The Knight

Chapter 54. Idnn

The morning sun had driven off the last chill of the night long before we broke camp. The mountains in which we had been ambushed gave way to a considerable valley, mostly wooded, through which a swift river flowed. Beyond it the War Way rose and rose as far as my eyes could trace its winding curves, which vanished at last among peaks whose summits were lost in cloud.

“Pouk will be there,” I whispered to the white stallion Beel had given me, “and Gylf with him.” I wanted to gallop then, but I was forced to settle for a quick trot. Tomorrow, I thought. Tomorrow we will be at the first of the high passes; but tonight, almost certainly, we will camp in the valley, where there is open ground and water.

Had Gylf crossed the river already? It seemed likely.

The trees, which had appeared a solid forest when I had looked down on them from the heights, were scattered groves when I reached them, too open at first for anyone to mount an ambush. I halted at the first such grove and waited until I saw the sun glint on Garvaon’s helmet, then turned and rode again, trotting for a long bowshot before I reined up and paused to listen.

A score such pauses got me nothing more notable than the wind’s sigh and the rustle of leaves, with a birdcall or two; but at the next my ears caught the steady tattoo of galloping hooves. Thinking someone was hurrying forward to speak to me, I remained where I was. Instead of growing stronger, the sound faded away altogether.

I thought then of stringing my bow; but I shrugged, loosened Sword Breaker in her scabbard, and rode on.

The road wound about a huge gray boulder topped with stunted trees, the moldy skull of a hill, with more trees huddled around it. Beyond, the War Way ran nearly straight for a league and more; and there, in the middle distance, a rider waited.

It was an excuse to gallop, and I took it.

Idnn smiled when I reined up, and Mani sprang from her saddle to mine.

“You shouldn’t risk yourself like this, My Lady.”

Idnn’s smile widened. “How is it best to do it?”

I took a deep breath, half minded to offend her for her own good. “By—by ... Oh, never mind.”

“You wouldn’t ride with me, so I decided to ride with you.”

I nodded.

“I lagged behind, back among the mules where I belong, and then when we got into the trees I went off to the left far enough that they wouldn’t see me when I passed. This is a lovely wood to gallop through. You knew who I was as soon as you saw me, didn’t you?”

I nodded again.

“Because you didn’t draw that sword thing. You just hurried to me. Now you’re going to send me back.”

“Take you back, My Lady.” It was hard to say, although not as difficult as the thing I had not said.

“Because you don’t trust me to obey your orders.” There was something heartbreaking in her smile.

“I’m a lowborn boy, My Lady. My father was in trade, and my grandfather was a farmer, what you’d call a peasant. People keep reminding me. Your greatgrandfather was a king. I’ve no right to give you orders.”

“Suppose we were married? A husband has the right to give his wife orders, no matter who her great-grandfather was.”

“We’ll never be married, My Lady.”

“I didn’t say I’d obey, you’ll notice.” She stretched out her hand; and when I ignored it, she caught the strap that held my quiver. “Are you really going to take me back?”

“I’ve got to.”

Mani said, “But you don’t want to, do you? Doing things you don’t want to do always ends in trouble.”

Idnn laughed, the sad something that had crept into her smile forgotten. “I’d been wondering whether he’d talk to us when we were alone together.”

“He’s right,” I told her, “doing what you don’t want to do generally brings trouble. But there are times when you’ve got to, and face the trouble.”

Idnn nodded her agreement. “That’s why I won’t separate myself again and ride south instead of north. Go back to Kingsdoom.” As if she felt some explanation was needed, she added, “We have a house there.”

I tried to pull free, but she kept her sweating gelding beside my charger.

“That was what you were going to tell me to do, wasn’t it? Go home to Kingsdoom. Just a minute ago, before you lost your nerve.”

“You would be a fool to take my advice, My Lady, and worse to take your own.”

“Or I could go to Thortower, and tell the king some cock-and-cow story. You stopped My Ladying me there for a moment. I wish the moment had been longer.”

Summoning all my resolve, I said, “I’ve got to take you back to your father, My Lady.”

