by Gene Wolfe
Chapter 56. Ashes In The Pass
F or an hour I had been in sight of the pass as we toiled up the War Way. Now, abruptly, there was someone—no, two people—standing in the road there, crimson against the cloudy sky. I wanted to spur the stallion, but he had been working hard all morning, and whatever reserves he had might be needed that afternoon.
One of the figures was waving and pointing, hips thrown to counterbalance the graceful body; as it pointed I realized it was not that they were sunlit against the lowering clouds; but that they were in fact red.
And women.
“Uri! Baki! Is that you?”
Something bent and so dirty that it seemed to have been molded from the mud of the road rose from the ditch to catch my stirrup. “Master? Sar Able?
Master?”
Startled, I pulled up.
“Master! I found ya!”
I could only stare at the starved, grimy face.
“Ya was goin’ to take me. Ta give me a place, Master. Ya tolt Ma.”
“I’m sorry,” I said as gently as I could. “Do I know you?”
“Uns, Master. I’se Uns, ‘n I fought Org fer ya after he t’rue ya inna barley.”
“The farmwife’s son.” I was thinking out loud. “The younger son.”
“Yessar. Yes, Master. Org’d a’ killed ya if it hadn’t been fer me.” His watery eyes were exactly like those of a wounded animal.
“He hurt you,” I said. “I thought you’d run.”
Uns nodded frantically. “Ma said. She said you was goin’ ta take me on on’y ya t’ought I’d run off. So I gone lookin’ fer ya. I can’t stand up straight, but I can walk pretty fast.” Something like pride crept into Uns’ soiled face. “Dey tolt me inna castle where ya’d went. A scullion done, Master, ‘n give me somethin’ too. How far ’twas, ‘n how bad, but I come anyways. I knew I’d find ya, Master, ‘n it’d be awright.”
From the white stallion’s other side, Uri reached up to tap my thigh. “When you are through talking to that beggar, Lord, Baki and I have something of importance to show you.”
I looked around at her. “Is it urgent?”
“We think so.”
“I’m going up there, Uns.” I pointed as I spoke. “Meet me there. Or if I’ve gone before you arrive, follow me just as you’ve been doing. I’ll get you a horse as soon as I can manage it.”
Uri said, “May I sit behind, Lord? I ran down to you.”
I thought about how it would feel. “No, you can’t.” I dismounted. “But you may have the saddle to yourself. I’ll lead him.”
“I cannot ride while you walk!” She sounded indignant.
“Then you must walk with Uns and me.”
“I will climb the rocks,” she decided, “there is shade there.” For a time we saw her slipping into crevices like a shadow or springing from point to point like a goat, dodging the sunlight whenever the sun broke through the clouds; soon it seemed that she had faded into the wind.
“Dat’s a Aelf, Master,” Uns declared. “Her ‘n her sister come snoopin’ round couple times wilst I’se on da road, on’y I woun’t tell ’em nothin’.”
“It would have done no harm,” I said. “I’m glad they didn’t hurt you.” Uns chortled. “Oh, dey done wat dey might, Master, on’y ’twasn’t much.”
“It’s good that you can make merry about it, Uns. I don’t think most people could.”
He grinned; he had crooked, yellowed teeth. “Found ya, dint I, Sar? So aw’s fine, watever ’tis. Wat do I care fer dem Aelfs?”
“If you’re going with us,” I said slowly, “things are sure to be far from all right with you. We are already on the marches of Jotunland.”
Uns looked frightened.
* * *
That evening we camped in the valley on the other side of the pass, in a place nearly level, where a tortuous path wound down a gorge to a foaming stream. I came to Beel’s pavilion there and found him conferring with Garvaon while Idnn looked on.
“Sit down,” Beel said when his servingman had fetched a folding stool. “Sir Garvaon and I have been discussing the dangers we face from this time forward. I was on the point of sending the sentry for you when he said you were waiting outside. You’re our best bowman, and that may mean a great deal.”
