The Knight

“Ah, love!” sighed an insolent voice not far from my ear; I looked around, surprised, and saw Uri on my stallion. “You’re back!”

She gri

“Aren’t you afraid Uns will see you up there? He’s not very far behind us.”

“I care not a whit if he does, and I will leave anyway as soon as you are out of this shadow.”

I stopped, biting my lip while I stroked the stallion’s muzzle. “I told Lord Beel about you and your sister. I had to.”

“She is not really my sister. We just say that.”

“Aren’t you angry?”

Uri gri

I shook my head. “I called you my friends. I wanted him to come up here when he tried to see where Pouk was for me, and he promised to if I’d answer one question, a complete answer. I’ve forgotten the words he used, but that was what he meant.”

“And did you?”

“Yes. I kept my promise, and he kept his. He wanted to know why I couldn’t use my own powers to look for Pouk, and I had to explain that the only way I had to look for him was to send you two after him.” I paused. “I didn’t tell him your names.”

“That is well.” Uri smiled.

“I said I’d sent Gylf after Pouk and now you two were trying to find out what happened to Gylf.”

“Nothing complicated. A giant had caught him and had his slaves chain him up. We know all about chains, but we had to go back to Aelfrice for tools, and then come back up here, and then find him again because they had moved him. Where’s your cat, by the way? Have you lost that, too?”

“He’s with Lady Id

“He isn’t.” Mani jumped to the top of a boulder. “He was with Id

Uri said, “I am surprised you knew it.”

“Meaning I’m intruding on a tete-a-tete between you and my own dear much admired master, the renowned knight Sir Able of the High Heart. He has only to ask me to leave, and I’ll vanish in a flash of black far lovelier than your own dingy whatever-it-is color. Master?”

“You may remain if you choose.”

“A lawful decision.” It was Mani’s turn to grin. “The law being that the cat may do whatever he wants. You are his slave, young woman? I believe I overheard you say that.”

“Yes.”

“Well, I’m his cat, a much higher post.”

I motioned to Uri. “Uns is coming around that last bend, so unless you really don’t care if he sees you—”

She slipped off the stallion and stood under its head. “Baki is returning our tools, and I came to tell you your dog is free.”

“Is he coming back here?”

“No thanks for a hard task well done? I told her you’d be ungrateful.”

“I’m grateful. Very grateful. But I’d hoped to thank you both together, and we haven’t much time.”

“I’ll run down and see to it that Uns falls over me,” Mani suggested.

Uri sneered. “He ca

I did, and he was bent nearly to the ground. “I’ll put the saddle back on the horse when he gets here.”

“He is a true man, at least, just as I am a true Aelf.”

Mani made a cat-noise of contempt.

“But your dog is something more, Lord, and this cat is less natural than I.”

“The Bodachan gave Gylf to me,” I said, “he says they raised him from a puppy.”

“But was he theirs to give? They fear cold iron.”

A hundred steep strides down the War Way Uns called, “Master! Sar Able! Wait up!”

Chapter 60. What Did You See?

He had sounded out of breath, and it occurred to me that he might have been calling like that without my hearing him for an hour or more. “I’m waiting,” I yelled, “and we’ll put that saddle back on him when you get here.” I looked around for Uri.

“She skedaddled,” Mani told me, “though I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s hanging around to spy on us.”

“I wanted to ask her whether Gylf was coming back,” I explained. “As a matter of fact, I did ask her. She just didn’t answer.”

“I can,” Mani declared. “Ask me.”

“You can’t possibly—” I looked down the road again, but saw only Uns. “All right, I will. Is Gylf coming back here?”

“Of course not. I know you won’t take my information seriously, but no, he isn’t.”

I just stared at him.

“You want to know how I know,” Mani continued. “Well, I know the same way you ought to yourself. I know because I know your dog. Better than you do, obviously. You sent him to find this Pouk?”

“Yes. You were there.”

“So was Sir Garvaon, so you two didn’t talk. But if you sent that dog to hunt Pouk, he’ll hunt Pouk ’til you tell him not to. Or until he loses the trail completely and has to slink back and report his failure.”

Uns caught up with us soon after that; and I took the saddle from him, put it on the lame stallion, and mounted. Mani had jumped onto the saddlebow while I was tightening the cinch.

“You need a rest,” I told Uns. “I’m going to join Lord Beel and his daughter, and Sir Garvaon, in the pass. After that, we’ll come back down. I want you to wait for us right here.”

Uns shook his head stubbornly. “My place’s wid you, Sar Able. Be long quick’s I kin.”

“As you like,” I told him, and touched my heels to the stallion’s sides.

He made off at a limping trot; and when Uns was no longer in sight, I said, “I suppose you think I’m mean.”

“Well, he is crippled,” Mani conceded, “but I have a firm policy. Never feel sorry for birds, mice, or squirrels. Or for men, women, or children save for a few close friends.”

“It’s because he’s crippled that I treat him as harshly as I do,” I explained. “He could have gone on living with his mother, and done little or no work, and his brother would have continued to take care of him when she was gone. That was why he left.”

“I know the feeling,” Mani said. “Every so often you want to get outside and hunt for yourself.”

“Exactly.” We were nearly at the pass, and I slowed the stallion to a walk. “He wants to be useful—to do real work, and sweat and strain and share his master’s fortunes.”

Mani remained silent.

“I’ve made myself a knight. That’s high up for a poor kid that lost his folks early. Uns is scared he may never have a spot at all. I’m trying to show him that he’s got one—that somebody wants him around for what he can do, and not just because they feel sorry for him.”

“Over here, Sir Able!” It was Beel’s servingman. “His Lordship is waiting for you.”

I neck-reined the limping white stallion, who picked his way reluctandy among the rocks.

“Were you speaking to me before I hailed you, Sir Able? If so, I couldn’t hear you. I apologize for it most humbly, Sir Able.”

“No. I was talking to my cat. You have nothing to apologize for as far as I know.”

“Thank you, Sir Able. That is most gracious of you. They’re over there, Sir Able, by the rill. Perhaps you see the horses.”

I nodded. “His Lordship didn’t want to camp where Pouk had, I take it.”

“Pouk is the gentleman—?”

“He’s my servant.” I had to touch the white stallion with my spurs. “He camped here to wait for me.”

“Ah. I see, Sir Able. His Lordship felt it might not be wise for us to cook and sleep and—and to live, so to speak, Sir Able, in the area in which he had his vision.”

Very softly and politely the servingman cleared his throat. “I myself was not privileged to witness it, Sir Able. From what His Lordship and Her Ladyship have said in my hearing, it was most impressive.”

“It was,” I agreed.

The servingman’s voice fell. “His Lordship is eager to consult you concerning it, Sir Able. You may wish to prepare your mind.”