The Knight

There was no smile at that. “Pray, rather, that she does not find you.” I felt like I had been kicked.

“Very well. I myself am less than perfect, as I have learned at cost. Learn to summon her, or any of them, and she must come to you.”

“Uri and Baki come sometimes when I call them,” I told him. “Is that what you mean?”

“No.” Michael stroked Gylf’s head. “You must call her, or any of them, as those you call Overcyns would call you.”

“Will you teach me?”

Michael shook his head. “I cannot. No one can. Teach yourself. So it is with everything.” He closed his eyes, and a one-eyed man with a spear came out of the trees, knelt, and laid his spear on the ground at Michael’s feet. Gylf fawned on this one-eyed man.

Then he was gone, and the spear, too.

“You see? How could I, or anyone, teach that?”

I looked around at the bright pool and the sunlit glade. I was really looking for the one-eyed man—okay, for the Valfather, because that is who it was—but even then I knew I never could forget them. That was right enough. Later when I forgot about everything, even Disiri for a while, I still remembered them.

“If you have no more questions, Sir Able, I will go.”

“I have more, Sir Michael.” It was terribly hard to say that. “May I ask them? Three more, if ...”

“If that is not too many. Ask.”

“One time I was on—on a certain island, the island where Bluestone Castle used to be.” He nodded.

“And I saw a knight there, for just a moment. A knight with a black dragon on his shield. Did I call him, the way you called the Valfather?”

“He called you.” Michael stood.

His wings opened a little, and I could see the gleam under the white glow. I said, “Can you fly in mail?”

Something that was not very far from a laugh showed in his sky-colored eyes. “That was not your second question.”

“No. I was going to ask who the knight I saw was.”

“Yes, I can. But I have come here to descend, not to fly. As for the knight you saw, I tell you that there was no one on that island save yourself.”

“I don’t understand that at all.”

“Your third question is the wisest. Things always fall out so. Ask it.”

“It was what question I should ask.”

The smile returned. “You should ask whence came the tongs that grasped Eterne. Notice, please, that I did not say I would answer you. Farewell. I go to Aelfrice to seek that far-famed knight, Sir Able of the High Heart.”

With that, Michael walked over the water to the middle of the pool and sank out of sight.

Chapter 45. The Cottage In The Forest

I spent the rest of that day doing something I had never done before, something I would have sworn on a stack of bibles that I would never do. I had seen a stone table at Sheerwall where they sacrificed before a war or battle, and I built one as much like it as I could beside that pool, carrying stones all day while Gylf hunted, and fitting them together sort of like a puzzle. I got it finished just before dark.

Next morning I collected a lot of deadwood, enough for a really big fire—that was a lot easier than the stones had been. I could break most of the pieces I found over my knee, and if I could not I laid them down so that they could not move when I hit them, and whacked them with Sword Breaker. Then Gylf and I went hunting together. He had brought in a partridge and a marmot the day before, but we were after something big for the sacrifice. Just about the time the sun touched the treetops we got a real nice elk. No antlers, of course, at that time of year; but it was a big bull just the same. If it had been in antler, they would have been good ones. I saw it on a ridge about two hundred yards away. My bowstring had about driven me crazy the night before, giving me other people’s dreams; and I had been thinking of throwing it away. When I saw the elk I got glad I had it very fast. My arrow flew like lightning, catching the elk in back of the shoulder about halfway down. It ran like the wind at first, but Gylf got out in front and turned it, heading it back toward our table until it fell the last time.

I am big, thanks to Disiri, and lots of people have told me how strong I am; but I was not strong enough to carry that elk. I had to drag it, with Gylf pulling with his teeth over the tough parts. Finally I gave up. I told Gylf we couldn’t do it, and we would have to take part to eat and leave the rest. Then he got big and black, and picked up the elk like a rabbit, and carried it for me. The funny thing was that I could tell even when he was big like that, that he was afraid I would be mad. I was not. Scared, sure. But not mad.

We got the elk up on the wood on the table, and covered it with more wood. Then we praised the gods of Kleos, both of us, and I set the wood on fire. It was only Gylf and me, but I had never felt as good about anything as I did that night.