The Knight. Part 6

"May I try. Yes, you may."

Both her hands could not encircle my arm, but they could caress it. "You should be a knight yourself, sir."

"I am." My declaration surprised me, I think, much more than it surprised her; yet I recalled what Ravd had said--"We find this man to be a knight"--and it carried an inner certainty. "I am Sir Able," I added. Hidden by her shift, her nipples brushed my elbow. "Then you ought to have a sword."

"Others have swords too," I told her, "but you're right just the same. I'll get 65.one. Go back to your sewing, Ulfa."

When the trousers were finished and she had begun the shirt, I said, "Your father was afraid Sir Ravd would rape you. So you said."

"Ravish me." She nodded. "Only not because of his name. I don't think he knew it then."

"Neither do I. Isn't your father afraid I'll ravish you myself?"

"I don't know, Sir Able."

"A man intent on rape could do much worse. Have you no mother, Ulfa?"

"Oh, yes. By Ga.r.s.ecg's grace she's still among us."

"But being blind, or crippled in her hands, she can no longer sew?" Ulfa bit her thread, waking a memory. "She can, Sir Able, I swear to you. She sews better'n I, and taught me. Only skillful sewing takes sunlight."

"I see. Who's in this house, Ulfa? Name them all."

"You and me. Ma, Pa, and brother Toug."

"Really? They're uncommonly quiet. I haven't heard a voice or a step, other than yours and mine. Where is your mother, do you think?" Ulfa said nothing, but I followed the direction of her eyes, and opened the door of a wretched little room that appeared to be a sort of pantry. A woman Brega's age was huddled in its farthest corner, her eyes wide with fright. I said, "Don't worry, Ma. However this falls out, I'll do you and your daughter no hurt." She nodded and compelled her lips to smile, and the pain of her effort made me turn away.

Ulfa joined us, eager to distract me. "Try it on now. I have to be sure it's not too small."

I did, and she ticked like a beetle in the wall, saying I had the shoulders of a barn door.

I laughed, and said I had not known barn doors boasted shoulders.

"You think you're ordinary, I s'pose, and the rest of us dwarfs."

"I saw myself in the water," I told her. "I had been with a woman called Di siri, and--"

"Disira?"

"No. Disiri the Mossmaiden, who I imagine must have given Disira her dangerous name. She wanted to lie in the shade, but she left when the sun was 66.high. I happened to stand in the sunlight, and I saw my reflection. I was ... I was held back once, Ulfa. Not allowed to grow with the years. She said something about that, and she undid that holding back." It hurt, but I added, "I would guess for her own pleasure."

Ulfa's mouth formed a small circle. She said nothing.

"Anyway I am as I am, and I have to make myself longer arrows." Hesitantly, Ulfa said, "We try to stay on good terms with the Hidden Folk."

"Do you succeed?"

"Oh, a bit. They heal our sick sometimes, and watch the forest cattle."

"As long as you speak well of them, and put food out for them?" She nodded, but would not meet my eye.

"Bold Berthold and I leave them a bowl of broth and a bite of ash-cake now and then."

"We sing songs they like, too, and--and do things, you know, in places we can't ever talk about." Ulfa's needle was fairly flying.

"Songs that can't be sung for strangers, and things you can't speak of even among yourselves? Bold Berthold told me something about it." After a long pause, she said, "Yes. Things I can't talk about."

"Then talk about this. Is Disiri great among the Aelf?"

"Oh, yes." Ulfa rose, holding up the shirt for me to admire.

"A great lady?"

"Worse."

I tried to imagine Disiri worse. "Perhaps she punishes bandits and the like. Liars."

"Anybody that offends her, sir."

I sighed. "I love her, Ulfa. What am I do?"

Ulfa put her mouth to my ear. "I don't know 'bout love yet, Sir Able."

"And I won't teach you--or at least, not much. Give me my shirt. I promise to try not to get my blood on it."

I pulled it over my head and flexed my shoulders; it was as loose-fitting as I could have wished. "Didn't Pa tell you to make it tight, so as to bind me?" Ulfa shook her head.

"He hadn't time to think of that, perhaps, or perhaps he thought I would not be wearing it. I suppose it must be easy to kill a man between a woman's legs."

67."I--I wouldn't have a thing to do with . . . You know. With nothing like that, sir Able. Queen Disiri my witness." Her small, strong hands caressed shoulders that thanks to her were no longer bare.

"I believe you," I told her, and kissed her.

A wolf howled in the distance, and in a strangled voice she said, "A Norn-hound. It's a bad omen. If--if you was to stay with me tonight, I would stay awake to warn you."

I smiled. "I won't. But you're right, the hunt is on. Warn me of what? Your father and your brother?" Wordlessly, she nodded.

"I thought they might burst in when I kissed you. Hoped they would, because it would be better to fight where I've got light. Let's try again." I kissed again and held her longer. When we separated, I said, "So that's the taste of human women. I didn't know."

She stared but did not speak. I went to the window and looked out into the street. It was too dark to see anything.

"I know a little something about love now, Sir Able." She was rubbing herself against me, reminding me of grandma's cat. "There's something down here that's hot as the steam from the kettle."

"Your father and brother didn't rush in. You must've noticed."

