The Knight

“I ain’t going to have people ru

“He’s there already. All you’ve got to do is feed him.”

Caspar’s face got red, and his eyes got small.

“I put him in there last night, and I told him to stay there. He promised he would, and as long as he gets enough to eat I think he will.”

I had been hoping Caspar would relax a little after that, but he did not.

“You might find droppings, I guess. But in a dungeon that shouldn’t matter.”

Caspar wiped his dagger on his sleeve and stuck it back in the scabbard. “He’s there right now.”

“That’s right.” I was glad he was finally getting it. “I put him down there last night. You were asleep, and I didn’t want to wake you up. A friend unbarred your door for me and barred it again after I left.” I tried to remember whether I had really heard Uri put the bar back. I could not be certain, so I said, “Or anyway I told her to. I’m pretty sure she must have done it.”

“This is a different friend,” Caspar said slowly. “This isn’t the one you left for me to wet-nurse.”

“Right.” The man I had knocked down was getting back on his feet and going for a big knife on his belt. I caught his wrist. “If you draw that, I’ll have to take it away from you. You’d better sit down and eat something before all the cheese is gone.”

Caspar stood up when the man was sitting down. “You might get to know Hob better before long.”

“That’s good,” I said. “I’d like to patch things up, if I can. Meanwhile you’ll take care of my servant, won’t you? I know I’m asking a favor.”

He turned and stalked out of the Great Hall.

Master Agr was standing with his back to the window when I came in. He nodded, cleared his throat, waited as though he were going to talk, then cleared it again. “Good morrow, Sir Able.”

“Good morning, Master Agr. What is it?” They had told me to stand up straight the first time I had been there, and I was careful to do it again.

“Sir Able, I ...”

I said, “Yes, Master Agr?”

Agr sighed. “I ca

“Fighting in the Great Hall is strictly contrary to His Grace’s command. Did you know that?”

I nodded. “Yes, I do. I did.”

“Yet you struck one of the warders with a stool. That is what has been reported to me. I didn’t see it myself.”

“With my fist first, Master Able. With the stool when he started to get up.” Agr nodded. I do not believe I ever saw him looking cheerful, and he certainly did not look cheerful then. “Why did you do that, Sir Able?”

“Because I had to talk to Master Caspar. I knew if I let that warder get up he would interrupt us. What I had to say was hard enough without having to tell him to put a cork in it all the time.” I took a deep breath, feeling like I was going to make things worse but that I had to do it. “Let me say this, and then you can say anything you want. I’m not going to try to defend what I did, but I don’t think it was wrong. Sometimes you’ve got to make an exception, no matter what the rule says. You’re going to punish me for it. I know that, and it’s okay with me. I’m not blaming you. I apologize for raising a ruckus and giving you trouble. But if the same thing happened again, I’d knock him down again just like I did.”

Agr nodded. Nothing in his face had changed. “For those of less than knightly rank, such as I am myself, the customary punishment is dismissal. For knights, it is banishment for a period of months or years.”

“Fine. I’ve been wanting to go north anyway. How long should I stay gone?”

Agr rose and went to his window, where he stood looking out for so long that I began to think he was waiting for me to leave. When he finally sat back down he said, “There have been fights in the Great Hall before, but they were simple matters. This case is fraught with complexities. In the first place, Sir Able, a few of our knights still maintain that you are not one of them. You must be aware of that.”

I said I was.

“They resent your eating at their table. If I punish you as a knight, they will resent that still more. Don’t look like that, please. I’m not going to dismiss you like a servant.”

“I feel that I’ve proved myself.”

“So do I. So does His Grace. I’m simply saying that if I give you knightly punishment, the resentment will be that much greater.”

“There will be none from me, Master Agr. You need not fear my resentment.”

“I fear no man’s resentment in any case,” Agr told me, “but it is my duty to maintain order among you knights. To do that and a great many other things.”

He sucked his teeth. “That is the first complication. The second is that when these fights have erupted in the past they have most often been between knight and knight. I can recall one in which two menials fought. That is the sole exception. I dismissed them both, but I’ve given my word that I will not dismiss you like a menial, Sir Able, and I won’t. Yet if I banish you, the knights will be up in arms. Some because you received a knight’s punishment. All the rest because a knight was banished for striking an insolent churl. They will protest to His Grace, at the very least.”

“I will not,” I said.

“No. I realize that. But there are seasoned knights here of whom His Grace thinks highly. Should they join the protest, and they may ...” Agr shrugged.

“I’m very sorry this happened,” I told him. “I really mean that.”

“Thank you. Lastly, but by no means least, the warders are hated and feared. Not merely by all the knights but by everyone. I don’t want to offend your evident modesty, but I feel quite certain that you are regarded as a hero by nine-tenths of those who know of what took place this morning.”

“I am a hero,” I told him. “I don’t mean for knocking a warder down. That was nothing.”

He smiled, a little bitterly. “Perhaps you’re correct, Sir Able. In fact, I believe you are. But now that I’ve outlined the difficulties, I’d like to hear everything you have to say in your defense. If you’ve a speech in you, this is the time to give it.”

“I don’t.” I thought about what had happened, and how nobody on the Western Trader would have cared. “I know you won’t pay much attention to this, Master Agr, but it really wasn’t fighting. I hit him with my fist, and afterward with the stool. But I wasn’t really fighting him, because he never fought me.”

“Go on.”

“I hit him because he was going to threaten me, and keep on threatening me until I did. His Grace’s ban on fighting is a good idea when everybody acts decently. Is it really worse to have a fight now and then, than to have people like him, people who like to hurt other people when they can’t fight back, spitting in somebody’s face while he’s trying to talk to somebody else?”

“I take your point,” Master Agr said. “Anything else?”

I shook my head.

“Then I have something else, Sir Able. Before I begin, let me say that I like you. I would be your friend, insofar as my office permits. I would like you to be mine.”

“I am,” I told him. “I know you’ve done a lot for me. I owe you.”

“I locked away your weapons after the fight in the practice yard, your bow and quiver, and that—that false sword you’re wearing now. I had to, or they would have been taken. His Grace told me to return them whenever you asked for them. You may recall it.”

I waited, sure I knew what was coming.

“Yesterday it struck me that you had never asked, and I went to look for them, intending to have a page take them to you. They were gone. Today I see that you are wearing your sword belt. I take it you have your bow back as well? And the arrows? Because I no longer have them.”