The Knight

Gylf eyed her with disfavor but shook his head.

I asked, “Have you ever smelled him at all? Anywhere?”

“No.”

“Maybe you really have.” I was testing him. “Maybe you smelled a strange smell, and you didn’t know what it was.”

He shut his eyes.

“He feels it is useless to talk to you since you will not believe him,” Uri explained. “Baki and I often feel the same way, so I recognize the symptoms.”

I stood up, swinging my arms to get warm. “Well, it’s possible, isn’t it?”

“It is not, Lord.”

“How do you know?”

“Because he has said that he did not. I trust his word, and so should you. Perhaps this ogre is a ghost. I ca

“What about Disiri? Is she here? I should’ve asked you before, and Gylf, too. Have either one of you seen her?”

Gylf rose, shaking his head. “Hungry?”

“No,” Uri said. “I ca

“Go home to Aelfrice,” I told her. “Wait there until I call you.”

She nodded and walked away.

“When we find this ogre,” I told Gylf, “I’m going to fight him by myself. I’d like any help you can give me finding him, but once the fight starts you leave him to me.”

Gylf looked unhappy.

I’ve got to prove myself to myself, I said, and it was only when I was through that I realized I had not said it out loud. Did I really like Kulili? Kulili was just a bunch of worms, something worms made when they got together. Maybe I just told myself I did because I did not want to fight her. When I beat Sir Nytir, was that one of those crazy things that happen when a team down in the cellar beats the division leader? I knew I was no good with a lance. Was I good at all?

I did not know, and not knowing was so bad I was ready to risk just about anything to find out.

By then the rain had stopped. The sun came out, and it was not the enemy sun that had pounded down on Pouk and me earlier that day, but a beautiful sun of new gold. East, a rainbow leaped in glory, the bridge that the Giants of Winter and Old Night had built for the Overcyns so they could climb up to Skai.

“There’s magic in this air,” I told Gylf. “I love it!”

He did not say anything, but I started whistling.

Chapter 40. A Citizen Of Cellars

Supper was fresh bread hot from the oven, with butter and big bowls of good vegetable soup. Nukara had cleaned out a spare room for me, put clean blankets on the bed, and so on. While we ate she told me how nice it was.

I shook my head. “I’ve promised to get Master Agr’s horses home tonight, and I know the duke wants me to spend every night at Sheerwall ’til he lets me go north. I thought the storm would give me a good excuse for staying here with you, but it’s over. Pouk and I will have to say good-bye as soon as he gets our horses ready.”

She stopped smiling; she had really wanted us to stay.

I said, “I think I may get a crack at your ghost just the same. If we’re lucky, he may be gone forever by the time Pouk’s finished loading our pack horse.”

“So quick?” I could see she did not believe me.

I nodded and passed some bread down to Gylf. “If you’ll lend me Uns. Will you?”

She looked at Uns, and so did I, but he just looked down at his soup. “He’s shy,” she said.

He still would not look up.

“You’re not—will he get killed? Or hurt the way Duns was?” I shook my head. “I’m going to fight the ogre, if Uns and I can find him. Uns won’t get hurt.”

Pouk cleared his throat. “I’d main like to watch, sir. With your permission?”

I was soaking bread in the soup for Gylf; it gave me an excuse to think things over before I answered. Finally I said, “You’ve got work to do. Uns and I will be going out into the fields to look for the ogre. Maybe into the woods. You’d probably get lost trying to find us. I think you’d better stay here.”

Duns said, “Be dark soon, Sar Able.”

I told him I was pretty sure the ogre would not show himself by daylight, so we had plenty of time to sit and talk and blow our soup. “When it’s over,” I said, “Pouk and I can ride home by moonlight. There’ll be a good big moon tonight, and when we get there the sentries will let down the bridge for us.” I kept waiting for Uns to say something, but he never did.

I left the house with Gylf trotting beside me and Uns lagging behind us. Knowing nothing better, I followed the narrow path that had taken me between fields and into the wood, the path Duns and Uns must have used when they cut firewood. When we came to the first trees, we stopped. I remember that the moon was just clearing the eastern peaks then. When Uns caught up, I told him, “I didn’t come out here to hunt your ogre, and I know as well as you do that he’s not here. I came so you and I could have a private talk.”

I waited for him to speak, but he did not.

“I’m pressed for time. You know about that. It’ll save some if you tell me everything now. I don’t want to hurt you and I’ll take it as a favor.”

He opened his mouth, hesitated, and shut it. After a moment he shook his head.

“Whatever you want. After this, you’re to ask nothing from me. I gave you fair warning, so you get no favors.”

Gylf growled low in his throat.

“Before I came here,” I said, “a couple of friends of mine came to wait for me. They call themselves my slaves, but they’re really friends.”

With his crippled back, it was hard for Uns to look up, but easy for him to look down. He took the easy way now, staring at his muddy feet.

“Gylf couldn’t find a trace of your ogre in these woods. Gylf’s my hound. I think I told you. He has a fine nose.”

Uns nodded.

“But there really is an ogre. Your brother wrestled it and was laid up for a year. I don’t know if I believe in ghosts, but I sure don’t believe in ghosts that act exactly like they were alive. I got one of my friends to watch in your house while I was away. Do I have to tell you what she saw? This is your last chance, Uns.”

Uns turned and ran. I nodded to Gylf, and he brought him down before he had gone ten yards.

“She saw you go into the cellar and talk to the ogre,” I said while Gylf crouched over Uns snarling. “That’s where it hides, I guess. I suppose it steals food from your mother’s kitchen. You wanted me to sleep there. Was it so your ogre could kill me while I was asleep? Or was it to stop it from stealing for one night?”

Uns said, “Git him off!”

“In a minute. It’s a live ogre, it has to be, if it’s an ogre at all. Is it?”

“I du

That was the first time he had admitted anything, and I thought it would be better to pretend I had not noticed. I pulled my chin and asked what it said about that.

“Don’t talk much.”

“But it does talk?”

“A lil. I learnt him.”

I smiled, although I certainly did not feel like it. “I guess you caught him young. What’s his name?”

“Org. Git him off or I won’t talk no more.”

I told Gylf to let him go, and Gylf backed away, still growling.

Uns waited a minute, not sure Gylf would not take off an arm if he got up. Finally he did. It was not easy for him, because his bad back made it hard to keep his weight over his feet.

I said, “Maybe I sound like I know everything. I don’t. What’s important to me is that I don’t know if I could beat your ogre in a fair fight. You can’t tell me that, even if you think you could. Did you catch him young?”

“Din’t ketch him a-tall,” Uns muttered. “Da ma was dead, layin’ i