The Knight

I said, “I doubt that I’ll be much use in a storm, but I’ll lead your men in a fight if they’ll follow me.” I did not think it would really happen. “You’ve got weapons for them?”

He nodded. “Pikes mostly. Boarding axes.”

That explained Pouk’s objection to a battle-ax.

The captain cleared his throat. “Speaking of weapons leads me to something I’ve got to ask you, Sir Able of the High Heart. You don’t trust me, I know. And I don’t blame you, but you can. I’ll let bygones be bygones, if you know what I mean.”

I said that was nice.

“We’ll be sailing tomorrow night. May I go ashore and get myself another, sword? I may need it.”

Well, I wanted to say no. But I knew that he could get one of those boarding axes or something else like that. So I said all right.

Chapter 18. Alone

When I had seen everything, I went back to the captain’s cabin. Pouk had made the bed and swept and mopped the floor, and was unpacking things we had bought ashore and stowing them in chests and cupboards. I got out the scield I had promised him and put another one with it, saying that he had earned that much and more, which was the truth.

“Thankee, Sir Able. Thankee, sir.” He bowed, touching his cap at the same time, something I was going to see a lot of, although I did not know it then. “You don’t have to give no more than the ’un, sir. Only I’ll take ’em if you want to give ’em to me. Only I’ll give ’em back if you need ’em for yourself, sir.”

I shook my head. “They’re yours. You earned them, like I said. You might be able to hitch a ride back to shore on that boat the sailors are unloading, but you’d better hurry. It’s about empty now.”

Pouk shook his head. “I’m stayin’ on, sir, with your leave. I was lookin’ out sharp for a berth when you spied me on th’ wharf. I’ve dropped my hook, if you take my meanin’.”

“You’re planning to sail on this ship?” I sat down on my bed.

“Aye, sir. As your man, sir.” Seeing the way I looked, he added, “You need somebody what will look out for you, sir. You’re as good a man as ever I seen, an’ smart, an’ I’m sure you know lots out o’ books. Only sometimes you’re a green hand, sir. I seen it when we was fittin’ up, sir. They’d o’ cheated you twenty times over. So you need somebody bad—somebody that knows th’ ways.”

That made me mad. Not mad at Pouk—it was pretty hard to be mad at Pouk, usually—but mad at people, mad at a world where so many were out to cheat everybody. Maybe it was because of the time in Aelfrice; I do not know. “I was a boy not long ago,” I told Pouk. “It hasn’t been long at all, and in lots of ways, I still am.”

“Course, sir. So that’s me, sir. I ain’t bad as they come, but I’m plenty bad enough. Try me, an’ you’ll see.”

“As for books, I looked into some in Irringsmouth and the writing was just black marks on the paper. I can no more read than you can, Pouk.”

“You know what’s in ’em, sir. That’s what matters.”

“I doubt it.” I took a deep breath. “I do know this, though. I know I don’t need a servant, and I can’t afford to pay one, certainly not a scield a day.”

“There you are, sir! A scield? That’s wages for a month for a sailor or a stableman or just about anybody.”

I said no, and I made it as firm as I knew how.

“So I’m set for a couple o’ months, an’ after that I’d let it ride a couple more. Only I don’t want no pay, sir.” He laid his two scields on the table. “Just let me stay on, an’ I’ll look out for myself. Why, I mixed my seabag in with your bags, sir, an’ you didn’t pay no mind.”

I was worried about my gold, gold in the burse that hung from my belt and more in my old bag, which was hanging from my neck under my clothes. I told him he could not sleep in the cabin with me, and that was final.

He grinned, seeing he had won. “Why, I don’t want to, sir. I’ll sleep in front o’ th’ door, sir, like I done last night. That way can’t nobody get in without wakin’ me up.”

“On that wooden floor?” I had slept on skins and dead leaves a lot by then, but I could not imagine Pouk or anybody sleeping on bare boards. “Th’ deck, sir? Sure thing, sir. I’ve slept out on deck many an’ many a time.”

“Knights sleep in their armor, sometimes,” I told him. “What you do—what sailors do—must be worse. What will you do when it rains?”

“There’s a bit o’ set-in to your door, sir. Mebbe you didn’t notice, but there is. That’s what it’s for, an’ I’ve a bit o’ canvas to wrap myself in.”

I made a last try. “You’ll serve me for nothing? I warn you, Pouk, that’s what I’ll pay you.”

“Aye, sir! See them scields, sir? You take ’em. You won’t hear a word out o’ me.”

“I said I wouldn’t pay you, not that I’d rob you. I paid them to you. They’re yours now.” Then I thought about the outlaws I had killed, Bold Berthold’s hut, and some other things; and I said, “It seems to me, Pouk, that a true knight has to respect other people’s things, if they came by them honestly. If somebody came to rob me, I’d fight him and I might kill him. But how could I do it if I’d stolen myself?”

“I judge you’re right, sir. You always are, mostly.”