The Knight

“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.”

“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, snatched 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 snatched 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?”

“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.”