“But a poor swordsman.” I smiled wryly; I was tired, so tired that I was very grateful for the stool on which I sat and wished it had a back.
Garvaon shook his head. “Don’t you believe him, Your Lordship. He’s better with a sword than most, and improving every day. What about a little practice when we’re through here, Sir Able?”
“I’ll do my best.”
Idnn said, “Shame on you, Sir Garvaon. Look at him. He’s drooping like a lily.”
“Needs the fire to wake him up. Then he’ll be at me like a lion.”
I cleared my throat. “I’m tired, I admit. But I’ve had bad news today.”
Beel asked what it had been.
“I told you I’d leave you when we reached the pass where my servant waited, Your Lordship. I’m sure you remember.”
Idnn said, “I do.”
“Yet we’ve come beyond it, and I’m still here. I think I also told you that I’d sent Gylf ahead to let Pouk know I was coming.”
“Gylf’s your dog?” Beel inquired.
“Yes, My Lord.”
Idnn said, “May I borrow your cat again, Sir Able? I miss him.”
I spread my hands. “I’d gladly lend him if I had him, My Lady. Though he left you, he hasn’t returned to me.”
Beel said, “And your dog?”
“My Lord has run ahead of me. Gylf hasn’t returned.”
Garvaon said, “You’d better tell us.”
“I’ll be as brief as I can. My man Pouk seems to have thought the pass back there a suitable place for me to take my stand as I had pledged myself to do. He camped there, apparently for several days. We found the remains of two fires, and even the spot where he’d pastured the horses.”
Garvaon raised an eyebrow. “We?”
It was surely not the time to introduce Uri and Baki. I said, “My servant Uns and I. Uns was the crippled beggar one of your men-at-arms questioned. Separated from me, he’s been forced to beg.”
I waited for someone else to speak, but nobody did.
“Now I’m forced to beg for him, My Lord. He has no horse, and that’s what I came to see you about. Can you spare one? Or a mule—anything.”
“You found your servant’s camp,” Beel said. “Go on from there, please.”
“I found it, but they weren’t there. Neither my servant nor the woman I’d been told was traveling with him. Neither was Gylf. Or Mani, my cat, for that matter.”
“They had gone north?” Beel inquired.
“Yes, My Lord. They must have. There is only this one road, this War Way. If they’d gone south we’d have met them on the road. So they went north.”
Garvaon said, “Into Jotunland.”
Beel shrugged. “We ourselves are in Jotunland now. We entered it as soon as we left the pass and started down. No doubt we’re in more danger now than we were yesterday, but I can’t honestly say that it feels much different.”
Idnn said, “Do you think your servant—and this woman you say is such a mystery to you—would have gone north on their own?”
“Pouk certainly wouldn’t. What the woman might do, or might force or persuade him to do, I can’t even guess at.”
Garvaon grunted agreement. “Who knows what a woman will do?” Idnn shot him a glance. “Why, women do. Sometimes, at least.” Beel muttered, “This is no time to begin quarreling.”
“I’m not quarreling, Father. I’m explaining something Sir Garvaon ought to have learned for himself. But I’d rather Sir Able explained a few things to me. Can I ask you questions, Sir Able?”
I sighed, sagging on my folding stool. “Yes, My Lady. You may”
“Then I’ll ask a very obvious one. This man of yours. Pouk? Would he hav
e fought if the Frost Giants had tried to seize him and your horses?”
“I doubt it very much, My Lady.”
“What about the woman you said was with him? Would she have fought?” I smiled. “I was told she had a sword, My Lady. So possibly she would. You must tell Sir Garvaon and me.”
Garvaon said somberly, “Some women would.”
“Because there was blood,” Idnn continued. “You found the ashes, didn’t you see the blood? Sir Garvaon did, and he showed it to me.”
Beel sighed. “I’ve told my daughter not to ride with the vanguard. Apparently I must also tell the vanguard not to ride with my daughter.”
Garvaon said, “My Lady rode up while I was examining the campsite, Your Lordship. I’d dismounted, and no doubt she’d seen I’d found something. Naturally she was curious.”
