Sword and Citadel

by Gene Wolfe

Page 44

  "The armiger was a gallant man and his wife a lovely woman, but of all their children only one lived beyond the first year. She was tall, brown as leather yet smooth as oil, with hair the color of the palest wine and eyes dark as thun-derheads. Still, the villa where they dwelt was so remote that no one knew and no one came to seek her. Often she rode all day alone, hunting with her peregrine or dashing after her spotted hunting cats when they had started an antelope. Often too she sat alone in her bedchamber all the day, hearing the song of her lark in its cage and turning the pages of old books her mother had carried from her own home.

  "At last her father determined that she must wed, for she was near the twentieth year, after which few would want her. Then he sent s everywhere for three hundred leagues around, crying her beauty and promising that on his death her husband should hold all that was his. Many fine riders came, with silver-mounted saddles and coral on the pommels of their swords. He entertained them all, and his daughter, with her hair in a mans hat and a long knife in a mans sash, mingled with them, feigning to be one of them, so that she might hear who boasted of many women and see who stole when he thought himself unobserved. Each night she went to her father and told him their names, and when she had gone he called them to him and told them of the stakes where no one goes, where men bound in rawhide die in the sun; and the next morning they saddled their mounts and rode away.

  "Soon there remained but three. Then the armigers daughter could go among them no more, for with so few she feared they would surely know her. She went to her bedchamber and let down her hair and brushed it, and took off her hunting clothes and bathed in scented water. She put rings on her fingers and bracelets on her arms and wide hoops of gold in her ears, and on her head that thin circlet of fine gold that an armigers daughter is entitled to wear. In short, she did all she knew to make herself beautiful, and because her heart was brave, perhaps there was no maid anywhere more beautiful than she.

  "When she was dressed as she wished, she sent her servant to call her father and the three suitors to her. Now behold me, she said.

  You see a ring of gold about my brow, and smaller rings suspended from my ears. The arms that will embrace one of you are themselves embraced by rings smaller still, and rings yet smaller are on my fingers. My chest of jewels lies open before you, and there are no more rings to be found in it; but there is another ring still in this room - a ring I do not wear. Can one of you discover it and bring it to me?

  "The three suitors looked up and down, behind the arras, and beneath the bed. At last the youngest took the larks cage from its hook and carried it to the armigers daughter; and there, about the larks right leg, was a tiny ring of gold. Now hear me, she said. My husband shall be the man who shows me this little brown bird again.

  "And with that she opened the cage and thrust in her hand, then carrying the lark upon her finger took it to the window and tossed it in the air. For a moment the three suitors saw the gold ring glint in the sun. The lark rose until it was no more than a dot against the sky.

  "Then the suitors rushed down the stair and out the door, calling for their mounts, the swift-footed friends that had carried them already so many leagues across the empty pampas. Their silver-mounted saddles they threw upon their backs, and in less than a moment all three were gone from the sight of the armiger and the armigers daughter, and from each others as well, for one rode north toward the jungles, and one east toward the mountains, and the youngest west toward the restless sea.

  "When he who went north had ridden for some days, he came to a river too swift for swimming and rode along its bank, ever harkening to the songs of the birds who dwelt there, until he reached a ford. In that ford a rider in brown sat a brown destrier. His face was masked with a brown neckcloth, his cloak, his hat, and all his clothing were of brown, and about the ankle of his brown right boot was a ring of gold.

  " Who are you? " called the suitor.

  The figure in brown answered not a word.

  " There was among us at the armigers house a certain young man who vanished on the day before the last day, said the suitor, and I think that you are he. In some way you have learned of my quest, and now you seek to prevent me. Well, stand clear of my road, or die where you stand.

  "And with that he drew sword and spurred his destrier into the water. For some time they fought as the men of my country fight, with the sword in the right hand and the long knife in the left, for the suitor was strong and brave, and the rider in brown was quick and blade-crafty. But at last the latter fell, and his blood stained the water.

