Gene Wolfe - The Wizard

“What will we do if the crowd gets in?”

Behind them Beel said, “We will do all we can to save my son-in-law’s life, Squire. If they see how badly he’s hurt, that alone may doom him by beginning a new rebellion. Still worse, they may kill him outright. A quarter if not half of them would be delighted to see him dead, and little courage is needed to murder a man who’s gravely wounded already.”

On the battlement, Schildstarr was addressing the crowd—about three thousand, Toug decided, and possibly more—gathered on the enormous stair that led up to the brazen doors of Utgard, and in the bailey at the foot of that stair. “Thiazi’s tellin’ you facts.” It was like stones sliding from a mountain. “The king’s sore struck, but he’ll have me and mine wit’ him night and day. My own to the door, every one a’ you, an’ nae one nae ours.”

There was much more after that, but Toug soon found its hoarseness and hatefulness wearying, and shut his ears to it. The sea of savage faces below and the dizzy abyss of freezing air filled him with sick dismay, and he jumped down from the crenel into which he had clambered to see them.

After that there was nothing to do but pull his cloak about him and heartily wish that he were out of the wind, in a room with a fire; the turret room where he had slept with Mani seemed a haven of comfort as he stood on the battlement.

“Have you seen Wistan?” That was Garvaon.

Toug shook his head. “Not lately, sir.” Belatedly, it occurred to Toug that Wistan was securing Sword Breaker and my old sword belt, in a place where they would not be discovered by chance. Or taking them to the cistern. “Would you like me to find him, Sir Garvaon?”

“No, you’ll have to run with my message yourself. I’ll tell Sir Svon—don’t worry about that. Go to the guardroom and tell the sergeant he’s to pull the entire guard off post. Every man. Understand?”

“Yes, Sir Garvaon. Every man-at-arms in the guard, and every bowman. The whole guard.”

“Right. They’re to assemble in the big hall, and wait. Get moving.”

Toug did, but Beel stopped him on the stairs. “You’re overworked, Squire.”

“I like to keep busy, Your Lordship, and this gets me out of that wind.”

“No small consideration, I agree. Tonight you’ll have various little tasks to do for Sir Svon. Polishing his mail and so on. Isn’t that right?”

Wondering what Beel was about to ask, Toug nodded. “Yes, Your Lordship, all the things I do every night.”

“Do you know where we’re lodged? Where Queen Idnn and I were lodged before she became queen?”

“A floor above the great hall, Your Lordship. Left at the top of the stair. Is it the second door?”

Beel nodded. “Exactly. I must speak with you tonight when your work is done. Knock, and you’ll be admitted.”

“I will, Your Lordship.” Toug turned to go.

“Wait. I won’t order you to lie to Sir Svon. But there will be no need to tell him about this unless he inquires.”

Toug agreed that there would not be, heartily wishing that he had never left the battlement.

Marder had decided that the largest tent, the pavilion he had brought for his own use, should be Idnn’s; the lack of servingwomen was a problem not so easily overcome. Idnn agreed readily to be served by Gerda and Bold Berthold, but flatly refused to accept Hela and Heimir. “We fear them,” she told me. “Call us cowardly. We know you fear nothing.”

I shook my head. “I know you too well to think you cowardly, Your Majesty.”

“We fear her wit and his lack of any. Brave as Thunor, you men say, and cunning as a Frost Giant. They are not all cunning as we know. But those who are, are slippery as eels, and your Hela is her father’s daughter. Besides, she’d sell her virtue for a groat, if she had a jot of it.”

I waited.

“Gerda can help us dress and her husband is better than a man with eyes—we don’t have to worry about his seeing us dressing and he’s too old for rape. But we don’t think he can put up the pavilion by himself, or take it down either. Duke Marder’s men put it up tonight. We don’t want to have to beg help every night. You men say that women are always asking help anyway. And if that’s not entirely true, it’s not entirely false. Do you think we like it?”

I shook my head.

“Correct. Still, we’re begging, just as we begged you to come to Utgard.” The dark eyes that had flashed like gems softened. “It’s easy, asking you. There’s something about you that says even a queen needn’t be ashamed of asking your help.”

“That’s good.”

“So lend us Uns? Please? We ask it as a great favor, and only ‘til we reach Utgard. You’ll still have Hela and Heimir—or have you loaned Hela to Sir Woddet? But you’ll have Heimir. Uns too, anytime you need him.”

“I’m honored. You may have Uns, of course. Have him as long as he’ll serve you, if you want. But I can’t help being curious. His Grace brought eight serving-men. He’d lend you seven if you so much as hinted you wanted them. Why Uns?”

Idnn sighed. “Because he’s yours, and closer to you than anyone else.”

“You may have him, Your Majesty. But you’re wrong about his being closest to me. Bold Berthold is closer, and so is Gylf.” I laid my hand on Gylf’s head.

Idnn smiled. “Berthold we have already, and dogs are not so easily borrowed. You’ll tell him? It’s only until we get to Utgard, as we said.”

“Certainly, Your Majesty.” I stepped back, expecting to be dismissed.

“Wait! Sit down. Please, good Sir Able, hear us out. The door is open—no one will think us compromised if we talk for an hour.” Idnn’s voice fell. “We must tell you.”

“As Your Majesty commands.” I sat on the carpet before Idnn’s folding chair.

“We told you yesterday we’d had a visitor.”

I nodded. “An Aelf?”

“No. One of our people. An Angrborn. You weren’t long in Jotunland, Sir Able, yet you must have seen something of it. Did nothing seem odd to you?” I shrugged. “A dozen things.”

“We won’t trouble you to name them. You saw our people, our giants, and their slaves?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. Of course.”

“Giantesses?”

I cast my mind back; for me, it had been long ago. “I was in Bymir’s house, but he had no wife and no children.”

“His Majesty,” Idnn told me, “has no children. And no wife but us. The wives and children of the rest are hidden. The girls will remain hidden throughout their lives, the boys ‘til they are old enough to understand that they’re hidden, and where they are hidden, and why. Then they’re put out.”

“If I were to ask where—”

“We could not tell you. There’s a women’s country. We call it Jotunhome; scholars say Vollerland, the Land of Wise Women. Because we’re His Majesty’s wife, we are ruler of Jotunhome. Not just Queen of Jotunhome, but monarch. They came on our wedding night, while our husband groaned and bled in our bed.”

I suppose I nodded. “I see...”

“You don’t. You don’t even think you do—you’re too wise for that. If we’d ordered a guard of women to come with us, running beside our horse as Hela and Heimir run beside yours, we could have had them. But we’d have been attacked, and we wouldn’t be here.” Idnn sighed. “They can fight, they say, and knowing how they live we know it must be so.”

That night, when all the tasks Idnn had given him were done and everyone was asleep, Uns came to my fire. Heimir was asleep, his big body half covered by his bearskin. As Uns watched I saddled Cloud, whistled for Gylf, and galloped north across the night sky. All this Uns told me afterward.