The Wizard

Chapter 24. A Ride After Supper

We traveled all that day, the warmest any of us had enjoyed in some time. There was no sign of pursuit, but we agreed that there were surely Angrborn behind us, a war band formed around the survivors of the battle, strengthened from Utgard and gathering more from each of the lonely farms we had passed.

These Angrborn would (we thought) trail us like hounds until we reached the marches of Jotunland, then fall upon us. If we ran, only the best mounted would escape—and perhaps not even they. If we fought, we might prevail; but ruinous defeat was more likely. If we scattered, we would be hunted down, and those who escaped the true Angrborn would almost certainly fall to the outcasts the Angrborn called Mice.

We decided to fight, of course, if we could not out-travel them; but I, privately, resolved to ride back that night—not to see whether the Angrborn did in fact pursue us, but to hinder their march if I could.

The day grew warmer still, the sort of winter day one gets occasionally in Celidon, when it seems spring cannot be far behind, though spring is months away. The snow on the War Way softened to slush, and the horses’ legs were muddy to the knees. Gylf panted as he trotted beside me.

“This will slow them, dear Lord,” Hela said. “It turns me sluggard even now.” Her face was streaming sweat.

Woddet reined up. “If you cannot keep the pace—”

“By all that I hold dear, Sir Woddet, I will never leave you.” There was steel in her voice.

He seemed taken aback. “I wasn’t going to suggest it. I was going to say that you and I—your brother, too—might go more slowly and join Sir Leort.”

I do not weary,” Hela insisted; it was clear she did.

I told her such weather could not last.

“Nor can I, Sir Able?”

Discomfited, I said nothing.

“Know you...” Hela was panting in a way that recalled Gylf her tongue lolling from her mouth. “Why you name... My sire’s folk Frost Giants?”

“Certainly,” I said. “It’s because their raids begin at the first frost.”

“Would they not... War rather... In fair summer...?’”

I tried to explain that we supposed they could not leave their own land until their crops were in.

“I’d thought... Might teach you better...”

I slowed Cloud’s pace, telling Woddet we gained too much on Garvaon. He agreed, though he must have known it false.

“They swelter...”

I considered that for a time. Old Night, the darkness beyond the sun, is the realm of the Giants of Winter and Old Night, and it is ever winter there, as their name implies. Winter, and ill lit—for them, the sun is but another star, though brighter than most. Thus huge eyes, which like the eyes of owls let them see in darkness; and huge bodies, too, hairy and thick-skinned to guard against the cold.

Telling Woddet to go slow, I went to speak to Marder. “We needn’t fear the Angrborn’s pursuit in such weather as this, Your Grace. Hela and Heimir can hardly keep up with us, though they’re of our blood as well. The greater danger is that we’ll tire our horses. We used them hard yesterday.”

“I was thinking the same. If they overtake us with our chargers blown, they’ll slaughter us like rabbits.”

“I agree, Your Grace. Wholeheartedly.”

“Then stop wherever you find water and grass,” he said.

We did and quickly, although we would not have found the spot at all if it had not been for Hela, who told us of it. It was some distance from the War Way, which was an added point in its favor—it is difficult for any but a hound to track by night, and if our pursuers were not sharp-eyed they might pass us by. If that happened, we would take them from behind the next day, while our mounts were still fresh. Uns and Pouk made our camp while I saw to Cloud, and Mani offered to climb a tree—tall ones are rare in Jotunland, but there were a few there—and keep watch; for cats, as he said, see by dark nearly as well as Angrborn.

Woddet’s camp he and his men made for themselves, while Heimir and Hela stretched sweating on the clean, soft grass. We had camped so early that the pavilions were up and every rope tight while the sun was still a hand’s breadth above the horizon.

Uns had gone to Svon’s fire to borrow a light for ours, for it seemed that Vil was uncommonly clever at fire-making, which I thought extraordinary in a blind man. “‘Taint no trick, Master,” Uns explained. “You’d look fer smoke. So’d I. Dat Vil smells hit, ‘n blows, ‘n feels fer hit.”