  " I leave you your mount, the suitor called, if your strength is sufficient to get you into the saddle again. For I am a merciful man.

  And he rode away.

  "When he who had ridden toward the mountains had ridden for some days also, he came to such a bridge as the mountain people build, a narrow affair of rope and bamboo, stretched across a chasm like the web of a spider. No man but a fool attempts to ride across such a contrivance, and so he dismounted and led his mount by the reins.

  "When he began to cross it seemed to him that the bridge was all empty before him, but he had not come a quarter of the way when a figure appeared in the center. In form it was much like a man, but it was all of brown save for one flash of white, and it seemed to fold brown wings about itself. When the second suitor was closer still he saw that it wore a ring of gold about the ankle of one boot, and the brown wings now seemed no more than a cloak of that color.

  "Then he traced a Sign in the air before him to protect him from those spirits that have forgotten their creator, and he called, Who are you? Name yourself!

  " You see me, the figure answered him. Name me true, and your wish is my wish.

  " You are the spirit of the lark sent forth by the armigers daughter,

  said the second suitor. Your form you may change, but the ring marks you.

  "At that, the figure in brown drew sword and presented it hilt foremost to the second suitor. You have named me rightly, it said.

  What would you have me do?

  " Return with me to the armigers house, said the suitor, so that I may show you to the armigers daughter and so win her.

  " I will return with you gladly, if that is what you wish, said the figure in brown. But I warn you now that if she sees me, she will not see in me what you see.

  " Nevertheless, come with me, answered the suitor, for he did not know what else to say.

  "On such a bridge as the mountain people build, a man may turn about without much difficulty, but a four-legged beast finds it nearly impossible to do so. Therefore, they were forced to continue to the farther side in order that the second suitor might face his mount toward the armigers house once more. How tedious this is,

  he thought as he walked the great catenary of the bridge, and yet, how difficult and dangerous. Cannot that be used to my benefit? At last he called to the figure in brown, I must walk this bridge, and then walk it again. But must you do so as well? Why dont you fly to the other side and wait there for me?

  "At that, the figure in brown laughed, a wondrous trilling. Did you not see that one of my wings is bandaged? I fluttered too near one of your rivals, and he slashed at me with his sword.

  " Then you cannot fly far? asked the second suitor.

  " No indeed. As you approached this bridge I was perched on the brown walkway resting, and when I heard your tread I had scarcely strength to flutter up.

  " I see, said the second suitor, and no more. But to himself he thought: If I were to cut this bridge, the lark would be forced to take bird-form again - yet it could not fly far, and I should surely kill it. Then I could carry it back, and the armigers daughter would know it. "

  "When they reached the farther side, he patted the neck of his mount and turned it about, thinking that it would die, but that the best such animal was a small price to set against the ownership of great herds.

  Follow us, he said to the figure in brown, and led h
is mount onto the bridge again, so that over that windy and aching chasm he went first, and the destrier behind him, and the figure in brown last of all.

  The beast will rear as the bridge falls, he thought, and the spirit of the lark will not be able to dash past, so it must resume its bird shape or perish. His plans, you see, were themselves shaped by the beliefs of my land, where those who set store in shape-changers will tell you that like thoughts they will not change once they have been made prisoner.

  "Down the long curve of the bridge again walked the three, and up the side from which the second suitor had come, and as soon as he set foot on the rock, he drew his sword, sharp as his labor could make it. Two handrails of rope the bridge had, and two cables of hemp to support the roadway. He ought to have cut those first, but he wasted a moment on the handrails, and the figure in brown sprang from behind into the destriers saddle, drove spur to its flanks, and rode him down. Thus he died under the hoofs of his own mount.

  "When the youngest suitor, who had gone toward the sea, had ridden some days as well, he reached its marge. There on the beach beside the unquiet sea he met someone cloaked in brown, with a brown hat, and a brown cloth across nose and mouth, and a gold ring about the ankle of a brown boot.

  " You see me, the person in brown called. Name me true, and your wish shall be my wish.

