The Wizard

Chapter 8. Mani’s Owners

Two slave women visited Toug in the turret room to which the king had sent him, one carrying a heavy gold chain and the other a tunic of black batswing. Both knew Ulfa.

“She’s my sister,” Toug explained. “I’m hoping the king will let me take her home. The man who came with her, too.”

“Pouk,” the taller of the women said.

“Yes, Pouk. He’s Sir Able’s servant, and Sir Able would like him back. The king must have a lot.”

“It’s not a bad life,” the taller woman said; and the other, “It could be worse.”

“I’ll free you, too, if I can,” Toug promised them. Both looked frightened and hurried out.

“I didn’t mean to scare them,” Toug said as the huge door banged shut. Mani was composed. “Magic has a way of doing that.”

“I didn’t say anything about magic.” Toug resumed his examination of the room. Among other things, it held a bed slightly smaller than his father’s house in Glennidam, four chairs with rungs he would have to climb in order to sit in them, and a table upon which half a dozen people could have danced.

“There’s a sandbox over here,” Mani remarked. “That’s hospitable of them.”

Slowly, Toug nodded. “We’re going to live here awhile. Or they think we are.”

“If I were to offer a guess, you’d say I cheated.”

“No, I won’t.”

“All right.” Mani paused for dramatic effect. “My guess is that there is a chamber pot under that bed for you, and it’s five times too—”

“What’s the matter?”

“That picture.” Mani was staring up at it with eyes wide. “He’s gone.”

“The man in the black robe?”

“It wasn’t a man, it was a Frost Giant.” Mani climbed a chair back as he might have climbed a wall, and sprang to the top of the table.

“I didn’t know the giants painted pictures,” Toug said.

“I doubt that they do. They don’t seem to do much that they can get slaves to do for them.”

“They’re blind.”

“Not the women, and many women are very artistic.” The tip of Mani’s tail twitched. “My mistress drew wonderful pictures when her spells required them. Magic and art have a great deal in common.”

“You said those women were afraid of magic,” Toug argued, “when there wasn’t any for them to be afraid of.”

“Little you know.”

“Are you just going to sit and stare at that picture?”

“It’s like watching a rathole,” Mani explained. “There are ratholes in the wainscoting, by the way.”

“I wouldn’t have the patience.”

Mani looked superior but said nothing.

“Did you recognize him?” Toug inquired.

“The Frost Giant in the picture? No.”

The top of the bed was higher than Toug’s chin, but by grasping the blanket and jumping he climbed onto it. “I did.” He swung his feet over the edge.

“Who is it?”

“I’ll tell you if you’ll tell me why the king wants to see you.”

“That’s easy. My former mistress told him he ought to.”

Toug’s eyes widened. “Did she tell you that?”

“No. I haven’t spoken to her since she told me about the Aelf with the broken back. But who else who knows about me could have talked to him? Now whose portrait was it?”

“She’s a ghost? That’s what Sir Able said.”

“Correct. Fulfill your part of our bargain.”

Toug swung his legs, kicking the side of the mattress. “Why would she want him to talk to you?”

Mani’s unwavering gaze remained on the painting. “At the moment I’ve no idea, but that question was no part of our bargain. Who was it?”

“We should know after we’ve talked to him. Are you going to talk, Mani? He won’t like it if you don’t.”

“Then I’d better, and this is the last time I make any such bargain with you. I thought you honorable.”

“I am,” Toug declared. “It was a picture of—”

The door opened, and a black-robed Angrborn so tall that the room seemed small entered. “It’s of me,” he said. “My name is Thiazi, and I am our king’s primary minister.” His voice was low and chilling.

He pulled out one of the chairs and sat. “Our king is dining. He’ll send for you when he is finished. I thought it would be best to settle matters between ourselves first.”

On the table, Mani had turned away from the empty frame. Thiazi studied him. “Which of you is in charge?”

“He is,” Toug said. “Only I don’t know whether he’ll talk to you. Sometimes he doesn’t talk to people.”

Mani’s voice purred. “I always talk to magic workers. I am in charge, as my servitor told you. As to settling matters, what matters have we to settle?”

