XI
Thalo spent the rest of the summer drifting his way westwards, first through Syenavol, then through Noynavol, until he came into Latavol. It happened one day, while he was in the southernmost reaches of the earldom, that he stopped to bathe in a river. He took off his clothes and waded in, but when he came up out of the water and opened his eyes, they nearly shut again for good. Sat on the riverbank he saw fox-fanged Knale once more, clad in his courtliest silver coat, his golden eyes glowing in the morning twilight.
‘You again!’ said Thalo. He flapped his arm and splashed about in the river, trying to scare the fox off, but he remained still. ‘Why do you haunt me?’
Knale said nothing.
Thalo continued, ‘You are no humble fox, are you? What else, then? Some spirit sent to torment me? What is your wicked work?’
Again, Knale said nothing, but now he stirred from his seat, trotted over to Thalo’s bag on the bank, and upon seizing it in his jaws, he skipped away. That was Thalo’s treasure bag, in which he kept the jewel of Lammam, and also what little cash he held.
‘Thief!’ said Thalo, and he sprang out of the river, threw on his clothes, and spurred Ondayo into pursuit.
Thalo followed Knale for the better part of the morning until he came to a village called Belrenn. It was four big houses around a well, all surrounded by farmland, except for a forest on one side. The whole place was quiet. Though it could have housed a hundred people or more, it was completely abandoned.
Knale dashed into one of the houses. Close behind, Thalo pulled Ondayo up and followed him inside. Within he found a man, big in every direction—tall, broad, and round. He lay asleep in the middle of the floor, beside the firepit, having lain down to ease his aching back. At the man’s feet lay Thalo’s treasure bag, but no fox was to be seen.
Thalo kicked the man awake. ‘Who are you? Where did the fox go?’
The man scowled up at him. ‘First tell me who you are, the stranger in my home.’ He did not stand up to speak.
‘Thalo,’ said Thalo.
‘Why are you in my house, Thalo?’
‘I followed a fox. It came in here with my bag.’ Thalo showed the man his bag. ‘I have it back now, but where is the fox?’
The man’s eyes widened. ‘That is a concerning omen.’
‘How so?’
‘A stranger guides a stranger. Foul intentions guide foul faces. I want no part of this, Thalo man, lest you bring calamity to my house.’
‘I am not here to bring you calamity.’
The man scoffed. ‘I cannot trust the words of one so tall, for their tales are surely taller.’
‘I think you would be the taller of us, if only you stood up.’
‘But that is not where we find ourselves. Get out of my house, tall fellow.’
Thalo went back outside. As he stepped into the sunlight, something caught his eye in the woods. There he saw Knale again, now in his elfin skin, his little skirt and glinting rings, just as he was when they met at Klagenn. Possessed by an insatiable need to approach, Thalo went to him, and as he drew near, Knale walked off into the forest. He was easy enough to follow, however, for it was as if a pale light shone from his hair, leading Thalo through the shadows. They soon came to a clearing, where Knale sat upon a rock beside a small pond. That was a most marvellous place, quiet and ethereal, the sunlight shimmering on the surface of the water.
Thalo said, ‘What are you doing here?’
‘That is a significant question,’ said Knale. ‘Let me try it on myself.’ He deepened his voice in false solemnity. ‘What are you doing here?’
Thalo sat in front of him. ‘Tell me your name.’
‘My name! What good is a name to me? I am me and myself, nothing more and nothing less.’
‘I am Thalo.’
‘You are queer. When I was a young something, we would not give our names to just any fellow who asked for them. Not without good reason.’
‘What makes a good reason?’
‘I cannot know until I know.’
‘What about fame? What good is fame with no name to bear it?’
‘Fame? Bah! What good is fame with? No more or less either way. And what fame do you have anyhow, little witch’s boy?’
‘I have the fame of all my deeds to come.’
‘How cute! I have known many famous folk and you are not among them.’