Idnn smiled as if to say, “You see how Sir Garvaon defends me?”
Beel’s attention was on me. “I saw the blood, of course. And the ashes and the rest. I found a foot-mark in those ashes, off to one side of the younger fire where it was somewhat hidden by the shadow of a stone. Did you see it?”
I shook my head, too discouraged to speak.
“The paw-mark of a very large wolf or dog. As for the blood, your servant may have resisted. It’s possible you misjudged him. Or the woman may have, as Idnn suggests. Or they both may have.”
I said, “I suppose so.”
“It’s also possible, unfortunately, that one or both may have been injured, although they did not resist. Or that the woman beat your servant, or that he beat her. We have no way of knowing.”
“My Lord ...”
“Yes? What is it?”
“This isn’t what I came for. I came hoping to get a horse for Uns. But you know something about magic. Would it be possible for you, somehow, to find out what happened to them?”
For a moment there was no sound in Beel’s silk pavilion except Idnn’s sharply indrawn breath.
At last Beel said, “Perhaps I should have thought of that. It may tell us nothing. Let me be quite frank with you, Sir Able. I fail more often than I succeed.”
“But if you succeeded, My Lord—”
“We might learn something of value. Perfectly true.”
His daughter smiled and leaned toward him, and he said, “You want the excitement. Mountebanks feign magic as a show, Idnn, pretending to swallow swords and toads. But magic, real magic, is not entertainment. Do you know how the Aelf came to be?”
She shook her head. “No, Father. But I’d like to, even if there aren’t any.”
“There are. What about you, Sir Garvaon? Sir Able? Do either of you know?”
Garvaon shook his head. I nodded.
“Then tell us.”
“There’s someone called Kulili in Aelfrice, My Lord. Maybe I should have said in the world we call Aelfrice, because it doesn’t really belong to the Aelf, it belongs to Kulili.” I paused. “I’m only telling you what I’ve been told, though I believe it’s true.”
“Go on.”
“All right. There were disembodied spirits in Aelfrice then, creatures something like ghosts, although they’d never been alive. Kulili made magic bodies of mud and leaves and moss and ashes and so forth, and put the disembodied spirits into them. If she used fire, mostly, they became Fire Aelf, Salamanders. If she used mostly seawater, they’re Sea Aelf, Kelpies.”
“Correct.” Beel looked from me to Garvaon, and from Garvaon to Idnn. “We’re not like the Aelf. We’re much more like Kulili, having been created, as she was, by the Father of the fathers of the Overcyns, the God of the highest world. Here, as there, he also created elemental spirits. As Sir Able says, they’re rather like ghosts. They are creatures both ancient and knowing, having the accumulated wisdom of centuries of centuries.”
Garvaon coughed and looked uncomfortable.
“They hope that we will someday do for them what Kulili did for the Aelf. Or at least that is how it seems to me. Then they may try to take Mythgarthr from us as the Aelf have wrested Aelfrice from Kulili. I don’t know. But in our own time, what is called magic consists of making contact with them and persuading them to help the magician, either for a reward, or out of pity—as the Overcyns help us at times—or simply to earn our trust.”
Garvaon said, “It can be dangerous. So I’ve heard, Your Lordship.”
Beel nodded. “It can be, but I’m going to attempt it tonight, if Sir Able will assist me. Will you, Sir Able?”
“Of course, My Lord.”
“We may find your dog, your servant, and even this mysterious swordswoman. If we do, we may learn things that will stand us in good stead in Jotunland. But the most likely outcome is that we’ll learn nothing at all. I want you to understand that.”
“I do, My Lord.”
“Sir Garvaon may attend me or not, as he chooses.”
Idnn declared, “I’ll attend you, Father. You can count on me.”
“I feared it.”
Garvaon said, “I’ll be at your side, Your Lordship. You may rely on me, always.”
“I know it.” Beel turned back to me. “I’ll talk to Master Egr about getting a horse for your beggar. Meet me here when the moon is high. Until then you’re dismissed.”
