Gene Wolfe - The Wizard

“We played games in a garden wider than the world, and I sat at lessons with her, and talked of love and magic and a thousand other things, for she was very wise and her advisors wiser. At last they sent me into Mythgarthr. All memory of Disiri and her garden left me. Only now has it returned.”

“You loved them.”

I nodded. “Mother, you are wise. I knew I would not find Disiri here, for my love for her has not been lost. But those were lost—as lost as your scroll.”

“Which is not lost. It remains on the Isle, where you found it.” She took up the green glass tube that had held it as she spoke, and removed the stopper. “Do you want to see it again? It is in here.”

The tube was empty; and yet it seemed to me that there remained something at its bottom, some scrap, perhaps, of paper, a pebble or a shell. I tried to reach in, although it was large enough to admit only two fingers. My whole hand entered, and as it sought the bottom, my arm.

I found myself drawn into a tunnel whose sides were green glass. At once I turned and began to run back the way I had come, troubled (until I caught and held her) by Eterne, whose weighty scabbard slapped my leg. Soon I found a pale door. I opened it, and had no more stepped through than I was followed by Lynnet and Mani.

“I thought you would stay in there a while, Mama,” Etela said. Lynnet only smiled and stroked her hair.

Thiazi said, “None of you need tell me what you saw. Should you wish to, however, you will find me an attentive listener.”

None of us spoke.

Toug said, “Everybody got to ask questions before you went in, or anyhow that was what it seemed like. Now I’d like to ask one and all of you have got to answer just this one question. There isn’t one of you that doesn’t owe me.”

Lynnet nodded and took his hand, at which Etela looked astonished.

“Here it is. Did it work? Did you really find love you had lost in there?”

I told him I had, that I had found a mother whom I had forgotten utterly. To myself I added that her bones lay on the Isle of Glas, and I would not rest until I had interred them and raised a monument, as I now have.

“What about Etela’s mother?”

I nodded, and was about to explain; but Lynnet herself spoke: “I did, and saw women dead and men who fell when the Angrborn came to Goldenlawn. I celebrated the winter feast, and danced the May dance, and cut flowers in our garden.”

She turned to Thiazi who sat huge as a carven image in his chair. “Your folk destroy so much to gain so little.”

He nodded, but did not speak.

“What about Mani?” Toug looked around for him. “I saw him come out.” Etela pointed. “He went out the window.”

“That’s too bad,” Toug said. “I’d like to know if he found love he’d lost too.”

Thiazi’s voice was as dull and distant as the beating of the monstrous drums outside. “If he had lost love, Squire, he found it there.”

I said, “Of course he had love to find—and of course he found it. If he hadn’t, he would be here telling us so. He left because he’s not ready to talk about it.”

There was a frantic pounding at the door, and Thiazi roared, “Come in!”

It was Pouk, and though he did not look around I saw his living eye rest on me. “Lord Thiazi, sir,” he began, “is my old master Sir Able in here, sir? I thought I heard him.”

“He is your new master as well,” Thiazi told him. “I give you to him now.”

Pouk pulled his forelock. “Thankee, sir, an’ I hope it sticks.”

“I’m here, Pouk,” I said. “What do you want?”

“Nothin’, sir. Only I got news you ought to know. That Schildstarr, sir. He’s got th’ crown, sir, an’ says he’s king. He’s fixin’ to go out in th’ town, sir, wit’ all his men an’ Thrym an’ his guards.”

Thiazi rose, “Then I must go with him.”

I nodded. “First, Pouk, you mustn’t talk of His Majesty King Schildstarr as you just did. If you’re disrespectful I may not be able to protect you.”

“Aye, aye, sir.”

“Second, you’re to go to the stable at once and saddle Cloud, and bring her to the entrance as quick as you can.”

Pouk hesitated. “I ain’t no hand fer horses, sir, an’ that’n don’t know me.”

“Do what she tells you,” I said, “and all will be well.”

After that, I sent Toug to notify Svon and Beel, and armed myself.

Of Schildstarr’s parade through the town I will say little. We human beings were kept to the rear—no doubt wisely. Garvaon, Svon, and I rode three abreast, with Beel and Idnn before us and Garvaon’s men-at-arms and archers behind. The castle of Utgard might have been taken, for there was no one to guard it save Toug and Gylf and a few slaves. But there was no reason to fear it would be taken, though the crowding Frost Giants who cheered so wildly for their new king eyed us with hostility that was almost open.

When I saw their faces, I knew we would have to go, and go soon. I told Beel when we returned to Utgard. He agreed, but reminded me that he would need the king’s permission.

A dark and silent figure waited outside the chamber Thiazi had assigned me. “They’re in there....”

Recognizing her voice, I bowed. “Who is, Lady Lynnet?”

“My daughter, another girl.” For a moment it seemed to me that a frown of concentration crossed her face, that face which so seldom wore any expression. “The cat. And a man. They wanted me to...”

“You would be welcome,” I told her.

“I know.” It seemed that she would go; though I stood aside she remained where she was, her head erect, her hands at her sides, her lank black hair falling to her waist. “I will return south with you. Goldenlawn will be mine.”

“I hope so, My Lady.”

“Shall I have a husband then? Someone to help build?”

“I’m sure you will have your choice among a score.”

“They are so eager, for a little land... Five farms. Our meadows.”

I nodded. “There are many men who are hungry for land, though many have land already. Others hunger for love. If you marry again, My Lady, you would be well advised to marry a man whose desire is for you.”

She did not speak.

“There are many women, My Lady, who feel that a man who greatly desires them can’t be good enough for them. That they prove their mettle by winning one who could couple with a lady more beautiful or more accomplished, winning him with land or gold, or by trickery. I don’t pretend to be wise, but another lady whose name may not be spoken told me once how foolish that is, and how much of her time and strength was spent striving against it.”

“You?”

“No, My Lady. If I’d been speaking for myself, I would have spoken less boldly.”

She passed me without a nod or glance. I watched her erect back and slow, smooth steps until she vanished in the darkness at the end of the corridor. There are ghosts and worse in Utgard, as I knew very well; but no one was less apt to be affrighted than she, and it is possible that they (like us) thought her one of themselves.

Two girls, Lynnet had said, a cat—Mani, clearly—and a man. Little Etela would be one of the girls. The other seemed likely to be one of the slave women, somebody Toug had found to care for her. The man was presumably Toug himself, though I hoped for Garvaon.

Shrugging, I opened the door and stepped in, and saw that I had been right in some regards and wrong in others. The second girl was Uri, and not in human form but clearly a woman of the Fire Aelf. The man was neither Toug nor Garvaon but a blind slave, muscular and nearly naked, with one arm supported by a sling.

Etela said politely, “Hello, sir knight. “We came to see you. Only I was here the first.”