Her laughter had gone. “Sir Able?”

“Yes, My Lady?”

“Let me ride with you for an hour, and talk to you while we ride, and I’ll go back to my father without any argument.”

“I can’t permit that, My Lady. You have to return to him now.”

“Half that.”

I shook my head.

“I have a fast horse, Sir Able. Suppose he falls and I’m hurt.”

I caught the wrist of the hand that held the strap.

“I’ll tell my father you laid hands on me!”

I nodded. “It’s the truth, My Lady. Why shouldn’t you say it?”

“Don’t you care for me at all?”

Mani intervened. “Let me judge. I like both of you. If you’ll promise to do what I decide, you won’t have to fight. Wouldn’t that be better?”

Idnn nodded. “You’re his cat, so that gives him the advantage. But I’ll agree to do whatever you say, even if I have to go back right now.”

“Master?”

“I shouldn’t. But all right.”

“Good.” Mani licked his lips. “Hear my judgment. You two have to stay together talking until you get to that big tree down there, the one that’s lost its top. Then Idnn has to ride straight back to her father, and she can’t say you touched her, or anything else to hurt you. Now you have to do it. You promised.”

I shrugged. “That ride will take half the morning, I’m afraid. But I gave my word, and I’ll keep it.”

“No longer than a dance,” Idnn declared, “but before we get there, the Mountain Men will attack. We’ll be taken prisoner, all three of us, and spend the next ten years huddled in a frozen dungeon. By the time we’re released I’ll be ugly and no one will want me, but Mani and I will make you marry me.”

I snorted.

“When we’re both old, bent, and gray and have thirty-three children, we’ll come riding down this road once more. When we reach that tree you’ll ride up into the air or down into the ground, and never be seen again.”

“Mee-yow!” said Mani.

“Oh, yes, I get to keep you.”

I said, “Is this what you wanted to talk to me about?”

“No. Not really. It’s just that I’ve gotten so used to making up stories like that to get my mind off things that I can’t help it. I’ve made up about a thousand, but Mani and my old nurse back home are the only ones who’ve heard any of them. And now you. Have you ever seen one of the Angrborn, Sir Able?”

Coming as it did, the question took me off guard. I scanned the glades to either side of the War Way, suddenly conscious that I should have been doing it—and had not been—ever since I had caught sight of Idnn.

“I don’t mean I see one, I never have. Have you?”

“Yes, My Lady. Not for long.”

“The Mountain Men were huge. That’s what Mani said. As big as you?”

“Much bigger than I am, My Lady.”

“And the Angrborn?”

“As large as I’d be to a little child.”

Idnn shuddered, and after that we rode on in silence. At last she said, “Do you remember what I told you when we met just now? I said I ought to be in back with the mules. You didn’t argue about it at all. Were you trying to be insulting, or did you really understand what I meant?”

“I believe I understood, My Lady.”

“But that doesn’t move you? Not at all?”

Feeling about as miserable as I had ever been in my life, I said nothing.

“Our supplies are on those mules. The food we eat every day, and the pavilions. But most of them are carrying gifts for King Gilling of Jotunland.”

“I know.”

“There’s a big helmet in there, one just like the one you’re wearing now. A helmet the size of a punch bowl, all brave with gold.” Mani said, “And silks and velvets. Jewels.”

Idnn nodded. “We’re trying to buy peace. Peace from King Gilling and his Angrborn. There’s a war in the east and the Osterlings are creeping into the south, as if the nomads weren’t bad enough. Do you know about that?”

I said, “Someone mentioned troubles in the south when I was at Sheerwall, My Lady. Sir Woddet, perhaps. I didn’t pay a lot of attention. I thought they couldn’t be serious, since the south had been pretty peaceful when I was there. I thought that if things were really bad to the east, we’d be sent there to fight.”

“If Marder’s knights were sent away, the whole of the north country would he open to King Gilling.” Bitterly she added, “We’d probably give it to him if he’d pledge to keep his people out of the rest of the king’s lands.”

“If he will not agree to peace, we should go into his lands and fight him and his people there.”