A frosty smile touched Thiazi’s lips. “You will tell me when you’d like me to pet you?”

“I will tell you if I would like you to pet me. It’s a privilege I accord to few, and seldom to them. Is that one? Am I to let your king stroke me whether I like it or not?”

“It might be wise. He’s fond of animals.”

“If he is fond of cats, he will understand.”

Thiazi smiled again. “You wish no help from me in this matter?”

“I require no help from you in this matter,” Mani said deliberately, “nor in any other. On the other hand, tangible gestures of goodwill are always appreciated and are usually reciprocated. How can we serve you?”

“In several ways. Are you aware that your party has slain thirteen royal Borderers?”

“We were robbed when I was not present to prevent it.”

Thiazi nodded. “By the Borderers, of course.”

“They did not identify themselves.”

Toug interrupted. “Those were the king’s men?”

Thiazi looked prouder than ever. “They were sons of Angr, our great ancestress, in royal service.”

“But...”

“They took the goods you were bringing to Utgard. Of course they did.”

Mani said, “Acting on the king’s order?”

“Your party appeared warlike. Do you deny it?”

“Yes,” Mani said. “Certainly.”

“You had armored horsemen and bowmen. You’ve reasons to present, I’m sure, but they were there. We—His Majesty—wished to determine how strong you really were.”

“Acting on your advice?”

Thiazi waved Mani’s question away. “The experiment might prove of interest. It proved much more interesting than we anticipated. His Majesty’s Borderers overcame your fighters with ease and carried off your valuables.”

“We got them back,” Toug said grimly.

“Exactly. We had hoped, you see, that your leader would return to his king for more gifts. That would have been profitable, though not enlightening. What happened instead was that a green horseman appeared among you.”

“How do you know?” Mani asked.

Toug said, “We didn’t kill all the giants. Some ran.”

Thiazi nodded. “I have spoken to them. More to the point, I was watching you in my crystal.”

Mani said, “I’d like to see it.”

Thiazi accorded him another frosty smile. “You shall, little pussy. You shall.”

Toug said, “Do you want to know if Mani and me fought your Borderers? I did, and he didn’t. If you think you ought to do something to me for fighting the people who robbed our king, I can’t stop you.”

Thiazi shook his head, regarding Toug through narrowed eyes. “You think me a sadist. I inflict pain when duty demands it. I neither object to it nor enjoy it, but do my duty. Have you watched your friend toy with a mouse? When you have, he may no longer be your friend.”

“Cats are cats,” Toug said. “I never thought he looked like a cow.”

Mani smiled, which he did with his mouth slightly open.

Thiazi might not have seen it. “We’re interested in the green horseman. You have other armored horsemen among you.”

Toug said, “Yes, sir.”

“Are their names secrets you may not divulge?”

“No, sir. Sir Garvaon, sir. He’s the senior knight. And Sir Svon. I’m Sir Svon’s squire, sir.”

“Sir Garvaon is the green horseman?”

“No, sir. That’s—”

“Can’t you see they’ll slay him?” Mani hissed.

“I hope not, little cat. We’d rather honor him. Your king sends you because he wishes our king his friend.”

“He didn’t send Mani,” Toug said, “he sent Lord Beel and Lady Idnn with fine gifts.”

“While His Majesty,” Thiazi continued, “desires the friendship of the green horseman, whose name is...?”

Toug said nothing.

“Oh, come now. Perhaps I should explain the political situation. His Majesty’s father was king in his time. A wise king, as his son is, but one who insisted his commands be executed promptly and with a will. He was king, after all, and those who forgot it did so at their peril.”

Toug nodded.

“He died, alas. His son Prince Gilling succeeded him, becoming our present majesty. You,” a forefinger longer than Toug’s hand indicated Toug, “stand at the brink of manhood. His Majesty’s situation was the same. Young and inexperienced, he was thought weak. Distant lords rebelled. When we went east, rebellion broke out in the west. When we went west, the east broke out afresh. In the mountains of the south, Mice plotted to bring low the pure get of Angr. Partiality toward your kind was out of the question. The loyalty of many was doubtful or worse. We dared not lose a battle, and any trivial act that might support the lie that His Majesty favored you would’ve been disastrous. Thus he treated you with utmost rigor. He had to.”