Idnn came, with Berthold to carry her chair. I taught Uns and Pouk to drop to one knee, as one does for a queen, and bow their heads in the proper style. Gylf made his own bow, the dog-bow we are too quick to call groveling when it is in fact simple canine courtesy.

“Arise, good people.” Idnn smiled on all of us. “Will you dine with us tonight, Sir Able? His Grace will not be there, nor Sir Woddet, nor Sir Leort. Our noble father may attend, though we’ll discourage it if we can.”

I had planned to be off as soon as I had eaten, and muttered something stupid about honor and my allegiance to Marder.

“That’s what we thought you’d say—we’ll dine with you instead. Have you royal fare, Uns? Answer us honestly.”

Uns bowed again. “Ya knows me, mum. I does wat I can’s aw, ‘n li’l ‘nough ta do wid.”

“He doesn’t,” I said. “None of us do.”

“Then there’s no shame in providing a queen with what you have, Uns. Whatever you’d eat yourself. We assure you we’re hungry enough to dine upon the bats of Utgard.”

She turned to Berthold. “You may go. Go back to our pavilion and get what food and rest you can.”

He bowed and turned away, feeling his way with a stick. “Uns is to serve us, Sir Able?”

“He does normally, Your Majesty, but I would have the honor of serving you myself, if I could.”

“It would not prevent you from eating? You’re three times our size—if we’re famished, you must be starving.”

“If I may serve myself, too, I’ll eat with a will.”

“Good. We ask that Uns and Pouk, though we feel certain they’re both good men, be kept out of earshot.”

I told them to remain on the other side of the fire, and (there being small need of warmth on such an evening) to stay well back from it unless Uns’ cooking required him to come closer. After that, I fetched two wooden trenchers and two jacks of wine that Uns had mixed with water.

“They’ll tell you when the meat’s ready?”

I nodded. “Yes, Your Majesty.”

“We’d like bread. Don’t tell us it’s hard—we know.”

I brought her half of one of the twice-baked loaves Svon had secured for us before war broke out in the marketplace.

“One needs a Frost Giant’s teeth to bite this,” Idnn said, chipping off a piece with her dagger. “They have massive jaws, all of them. Did you notice?”

I nodded and said I had.

“We asked our husband about it. We were telling him how handsome he was. You understand, we’re sure. He said they most enjoy the bones. It was a pity, he said, that we didn’t eat them. We explained that we eat the bones of larks and thrushes, and he smiled. We felt so sorry for him! We ought to have asked whether the jaws of the daughters of Ang’r were as strong as those of her sons, but it didn’t occur to us at the time. Nor would it have been politic, perhaps. Do you know, Sir Able? You must have seen a few since we told you of them.”

“No, but I’ve seen giantesses of the Giants of Winter and Old Night, Your Majesty.”

“Have you really? What were they like?”

“In appearance? They change their appearance readily, Your Majesty, just as the men do.”

“The men of the Giants of Winter and Old Night, you mean? They must be fabulous creatures.”

Uns called that our soup was done, and I fetched it. When I had given Idnn hers, I said, “They are indeed, Your Majesty.”

“You said you’d seen them, the giantesses, at any rate.”

“I’ve seen the men too, Your Majesty. And killed a few. Of the women, Skathi is beautiful and kind, though so big in her natural state that feasts are held upon her belly.”

Idnn laughed. “You set your table there?”

“Many tables, Your Majesty, and when we sing she sings along with us, and when we eat opens her mouth so we can cast dainties into it. Yet at other times, she seems only a tall lady, with strong arms and many plaits of golden hair, her husband’s shieldbearer.”

“We think you mad, though there may be more wisdom in it than in the sanity of other men. What of the rest?”

“Angrboda is a daughter of Angr, Your Majesty, though she wasn’t banished from Skai like so many of Angr’s brood. I have seen her many times, though only at a distance.”

Idnn smiled. “Do you fear her?”

