Read The Wizard for Free Online Page A

with some other stuff. Is that enough?" "No. What did you do there?" "Feasted, sang, told stories, practiced the arts of war, and fought giants, the Giants of Winter and Old Night." "Lady Idnn fights giants, too," Mani said proudly. "She put an arrow in the eye of one today." "Hooray for Lady Idnn," I glanced at her across the cavernous room, "but the Frost Giant she blinded was nothing like the giants we fought. Let me tell you about a raid I went on. It's always cold and gloomy where they live, and that time it was windy, too. We took refuge in a cave." "So would I," Mani declared. "I'll bet. It was a big cave with five small ones branching off from it. They were all dead ends, and empty. We made a roaring fire in the big one and slept comfortably enough, with one or another keeping watch." "I would have gone scouting. You never know what you may find." "Exactly. I had the last watch, so I was up before the others. When my watch was over I woke them up, and I thought I'd have a look around. There was a range of hills to the north, and I climbed one. It was your lying on my chest that reminded me of all this." "Do tell." "I will, and I'm telling the truth, no matter what you think. When I got to the top, I saw a great big face to the west with its eye shut. The beard was like a forest, the mouth was like a pit, and the nostrils were like a couple of tunnels. I looked downhill, and saw my friends leaving the cave. I saw, too, that it wasn't really a cave at all, but the glove of the giant I was standing on." Mani licked his left paw thoughtfully. "I doubt that you believe me, but there's more. Want to hear it?" "Go ahead." "Our leader made himself bigger when I told him. Bigger and bigger until he was as big as the giant I'd climbed, and his hammer and helmet and everything else that was his grew with him. Seeing him, the rest of us made ourselves bigger too. I hadn't known I could, until he did it. But when he did, I understood how it was done and did it too. I couldn't make myself as big as he was, none of us could. We could make ourselves very big, just the same. And we did. I won't tell you the rest, because you'd never believe it." Mani completed the licking of his left paw and licked his right for a time, and at last said, "Tell me about the cats. As much as you know." "They belong to the Lady of Folkvangr, just like I told you. She's one of the Valfather's daughters, I think the youngest, and she's . . . Well, nobody can say how beautiful she is. There aren't any words for it." Mani grinned. "I noticed you choked, just thinking about it." "The first time you see her you fall on your knees and draw your sword, and lay it at her feet. I did that, and I saw a lot of others do it, too." "Touching." "She smiles and makes you get up, and tells you very sweetly that she understands you'd die for her, and swears she'll be your friend always." "That happened to you?" "To all of us. It was a wonderful, wonderful moment. I'd be tempted to say the most wonderful moment of my life, if it weren't for a moment that was even more wonderful. But honestly, Skai's full of wonderful moments. May I tell you what it's like?" Mani's voice smiled. "I wish you would, Sir Able." "I saw a cat at Sheerwall that had been born crippled. It had to hop like a rabbit, more or less." Mani nodded. "Now imagine every cat was like that. And after years and years something happened to you so you could run and jump the way you do. How would you feel?" "I suppose I'd go mad with joy." "Exactly. That was what Skai was like. Our lives in Mythgarthr had been bad dreams and now we were awake and the sun was shining, and those dreams had no more power over us. Do you want to hear about Folkvangr?" "Yes, if that's where the Lady's cats live." "Folkvangr is a beautiful hall in the loveliest of all meadows. Sometimes it's near the Valfather's castle, and sometimes it's far from it. They both move, but in different ways. There are gardens, and the meadow is the best