‘Never mind that. Tell me who you knew.’
‘Whose name do you want to hear?’
Thalo thought for a moment. He had liked old Regnaga’s tales, and those about raging Agleo most of all, but she had often made him a villain.
Thalo said, ‘Tell me about Agleo.’
Knale squinted. ‘Never heard of him. Next.’
‘How about Aldoro?’
‘Yes.’
‘How did you know him? Say more.’
‘No.’
Thalo thought better than to press the matter, and they sat staring silently at one another. Once this had lasted a moment longer than comfort would allow, Thalo patted his knees.
‘Tell me,’ he said, ‘why should fate bring us together once again? What are you doing here?’
‘What am I doing here?’ said Knale. ‘This is my home, the sky my ceiling, the water my bed. Why should I not be here?’
‘You live here?’
‘I live, and I am here. I live here.’ Knale’s voice turned grim. ‘Let me ask you this, Thalo, the stranger in my home: what are you doing here?’
‘I followed a fox. It led me to a man who said much the same thing, and I am unhappy to have met him. Do you know him?’
‘Better than I should like.’
‘What do you mean by that?’
‘That fellow has caused me great grief. Such sorrow.’
‘What did he do to you?’
Knale turned to the water beside him. ‘He came and lay in my pond.’
‘He came and lay in your pond?’
‘He came and lay in my pond! And it caused me great grief. Such sorrow. I bore such sorrow to see a stranger come into my home uninvited.’
Thalo shook his head, failing to fully understand the situation.
‘Are you dim?’ said Knale. ‘I live, and I am here. I live here. He came here uninvited. He came into my home uninvited. But it would seem he has now suffered as I have suffered, so I ought to thank you, I suppose.’
Thalo gave a shallow, uncertain nod.
But now Knale’s face grew stern. ‘And yet I find myself unsatisfied. He will come and defile my home once more. If you are no longer here when it happens—and it will happen!—I will have no way to do unto him as he does unto me, to do for him as he has done for me. No, there is nothing else for it.’ He placed his hand on Thalo’s shoulder. ‘You must kill him. Kill that man and bring me his body.’
Thalo took Knale’s hand from his shoulder and stood up. ‘It does not seem terribly just to kill a man for lying in a pond.’
‘Foul intentions guide foul faces. I know who you are, Thalo. I know what you want. I can put you on the proper path, if only you would do this for me.’
‘Say more.’
‘I have known many famous folk, and though you are not among them, I can make it so. I can grant you your immortal glory. I can do for you if you will do for me.’
‘How so?’
‘You ask too many questions. Answer one for once. Do you want your name to live on imperishable? To ever grace the tongues of poets and bards?’
‘I do.’
‘Then kill this man, bring me his body, and we will sort things out from there. Do not waste this opportunity.’
‘What if I decline?’
‘Oh, please! What if the sun stops rising?’
Thalo did not very much want to go through with this arrangement. As far as he could see, the lying man had committed no more heinous crime than being strange. But Knale was exceptionally beautiful. His hair long and fair, his eyes bright and yellow, his skin full of radiance, it was as if he were sculpted entirely of gold. Thalo could not deny him.
‘Swear it,’ said Thalo. ‘Make me an oath. Swear to uphold this deal as you have laid it out to me.’
‘Very well. I swear it. You have my word, for all it might be worth.’
Thalo took a deep breath in. ‘Good. We have an agreement.’
Knale smiled. ‘Good. Off you trot.’
So Thalo ventured back through the trees to revisit the lying man. When he went inside the house, he was still on the floor.
‘Why have you returned here, tall fellow?’ asked the man.
‘I have heard about your misdeeds,’ said Thalo, ‘and I have come to repay you for them.’
‘What misdeeds are those?’
‘Foul intentions guide foul faces, and your face seems foulest.’
‘That does not answer my question.’