Mani asked, “Are things so different now?”

“Oh, indeed.” If Thiazi had caught the irony in Mani’s question, he ignored it. “The realm has been subdued. The rebels are dead, and their sons and sires. Their strongholds are in the hands of vassals of proven loyalty. I myself—someday I may show you Thiazbor and Flintwal, but no words of mine could describe them.”

“If the king wants to be nice to us, he could let Lord Beel’s people into Utgard,” Toug suggested.

“As he will, when he’s made his point.” Thiazi smiled. “After we have decided just how they are to be treated. You are helping us with that, and I have come—I speak frankly—to suggest how you might best do it. You’re loyal to your king, so you indicated. You fought our Borderers to recover your king’s goods. You challenged me to punish you for it.”

“Well, no—” Toug began.

“Your king desires His Majesty’s friendship. Thus you serve your king best if you please His Majesty.” Slowly, Toug nodded.

“His Majesty has human slaves. You have seen them.”

Toug nodded again. “I need to talk to you about those.”

“You shall.”

Mani yawned. “This doesn’t concern me.”

“The connection will become apparent, pussy. Our king’s slaves serve him well. He treats them better than he might, and they’re conscious of their honor as royal chattels. Not infrequently there are disturbances in remote locales, in the south, particularly. The Mice in the mountains and others. He has trusty servants who might act, yet he must hesitate before dispatching them. What if a fresh rebellion were to break out? And would not their absence encourage it?”

“I understand,” Toug said. “You want us to do it.”

Thiazi smiled. “It’s really rather simple, isn’t it? If slaves, forced to serve, serve well and loyally, would not friends, valiant horsemen attached to His Majesty by bonds of gratitude, serve better? He has gold to give, lands, slaves, fame, the encomia of a king. All that the valiant desire.”

“I’ll tell Sir Svon when I see him again,” Toug said, hoping he would indeed see Sir Svon again.

“What of the green horseman? Won’t you tell him, too?”

“If I see him.”

“It can be arranged, perhaps. Do you know where he is?”

“No,” Toug said. “He went away.”

“But you, pussy. You are wise.”

Mani opened his eyes. “Who are we talking about?”

Thiazi’s huge hand found Toug’s shoulder. “Tell him!”

“It’s Sir Able, of course.”

“They weren’t sure,” Mani explained. “Now they know.”

“We consulted my crystal,” Thiazi leaned back, smiling, “and were shown a speaking cat. Neither His Majesty nor I could guess how a cat could bring the green horseman into His Majesty’s service, but we resolved to do all we could. On my advice, His Majesty left the ambassador and his train without the walls and dispatched an officer to obtain the cat.”

Thiazi’s forefinger nearly touched Mani’s nose. “You.” The finger was withdrawn. “His Majesty’s officer succeeded, and you, Squire, confirmed in His Majesty’s hearing that it was a speaking cat. Furthermore, you informed us that it had been given to this Lady Idnn by a horseman.” Thiazi paused. “No mean gift, is it? A speaking cat! He must esteem her.”

“I’m sure he does, sir,” Toug said.

“You will wish to discuss his regard for her with His Majesty.” Thiazi rose. “And to decide how you and this cat will persuade him to enter our service. His Majesty will ask you that, I feel certain. It would be prudent to have an answer ready. Wash your face, too, and dress yourself in the clothing I provided.”

When the door had shut, Toug slid off the bed, found the batswing tunic, and put it on, tossing the torn and terribly dirty shirt his mother had sewn for him into a corner. “I’d like to know how long I’ve been away,” he muttered.

“From your home? Don’t you know?”

Toug shook his head. “A lot was in Aelfrice, and things go slow there, Sir Able says. Only my sister Ulfa wasn’t in Aelfrice, so maybe she can tell me.”

Mani looked bored. “Still think she’s here?”

“Remember when the king wanted his table for us to stand on? Blind men carried it, with a woman bossing them.”

“Certainly.”

“Well, that was my sister.” When Mani said nothing, Toug added, “What’s the matter? Don’t you believe me?”