“Yes, because her husband is Lothur, the youngest and worst of the Valfather’s sons. If she attacked me—it’s said she attacks all who come near—I would have to defend myself or perish.”

“We understand.”

“She’s hideous, and they say that the time of her womb is a thousand years. When it’s complete, she bears a monster and couples with her lord again. It may not be true.”

“Yet you think it may be. You were long in Skai?”

“Twenty years, Your Majesty, or about that.”

“But you saw no more than those two?”

“One other, Your Majesty.” The memory darkened my mind, as it does even now. “Modgud guards the Bridge of Swords. If it were destroyed, no ghost could visit us, and there are those who’d destroy it. Thus Modgud, a giantess, protects it night and day. Because she does, the ghosts may come forth when Helgate stands wide.”

Idnn spooned up a little soup. “We take it she’s fierce and well armed.”

“I don’t know what weapons she may have, Your Majesty. She bore none when I saw her.”

“Is she very large?”

I saw then that Idnn would question me until I told her everything; yet I hoped that by telling her much I might hold something back. “It’s hard to judge the natural size of any of the Giants of Winter and Old Night,” I said, “when one has seen them but once. When I saw her, Modgud was no larger than many Angrborn.”

“And in form...?”

“A maiden, fair-haired and slighter of limb than any Angrborn I’ve seen, small at the waist and not wide at hips, though womanly. Barefoot, and dressed as the poor dress.”

“Yet she frightened you.”

“Say that she impressed me, Your Majesty. Injustice to her, I must add that she didn’t oppose our coming in, nor our going out. Thunor blessed her and praised her for her care of the bridge, and she received his blessing and his praises graciously and seemed glad of them. Thunor was our leader.” I cleared my throat. “Many think the Overcyns are always at war with the giants, but that isn’t true. There’s friendship at times, as well as strife.”

Idnn nodded solemnly. “We know of that. Won’t you tell us what we want to hear? The thing you’re holding back?”

“Modgud’s face is that of death. It’s naked bone, save for a maiden’s eyes. Perhaps it’s just a mask. I hope so.”

Idnn stirred her soup and sipped a spoonful. “We are glad it was you and not we who saw her, Sir Able.”

“You will see her, Your Majesty, when you cross the Bridge of Swords.”

“We hope for better.” Again Idnn sipped, spilling soup from her spoon. “We didn’t examine you to pass the time.”

“I never thought you did, Your Majesty.”

“Will you stand a few more questions? What think you of Hela? She was your servant once.”

“Only briefly.” My own soup was cooling; I tasted it while I considered. “She’s an outcast, and knows she must always be one. Her brother’s an outcast, but not sensible of it. Hela is, and there’s poetry in her because of that, and sorrow. In the warm congress she’s a slattern, and yet I believe she truly loves Sir Woddet.”

Idnn nodded, her dark eyes on the glowing embers of our little fire, or perhaps on Uns and Pouk, who sat eating and talking beyond it. “Go on.”

“He doesn’t love her as I love Queen Disiri. Yet his tenderness is real—”

“And she warms her hands before it.”

“Indeed, Your Majesty. Like every poet, she’s a clever liar, but too clever a liar to lie much or often. I wouldn’t trust her the way I would Pouk or Uns. But maybe I’m being too hard on her.”

“It may be that we are as well. She came to us tonight, calling us queen, and asked what we knew of our subjects.”

“About the Angrborn, Your Majesty?”

“So we thought. We told her we had no subjects, that the Angrborn follow King Schildstarr, that though a queen we do not rule. You’re anxious to be off, to ride your wonder-steed among the stars. So would we, in your place.”

She had seen through me like glass. I pretended not to be surprised and said, “The stars are too far for Cloud and me, Your Majesty. Nor am I as eager to depart as I was.”

“You may go soon. Where are the Angrborn women, Sir Able? The women who named us queen when we wed?”

“Your Majesty must know better than I do.”

Idnn shook her head. “We stayed in a farmhouse on our way to Utgard. Our servant Berthold had been a slave there. You’ll recall it, we’re sure.”