Garvaon rose too. “Get some rest. Maybe we can have a little practice before it gets too dark.”
Chapter 57. Garvaon’s Boon
O utside, the other pavilions had been erected as well. The kitchen fires were burning, although a dozen men were still fetching wood, and the ring of axes sounded from the mountain slopes. Muleteers led strings of braying, weary mules over the edge of the gorge and presumably down the precipitous path to the stream.
In Garvaon’s pavilion, three men-at-arms were setting up cots. Mine was up already; the blanket Garvaon had found for me had been laid on it, and Mani was seated on that. “Well, well,” I said, “where have you been?”
Mani gave the three men-at-arms a significant look.
“All right, you spoiled cat.” I sat down and pulled off my boots. “You don’t have to talk to me if you don’t want to. Just let me lie down.”
Mani did, and laid himself so his head was at my ear. After that, I dozed off for a few minutes.
When I woke up again, Mani said, “I have news. Those Aelf girls found your dog. One of the giants has chained him up.”
I yawned and whispered, “Can’t they free him?”
“They’re trying. I wouldn’t, but apparently they think you’d want them to. At any rate, that’s what one told me, and she made me promise to tell you. She wanted to get back to getting the chain off your dog—or whatever the brute actually is.”
To give myself time in which to think, I asked, “Which one was it?”
“The ugly one,” Mani whispered.
I turned my head to look at him, and opened my eyes. “They’re both quite pretty.”
“You at least wear fur.”
“Clothes, you mean. They could wear clothes too, if they wanted to. But it’s warm in Aelfrice, so most of the Aelf don’t. Clothes there are for ...” I groped for a word. “For dignity. For kings and queens.”
“Every cat is royal,” Mani declared in a tone that said he would be mad if you argued. “I am myself.”
The last of the men-at-arms was leaving the pavilion as he spoke, and I noticed he was holding two fingers pointed at the ground.
“You were overheard, Your Most High and Catty Majesty,” I told Mani.
“Don’t mock me. I won’t tolerate it.” Mani sat up and spoke a little louder.
“I apologize. It was rude of me, and I’m sorry.”
“Then the incident is forgotten. And don’t worry about those fellows, nobody believes them anyhow. As for your Aelf girls, I admit the fire color is attractive, and they have fur here and there. When I say the ugly one, I mean the one who looks least like a cat.”
“That would be Baki, I suppose.”
“I’ll not dispute it.” Mani began to clean his priva
te parts by licking them.
“Mani, I just had an idea.”
“Really, Sir Able?” Amused, he looked up. “You?”
“Maybe not, but I thought of something. You must have seen a lot of spells cast, a lot of fortunes told and so on.”
“I’ve watched my share,” Mani admitted.
“So you probably know a good deal about magic yourself. Tonight Lord Beel’s going to try to find Pouk by magic.”
Mani purred softly.
“I’ll be there, and so will Lady Idnn. I doubt that anyone will object if I bring you along. Will you come?”
He licked a large black paw, studied it, and licked it again. “I’ll consider it.”
“Good. That’s all I can ask. Watch what goes on, and if anything occurs to you, tell me.”
“I don’t know Pouk,” Mani said thoughtfully. “Does he like cats?”
“Absolutely. There was a cat on the Western Trader, and Pouk was very fond of it.”
“Really?”
“Really, I wouldn’t lie to you about something like that.”
“In that case, what was this cat’s name?”
“I don’t know, but Pouk—”
I broke off as Garvaon entered the pavilion. “Ready for your next lesson, Sir Able?”
“Absolutely.” I sat up.
“It’s nearly dark already.” Garvaon sat down on his own cot. “So I’d just like to talk about foining tonight. We won’t have a lot of time anyway. You can see the moon above the mountaintops.”
“What’s foining?”
“Stabbing with your sword. Pushing the point.” Garvaon gestured. “I have the feeling we may be fighting again soon. I could be wrong, but that’s the feeling I have.”