“Of course I do. I’m merely digesting the information.” Mani’s eyes flew wide, two shining emeralds. “You require experienced, wise, and subtle guidance, young man.”

“Yes, but there’s nobody like that here.”

“Wrong. I stand before you. We must free your sister.”

Toug nodded.

“We must also reunite Sir Able with his servant, and recover Sir Able’s belongings—his horses and goods.” Toug nodded again.

“Nor is that all. We must assist Lord Beel in securing peace, and my mistress and your master in overcoming whatever impediments may separate them. You agree?”

“You bet I do.”

“What else? Anything?”

“I’d like to meet some girls.”

Mani smiled, displaying fangs too large for an animal his size. “I know the feeling. What about returning to your home in whachamacallit?”

“Glennidam.” Toug had gone to the door. Its latch was higher than his head, but he reached it without difficulty. “This’s locked.”

“I expected no less. Want to go back to Glennidam?”

“I’d rather stay with Sir Svon and learn to be a knight, but I’d like to help my sister get home if she wants to.”

“Well spoken. Now, are any of these mutually exclusive? Suppose, for example, that we make it possible for your master and my mistress to disport themselves as they think fit. Would it interfere with your learning to be a knight?”

“I don’t see how.”

“Nor do I. Did your sister recognize you?”

“Yes, I’m sure she did. We sort of looked at each other for a minute, if you know what I mean.”

“Certainly. That being the case, why—”

“What’s the matter?” Toug asked.

Mani gestured toward the frowning face of Thiazi in the painting. “He’s back.”

Reluctantly, Toug nodded. “Do you think he hears us?”

“I’m sure of it.” Mani dashed across the table and sprang onto the windowsill.

“Be careful!” Toug called, but Mani had vanished.

“See what you did?” Toug asked the picture. “You and your magic! What if he gets killed?”

Mani’s head reappeared over the sill. “This isn’t bad at all. Are you a good climber?”

“Pretty good,” Toug said doubtfully.

“Come on, then.” Mani vanished a second time.

Toug dragged the nearest chair to the window, climbed it, and looked out. He had thought the turret room chill and drafty; but the wind beyond the window was colder, the bitter wind that he had braved all that morning. He drew his cloak around him and shivered before climbing from the chair seat to the windowsill.

He was just in time to see Mani ducking through another window, lower and well to his right. For a moment Mani’s sinuous tail flourished over the sill of that not-too-distant window; then it was gone.

“Are you going to climb out there?” asked a voice Toug could not quite place.

Looking over his shoulder he saw a naked girl, a slender girl with a mop of uncombed hair floating over her head. The hair was red; the girl was red too, the gleaming, glowing red of new copper.

“I am Baki, Lord. I was dying, and you healed me.”

Unable to speak, Toug nodded.

“You could not see well, up in the loft. There was just the lamp, and Sir Able kept the flame down. I suppose he was afraid we would set the barn afire.” Baki smiled; and Toug saw that her teeth were not red but bright white, small, and pointed; her smiling eyes were yellow fire. “Cannot you change yourself into a bird, Lord? That would be safer.”

“No,” Toug said. “I can’t do that.”

“I may not be able to heal you if you fall, but climbing will be easier if you take off your boots.”

“I know, but I hate to leave them here. They’re not good boots, but they’re all I’ve got.”

“I can make myself a flying thing and carry them for you.” Baki sounded pensive. “I will be terribly ugly. Will you try not to hold it against me?”

“You couldn’t be ugly” Toug declared.

Smoke poured from her eyes. “This is a Khimaira,” she said, “except that I am going to keep my face the same. They have awful faces, so I will not do that part.”

Her slender body became more slender still, her long legs shrank and twisted, and her dainty feet turned to claws. Behind her arms were black wings, folded now. “Take off your boots, Lord,” she said. Her face and voice were unchanged.

“Can you carry Sword Breaker for me, too?”

She could, and he removed his sword belt and handed that down to her. “It—it’s a famous blade. I mean, it was Sir Able’s once.”

“I will be careful. There will be no danger for me, and none for Sword Breaker. But great danger for you. The ivy will help, but the wall is nearly straight. If you slip...”

