The Knight

When the fight was over, the dead horses and mules had to be unloaded and their loads put on the ones we had left. Then we had to put the dead people on top of the loads. We got going again around midnight, and we traveled until it was light, with Garvaon out in front and Gylf and me out in front of Garvaon maybe a hundred or a hundred and fifty paces. The sun came up right about when we came out of the gorge and onto a mountain meadow that had thick green grass and even wildflowers. It slanted like the deck of a ship with the wind hard abeam, but it looked really good to us by then anyway. We stopped and unloaded the animals and put up the pavilions. Most of us went to sleep then, but Garvaon and a dozen men-at-arms stood guard, and Gylf and I went back to where the battle had been. Mani went with us, riding on my saddlebags.

―――

We stayed in that meadow all day and all night. The next morning Beel sent for me. The table was up, just like before, and there were two folding chairs. “Sit down,” he told me. “Breakfast should be here in a moment or two.” I said thank you.

“You climbed the cliffs to fight the Mountain Men. So I’ve been told, and once I caught a glimpse of you up there myself. Or so I believe.”

I nodded. “I’m gratified, My Lord.”

“Great stones fell among us.” Beel sounded like he was talking to himself. “And bodies, too. The corpses of our foes. While the mules were being reloaded I amused myself, and Sir Garvaon as well, by examining them by lantern light. Perhaps you did the same, Sir Able?”

“No, My Lord. I had to go back for my horse.” I would have passed on breakfast just then if I could have gotten up and gone out of that pavilion.

“I see. Normally I breakfast each day with my daughter, Sir Able. She is not here today. You will have observed it, I feel sure.”

I nodded. “I hope she’s not sick.”

“She is well and uninjured. Thanks to you, in large part, I believe.”

“I’d like to believe that too.”

Beel made a steeple of his fingers and sat looking at me until the food came. “Help yourself, Sir Able. You need not wait on me.”

I said I would rather wait, and he took a smoked fish, and some bread and cheese. “I like to breakfast with my daughter.”

I nodded like before. “She must be good company, My Lord.”

“It gives me an hour or so in which to speak with her. I am busy, often, all day.”

I said, “I’m sure you are, My Lord.”

“There are many of my rank, and of higher rank than I, who do little work, Sir Able. Little if any. They lounge about at court, and lounge equally on their estates. Their stewards manage their estates on their behalf, just as mine does for me. Should the king try to persuade them to fill some office, which as a sensible man he seldom does, they beg off on one excuse or another. I have endeavored to be a man of a different stamp. I will not trouble you with all the offices I have held under our present Majesty and his royal father. They have been varied, and some have been onerous. I was First Lord of the Exchequer for near to seven years, for example.”

“I know it must have been a hard job,” I said.

Beel shook his head. “You may think you do, Sir Able, but you really have no idea. It was a nightmare that seemed it would never end. And now this.” I nodded, trying to look sympathetic.

“Breakfast gives me one hour a day in my daughter’s company. I have tried to be mother and father to her, Sir Able. I will not say I have succeeded. But I have tried.”

Beel sat up, straightening his shoulders. He had not eaten a bite. “I sent her off this morning to breakfast with her maids. She was surprised and pleased.”

I said, “She can’t really have been pleased.” I had not eaten either up to then, and I decided I might as well start.

“Thank you, Sir Able. She was, however. I sent her away because I wanted to speak with you. Not as a knight, but as a son, for I wish with all my heart that the Overcyns had vouchsafed me such a son as you.”

I did not know what to say. Finally I said, “That’s a great honor, My Lord.”

“I am not trying to honor you, but to speak the truth.” Beel paused; I think to see how I felt about what he had said. “Men like me, noblemen high in His Majesty’s councils, have no great reputation for truth. We are careful about what we say and how we say it. We must be. I have lied when my duty demanded it. I did not enjoy it, but I did it to the best of my ability.”

I said, “I’ve got it.”

“Now I am going to tell you the truth, and only the truth. I ask to be believed. But I ask more. I ask you to be as honest with me as I am with you. Will you do it?”

“Of course, My Lord.”

Beel got up and went to a chest, opened it, and took out a roll of parchment. “You have a manor, Sir Able? Where is it?”

“No, My Lord.”

“None?”

I said, “No, My Lord,” again.

He sat back down, still holding the parchment. “Your liege sends you to take your stand in the Mountains of the Mice. For half a year.”

“I hadn’t heard them called that. But yes, he does.”