Still, no one spoke.

“Rum, ain’t it?” Pouk whispered.

All eyes were on the king. Nodding, Toug ducked and stepped under the bed, where lips brushed his.

“Lord.” Having kissed him lightly, Baki knelt.

“I wouldn’t, if I were you.” Mani sounded smug and knowing. “Females always make a lot of noise, even if you don’t. Someone’s bound to look under here then.”

Toug, who wasn’t certain he knew what Mani was talking about, sat on carpet so thick and soft that he felt he might sink into it. “Pouk said you wanted to see me.”

“I do, Lord. Lord, that boy Wistan has the sword that is not a sword. Did he steal it from you?”

“He won it from me,” Toug confessed. “He wanted to fight, because I wouldn’t tell him about Mani and the witch. He thinks I should obey him as if he were already a knight, and I was his squire. He’s not a knight, and I’m no squire of his. I wouldn’t break my promise to Mani, and if I had told him about the witch it would have been something else. And something after that, doing his work for him or whatever, and I could see that, too. I told him about the witch and did it in a way that made him think he’d heard her when he’d really heard Mani.”

Mani said, “It’s almost the same, after all.”

Baki nodded; her eyes were candle flames. “You did not tell him about me?”

“No. No, I didn’t. I didn’t tell him anything else, except that Sword Breaker had belonged to Sir Able.”

“As did I,” Mani said.

“He was going to push me and push me.” Toug found that he was explaining to himself as much as to Baki. “Push ‘til I was his slave or ‘til I fought. If we’d fought, he’d have been killed or wounded—or else I would. He thought he’d beat me, and he may have been right.”

Baki said, “I do not think that.”

“Thanks. He—he’s never lost a fight. That’s what I think, anyhow. When that’s how it’s been for you, you keep pushing ‘til you do. I used to be like that too. The funny thing is that nobody’s a good fighter ‘til he’s lost at least one fight, and won one, too.”

Mani said, “Well, you seem to have lost this one.”

Toug shook his head. “I lost Sword Breaker, and I hate that. But I didn’t lose the fight, because there wasn’t any. I was dumb. I thought if I yielded he might let me keep my weapons and neither of us would get killed. I’ll know better next time.”

Baki said, “I will steal it back for you, if I can. We helped Sir Able like that.”

“It wouldn’t be honorable.” Toug hesitated. “Wistan said he was going to drop it in the cistern, but he went up the stairs. I thought he’d decided to throw it into the moat. But it’s outside the wall, and we don’t have the wall, just this keep. Can you stop him from doing something like that? Dropping it in the cistern?”

“That would be the best thing that could happen, Lord. I could get it for you without theft. Anyone may pick up what another throws away. Let us see what he does with it.”

Toug thanked her and meant every word of it.

Mani said, “Baki has things to tell you. So do I.”

“Just one, Lord. I have mentioned my sister Uri.”

“Was that the one who didn’t want me to heal you?”

Baki nodded. “You know my heart’s desire—it is that Sir Able lead us against Setr. You promised to help with that, just as I promised to help you to do your duty.”

“We’ve both promised to help Ulfa and Pouk get out here,” Toug reminded her, “and Mani said he’d help us.”

“The keep’s surrounded,” Mani remarked somewhat dryly. “I could get out and so could Baki. None of you could.”

“I didn’t know that. Have the rebels laid siege to it?”

Baki shook her head. “They are only concerned for their king, and curious. Let me get to my news, Mani.”

“I wouldn’t think of preventing you.”

“My sister Uri has been talking to Beel, who knows Sir Able is riding to aid you. Mani says you know, too, Lord.”

“Yes. Thiazi saw it in his crystal and told us.”

“He told Lord Beel as well, it seems. He is overjoyed. Now he hopes for a happy end to all his efforts, the throne secure, and peace between the Angrborn and Arnthor’s folk.”

“I don’t see anything wrong with that,” Toug said.

“Just this, Lord. My sister has told him I intend to take Sir Able from him and send him to Aelfrice. A brief sojourn in Aelfrice will mean a lengthy absence here.”

Toug nodded.

“Lord Beel is determined to prevent it. If he learns that you and your sister have promised help, it will go ill with you.” Toug felt Baki’s hand on his, hot and as light as a butterfly’s wing. “I do not think he will have you killed, or even get the king to. Sir Able and Queen Idnn would be sure to hear of it. But he will keep you from Sir Able, and send you into danger if he can.”

Toug said, “Good.”

“You have lost the weapon Sir Able gave you, and are smarting still. Sleep will cure it. You have been warned.”

“I have,” Toug said, “and to tell the truth, I feel I’ve gotten wonderful news. I need a battle cry, and Spears of the Maidens will be it ‘til I get a better one.”

“You ridicule me.”

“Never. Never! Oh, Baki...”

Mani coughed as cats do. “Excuse it. Hairball. Let me give my news, and I’ll leave you two alone. My mistress took the guise of my other mistress when she spoke to you on the stairs, remember? It seems she’s become fond of it and has been wearing it to talk to King Gilling, and now he thinks Queen Idnn’s here. And that’s—”

Something dark, round, and wet fell with a plash on Mani’s head, and he jumped backward snarling, every hair erect. “Blood! Giant’s blood!”

A second drop, as big as a cherry, fell where Mani had been sitting. Bent nearly double, Toug hurried to the velvet ruffle that had curtained their assembly and ducked through.

Ah, there you are.” Svon caught Toug by the shoulder. “By the Lady! What were you up to under there?”

“The king’s bleeding,” Toug gasped. “It’s soaked the mattress and it’s dripping through.”

Ulfa heard him and called, “The stitches pulled out!” In a moment, Pouk and half a dozen other men had climbed the bed to furl woolen blankets thicker than carpets.

“They’ll tend him,” Svon said, drawing Toug to one side. “We should go to the battlements. Thiazi and Sir Garvaon are up there with Schildstarr.” As they hurried out, Svon added, “I don’t suppose you know where Sir Garvaon’s squire is? He seems to have disappeared, and Garvaon’s asking for him.”

“I’ll look for him.” Toug hesitated, recalling things said upon the stairs. “I’d like to find him myself.”

“Later.” They started up yet another stair built for Angrborn. “Thiazi wants Schildstarr to show himself to the Frost Giants outside,” Svon explained. “They haven’t seen many of their own kind here since the king was struck, and some of them claim we’re holding him captive.”

Toug nodded and panted, his torn face throbbing under its soiled bandages.

“Schildstarr wants to tell his giants to come to the big doors—that they’ll be admitted. It means we have to scrape together enough men to keep hundreds of others from forcing their way in.”

“Wouldn’t it be better if Schildstarr’s giants came back to the sally port?”

“A thousand times, but Schildstarr won’t agree to it. This is going to give him lots of prestige. He wants to milk it, and the king wants us to let him have his way.”