The Knight

So they sacked out and I sat up with my back against a tree and blinked and yawned, and tried to stay awake. I got to looking at the stars, too, and thinking about the man that Kerl called the Moonrider. And pretty soon, sure enough, the moon came up.

That was when it hit me. You could never see the moon or the stars or the sun or anything like that in Aelfrice. I never had when Toug and I went there, and I never had either when Garsecg and I were swimming all over, watching the island be born and live and die, and watching the crag die, and all of that. If you were lucky, what you saw was the place I had come from, the place where the Western Trader was, and Irringsmouth, and a lot more. You saw Mythgarthr, and people living their lives up there, kind of the way you see somebody’s whole life in a movie. (It was not really like a movie, it was longer and more detailed, and you lost sight of somebody and went to somebody else, but you know what I mean.) So this was not Aelfrice at all. The bottom was in Aelfrice all right, but the top was in Mythgarthr, the same way that our moon and our stars were really in Skai.

So I had been right, and if anything could have kept me awake, it was that. But it did not. Pretty soon I went to sleep anyhow. I could not help it.

The moon climbed up the Bowl of Skai and got brighter and brighter, but that was not what woke me. What woke me was Garsecg. He came flapping up like a big flying dinosaur, bigger than a plane. His wings fa

I was yawning; I said, “I guess. Only I don’t much care. Maybe I ought to but I don’t.”

“They would not obey you?”

“I had to drag them a little, and a couple of times I had to smack them around some. I didn’t like that, but I did it. I tried not to hurt them too bad.”

Garsecg nodded, really looking like himself now. “They know they may die.”

“I don’t think so,” I said. “What I think is that Setr ordered them not to come up here, and they still can’t do it even if they want to. He enchanted them, or put a spell on them, or whatever you want to call it.”

Garsecg smiled. “Why would he do that? Do you know?”

“I think so,” I said. “Did you get a chance to rest?”

“I have had far more rest than you, I am sure.”

“Then stand watch for us. Wake me at dawn.”

“Sunup?”

He was testing me to see if I knew where I was, but I did not care. I said, “Whatever,” and went back to sleep.

It was the middle of morning when I woke up. I thought Garsecg had gone, but after I had splashed in the little creek I saw him (like you would see a ghost) sitting in deep shade under a big tree. I sat down beside him, not sure if I ought to be mad at him for letting me sleep.

“This is a durian,” he said, and held up a funky-looking fruit. “Would you like it?”

I said sure and took it, and he picked up another one for himself. “The smell is unpleasant,” he told me, “but the flesh is wholesome and delicious.” It had a thorny peel on it, and I could not get it open. “You found no weapon on your climb?”

I told him no. “They’re all down below in the armories. That’s what Uri said. By the way, what happened to getting me up at sunrise? You said you would.”

“I did not.” Garsecg was peeling his durian. “You suggested that I awaken you at the first light. I asked whether you intended the rising of the sun. You said you did, and slept. Did you dream?”

I nodded. “How’d you peel that thing?”

“This is a good place for dreaming. It may well be the best place. What dream had you?”

“I had mail and a helmet, a shield and a sword.” It was hard to remember already. “I rode down out of the sky like the Moonrider. I think I came to do justice on earth, only the earth swallowed me. What does it mean?”

“I have no idea. Nothing, perhaps.”

“You know. You know all about all that stuff.”

He shook his head. “I do not, and resist disturbing you with my speculations.”

“Like you resisted waking us up. Can I try a bite of yours?”

He passed it over. I sniffed it like Gylf would have, and it stunk. It made me think of stinky cheese, though, and I like stinky cheese.

I bit into it. “It’s good. You’re right.”

“You will find that I generally am. What woke you?”

I gave him his durian back. “The sun in my face.”

“I take it that it has not touched your slaves.”

“They aren’t slaves. Not yet, or I don’t think so.”

“We will know when it does, I believe.”

I looked for them and they were right where they had lain down. There was a big flower bush between them and the sun. I said, “Do you really think they’ll die?”

“They may.”

Garsecg sat quiet, fingering his beard while I tried to open my durian with my nails. Finally he said, “Before that happens—or does not happen—there are a dozen things I ought to tell you. Let me get through a few of them. First, I let you sleep because you must fight Kulili. You would fight, I know, even if you were exhausted. But you would be killed, and that would be of no help to me.”

I said, “I’d like to think I’d win anyhow.”

“Perhaps you do, but I ca

He waited for me to argue, but I did not.

“Second, I lied to you. I told you I knew no oath that would bind an Aelf.” I looked over at him. “What is it?”

“The Aelf are bound when they swear by their old high gods.”

When he said that I got a fu

“Yes,” Garsecg said, “and no.”

“I don’t get you.”

He nodded like he had known it. “It is not likely that you would. The old high gods of the Aelf were indeed their sky people. That is, they were the people seen in the sky of Aelfrice.”

“You mean—? Wait a minute.”

“Gladly.”

“Are you talking about—about Bold Berthold or Kerl? About the guys on the ship? People like that?”

Garsecg nodded.

“You’re saying I’m a god, too. That’s crazy!”

“Not to yourself, but to the Aelf. If they swear by you, they are bound.”

“I’m not a god!”

“You own a dog.” Garsecg smiled. “I have spoken to him. He differs from the Aelf in that they have rebelled against you, but not otherwise.”

That got me to thinking about Gylf, the way he had followed me from the ford, and swum out to the ship, and hidden there starving. I said, “I guess you’re right, but sometimes he scares me.”

“The Aelf worship me now.” Garsecg smiled again. “Many do, and all will. There have been many times when they have frightened me.”

I thought about that, too. And it seemed to me that it was one of those things that sound like they make sense, but really do not. After a while I hit on it, and I said, “The Overcyns are immortal, Garsecg. They live faster then we do, that’s what Bold Berthold said. Whole years of life in one of our days. Only they never die.”

Garsecg nodded. “The old high gods of the Aelf are likewise immortal. What will become of your spirit when you die?”

I tried to remember.

“Will it die too?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Mine will.” Garsecg pointed to the Khimairas. “So will theirs. You have been aboard a ship, Sir Able. What becomes of the wind, when the wind dies?”

Right then one them screamed, and I got up and went to look. Behind me, Garsecg called, “Was that Uri or Baki?”

I could not tell, but the second one screamed too as soon as the sunlight touched it, so it did not matter. They were shaking, and their jaws were working, and their eyes looked like they were going to pop right out of their heads. I watched them a little while and called out to Garsecg, “Come look! Their wings are getting smaller!”