The Knight

Chapter 48. Too Much Honor

Beel’s pavilion was the richest. The walls and roof were crimson silk, and the ropes were braided silk cords. The poles were turner’s work, of some dark wood that looked purple when the sun hit it. The men-at-arms guarding it saluted Crol as three maids came fluttering out like a little flock of sparrows; the first one was carrying a basin of steaming water, the second one towels, and the third one soap, sponges, and what may have been a bundle of laundry.

“We’ll have to wait a bit,” Crol remarked as one of the men-at-arms rapped a pole; but a servingman with the face of a sly mouse popped out of the door to tell us to come in.

Beel sat at a folding table on which a platter of quail smoked and sputtered; his daughter, a doe-eyed girl about sixteen, sat beside him on a folding chair. She was picking bits from one of the quail.

Beel himself, a middle-aged man so short you noticed it even when he was sitting down, studied Mani, Gylf, and me, smiled just a little, and said, “You bring me a witch knight, I see, Master Crol. Or a wild knight, perhaps. Which is it?”

Crol cleared his throat. “Good morrow, Your Lordship. I trust you slept well.”

Beel nodded.

“I thought it would be better for Sir Able to fetch along his dog and cat, Your Lordship, because Your Lordship was bound to hear about them. Then Your Lordship would have wanted to know why I hadn’t let Your Lordship see them for yourself, and quite right too. If they offend, we can take them away, Your Lordship.”

The thin smile returned as Beel spoke to me. “I usually see no one but my herald with a cat upon his shoulder. It’s a novelty to see somebody else wearing one. Are you as fond of them as Crol is?”

I said, “Of this one, My Lord.”

“Sanity at last. He has a score, I swear. His favorite is white, though, and nothing like the size of that monster. Would he like a bird, do you think?”

Beel held up a quail; and Mani jumped from my shoulder to the tabletop, accepted it with both front paws, made Beel a dignified little bow, leaped from the table to the ground and disappeared behind the tablecloth.

“Witch, wizard, or warlock,” Beel muttered. “Leave us, Master Crol.”

“But, Your Lordship—”

Beel silenced him with a gesture; another sent him hurrying away.

“Is that a glamour, Sir Knight? Are you in fact an aged crone? What form would you show if I were to lash your face with a witch-hazel wand?”

I said, “I don’t know, My Lord. I’m really a boy about your daughter’s age. Maybe you’d see, if you did that. I can’t be sure.”

The smile flickered and died. “I know the feeling. Sir Able, is it? You are a knight? That’s what everyone tells me.”

“Yes, My Lord. I’m Sir Able of the High Heart.”

“Do you wish to travel with us to Jotunland? That’s what I gathered from the man I talked to.”

“No, My Lord. I only want to borrow a horse so I can catch up with my servant.” Just then it struck me that Pouk might have passed them on the road; and I said, “Have you seen him? A young man with a big nose and one eye?”

Beel shook his head. “Suppose I give you a horse, a good one. Will you leave us?”

“At once, My Lord, if you’re willing I should. And I’ll return it as soon as I can.”

“We’re traveling north, and won’t halt until we reach Utgard. Will you follow us there? To return my horse?”

“I’m going to ride ahead of you,” I explained. “I’m supposed to take my stand at a mountain pass and challenge all comers. Before we engage, I’ll return your horse and thank you.”

Beel’s daughter giggled.

Her father gave her a look that would have shut up almost anybody. “I am on the king’s business, Sir Able.”

I said, “A great honor, My Lord. I envy you.”

“But you’ll fight me just the same?”

“I’m honor bound to do it, My Lord. Or to fight your champion, if you designate one.”

Beel nodded. “I have Sir Garvaon with me, the bravest of my knights and the most skilled. Will he do?”

“No problem, My Lord.”

“When he breaks your head and a few other bones, will you expect us to stay our errand to nurse you?”

I said, “Of course not.”

“You don’t fancy yourself invincible? I ask because I was told you were.”

“No, My Lord. I’ve never said that, and I never would.”

“I didn’t say you said it, only that I had been told you thought it. Yesterday, Sir Garvaon mentioned that one of his men had driven off a crippled beggar.”

He waited for me to talk after he said that, so I said, “I hope he gave him something first.”

“I doubt it. I had Sir Garvaon’s man brought to me. I expect beggars in Kingsdoom, not in the wild, and I asked him what the beggar was doing out here. He’d told Sir Garvaon’s man that he was searching for a most noble knight, Sir Able by name, who had promised to take him into his service. You look surprised.”

I was, and I admitted it.

“Who was this beggar, Sir Able? Have you any notion?” I shook my head.

Beel’s daughter said, “You must have given him a few coins and a kind word once.” Her voice was soft, and it made me think of a guitar that some girl was playing alone in a garden at night.