“I do, Your Majesty, though it seems very long ago.”

“It wasn’t. There were slave women, too, as Gerda was on another farm. But of the owner’s own women, none. No wife, no sister, no mother. Hela says the womenfolk of the Angrborn remain our subjects.”

I asked whether Idnn hoped that I could add to what she already knew about them; when she did not reply, I assured her that I could not.

“She said she’d bring some of our subjects here, and so saying went into the night. Do you think us in danger?”

“From your subjects? I can’t say. We’re all in danger from the Angrborn, Your Majesty.”

“Of course. When Hela left, we called for Gerda. She’s lived among them most of her life, and she kept her eyes. We asked where the women were, the wives of the Angrborn we see. We won’t tell you all she said—much of it was foolish. She said she’d seen them from a distance, and they frightened her—that they have their own land, far away.”

No doubt I looked incredulous. “Your Majesty once said the same, I believe.”

“We did not, for that was not what they had told us. Our race would die out if we women lived in one nation and you men in another, and I know of no beast that lives so. Besides, if the females were so far away, how was it Gerda had seen some? So we popped her into the fire—you know what we mean—and wouldn’t let her out ‘til she’d told us everything. You see them early in the morning, mostly. Very early, before the sun is up. Or before moonrise. For more than our lifetime Gerda had to rise and dress by firelight, milk four cows, and turn them out to pasture. Do you know what frightened us? When we were at Utgard?”

“The place itself, I imagine, and the Angrborn.”

“Only some of them, the ones with two heads or four arms. We don’t know why, they were no worse than the others, but they did.”

For half a minute, perhaps, Idnn gave her attention to her soup. Then she said, “Who killed our husband, Sir Able?”

I told her I did not know.

“We feel it was one of those monsters. There was one with a lot of legs. Did you see him? Like a spider. A big eye and two small ones.” Idnn shuddered.

“There was one covered with hair as well.”

“We hated him—hated the sight of him, we mean. He may have been a perfectly worthy subject for all we know, and he was a member of our husband’s guard. But when you rode over them on your wonderful horse and slew a score—”

“Not as many as that, Your Majesty.”

“A score at least with your arrows, and we were shooting arrows too, with the maids we’d taught to shoot—or anyway with the ones who had stomach enough for it—we kept hoping that one would be him, and we’d see him and put an arrow into his eye. It didn’t happen, but that was what we hoped.”

“I’ve wondered about these things,” I told her. “The Angrborn were cast out of Skai because they were inferior. Not because they were evil—many of the Giants of Winter and Old Night were as bad or worse. Because they didn’t measure up in some fashion. It may have been because they had lost the ability, which the Giants of Winter and Old Night certainly have, to change size and shape. Having lost it, they may have been judged unfit for Skai.”

“You were there.”

Seeing what was coming, I did not nod.

“Could you do that then? Turn into an eagle or a bull. Or—or be smaller than Mani.”

I smiled. “Who’d catch and eat me, and serve me right, too. Can’t you see how foolish this is, Your Majesty?”

“You were a very poor liar before you went to Skai. You aren’t much better now.”

I explained that nothing I had said had been a lie, that it would indeed be foolish to make myself smaller than Mani.

“Can you do it?”

I shook my head. “No. No, Your Majesty, I cannot. Am I lying now?” Setting my soup bowl in my lap, I raised both hands to Skai. “Valfather, be my witness. I cannot do either of those things.”

“You’re not lying, but you’re holding something back.”

No doubt I sighed. “When I came back, the Valfather required an oath, one I dare not break. I had to swear I’d use none of the abilities I’d been given there. I gave it. Do you think that was cruel of him?”

“We doubt that he is ever cruel,” Idnn said, “but you must think him so.”

“I don’t. He’s wiser than any mere man, wiser even than the Lady, though she’s wise beyond reckoning. He knows how much harm such powers can do here. Remember Toug?”

“Of course.”