“Bravely spoken. They’re not supposed to have much to steal, though. Have you any idea how much one of those Frost Giants eats?”

“No, My Lady.”

“Neither do I. I only hope I don’t have to cook for mine.”

I did not know what to say to that.

“You’ve known all along. Isn’t that right?”

I shook my head. “Not all along, My Lady. Only since I learned that the Mountain Men, those big men the Angrborn call Mice, were really their children by our women. But—but ...”

“But you couldn’t imagine how such a thing could happen, like the mating of a knight’s charger with a child’s pony.”

“Yes, My Lady.”

“Nor can I. No, I can, it’s just that I can’t talk about what he’d do to her, and how she’d feel afterward.”

Idnn squared her shoulders, tossing back her mane of long, dark hair. “It happened at Coldcliff when I was small, Sir Able. It really did. Coldcliff’s my uncle’s, but we went there to visit. I had a little pony then, and I was wild about her. My father let me ride her. When we got home and her time came, the grooms had to cut her foal out. They found a mare to be wet-nurse to it. They had to, because she died. Do you think I’m making this up?”

“No, My Lady.”

“I wish I were, because it would have a nicer ending. My father wanted me to ride him, because by the time he was big enough to ride I was bigger, too. But I never would, and eventually we sold him.”

Idnn had begun to cry, and I urged my mount ahead of hers.

When I reached the tree, I wheeled my stallion to look back at her. “You’re to go to Lord Beel now, My Lady. That was our agreement.” She reined up. “I have not reached it, Sir Able. Not yet. When you came, I thought my rescuer had arrived.”

“My Lady, I’ve listened to you, and learned more than I ever wished to know. I beg you listen to reason, if only for a minute or two.”

“I owe a duty to my father.” She spat out the words. “That’s what you’re going to say. My father’s the younger son of a younger son. Do you have any notion what that means?”

“Very little, my lady.”

Her lovely voice fell to a whisper. “We were royal, not so long ago. Almost within living memory. My grandfather was a duke, as my uncle is now. My big brother will inherit the barony. My little brother will be a knight. A knight at best, with a poky manor house a week’s ride from any place that matters and a couple of villages.”

Dropping her reins to her gelding’s neck, she wiped her eyes with her fingers. “It devours my father. It’s as if he had swallowed a rat, and it were gnawing his heart. Hear me, Sir Able.”

I nodded.

“He’s served the throne faithfully for twenty-five years, knowing all the while that if only things had fallen out differently differently by the merest trifle, he’d be sitting on it. But the king has not been ungrateful. Oh, no! Far from it. Do you know what his reward is?”

“Tell me, My Lady.”

“Why, I am. His daughter, the daughter of a mere baron, is to be a queen, the Queen of Jotunland. I will be given to King Gilling like a cup, a silver goblet into which he may pour his sperm. So that when my father returns to Thortower he can say, ‘Her Majesty, my daughter.’”

I nodded. “I understand, My Lady. But I wasn’t going to speak of your duty to Lord Beel. I asked you to listen to reason. Duty’s like honor. It lies outside it. You want me to rescue you, you say. By rescue you mean I’m supposed to carry you off to Candyland, where your every wish will be granted. I know no such place, and I wouldn’t know how to get there if I did.”

Idnn had begun to cry again, sobbing like the little girl she had been only a year or two ago.

“You don’t think much of knights. Most of the knights at Sheerwall didn’t think much of me. Look at me. My armor is still rusty from tramping through the forest in the rain and sleeping wherever I could. Wistan’s been instructing me in the best ways to get it bright. My own squire left me in disgust. Half my clothes have been borrowed from Sir Garvaon and his men. Your father gave me this horse. I have no land and no money, and if I were to get one of those manors you think are miles beneath you, I’d be as happy as your father could ever be to see you a queen.”

Idnn only cried; and I rode back to her, took hold of her bridle, and turned her gelding around, then gave its rump a good hard slap.

It trotted off, with Idnn still crying on its back; before they had gone far, Mani sprang from my saddlebow and slunk into the tall, coarse grass beside the War Way.