"Your servant girl didn't notice a thing right then, Sir Able. Except for you."

"So it will be outside in the dark. But this house has a rear door. I saw it when we looked in on Ma."

I opened the door to the pantry, nodded to the cowering woman, and threw open the door in the opposite wall.

Outside were a boy with a spear and two men with brown bills. The men poked at me as if I were a burning log, but I caught a bill in each hand, s.n.a.t.c.hed them from their owners (though I had to kick the larger), and broke the shafts over my knee. The boy dropped his spear and fled.

He did not get far. I s.n.a.t.c.hed up my bow and ran after him, and caught him in a little meadow near the forest. "Are you Toug?" Perhaps he nodded; if so I could not see him; and if he spoke, it was so softly I could not hear him. I pinned his arm behind his back and rapped his ear with my bow when he screamed. "You have to answer my questions," I told him, "and answer honestly. Promptly, too, and politely. Is this forest safe by night?" 68."No, sir," he muttered.

"I didn't think so. We need each other, you see. While I'm with you, you get my protection--a needed safeguard, at least 'til the sun's back. I, on the other hand, need you to warn me of danger. Suppose I got annoyed and killed you." He trembled, shaming me. He was only a little kid.

"I wouldn't get your warning then, and things might be bad for me. We've got to be careful. And look out for each other. Your name's the same as your dad's?"

"Uh-huh."

"That was his house?"

"Uh-huh."

"You've got to speak clearly, and call me Sir Able. I don't want you to duck my questions with uh-huh and huh-uh either, not any more, or even yes and no. You talk about every answer you give." I wanted to say like in school, but I changed it quick to, "Or else you'll get a broken arm."

"I'll try." Toug swallowed audibly. "Sir Able."

"Good. You were ready to kill me with that spear when I opened the door, but I'll forget it, if you let me. There were two men with bills with you. Who were they?"

"Vali and my pa, Sir Able."

"I see. I knocked your father down for laughing at me. I guess he resented it. His name is . . . ?"

"He's Toug too." We were crossing a moonlit glade, and Toug eyed its shadows as if he expected a lion in every one of them.

"You told the truth. That's good." I stopped, making him stop too. "And who's Vali?"

"A neighbor," Toug muttered.

I shook him. "Is that how you talk to a knight?"

"Our neighbor, Sir Able. Right next door."

"I expected you in the street. That was why I went out the back. How did foe outguess me?"

"Pa did, Sir Able. He said he thought you'd sneak out the back."

"'Sneak.' Well, that'll be a lesson to me. Suppose your father had been wrong?"

69."Ma'd a' told us, and we'd a' gone 'round both sides a' the house, so one got behind."

"And put his bill into me?"

Toug nodded, and I shook him until he managed to say, "That's it, Sir Able, or if we wasn't in time we'd a' waited where the path goes through the alders."

"What about the other men in your village? There must be twenty or more. Wouldn't they help?"

"Huh-uh, Sir Able. They--they was afraid the knight'd come back. The other knight."

"Go on!"

"Only Vali and--And . . ."

"And somebody else." I let my voice drop to a whisper. "Who was it?" When Toug did not speak, I lifted his pinned arms.

"Ve, Sir Able! He's a little 'un, Sir Able, younger'n me."

"Is he Vali's son? He sounds like it."

"Uh-huh, Sir Able. Vali and Hulta only got the one, Sir Able, and he's not old enough to plow. He had to help. His pa told him to."

"Then I won't be hard on him, if he comes my way. And I won't be hard on you, because you were worried about him. I was younger than you are yesterday. That may be why it doesn't feel like bullying to do this. But maybe it is."

"You--you're twice as big as Pa, Sir Able."

"I didn't see a little kid with you when I opened the door, Toug. Where was he?"

"He run off into the woods, Sir Able."

"When I opened the back door? You were scared and ran yourself, but I saw you. Why didn't I see Ve?"

"He run 'fore I did, Sir Able."

I let go of his arms and caught him by the neck. "Have you ever been hit with a bow, Toug?"

"Uh-huh, Sir Able. I--I had this bow myself, and--and . . ."

"Your dad beat you with it. No, because you wouldn't mind telling me that. Your sister did it. Ulfa." I felt Toug nod, and shook him.

"That's the truth. Ulfa beat me with it."

"You deserved it, that's for sure. She beat you black and blue, I hope." 70."Oh, yes, Sir Able. Real bad."

"So bad you couldn't stand afterward?"

"Uh--no, Sir Able. Not as bad as that."

"You're nearly as big as she is. You must have gotten even some way. What'd you do?"

"N-nothing. Pa wouldn't let me."

"We're going to walk again," I told him, "and I'm going to turn you loose. You keep in front of me so I can see you if you try to clear out. I'll catch you if you do, and when I catch you I'll beat you with this bow 'til you can't stand up." I let him go and gave him a push, and when he stopped walking I pushed him again. "What are you so afraid of? Bears? They'll eat you first, and maybe you'll fill them up so they won't eat me. What do you think?"

"N-nothing."

"I know. But you think you do, and that's sad. Toug, you'd better tell the truth, or I'll beat you this minute--beat you 'til you crawl. So tell the truth or get ready. You're afraid of something up ahead. What is it?"