The Knight. Part 41

This time Beel spoke to Crol, who bawled, "Sir Garvaon has three!" I had shot my best arrow first. I picked a good one from those I had left and nocked it, telling myself firmly that I did not need to hit the middle again. If I hit the target at all, that would be enough.

I shot, and Papounce was sent off exactly as he had been before, and there was another wait while he galloped to the target and looked it over. I unstrung 363.

my bow and made myself relax, trying to keep from catching the eye of anybody who might want to talk to me.

I got another three. That made my score six.

Garvaon shot again. His third arrow hit near his first.

I was starting to feel like I was cheating, and I did not like that. Instead of shooting at the target, I aimed for the top leaves of the scrubby little tree they had hung it on. I shot, and watched my arrow fly true to aim. It pa.s.sed through the leaves and hit the cliff-face behind them. A few pebbles fell, then a few more.

All at once the cliff face gave way, collapsing with a grinding roar.

Gylf found me about a mile away from our camp, and woke me by licking my face. I sputtered and sat up, thinking for a minute that I saw the old woman from my dream, the one who had owned the cottage, behind him. It was very dark. "Why here?" Gylf demanded.

"Because it's sheltered, and I hoped it wouldn't be quite so cold."

"It" was a crevice in the rocks.

"Hard here," Gylf explained. "Tracking."

"Hard sleeping, too. I'm p-pretty stiff." The fact was that my teeth were chattering.

"Fires back there. Food."

I said sure. "But I wouldn't have gotten anything much to eat before. Everybody wanted to talk to me. I told Lord Beel I'd meet him in his pavilion later--"

"Give it to you?"

"The pretty helmet?" I stood up and stretched, and wrapped myself in my cloak, adding the blanket I had taken from camp. "I don't know. Or care, either."

"All asleep." Gylf wagged his tail, and looked up at me hopefully.

"You want me to go back, don't you? It's nice of you to worry about me." Gylf nodded.

"But if I stay here . . ."

"Me, too."

"You'd keep me warm, anyhow. I wish I'd had you here earlier." He trotted ahead to show the way; and I followed more slowly, still cold and 364.

tired. I had hoped to find one of the caves the Angrborn called Mouseholes, and was mad at myself for having failed. Gylf would have found one for me, and I knew it. Or Uri and Baki probably could have, if I had called them and they had come. But that would have been Gylf finding it or them finding it. I had wanted to do it myself.

The moon had not yet risen, and the camp looked ghostly--Beel's scarlet pavilion dead black, Garvaon's and Crol's canvas pavilions as pale as ghosts, the bodies of sleeping servants and muleteers like new graves, and the few tortured cedars like Osterlings come to eat the bodies.

A picketed mule brayed in the distance.

"I'm going to send you to Pouk," I told Gylf. I had not decided until then.

"Not right now, because you deserve food and a good rest before you leave. In the morning. I want you to find him and show yourself to him, so that he'll know I'm nearby. Then you can come back here and tell me where he is and whether he's all right."

Gylf looked back and whined, and a sleepy sentry called, "Sir Able? Is that you, sir?"

When I finally got to my cot in Garvaon's pavilion, I found the gold-trimmed helmet on it. After I had adjusted the straps inside, it fit like it had been made for me.

365.

CHAPTER 53.

BOONS.

N ext morning at breakfast, eating off byourselves because Garvaon had told some of his archers and men-at-arms to keep everybody away, he and Gylf and I were joined by Mani, who got in my lap and ate whatever I pa.s.sed to him, just like a regular cat.

"Lady Idnn's just about adopted that tomcat of yours," Garvaon told me.

"She may have him if he wants her."

Garvaon stared, then laughed. "You're quite a fellow." The point of his dagger carried a sizable chunk of summer sausage to his mouth, and he chewed in a way that showed he was thinking about something. "Can we talk man-to-man?"

"May," I said. "Sure. Of course."

"I said man-to-man, but that's not exactly it." Garvaon could not quite meet my eyes. "I'm a pretty fair knight. I can outshoot and outfight any man under 366.

me. I've won a few tournaments, and taken part in seven pitched battles." He waited as if he expected me to challenge the number.