“In his village, people worship the Aelf. It’s a false worship, and it does harm to them and their neighbors. Isn’t the Most High God as high as the Valfather?”

Idnn said, “We’d always understood he was higher.”

“That’s right. But there are those who say he’s lower, inflicting on the Valfather such humiliation as they cannot conceive. If I were to use the powers he gave, there might spring up a cult to rival his, with worshippers claiming I was his superior. He’d be humiliated, and they’d be as far from the truth as those people in Glennidam. As it was, his kindness to me exceeded all reason. He let me take Cloud.”

I set aside my bowl and rose. “We’ve talked enough, Your Majesty, surely. May I go?”

“Eat your meat and let us eat ours, and you may go with our blessing, if we may go too.”

I must have gawked at her like a jerk.

“Are we so weighty? Your arms and armor will outweigh us by a stone, and your saddle’s big enough for two, when the second’s our size. Besides, Cloud’s carried us before.”

I fumbled for words, and at length managed to say, “Your Majesty will be in some danger.”

She smiled; Idnn had always had a charming smile, with a hint of mockery in it. “Our Majesty is in danger here, Sir Able. Our Majesty will be in less on your wonderful horse’s back, with you to protect us, than Our Majesty would be in here, with Sir Able and his wonderful horse gone.”

“Sir Svon would not like to hear that.”

Idnn nodded. “Nor need he, unless you tell him. But really, Sir Able. He is wounded, and not such a fool as to rate himself with you if he weren’t. Do you think he has spoken to the Valfather as a knight to his liege? Do—”

“I hope he has,” I told her. “He should have. Out of my ignorance I neglected his training when he was my squire. I didn’t realize at the time how badly I was neglecting it, but I can’t believe Sir Ravd neglected it at all. If he didn’t, Sir Svon has talked to the Valfather as his knight.”

Idnn rose; and though she was small, she seemed tall at that moment. “We are properly rebuked. Rebuked, we remain a queen. Take us with you. We ask a boon.”

I knelt. “A boon that does me far too much honor, Your Majesty. I was... Your condescension stunned me.”

“As your courtesy gratifies us. Perhaps it would be best if we mounted first, then took our foot from the stirrup. But here is our meat.”

It was not quite as easy as that, of course. I had to call Cloud, and saddle and bridle her with Pouk’s help.

“She’ll be tired,” Idnn said; and I thought that some small part of her regretted her decision.

“Not she, Your Majesty. She might be ridden in war a long day through, yet remain fresh enough for this.” Cloud’s thoughts had confirmed my words before I spoke them.

“May we stroke her?”

I nodded, and she caressed Cloud’s muzzle very gently, as all who know horses do.

Uns brought my saddlebags; I told him I would leave them with him, since we would be returning in an hour or two. They cannot have weighed as much as Idnn, but they must have come near it, and I left my lance with Uns as well.

“If Your Majesty will do me the honor...” I knelt with linked hands to help her. She did, but sprang up so lightly that I doubt she required the least assistance.

Having mounted first, she sat before me. I would guess she had planned it, wishing me to ride as I did, with the perfume of her hair in my nostrils, embracing her when Cloud mounted that steep of air none but she could see.

Might I have had her? Few men know less of human women than I do, and it may be she only wished for me to want to. She did not speak until the steep ended and we galloped at a level, with Gylf running ahead and wood and plain unrolling beneath us. Then she said, “Oh, this is grand!” and breathed again, as my sword arm told me.

Of all the times I rode above Mythgarthr, I recall that one best: the unnatural warmth of the wind, and the glooming towers of the snow clouds to the west. Lesser clouds with the moon behind them, filling Skai with silvery light. A queen before me, and the Valfather’s castle floating among the stars. Idnn’s black velvet gown, her diamond diadem and perfumed hair. The soft pliancy of her waist, which made me desire her so much I took my arm away.

“Why do you ride to Utgard, Sir Able?”

“I won’t, Your Majesty, unless it happens so. We’re retracing the War Way in search of our pursuers.”

