Gene Wolfe - The Wizard

We laid Garvaon’s body across his saddle; Uri (silent still, and I would guess very frightened) guided us back to our own world.

We could not return Garvaon to Finefield, however much we wished to; but a grave in Jotunland seemed a thing of horror. We resolved to carry him south so long as the cold weather held, and inter him as near his home as Parka decreed.

The Host of Jotunland held the pass against us, as is well known. Fewer know that we interred Garvaon before the battle, fearing there would be too many to bury after it. We dug his grave and laid him in it, offered such sacrifices as we could make, and together sang our hopes for him. Hearing us, the Angrborn’sent a flag of truce to inquire. “Sir Garvaon is no more,” Beel told the giant who carried it. “He was the bravest of my knights, and the best. We sing for his spirit, for we are not as you. And we have raised the cairn you see for him.”

He looked for it, but could not discover it ‘til Marder indicated it to him, for it rose higher than many a hill. “You made that?”

“I alone?” Marder shook his head. “No, I could not. Nor could Lord Beel, nor Sir Able, Sir Leort, nor Sir Woddet. We all did, working together.”

The Frost Giant leaned upon his sword. “I have to speak for those who sent me.” We nodded and said we understood.

“We’re going to kill you and tear it down. There won’t be two stones together when we’re through.”

“You must beat us first,” Svon declared, and grinned.

“You know me?”

Svon indicated the giant’s bandaged hand. “You are Bitergarm, and you were one of King Gilling’s champions.”

“That’s my name,” Bitergarm told Beel. “I fought them, him and Garvaon. You were there.”

Beel said nothing; Idnn told Bitergarm, “So was I.”

“I wanted to kill him myself.” Bitergarm’s deep rumble might have been a mountain’s talking. “He was tough as your hotlands grow.”

Svon and I agreed.

“So I’m sorry he’s dead. That’s for me. I’ll tear it down along with the rest, only—” He had caught sight of one of Idnn’s subjects.

Idnn herself advanced fearlessly and laid a hand on his arm. “I am their queen. Yours, too, Bitergarm.”

“Schildstarr’s the king.”

“A king who’d have you war on your queen, your mother, your wife, and your sisters. I don’t order you to fight for us against King Schildstarr. But I ask you, what sort of king is it who makes the right arm smite the left? You’re never loved, you Frost Giants. Not even by your mothers. I know it, and I pity you. But is the canard true? Is it true that you yourselves never love?”

He turned and left without another word.

They attacked by night, as we had feared they would; but our Aelf raised the alarm long before they reached our camp, and the fire-arrows turned them back with many dead, for all the Aelf see in darkness as well as Mani. We sent Org after them when they retreated, telling him to kill any who came to his hand, and to strike their rear when they fronted us once more.

The next day they held the pass against us, six of their grimmest shield-to-shield across the War Way, with a thousand more behind. There, in the pass I had held against the Black Knight who was Marder, those Mice they had driven out rained stones and spears on them until the sun was high.

Three times we charged them with the lance, and each time they threw us back and harvested their dead. At sunset I knelt for Idnn’s blessing, and on foot led their own women against them. Eterne drank their blood to the hilt, and the Knights of the Sword drank it too, some with two followers or three, and some with a hundred.

Within an hour the snow began, and Baki’s kin, with their bows and fresh fire-arrows, joined the Mice. The Sons of Angr broke and fled south into the mountains, where most who had not fallen, fell.

As for us, we struck off the heads of hundreds slain, and heaped them around Garvaon’s cairn, one on another until they covered it; and Beel and I, recalling his victory when he was young and how he had dragged a head behind two horses, wept.

That night Idnn sent Hela for me. In the pavilion that had been Marder’s, I sat with her (for she was gracious) and with Svon and Hela shared what little wine we had.

“You are an honorable knight,” she told me. “Sir Svon is, we believe, the most honorable we have known. But when we charge him with it, he says he’s but your image in that.”

I did not know how to answer her, but Mani did it for me, saying, “To Skai this Mythgarthr we cherish is only likenesses and wind, Your Majesty. But a likeness cherished is more.” His purling voice might have charmed a bird from its nest, I thought; yet I sensed that he meant all he said.

“Hela here and her brother have been of great service to us,” Idnn continued.

“To us all, Your Majesty.”

“As have you. No man and no woman has been of greater service than you.”

“Kneel,” Mani whispered; but I did not kneel.

“We are a queen.” Idnn touched the diadem she wore. “You have led our subjects against the foe.”

I remained silent, wishing that I might speak with Gylf. Cloud’s mind touched mine; although it was filled with love, she had no advice to give.

“You have not seen the lands we rule,” Idnn continued. “No more have we. Yet there are such lands, and they have been described to us.”

Svon said, “We’re going there when we leave the court. Her Majesty, my liege Lord Beel, and I.”

“As a queen, we have power to give estates. As we have power to raise to the peerage, power we would have even if we had no lands to give. We will make you an earl, Sir Able, if you’ll have it.”

Hela murmured, “Take the title and the lands refuse, if you will.”

“I will take neither,” I told Idnn. “I know I can’t refuse without insult, and I am loath to. But I must.”

“Your liege consents.”

“My liege in Mythgarthr, you mean, Your Majesty. He’s the best of men. But no. I insult you because I must. Sir Svon must be your champion. I’ve sworn to engage him when we reach the court. He’ll avenge you.”

Idnn glanced at Svon and shook her head, saying, “We wish to honor you, not to quarrel with you, Sir Able.”

“I have wished to honor you always, Your Majesty.”

Suddenly she smiled. “Do you remember when you came to my father to borrow a horse? You and Gylf and Mani?”

“It was long ago,” I told her, “and I have forgotten it—once. I do not believe I will ever forget it again.”

“It was in this present year,” Idnn told me. “We don’t think it’s seen two moons. Certainly it hasn’t seen three. But we want to say you’ve given Mani to us since, something we never dreamed would happen. Tonight we hoped to give you a great boon, for that and all your kindnesses, and for being an army on two legs. Instead, we’re going to ask more. You know what Hela and Heimir have done for all of us. You let Sir Woddet have Hela, and she wishes to remain with him. You retain her brother. So he says.”

I said I would not keep him against his will, and that I had seen little of him since Hela had gone to Sir Woddet.

“We’d like to reward Hela, and the boon she asks is that her brother be given to her.”

Hela herself said, “He is my brother, and as a brother I love him, Sir Able. I fear he would fare ill without me.”

“If he will serve you, you may have him,” I told her. “If you have him, Sir Woddet will have him too. Though his tongue is lame, he’s a first-class fighting man.”

She thanked me; when she had finished Idnn said, “Since you will not leave your liege for us—you will not? Not for an earldom? We offer it again.”