"Seven pitched battles, and I've lost count of how many skirmishes like that scuffle in the defile. But you're something else."

"I'm a lot younger than you are," I said, "and a lot less experienced. I know that."

"You're a hero." Garvaon almost whispered it. "You're the kind of knight they write songs and poems about, the kind that gets taken up to Castle Skai." I froze when he said that.

"You didn't know about the castle up there? It's where the Valfather lives."

"I did," I said slowly, "but I didn't know anybody else knew."

"A few do."

"And they take . . . take us up there? Sometimes?" Garvaon shrugged. "What they say."

"Have you ever known anybody who--who they took?"

"Whom," Garvaon told me. "Not 'til now. But I know you, and they'll take you."

We were pretty quiet after that, I pa.s.sing more food down to Gylf and Mani than I ate myself.

Finally Garvaon said, "You've got a boon coming, you know. I have to give you anything you want. Remember our side bet?"

I shook my head. "I didn't win."

"Bah! You know you did."

"We were supposed to shoot five arrows apiece. We only shot three."

"And you missed on purpose with the last one."

He was right, and I could not think of anything I could say that would not be a lie.

"You didn't want to show me up in front of my men. You think I don't know?"

I got busy eating.

"Maybe you think I left the helmet on your bed. It was Master Crol. Lord Beel told him to."

"I should give it back. Sir Garvaon ....?"

"Keep it. You need it."

367.

I wiped my dagger on my sleeve and put it away. "I'd like to offer you a deal. You want to give me a boon."

Garvaon shook his head. "I don't want to, I owe it. I'm ready to pay, any time."

"Your honor makes you, you mean."

Garvaon nodded.

"I have honor, too."

"I know. I never said you didn't."

"Then let's take care of mine and yours together. I'll grant you a boon, whatever you want. And you can grant mine. How's that?"

"May. Name it."

I took a good, deep breath. "I want you to teach me swordcraft. I'm flunking there, and I know it."

"Is that all?"

"I think it's a lot. Will you? We could start tonight, once we've made camp." Gylf got up, laid a paw in my lap for a second, and trotted away. "Now I'm supposed to ask a boon, too," Garvaon said. "Only I don't really need it anymore. All right if I tell you what it was going to be?"

"Sure. I'd like to know."

"I was going to ask what made Lord Beel so sure you were going to win. Only I know now. Can I reserve mine?"

"Absolutely."

"He wants to see you before we go, by the way. I was supposed to tell you."

Beel and Idnn were still eating when I came in. Mani jumped off my shoulder to reclaim Idnn's lap.

I bowed. "You wanted to see me, My Lord?"

Beel inclined his head. "Yesterday you promised you would speak with me later."

"I tried to, My Lord."

"You left the camp."

I nodded. "So I could come back without being seen, My Lord. I waited too long, and you had gone to bed. I thought I'd better not disturb you." Idnn asked, "Did you come into our pavilion?"

368.

"Not into your half of it, My Lady. I would never do such a thing." She smiled. "What? Never?"

Beel jumped in. "This was after dark, I take it."

"Just at moonrise, My Lord."

Idnn said, "I didn't hear you, and I slept badly last night. Do you know what I was doing at moonrise?"

"He does," Beel told her. "Look at his face. You went outside in your nightdress, didn't you?" It was hard to talk after that, but I did it. "You were looking at the moon, My Lady. I thought it would be better if I didn't interrupt you." Mani grinned from Idnn's lap as she asked, "Did the sentries challenge you, Sir Able? I didn't hear them."

"No, My Lady."

Beel frowned. "You crept past them?"

"Yes, My Lord. Past the sentries at this pavilion anyway. I knew they'd delay me."

"It should not be possible."

I said, "It isn't too hard for one man, My Lord."

"In armor."

I tried to change the subject. "Yes, My Lord. But without a helmet, because I had none--I have one now, thanks to your generosity."

Beel ate a coddled egg without saying another word, while Idnn smiled at me.

When his egg was gone, Beel said, "The black cat suits you. Your dog would suit me better, I think. Where is he?"

"I sent him to Pouk, My Lord."