The Knight

We did not get to the top that day, or even the day after. I probably ought to say that, too. Uri and Baki knew where food might be as you went up, so we would stop whenever we got near a place, rest, and eat, if there was anything. Maybe we would find a room we could barricade. We did that both times when we slept.

Only I sort of lost track of the days, and it was night when we finally got to the roof garden. There was no moon, but there was bright starlight and it showed fruit trees with a lot of fruit on them. We were ready to eat anything, and that was great. Baki flew up a date palm and brought me a bunch of ripe dates. I had never eaten those before, and they are the best fruit in the world. There were oranges, too, not exactly like our oranges at home, but not exactly like tangerines either. Small and sweet.

When we were full I made Uri and Baki lie down and said I would keep watch. I did it because the closer to the top we got the less they had wanted to come up here, and I was afraid they would run if I put one of them on watch.

So they sacked out and I sat up with my back against a tree and blinked and yawned, and tried to stay awake. I got to looking at the stars, too, and thinking about the man that Kerl called the Moonrider. And pretty soon, sure enough, the moon came up.

That was when it hit me. You could never see the moon or the stars or the sun or anything like that in Aelfrice. I never had when Toug and I went there, and I never had either when Garsecg and I were swimming all over, watching the island be born and live and die, and watching the crag die, and all of that. If you were lucky, what you saw was the place I had come from, the place where the Western Trader was, and Irringsmouth, and a lot more. You saw Mythgarthr, and people living their lives up there, kind of the way you see somebody’s whole life in a movie. (It was not really like a movie, it was longer and more detailed, and you lost sight of somebody and went to somebody else, but you know what I mean.) So this was not Aelfrice at all. The bottom was in Aelfrice all right, but the top was in Mythgarthr, the same way that our moon and our stars were really in Skai.

So I had been right, and if anything could have kept me awake, it was that. But it did not. Pretty soon I went to sleep anyhow. I could not help it.

The moon climbed up the Bowl of Skai and got brighter and brighter, but that was not what woke me. What woke me was Garsecg. He came flapping up like a big flying dinosaur, bigger than a plane. His wings fanned me and made as much noise as a storm, and I jerked awake. He was still shrinking back into Garsecg when he said, “This may kill them.” He pointed to Uri and Baki. “Do you know that?”

I was yawning; I said, “I guess. Only I don’t much care. Maybe I ought to but I don’t.”

“They would not obey you?”

“I had to drag them a little, and a couple of times I had to smack them around some. I didn’t like that, but I did it. I tried not to hurt them too bad.”

Garsecg nodded, really looking like himself now. “They know they may die.”

“I don’t think so,” I said. “What I think is that Setr ordered them not to come up here, and they still can’t do it even if they want to. He enchanted them, or put a spell on them, or whatever you want to call it.”

Garsecg smiled. “Why would he do that? Do you know?”

“I think so,” I said. “Did you get a chance to rest?”

“I have had far more rest than you, I am sure.”

“Then stand watch for us. Wake me at dawn.”

“Sunup?”

He was testing me to see if I knew where I was, but I did not care. I said, “Whatever,” and went back to sleep.

It was the middle of morning when I woke up. I thought Garsecg had gone, but after I had splashed in the little creek I saw him (like you would see a ghost) sitting in deep shade under a big tree. I sat down beside him, not sure if I ought to be mad at him for letting me sleep.

“This is a durian,” he said, and held up a funky-looking fruit. “Would you like it?”

I said sure and took it, and he picked up another one for himself. “The smell is unpleasant,” he told me, “but the flesh is wholesome and delicious.” It had a thorny peel on it, and I could not get it open. “You found no weapon on your climb?”

I told him no. “They’re all down below in the armories. That’s what Uri said. By the way, what happened to getting me up at sunrise? You said you would.”

“I did not.” Garsecg was peeling his durian. “You suggested that I awaken you at the first light. I asked whether you intended the rising of the sun. You said you did, and slept. Did you dream?”

I nodded. “How’d you peel that thing?”

“This is a good place for dreaming. It may well be the best place. What dream had you?”

“I had mail and a helmet, a shield and a sword.” It was hard to remember already. “I rode down out of the sky like the Moonrider. I think I came to do justice on earth, only the earth swallowed me. What does it mean?”

“I have no idea. Nothing, perhaps.”

“You know. You know all about all that stuff.”