The Knight

“Then I’ll ask a very obvious one. This man of yours. Pouk? Would he have fought if the Frost Giants had tried to seize him and your horses?”

“I doubt it very much, My Lady.”

“What about the woman you said was with him? Would she have fought?” I smiled. “I was told she had a sword, My Lady. So possibly she would. You must tell Sir Garvaon and me.”

Garvaon said somberly, “Some women would.”

“Because there was blood,” Idnn continued. “You found the ashes, didn’t you see the blood? Sir Garvaon did, and he showed it to me.”

Beel sighed. “I’ve told my daughter not to ride with the vanguard. Apparently I must also tell the vanguard not to ride with my daughter.”

Garvaon said, “My Lady rode up while I was examining the campsite, Your Lordship. I’d dismounted, and no doubt she’d seen I’d found something. Naturally she was curious.”

Idnn smiled as if to say, “You see how Sir Garvaon defends me?”

Beel’s attention was on me. “I saw the blood, of course. And the ashes and the rest. I found a foot-mark in those ashes, off to one side of the younger fire where it was somewhat hidden by the shadow of a stone. Did you see it?”

I shook my head, too discouraged to speak.

“The paw-mark of a very large wolf or dog. As for the blood, your servant may have resisted. It’s possible you misjudged him. Or the woman may have, as Idnn suggests. Or they both may have.”

I said, “I suppose so.”

“It’s also possible, unfortunately, that one or both may have been injured, although they did not resist. Or that the woman beat your servant, or that he beat her. We have no way of knowing.”

“My Lord ...”

“Yes? What is it?”

“This isn’t what I came for. I came hoping to get a horse for Uns. But you know something about magic. Would it be possible for you, somehow, to find out what happened to them?”

For a moment there was no sound in Beel’s silk pavilion except Idnn’s sharply indrawn breath.

At last Beel said, “Perhaps I should have thought of that. It may tell us noth ing. Let me be quite frank with you, Sir Able. I fail more often than I succeed.”

“But if you succeeded, My Lord—”

“We might learn something of value. Perfectly true.”

His daughter smiled and leaned toward him, and he said, “You want the excitement. Mountebanks feign magic as a show, Idnn, pretending to swallow swords and toads. But magic, real magic, is not entertainment. Do you know how the Aelf came to be?”

She shook her head. “No, Father. But I’d like to, even if there aren’t any.”

“There are. What about you, Sir Garvaon? Sir Able? Do either of you know?”

Garvaon shook his head. I nodded.

“Then tell us.”

“There’s someone called Kulili in Aelfrice, My Lord. Maybe I should have said in the world we call Aelfrice, because it doesn’t really belong to the Aelf, it belongs to Kulili.” I paused. “I’m only telling you what I’ve been told, though I believe it’s true.”

“Go on.”

“All right. There were disembodied spirits in Aelfrice then, creatures something like ghosts, although they’d never been alive. Kulili made magic bodies of mud and leaves and moss and ashes and so forth, and put the disembodied spirits into them. If she used fire, mostly, they became Fire Aelf, Salamanders. If she used mostly seawater, they’re Sea Aelf, Kelpies.”

“Correct.” Beel looked from me to Garvaon, and from Garvaon to Idnn. “We’re not like the Aelf. We’re much more like Kulili, having been created, as she was, by the Father of the fathers of the Overcyns, the God of the highest world. Here, as there, he also created elemental spirits. As Sir Able says, they’re rather like ghosts. They are creatures both ancient and knowing, having the accumulated wisdom of centuries of centuries.”

Garvaon coughed and looked uncomfortable.

“They hope that we will someday do for them what Kulili did for the Aelf. Or at least that is how it seems to me. Then they may try to take Mythgarthr from us as the Aelf have wrested Aelfrice from Kulili. I don’t know. But in our own time, what is called magic consists of making contact with them and persuading them to help the magician, either for a reward, or out of pity—as the Overcyns help us at times—or simply to earn our trust.”

Garvaon said, “It can be dangerous. So I’ve heard, Your Lordship.”

Beel nodded. “It can be, but I’m going to attempt it tonight, if Sir Able will assist me. Will you, Sir Able?”

“Of course, My Lord.”

“We may find your dog, your servant, and even this mysterious swordswoman. If we do, we may learn things that will stand us in good stead in Jotunland. But the most likely outcome is that we’ll learn nothing at all. I want you to understand that.”

“I do, My Lord.”

“Sir Garvaon may attend me or not, as he chooses.”

Idnn declared, “I’ll attend you, Father. You can count on me.”

“I feared it.”

Garvaon said, “I’ll be at your side, Your Lordship. You may rely on me, always.”

“I know it.” Beel turned back to me. “I’ll talk to Master Egr about getting a horse for your beggar. Meet me here when the moon is high. Until then you’re dismissed.”