“If it’s bad I won’t do it,” Toug promised, and climbed out, flattening himself against the rough and freezing wall and finding purchase for his toes on a stout vine stem. Inch by inch he descended, moving far more slowly than Mani had toward the window Mani had entered. Wind whipped his cloak, and his new tunic seemed comfortless. When he was halfway there, a dusky thing spread wide wings and flapped from the window of the turret with his boots and sword belt. It rose, black against the sky—he could twist his head no farther, and it was lost behind him.

After that he was preoccupied with his own safety. The window was near. Very near, he felt sure, and he must reach it. Return was out of the question.

His fingers found the edge of a stone frame: it seemed too good to be true. One freezing foot was on the wide and (oh, blessedly) flat stone sill.

“As soon as you get in, I will hand these things to you,” Baki said behind him. “It will make it easier for me.”

He dared not look but muttered, “All right.”

Then he was panting on the sill, gripping the frame with one hand, and he saw Baki flattened against the wall somewhat higher, his sword belt buckled around her neck, Sword Breaker and his knife hanging down her back, and his boots held by a finger and thumb.

“You can fly,” he gasped. “You don’t have to do that.”

She smiled. “I did not like your seeing me so, Lord. Here. Take them.”

Toug reached for his boots; as he touched them, she lost her grip. Lunging, he caught her wrist. Slight though it was, her weight nearly pulled him into the emptiness below.

And then—by magic, as it seemed afterward—they were inside, trembling and hugging, his boots lost. But alive! Alive! “I am s-so s-s-sorry,” Baki said, and wept. “I nearly killed you. Al-almost killed you.”

He tried to comfort her, as Ulfa had tried sometimes to comfort him. When her sobs had subsided to gulps, she said, “I knew I could if you could. I—I made my fingers more clawy. But I was not careful enough.”

Toug nodded, wanting to say it did not matter, but not knowing how to say it.

“I want to be like you. The other half.”

He did not understand. When she began to change he jumped, more frightened than when it seemed both must fall.

Obscured by swirling smoke, her coppery skin turned pink and peach. “Do I look right now, Lord?”

“You—you’re...”

“Naked. I know. We do not wear clothes.” She smiled. “But I am the other half. This is what Queen Disiri did for Sir Able to m-make him love her, and I can do it too. See?”

Toug managed to nod.

“We will have to find clothes and boots. Here.”

It was his sword belt. He buckled it on, then took off his green cloak and put it around her.

“Thank you, Lord. It is the wrong color, but I know you mean well.”

“It’s green.”

She nodded. “Disiri’s color. But I cannot go around this castle naked, though the men are blind.”

“You still have red hair. Redheads look nice in green.” His mother had told him that once.

“Do we? Then it will be all right. And I look...?”

“You’re beautiful!”

She laughed, wiping away the last tears. “But am I of your kind? Do I look right in every way?”

“Well, your teeth aren’t exactly like ours.”

“I know. I will try not to show them.”

The room seemed to be used for meetings; it was funnel-shaped, with a flat-topped boulder in its center, surrounded by rows of benches as high as the seats of the chairs in the turret room. Its walls were hung with pictures, but these were covered with brown curtains; and even the bottoms of these were too high to reach.

Toug looked around at these things, then put them from his mind. “We ought to find Mani.”

“You like Mani better?” Baki gave Toug a sly smile.

“No.” He sighed. “But I’m taking care of him. That’s why I climbed out on that wall—I didn’t want Mani to get away. But he got away anyhow, and I nearly got us killed.”

“You should not feel badly, Lord.”

He sighed again. “You’d better call me Toug when other people are around. And I do feel bad. I’ve been trying to be like Sir Able, and look at the mess.”

Baki smiled, keeping her lips tight over her teeth. “You are more like Sir Able than you know, Toug. Very well, we will look for the cat. Perhaps we may find clothes for me and boots for you along the way. Let us hope so.”

Toug scarcely heard her. Something that was neither fog nor gray smoke was shaping itself above the great stone in the center of the room. For an instant he glimpsed eyes and teeth; they shuddered and disappeared. The light from the window, which had never been bright, dimmed, and the high, cracked voice of an old woman spoke.