  " You are an angel, replied the youngest suitor, sent to guide me to the lark I seek.

  "At that the brown angel drew a sword and presented it, hilt foremost, to the youngest suitor, saying, You have named me rightly. What would you have me do?

  " Never will I attempt to thwart the will of the Liege of Angels,

  answered the youngest suitor. Since you are sent to guide me to the lark, my only wish is that you shall do so.

  " And so I shall, said the angel. But would you go by the shortest road? Or the best?

  "At that the youngest suitor thought to himself, Here surely is some trick. Ever the empyrean powers rebuke the impatience of men, which they, being immortal, can easily afford to do. Doubtless the shortest way lies through the horrors of caverns underground, or something like. There-fore he answered the angel, By the best. Would not it dis-honor her whom I shall wed to travel any other?

  " Some say one thing and some another, replied the an-gel. Now let me mount up behind you. Not far from here there is a goodly port, and there I have just sold two destriers as good as yours or better. We shall sell yours as well, and the gold ring that circles my boot.

  "In the port they did as the angel had indicated, and with their money purchased a ship, not large but swift and sound, and hired three knowing seamen to work her.

  "On the third day out from port, the youngest suitor had such a dream by night as young men have. When he woke he touched the pillow near his head and found it warm, and when he lay down to sleep again, he winded some delicate perfume - the odor, it might have been, of the flowering grasses the women of my land dry in spring to braid in their hair.

  "An isle they reached where no men come, and the youngest suitor went ashore to search for the lark. He found it not, but at the dying of the day stripped off his garments to cool himself in the surging sea. There, when the stars had brightened, another joined him. Together they swam, and together lay telling tales on the beach.

  "One day while they were peering over the prow of their ship for another (for they traded at times and at times fought also) a great gust of wind came and the angels hat was blown into the alldevouring sea, and soon the brown cloth that had covered her face went to join it.

  "At last they grew weary of the unresting sea and thought of my land, where the lions ride our cattle in autumn when the grass burns, and the men are brave as bulls and the women fierce as hawks. Their ship they had called the Lark, and now the Lark flew across blue waters, each morn impaling the red sun upon her bowsprit. In the port where they had bought her they sold her and received three times the price, for she had become a famous vessel, renowned in song and story; and indeed, all who came to the port wondered at how small she was, a trim, brown craft hardly a score of paces from stem to rudderpost. Their loot they sold also, and the goods they had gained by trading. The people of my land keep the best destriers they breed for themselves, but it is to this port that they bring the best of those they sell, and there the youngest suitor and the angel bought good mounts and filled their saddlebags with gems and gold, and set out for the armigers house that is so remote that no one ever comes there.

  "Many a scrape did they have upon the way, and many a time bloody the swords that had been washed so often in the cleansing sea and wiped on sailcloth or sand. Yet at last come they did. There the angel was welcomed by the armiger, shouting, and by his wife, weeping, and by all the servants, talking. And there she doffed her brown clothing and became the armigers daughter of old once more.

  "A great wedding was planned. In my land such things take many days, for there are roasting pits to be dug anew, and cattle to be slaughtered, and messengers who must ride for days to fetch guests who must ride for days also. On the third day, as they waited, the armigers daughter sent her servant to the youngest suitor, saying,

  "My mistress will not hunt today. Rather, she invites you to her bedchamber, to talk of times past upon sea and land. "

  "The youngest suitor dressed himself in the finest of the clothes he had bought when they had returned to port, and soon was at the door of the armigers daughter.

  "He found her sitting on a window seat, turning the pages of one of the old books her mother had carried from her own home and listening to the singing of a lark in a cage. To that cage he went, and saw that the lark had a ring of gold about one leg. Then he looked at the armigers daughter, wondering.

  " Did the angel you met upon the strand not promise you should be guided to this lark? she said. And by the best road? Each morning I open his cage and cast him out upon the wind to exercise his wings. Soon he returns to it again, where there is food for him, clean water, and safety.