Then Thalo drew his sword and stabbed the man in the chest. He did not want it to last any longer than necessary. The man grunted and groaned, but he died quickly, lying on the floor of his house. That was Thalo’s third murder.
Thalo dragged the man outside by his legs, and it was a terrible effort to shift the corpse. Knale awaited him at the edge of the woods, and once he had brought him the body, he clapped his hands together.
‘This is a fine thing you have done!’ said Knale. ‘I am very grateful—very grateful! Now cut the belly open.’
‘Cut it open?’
Knale flashed him a charming smile and waggled his finger at the body. ‘Cut the belly open.’
Thalo cut the belly open. Knale reached inside and rummaged about, feeling his way around the man’s innards, until he asked for Thalo’s knife, with which he cut out the gallbladder. Then Thalo watched with horror as he ate it whole. The very sight of it was vile, his hands caked in blood, bile spilling from his mouth and dribbling down his chin. But revolting though it was, Thalo could not tear his eyes from Knale’s face, adorned with an otherworldly pleasure, sighing, moaning, revelling in every grisly morsel. How he savoured it!
When Knale finally swallowed, he gave one last, drawn-out sigh, utterly overcome. He wiped the bile from his mouth (that only replaced it with blood), leant himself against a tree, and waved his hand limply.
‘Please return him to his house,’ he said, his voice much weaker than it had been. ‘Best not to keep him long.’
Thalo was still in shock, his breathing heavy, his stomach unsteady, but he nodded dutifully and dragged the man back to his house. He left him just inside the door, unwilling to shove him any further in. When he went outside, Knale was gone again, so he walked back through the village, then back through the woods, until he found him sat upon his rock once more.
‘I have done for you,’ said Thalo. ‘What will you now do for me?’
Knale said nothing. Silently, he stood up, took off his skirt, and walked into the pond. His unearthly beauty pervaded his whole body. Every part of him, every dip and curve, was just as enamouring as his faultless face. He sat in the water and bade Thalo join him.
Thalo needed no persuading. Heeding his headier head, he took off his clothes and strode into the pond, no need to be asked twice. He knew at once why the lying man had sought it out. The water was cool and clear, putting him at ease and soothing him entirely. He sat opposite Knale.
‘I recall giving you some advice,’ said Knale, ‘but I have more to give, if you will hear it, and this advice will be free.’
Thalo was in no state of mind to question anything he said. ‘Give it.’
Knale smiled. He knelt beside Thalo, one hand on his shoulder, the other on the small of his back, and moved his fingers across his skin, gently drawing the water up his spine. As he did so, he whispered this verse into Thalo’s ear:
‘To man of worth will all earth yield,
to fork and hoe, that well ploughed field,
for in the earth his seed he’ll sow,
and from that seed will glories grow.’
Thalo was glad to hear this. Never before had words so delighted him. Knale softly kissed his cheek, and the rest unfolded thereafter.
When Thalo awoke on the grass by the pond, Knale was gone. He feared he had played some trick on him, goading him into murder only to shirk his end of their deal. Anger brewed in his breast. How had he let things go so far? How had he let himself be ensnared by the elf’s wiles? He clothed himself and rushed back through the forest, each step drumming up yet deeper regret. But when he came out of the woods and into the village, when he saw Knale sat on the floor beside Ondayo, the anger and the doubt all diminished, until only that hopeless, helpless infatuation remained.
Thalo went to him and said, ‘What now? You swore to do for me as I have done for you.’
‘So I did. You want folk to know your name, yes? Silly, but if that is what you want, that is what you get. And I know how you might do that, and where you might go to do it.’
‘How? Where?’
Knale arose and said, ‘Follow me,’ and then he put on his fox fur.
Briefly, Thalo stood dumbstruck, momentarily released from Knale’s sultry charms. But before he could say anything, Knale scurried off out of the village.
‘A fox,’ said Thalo. ‘A tod and a vixen both.’
Then he climbed upon Ondayo and rode after him.