I waited for her to go on, because I wanted to hear more of it, but she did not. Finally I said, “If I did, My Lady, I’ve forgotten it completely.”

“A noble knight,” Beel said it as if he were talking to himself, although I knew he was not. “My grandfather was His Majesty’s grandfather as well, Sir Able.”

I bowed, not really knowing whether I should or not. “It’s an honor to me just to talk to you, My Lord.”

“My father was a prince, the younger brother of His Majesty’s father. It is no small distinction.”

“I know that,” I said.

“I myself am a mere baron, but my older brother is a duke. If he and his son were to perish, I would be duke in my turn, Sir Able.” I did not know what to say, so I just nodded.

“A mere baron. And yet I have my cousin’s confidence. Thus I am sent to the King of the Angrborn bearing rich gifts, in the hope that my protestations will terminate his incursions. I do not tell you all this to boast, Sir Able. I have no need to boast, or even to impress you. I tell you so that you will understand that I know whereof I speak.”

I nodded again. “I don’t doubt it, My Lord.”

“I could name to you every knight of noble birth—and not the names merely, but the family connections and deeds of valor as well. Not of some. Not of most. Of all.”

“I understand, My Lord.”

“I am equally familiar with every young man of noble lineage who would be a knight. There is no nobly born knight in all Celidon named Able. Nor is there any nobly born youth of that name, whether aspirant to knighthood or not.”

I should have caught on before that, but I had not. Now I finally got it. I said, “I’m not of noble birth, My Lord. I guess that beggar said I was? But he probably doesn’t know anything about me.”

“Crol thought you noble. Did you sense it?”

I shook my head. “I told him I wasn’t.”

“He did. It was apparent in his behavior. Your lofty stature, your physique, and your face—your face most of all—might support a claim to nobility.”

“Well, I won’t make one.” I felt like I did sometimes in school then, and it was hard not to fidget.

“I was tempted to invite you to sit when Crol brought you in. I am tempted still.”

That got me a nice smile from the daughter that meant she would not have minded.

Beel coughed. “I will not, however, Sir Able. I ought to inform that as a matter of policy I almost never sit with my inferiors.”

“It’s your table,” I said.

“So it is. Sitting encourages familiarity, and I am forced to punish men whom I myself have corrupted.” Beel shook his head. “I have done that once or twice. I did not find it pleasant.”

I said, “I bet they didn’t, either.”

“True. But—”

The daughter interrupted us. “May I pet your cat?” As soon as she said that, Mani came out from under the table and jumped into her lap.

“I asked the man I questioned whether the noble knight of whom the beggar had spoken thought himself invincible.” I would have expected Beel to be angry then, but he was smiling while he waited for my answer.

“It seems like a funny question,” I said. “I doubt if there’s any such knight, anywhere.”

Here I have to stop to say that Beel’s pavilion was divided into halves by a curtain—more scarlet silk, but not as heavy as the outside stuff. I have to say it because Baki peeked around it and grinned at me.

“I agree,” Beel was saying. “But my question only seems odd. I asked it because of something one of the sons of my kinsman Lord Obr had told me the day before.”

I can be pretty stupid sometimes, but I got that one. “Squire Svon?”

“Yes. I think you know him.”

“He’s my squire, My Lord.”

Beel shook his head. “Not if he has deserted you. He said that he had not, but it seemed to me otherwise.”

“He didn’t.” I suppose that should have been hard to say, but it was not; I knew it was the truth and I wanted to get it out.

“I am delighted to hear it. You are going to the Northern Mountains to take your stand in a pass. For how long, Sir Able?”

“’Til there’s ice in the sea, My Lord. Ice in the Bay of Forcetti.”

“Midwinter, in other words.” Beel sighed. “I would not have been astonished if you had told me Svon deserted you.”

I shook my head. “He didn’t.”

Beel sighed again and turned to his daughter. “He is a connection of your grandmother’s, a younger son of Lord Obr’s. Obr is your great-aunt’s nephew.” She nodded.

“Young Svon told me certain things. It is unpleasant to question the veracity of those nobly born, but his—he ...”

I waved it away. “I get it.”

“So does Idnn, I’m sure,” Beel said, and turned back to her. “He was squire to a certain Sir Ravd, a knight of high repute. He is said to have deserted him on the field of battle. I am not saying he did so—I doubt that he did. But his character is such that the lie could be believed. You understand?”

The daughter (that was Idnn) said, “You must have known him better than my father, Sir Able. Do you believe it?”

I said, “No, My Lady. I don’t believe things like that unless I see proof, and nobody seems to have any.”

Beel’s thin smile was back. “I asked him what he was doing among these unpeopled hills, as anyone would. He told me a great deal, not all of which I credited. For one thing, he told me he had been made squire to a peasant now called a knight.”

He waited for me, but I stayed quiet.

“You are, of course, of gentle birth, Sir Able?”