“Shouldn’t we have seen them by now?” She pointed. “On the horizon—those are the battlements of Utgard, surely.”

I agreed, and urged Cloud forward.

Soon the wind grew chill. Idnn drew her cloak about her, and Gylf stopped panting. Twice we circled Utgard; a few lonely lights still shone, but we rode so high that no one there could have seen us. A little snow fell, and Idnn shivered and begged me to hold her again. I did, and drew my cloak around us both.

“We thought our velvet too warm all day, and too warm even by night, but wore it for its mourning color. Now—Why is your dog leaving us?”

Gylf’s deep-throated bay had reached us, borne on the still air. “He’s scented something,” I explained, and sent Cloud after him.

“From way up here?” Idnn sounded incredulous. “He can’t possibly sniff the ground!”

“I don’t know what is possible to him, Your Majesty. But you’ve hunted deer and the like. Haven’t you ever seen your hounds course with their heads high?”

“On a hot trail? Yes. Yes, often.”

“That’s because the scent is in the air. It’s not a man’s feet that leave the scent. If they did, the best dog in Mythgarthr couldn’t track a man in new boots. It comes from the groin and under the arms, mostly. Some settles, and some hangs in the air and blows away or drifts, which is why even the best hounds put nose to the ground on a cold trail.”

“He’s lower than we are, but not much.”

“Because he has to go no lower to catch the scent. I doubt that he’s following one man, or even two or three.”

“They didn’t go by the War Way.”

“No,” I said, and it was my turn to point. “See that lighter streak? That was the road they followed, I think.”

“Then they can have nothing to do with us.”

I shrugged; she could not have seen it, but perhaps she felt it. “We’re not camped by the War Way, Your Majesty.”

“No. In the place Hela told us about.” Idnn was silent a moment. “We see what you mean.”

“I meant no more than I said.”

“There they are! Look under the trees.”

Far ahead Gylf had halted, and it seemed to me that he was looking at me. I shook my head, hoping he could see it.

“Are we going back now?”

“As soon as I get a closer look.”

“You’d like to fight, wouldn’t you? You’d surprise them while they slept, if we weren’t here.”

It was true, but I denied it.

“But we—we’re glad we are. They’re not our subjects, really. They won’t obey us. But they were his, and we...”

“You’re their queen, whether they’ll obey you or not.”

“Yes.” She sounded grateful.

“We can wake up a few and tell them so, Your Majesty. It’ll be dangerous, but I’ll do it if you want me to.”

She sighed. “They will only say that they serve King Schildstarr. No.”

“I think you’re wise. The time may come, but this isn’t it.” I whistled for Gylf, and we rode away.

“Did you count them?”

Reminded of Sir Ravd, I shook my head.

“We did, more than two score. There were probably more among the trees we didn’t see.”

I said, “We won’t fight them unless we have to.”

“You and Sir Svon and Sir Garvaon.”

“Yes. Your father, too, and His Grace. Sir Woddet and Sir Leort, with the archers and men-at-arms. Also Heimir and Hela, and the servants.”

“Against four score Angrborn?”

“Against whatever number we face. Gylf too. Gylf’s worth a hundred good men, Your Majesty.”

“We want you to promise us something, Sir Able. We want you to promise you’ll let us talk to them first. Will you?”

“I will, Your Majesty.” I felt my heart sink, although I knew that she was right.

“As you’ve helped us, we will help you. You’re not the only one to give a pledge to the Wanderer. Remember what we told you about Hela?”

“That she’d bring your subjects to do homage? Yes, Your Majesty. I haven’t forgotten that.”

“That the women are still my subjects. What you told me of the giants in Skai did nothing to allay my fears.”

I knew I could have said more and frightened her worse.

“Would Hela do it if she thought they might harm me?”

I laughed to think she expected me to fathom a woman’s heart. “I can’t say. I’ll stand by if you want.”

She shook her head. “If they are ours, we are theirs, and we must trust them.”

Then I wished we were not in the saddle, so that I could kneel to her.