The Knight

“When it’s brave deeds we need. I understand.” I took Mani off my shoulder, petted him, and set him down. “I need a number for them, so I’m taking thirteen. It may be off, but I won’t argue now. We were taken by surprise last night by thirteen big men. Even so, we fought, and we killed about a third.”

Beel nodded again.

“Sir Garvaon and I weren’t there for the first part of that fight, and I’d like to think it would have made a big difference if we had been.”

Garvaon said, “I’m as eager for this as you are, but let’s not forget we’ve lost some men ourselves.”

“I know it. I’ll get to that in a minute. First I want to ask what would happen if things were turned around. What if we were to catch those nine big men off guard?”

No one spoke.

“I’m asking you, My Lord, but everybody else, too. I’m asking Lady Idnn and Sir Garvaon. And Swert and Uns.”

At last Uns said, “I fit Org, sar. Wid me bare hands I done it.”

“And alone. I know. I know what happened to you, too. Would you fight again?”

“If ya do, Sar Able, sar.”

“That’s all I can ask.” I stopped to think things over. “When I came, Lady Idnn, you said the archers and men-at-arms hadn’t run like your servants. Did you expect your servants to fight?”

“My maids? Certainly not.”

“What about Master Crol? The muleteers? Swert there?”

Beel said, “Master Crol may well have fought. It would not surprise me if he had.”

Garvaon said, “He did.”

I nodded. “What about the others, My Lady?”

“I don’t think so.”

“None of them? What about you, Swert? Would you have fought, if you’d been there?”

“I hope so, Sir Able. If I’d had something to fight with.”

―――

That evening I talked to all the servants, and to the archers and men-at-arms.

“I’ve only got three things to say to you,” I told them. “I’ll talk a lot about those three things, because I think you’ll want me to. I’ll answer your questions as well as I can. But everything I’ve got to say will come down to those three things, so I’d like to get them out of the way before we do the rest.” I studied them, hoping my silence would lend weight to my words.

“I’m asking you to fight. All of you. Everyone here. Lord Beel has ordered you to, but he can’t make you do it any more than I can. All he can do is punish you if you don’t. Whether you fight or not is up to you—that’s the first thing I’ve got to say.

“You won’t be fighting alone. Each man-at-arms and each archer is going to take charge of two or three or four of you, depending on how the numbers work out, teach you what you’ll need to know, and lead you when we go to get our goods back from the Angrborn. Lord Beel himself will be leading the men-at-arms and the archers, and so will Sir Garvaon and I. That’s the second thing.”

They were looking at each other by that time, and I let them do it for more than a minute.

“Most of you have heard I killed one of the Angrborn last night. Sir Garvaon killed one too, but he had two archers and a man-at-arms fighting beside him. He likes to pretend that it makes what he did less than what I did. But what he did, and what I did, don’t matter much. What matters is that our men-at-arms and our archers killed two before Sir Garvaon and I came down from the pass. It doesn’t take a knight. A few brave men were able to do it without a knight to lead them. That’s the third thing I have to say, and the most important.” I stopped again.

“Some of you will have questions for me, or for Lord Beel, or for Sir Garvaon. Some may even have questions for Lady Idnn. Stand, and speak loudly. I’ve had questions for Lord Beel myself, and he’s had questions for me. No one will be punished for asking a question.”

A middle-aged servingman rose. “Is anyone not going to fight?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “We’ll have to see.”

The servingman sat down quickly.

“Lord Beel is going to fight. Lady Idnn is going to fight. Sir Garvaon is going to fight. The archers and men-at-arms are going to fight, and I am going to fight.”

Master Crol called, “So am I!”

“And Master Crol is going to fight, of course. I took that so much for granted that I forgot to mention it. But none of us know about the rest of you. That’s one of the things we’re going to find out.”

One of Idnn’s maids got hesitantly to her feet. “We’re supposed to fight, too?”

“Didn’t Lady Idnn tell you?”

The maid’s nod was timid.

“Then you know the answer. Let me explain. Ordinarily, women don’t fight because they’re not as strong as men. But what’s my strength or Sir Garvaon’s compared to the strength of the giants? You can fight them as well as we do, if you choose to do it. Lady Idnn’s going to lead you and teach you. She and her bow have accounted for a lot of deer, but she’s after bigger game now, and it’s your duty to help her.”

A cook sitting near the maid said, “Do we get to choose the man-at-arms we want?”

“Stand up.” I gestured. “The rest can’t hear you.”

The cook rose, somewhat embarrassed. “You said that each two or three of us would have a man-at-arms to teach us. Do we get to pick which one?”

“Or an archer. No. They get to choose you.”