The Knight

“These two Aelfmaidens call themselves my slaves,” I explained to Org. I had my hands over my privates, and I felt like the biggest fool in the world. “They think you want to be my slave too.” I stopped for a minute, still dizzy and wondering whether he understood any of it.

Finally I said, “That’s what they want us to think they think, anyhow. Is that what you want?”

He grunted twice.

“There!” Baki sounded like she had won the lottery. “You see, Lord? It says uh-huh.”

I got mad. “No, I don’t, and I don’t know what he said. I don’t believe you do either.”

I found my sword belt and put it on; I was not sure I could crack that skull with Sword Breaker, but I was willing to try and I could not stop thinking about what the people back at Sheerwall would say if I killed the last ogre. With him lying on the ground the way he was, it was a terrific temptation; so I made him stand up.

He did, sort of crouching.

Uri ran her fingers up and down my back. “You have not accepted him, Lord. He fears that if he stands you will take it as a gage of battle.”

I had my hand on Sword Breaker’s hilt. “If you’re my slave, Org, I can sell you. Do you understand that? I can, and I probably will. Is that what you want?”

He shook his head. The motion was not really right, but close enough that I knew what he meant. I said, “What do you want, then? I can’t let you go back to Nukara’s house. I promised her I’d get rid of you if I could. If I let you go free—well, Uns was afraid you’d kill cattle and sheep, but I’m afraid you’d kill people.”

“Wi’ you,” he muttered.

I did not know what to say, so I got Baki to hold my sword belt while I pulled on my wet clothes again. When I had my cloak back on, I said, “You mean like Pouk? It’s going to be really hard for me to keep people from killing you.”

Org dropped down again and crawled over to the new place where I was standing. “Wi’ you, Master.”

“Okay, you can be my servant.” I said that before I really thought about it, and there were times afterward when I wished I had thought it over more. “Only listen here. If you’re going to serve me, you’ve got to promise you won’t kill anybody unless I say it’s all right. You mustn’t kill livestock either, unless I say you can.” I was not sure he understood livestock, so I said, “No horses or cattle or sheep or donkeys. No dogs and no cats. No fowls.”

He looked up (I saw his eyes glow in the moonlight), and I think he was deciding whether I meant it. After a moment or two, he nodded.

“You’ll get hungry, but your hunger isn’t going to get you off the hook if you disobey me. Understand?”

Uri said, “I suppose you will want us to carry him off to Aelfrice and nursemaid him for you whenever he is in your way. Well, you can whistle for it.”

“No shit?” I hitched my sword belt around so I could get at Sword Breaker quick if I wanted her. “I guess you’re not my slaves after all.”

Baki tried to look humble. “We will do whatever you ask, Lord. We must. But I doubt that we could take him to Aelfrice with us. He is too big—”

Uri nodded, putting a lot of energy into it.

“Besides, he is too stupid. Once we had him there, we could not control him. We could not do it here even with Gylf helping.”

I said okay.

“You have not asked my advice,” Uri said, “but I will offer it just the same. I knew some of these creatures when they were common. They are stupid, lazy, and treacherous. But they are very good at hiding themselves and sneaking up on people, because they are of whatever color they wish to be. If you order this one to follow you without letting himself be seen, few would catch even a glimpse of him. I will not say no one would, because much would depend on where you went and how good the light was. Just the same, I think you might be surprised at how few did.”

I shrugged, wishing I could ask Gylf’s advice. “All right, we’ll try it. But first, I want to take him back to the house and show him to Duns and Nukara, and find out what’s become of Uns. After that I’ll introduce him to Pouk, I suppose. Pouk will have to do most of the watching and feeding. I only hope Pouk doesn’t become ogre-food himself.”

Uri smiled. “He did not eat Uns.”

“No, but it might be better if he had. Go back to Aelfr—”

“What is it?” Baki asked.

“Go back, and tell Queen Disiri, if you should see her—if you can find her, I mean—how much I’d like to be with her. How much I love her, and how grateful I am for all the favor she’s shown me.”

They said they would, and disappeared into the shadows.

I turned to Gylf. “If you’re not an Aelfdog, and I have to admit you don’t act like one, exactly what are you?”

Gylf only looked doleful, lying down and resting his muzzle between his paws.

“Can’t you tell me? Come on, Gylf! Are you really one of the Valfather’s dogs? That was what they said.”

He looked at Org significantly.

“He counts. Is that what you’re saying? You won’t talk while he’s around?”

Gylf nodded the way he had when I had first gotten him.

“Another disadvantage. Well, maybe there are advantages to having you, too, Org, but I haven’t found out about them yet. I hope so.” I started back to the house, motioning for them to follow me, and they both did.

Disiri was watching us then. I know that because of something that she gave me when we got here, not a drawing (although I thought it was a drawing at first) but a cutout of black paper glued to blue paper: a knight swaggering along with his hand on the hilt of a short sword; a monstrous thing behind him taller than he is, shambling on bowed legs with one scaly hand upon the knight’s shoulder; and a big dog that looks small because it is following the monster. I have put it where I see it every day. It has not made me wish to go back to Mythgarthr, but I know it will someday.

The kitchen windows looked bright and cheerful when we caught sight of Nukara, Duns, and Pouk at last. I did not really feel like I was coming home, but it was like that. I would be able to eat—I had not eaten much before the fight—and to warm myself in front of the fire. Right then it seemed like everything that anybody could ever want.

All that counted, but it was not just that. I had been talking to Gylf and Uri and Baki, and even to Org, which was okay. But the voices I heard through the greased skin in the kitchen windows were human, all of them. Sometimes that can make a big difference.

Pouk opened the door when I knocked. “There you are, sir. Missed you, I did. Knew you wasn’t ...”

He had seen the ogre behind me. I said, “This is Org, Pouk. You’re not to harm him. If he misbehaves, tell me.”

Pouk stood there frozen, with his mouth open. I do not believe he had heard a word I said.

“Org, this man is Pouk, another servant. He will see to it that you’re fed and otherwise cared for. You must do what he says, exactly like you would do what I said.”

Org grunted and looked at Pouk, and Pouk took a couple of steps backward. Maybe I ought to say here that Org did not snarl or anything, ever. He did not smile, and he did not frown. His eyes were like two black beads. They looked small in a big face that was mostly mouth. It was not a human face or anything close to that. A dog’s face or a horse’s face is a lot more human-looking than Org’s.

I went on into the house, and Org came in behind me. Gylf went around us to lie in front of the fire. Duns and Nukara had been sitting at the table with Pouk, or that was how it seemed. They had stood up, probably, when Pouk went to the door. Now they looked every bit as out of it as he did. “Here’s your ghost,” I told them. “A solid one. Hear the floorboards creak? If you’d like to touch him, go right ahead.”

Duns tried to talk three times before he could say “You fought him?”

“I did, and I didn’t like it, either. He beat me, and then he surrendered to me. It’s kind of a long story, and I’d rather not get into the whole thing just now.”