The Knight

“Cook, sir. Hordsvin’s me name.” He gulped. “Fought next ta ya wi’ me cleaver, Sir Able. Had me napron on but warn’t hog’s blood on it. Me helper fought, ta, sir. Surt’s his name. He’s watchin’ out fer me na. Had me big knife.”

A warm thing was pushed into my hand. I took it, bit off too much, and choked.

“Drink this, sir. Your man come, Sir Able, only he’d of et it hisself, I was afeerd. So I brung ’em, sir. They’s me specialty, Sir Able, sir. I’ll leave th’ pan wi’ th’ lid on so’s th’ rats don’t get ’em.”

After that I rationed them out to myself, and thought about what I would have to do.

The next time Pouk came, I told him, and he said, “You can’t fight him, sir. He’ll kill you an’ we’ll kill him, but it won’t do no good. So wait up, sir, till you’re stronger.”

“What if I’m weaker? I’ll make peace if I can, but if I can’t shake his hand I’ll break his neck. Did he really want to kill me?”

“Aye, sir.” Pouk’s voice had become a shamed whisper. “I shoulda killed him then, only I didn’t. You’d of, an’ no countin’ costs. Only I’m not you, sir, an’ I know it.”

“I’m not you, either. I’m no seaman. Help me up.”

“You’re too weak, sir.”

“I know.” I felt like I ought to be angry, but I was not. “That’s why I wanted you to help me.” He did, taking my hands and pulling me up. “I’m a knight,” I said. “We fight when we’re weak.”

“Why’s that, sir?” Pouk sounded like he was a million miles away. I said I could not explain, there was not enough time. I tried to take a step and fell down.

After that I was in bed, and a nurse came in and said I had fought the hijackers, and everybody was so proud of me they could bust. There was a dog in the hospital, that was why she was there, and had I seen it?

Chapter 20. Sword Breaker

There were shouts outside the cable tier. The door opened, and a seaman looked in . “Cap’n, Sir Able. Nothink ter worry h’about, sir. We’re watchin’ an’ won’t let ’im h’in.”

I said I wanted to talk to him, but the door had already closed. It got quiet again, just the creak of the timbers and the slap of the waves on the side of the ship, things I had been hearing so long I hardly heard them at all. I had a blanket and a bottle of brandy. The blanket had been one of mine, Pouk said, and he had pinched the brandy from the captain’s private stock. I had drunk some; it made me terribly dizzy, and I swore I would not drink any more.

“I’m just a kid,” I told Pouk between mouthfuls. He did not understand kid, so I said, “A boy who’s supposed to be a man after one night with a woman.”

“Aye, sir. I’ve felt th’ same many’s a time.”

Right here I want to stop everything and say something like this has happened to me a lot. I have tried to tell other men about Disiri and me and how I changed. And they have said the same thing happened to them. I do not think it did, really. They felt like it did. I felt like it did too, but I felt that way because it really did. Of course they would say the same thing.

“Just a boy,” I told Pouk. “A boy who thought he was a brave knight.”

“I ain’t never seen no braver man nor you, sir.” Pouk sounded ready to fight anybody who contradicted him. “Why, when them Osterlings got through the net, who was it went for ’em?”

I stopped eating to consider the question. “The dog, I’m sure. The dog Megister Nur couldn’t find.”

“No, sir! It was you. The rest o’ us come after, an’ if you hadn’t gone, we wouldn’t o’ gone at all, sir. Them Osterlings, they didn’t never think we’d have no knight aboard. You had ’em beat ‘fore anybody caught breath. Time you went down, they was cuttin’ free.”

It took a while, but I nodded. “I remember. Or anyway I think I might. Enemies in front of me and on both sides. Striking them with the mace we bought from Mori. Where is that, by the way? Do you know what happened to it?”

“Cap’n got it, prob’ly, sir.”

“Find out, if you can. I’d like to get it back.” I stopped talking for a while to eat and scratch my head. “I need something for my left hand, Pouk. A shield, or at least a stick I could use to stop blows. I had to do it with the mace.”

“Aye aye, sir. I’ll keep my eye out for somethin’.”

“Then look for my bow and quiver while you’re at it. And for the dog. Is the dog still on board?”

“Wyt seen it last night, sir. Mighty thin it looked, Wyt says, and slavered like to eat him.”

“At least the captain hasn’t got him.”

Pouk coughed. “Speakin’ of Cap’n ... As we was, sir, ’cause he’s prob’ly got

’em. Speakin’ o’ him, I’ve learnt what he’s pla

“Forcetti?”

“No, sir, Yens, sir. That’s what they say. If you’re through eatin’, sir—”

“No.” I got to my feet, without help and without a lot of trouble. “Let me take that back. I’m through eating, but I’m not through with this stewed beef you brought me.”

“I wouldn’t talk quite so loud, sir. First might be around.”

I had not even noticed that I had raised my voice, but I raised it some more.

“I’ve been trying to keep quiet, like you said, but what good is it? The captain’s made his plans. I’ve got to stop him from following through. I want my bow, as soon as you can get it. The bow and the bowstring—the string’s very important.

My quiver too, and all the arrows you can find, if you can find some.”

“Aye aye, sir.”

I opened the door of the cable tier. “Gylf!” I made it loud, but it had not been loud enough. “Gylf! Here, Gylf!”

“Sir? Who’s-?”

“My dog. He really is my dog, Pouk, until his old owner wants him back. I didn’t want him because I was afraid of him. I tried to get rid of him before we forded the Irring. I made him go and told him never to come near me.” I took a deep breath. It hurt bad, but I took it. “GYLF! Come here, Gylf!”

I think Pouk would have run if I had not grabbed him. “I thought I’d shaken him when you and I got on this ship.”

I stopped to whistle.

“It’s night now, isn’t it? That’s why it’s so dark in here—no sunlight leaking in.”

“Aye, sir.”

“I’ll talk to the captain tomorrow, after he’s had his breakfast. I owe him that much. You can tell him, if you want to.”

I heard the scrabble of dull claws out in the hold, and I opened the pan Pouk had brought and put it on the floor for Gylf.

I knew that cabin, and I knew there was no way to lock the door if you were not inside. If the captain had eaten in there, I was going to go in when Hordsvin’s helper came in to clear away the dishes; but it did not happen like that. He ate on the roof of the sterncastle, which was what I had been expecting, and Gylf and I just came up out of the hold and walked into the cabin like we belonged there. Which we did.

By the time he came in, I had found the foreign mace I had gotten in Irringsmouth and strapped it on. He opened the door and saw us, yelled for Kerl, and then (I guess because I was sitting down and had not pulled out my mace) shut the door and barred it. His sword was under his mattress, like before. I had found it already and left it there. I could have stopped him from getting it, no problem, but I did not.

When he had it I said, “Don’t you trust Kerl?”

The captain just looked at me, not saying anything. I told Gylf to let him see him then, and he did. He had been lying in a corner where it was dark and he came up out of there like brown smoke but all solid and snarling. “I can kill you if I want to,” I told the captain. “I beat you before, and I can beat you again. Gylf could kill you, too, and you won’t stand the ghost of a chance against both of us. Do you own this ship? Some of the crew told me you did.”