“I’m not. I won’t go into my family—you wouldn’t believe me if I did. But basically, Svon’s right.”

Beel’s eyes got just a little bit wider.

“I want to say this, though. Please listen. I really am a knight, and I haven’t told you a single lie. I didn’t lie to your herald either. Or to the sergeant that brought me to him.”

Gylf pushed against my leg then to show that he was on my side.

“This puts things in a new light.” Beel clapped, and the mousy-looking servingman scampered in right away.

“We’ve kept Sir Able standing much too long, Swert. Fetch another chair.”

The servingman nodded and ran off to get one.

Beel said, “I want to make certain there is no mistake. Your father was a peasant.”

“My father sold hammers and nails. Things like that. He died while I was young, so I have to say I never really knew him. But I know what my brother said, and what other people have said. If we were back home, I could show you where his store was.”

“Good. Good! And how did you learn the secret arts? May I ask that? Who taught you?”

I said, “Nobody, My Lord. I don’t know anything about magic.”

Idnn giggled.

“I understand. One takes certain oaths, Idnn. Oaths one dares not break.” Beel smiled at me. “I am an adept myself, Sir Able. I will question you no more, if you do not question me. I might say, however, that young Svon himself had noticed certain—irregularities is too strong a word, perhaps. Certain phenomena, while in your company.”

The servingman came back with a folding chair, very pretty, with silver fittings. He opened it up and set it at the table where I would be across from Idnn. Beel nodded and I sat down, taking it easy because I was not sure the chair would hold me. Gylf lay down next to me.

“I spent much of my boyhood in a peasant’s house,” Beel told me. “It was my nurse’s, outside my father’s castle of Coldcliff. When my older brothers were at their lessons in the nursery, my nurse would take me home so that I might play with her own children. We had great games, and ran through the wood. And fished, and swam. Doubtless it was much the same for you.”

I nodded, remembering. “Yeah, I did all that, and I lay on my back in the grass, sometimes, to watch the clouds. I don’t think I’ve done that since I came here.”

Beel turned to Idnn. “It’s good for you to hear all this, though you may not think so now.”

She said, “I’m sure it is, Father.”

“You see our peasants plowing and sowing, and their women spinning and so forth, hard work that lasts from the rising of the sun until its setting in many cases. But you need to understand that they have their own prides and their own pleasures. Speak kindly to them, protect them, and deal fairly with them, and they will never turn against you.”

“I’ll try, Father.”

He turned back to me. “I must explain to you what has been running through my mind. This hill country is by no means safe, and the mountains will be worse. We have Sir Garvaon and his archers and men-at-arms to protect us. But when I saw you, I was minded to keep you with me. A young knight—and more than a knight—brave and strong, would be a welcome augment to our force.”

“It’s really nice for you to say that,” I began, “but—”

“Examining you more closely, however, I feared you might prove overly attractive to Idnn.”

I felt my face get hot. “My Lord, you do me too much honor.”

His thin smile came again. “Of course I do. But so might she.” He glanced sidelong at her. “Idnn’s blood was royal, not so long ago. Now it represents the cream of the nobility. Soon she will be a child no more.”

Thinking how it had been with me I said, “For her sake, I hope she stays right where she is a while longer.”

“As do I, Sir Able. When I had considered those things, I thought to give you the horse you asked of me and hurry you on your way.”

“That’s—”

“But a peasant!” Beel’s smile was wider than it had been. “A peasant lad could not hold the smallest attraction for the great-granddaughter of King Pholsung.”

Idnn’s left eyelid sort of drooped when he said that. He did not see it because he was looking at me, but I did.

“Therefore, Sir Able, you are to remain with us for as long as we have need of you. Sir Garvaon’s pavilion will hold one more cot. It must, and Garvaon himself will welcome a companion of his own rank, I know.”

“My Lord, I can’t.”

“Can’t ride with us, and eat good food, and sleep like a human being?”

Idnn added her acoustic guitar to her father’s gargly tenor. “For me, Sir Able? What if I’m killed because you weren’t with me?”

That made it rough. “My Lord, My Lady, I promised—no, I swore—that I’d go straight to the mountains to take my stand, as His Grace Duke Marder and I had agreed.”

“And stay there,” Beel said, “until midwinter. Nearly half a year, in other words. Tell me something, Sir Able. Were you riding swiftly when you came to us? Did you gallop up to this pavilion and leap from the saddle to stand before me with Master Crol?”

“My Lord—”

“You had no horse. Isn’t that the fact? You came to me to borrow one.”

Not knowing what to say, I nodded.

“I am offering to give you one. Not a loan, a gift. I will give it on the condition that you will travel with my daughter and me until we reach the pass you intend to hold. I ask you this single question. Will you travel faster by riding with us, or by walking alone? Because you must do one or the other.”

Mani poked his head above the table to grin at me, and I wanted to kick him.