Gene Wolfe - The Wizard

There was a lot of coined gold, and I hesitated to dismiss it. I examined each coin, but though they were of five realms I found none that seemed different enough to arouse my interest. I dropped each into my burse and took it out again, without result.

How I puzzled over the remaining objects, turning each over and over, and wishing mightily that I had Mani to advise me! In the end I settled, with many a doubt, on three.

The first was a cup in which you could have washed a baby. It was, I felt sure, the one Idnn had given filled with gold. I thought it likely Gilling had given it to her; and since it was not unusual save for being red gold with good decoration, it seemed to me it might possess a secret virtue—that it might disarm poisons, or some such. I drank water from it, and a little wine, but felt nothing.

The second was a helm, old and not in the best repair. It was iron like other helms, and lined with leather somewhat worn and cracked. I suspected it because it did not appear a rich gift; yet it might have been worn by a hero and so bring glory to its owner. It was without a crest and undecorated save for marks about the eye slits. I put it on and looked about me, staring at the fire and peering out the window, but saw nothing unusual. After that, I polished and oiled it, oiling its dry leather also.

The last was a gold circle in serpent shape. It seemed to me it had been the finger ring of some fallen Frost Giant, although it would fit the arm of many a lady. It was too big for my fingers and too small for my arms. I looked through it and tossed it into the air without result.

After wasting some breath calling for Uri and Baki, I went to bed sorely puzzled, dreamed of the Tower of Glas, and woke thinking of the woman I had seen there with Lynnet and Etela. I built up the fire and slept again, dreaming of the raiders I faced long ago—we had captured their ship, which had something in its hold we dared not face.

For one more day I drilled the men; on the day following we left, Gylf, Wistan, Pouk, Uns, and I. I never saw Org on the road; but I heard him in the wood, although what I heard might have been no more than a branch snapping under the weight of the snow. We rode slowly, stopping at inns, and took more than a week to reach Kingsdoom, having traveled a distance Cloud, Gylf, and I might have covered in an hour.

Sheerwall does not stand in Forcetti but in a stronger place a league from the city. Not so Thortower—Kingsdoom surrounds it on every side, as the town called Utgard did Gilling’s castle, also called Utgard. But whereas the town of Utgard is a mere huddle of barnlike houses, the city of Kingsdoom boasts many noble buildings. It being late when we arrived, we found an inn near Thortower and spent what light remained sightseeing around the harbor and along the broad thoroughfare from the quay to the castle.

Here I have to go back to the objects I described. I had brought them with us. Once we were snug in our inn, I showed them one by one to Gylf, then called Wistan, Pouk, and Uns to me. They could make no more of them than I could.

I called for Baki when they had gone, and she came. I hugged her, which I should not have. She gasped for breath when I released her. “Lord, I came to say I would come no more. Now—well, who can say? Do you love me?”

I said I did, and I had missed her greatly.

“And I, you, Lord. Always when I was away, and often when I was at your side. You have freed us—Uri and me. We are your slaves no longer.”

“You never were. I freed you more than once.”

“So you did. But called us at need, and sent us off when that was convenient, rarely with thanks. May I sit?”

“Of course.”

She did, seating herself in my little fire. “We were yours because we were Setr’s. While Setr bound us, we could not go free.”

“Setr is dead, you’re free, and it was none of my doing. Vil slew him, though he could not have without Svon and Sir Garvaon, who occupied him while Vil got my bowstring around his neck. Your debt’s to them, not to me. Still, I’m glad you’re free and hope we can be friends.”

“Prettily spoken.” Baki looked at me sidelong. “You should do well at court.”

“I must do better than that,” I told her. “If you’ve ever wished me well, you must wish me well there. Have you really come to say good-bye?”

“I have! Soon—soon I will go, dear Lord, and you will never see me more. Nor I you. The parting is upon us, and that parting will be forever.”

She spoke so dramatically I knew she was lying, but I feigned belief for fear our parting would become real.

“Will you not bed me, Lord? Warm the lonely Aelfmaid who served you so long in this cold world? Chilled though I am, we shall be fire and flame in bed. You shall see.”

I shook my head.

“Then kiss me,” she said, and stepped from the fire.

I kissed her, held her, and kissed her again; when we parted I said, “I won’t try to keep you, Baki. But before you go I’ll ask a question and a small service. In less time than it would take me to explain, you can do both.”

“Then I will, for another kiss.”

“Good. A few days ago someone whispered in my ear that there was magic among the gifts Wistan brought. Was it you?”

She shook her head. “Not I, Lord.”

“Do you know who it was?”

“Two questions, so I earn two kisses. It was surely Uri, Lord. She is in terror of you, and does whatever she believes may stay your wrath.”

I said I would not harm her.

“I know it, Lord. She thinks only of her long betrayal. I—they broke my back. You healed me. I cannot forget.”

“I didn’t, Baki. Toug did.”

“He would not have, Lord, had you not fetched him, and told him to, and told him what to do.” So suddenly that I took a step backward, Baki abased herself. “Lord, forgive me! I love you, and would win you if I could. Would win you if I had to share you with a thousand Disiris.”

I raised her. “There’s nothing to forgive—or if there is, I forgive it. Baki, I’m going to show you three objects. If one casts a spell, will you tell me?”

She nodded. “I will, Lord, if I can divine it.”

I got out the gold serpent first. She took it, breathed on its ruby eyes, shrugged, and handed it back.

“Nothing? No magic?”

“It may be too subtle for me, Lord. But if it is, it is too subtle for Uri also. Or so I think.”

I pulled out the old helm and held it up.

Her jaw fell. For an instant she stood like a statue of bright copper. Then she was gone.

Knowing it would be useless to call to her again; I called Uri and then Disiri, begging her to come. Neither responded,and at last I went to bed, thinking a lot about the old helm—and King Arnthor and his court.

Wistan and I rode to the castle the next day. To describe all the people who quizzed us—some because it was their duty, others out of curiosity—would take more time than I want to give it. There were more than a dozen.

At length we were sent to a court I might have thought King Arnthor’s if I had not been told otherwise. It was that of the Earl Marshal, a nobleman of many titles, who sat a throne a little smaller than Gilling’s on a dais, attended by perhaps a hundred, most of them supplicants of one stripe or another and the rest servants and attendants.

He was busy with a matter involving the king’s stable when we arrived, the borrowing of a stallion from a duke who was not Marder, the lending of one of the king’s in return, a colt from a mare of the king’s to be given the duke, a colt from one of the duke’s mares to be given the king, and so on. The stallion to be borrowed had already been decided when we came; the one to be loaned in return was under discussion. So-and-so was the best, but the duke’s man did not like the color. Another, white, was beautiful but savage; it was not to be ill-treated, although it kicked and bit. It was not to be fought for sport. The duke’s man would not guarantee on his master’s behalf that it would not be fought—they had not considered that. Very well, if it was...