"Aye." Gilbert reined in. "Will that suffice, Master Wizard?"
"Just fine," I said through clenched teeth. I made it through the deceleration trot, then gratefully slid off the rump. "Maybe he'll lose us now. "
"I fear not." Gilbert started to dismount.
"Hey, what're you doing? No reason you should walk!"
"But you are my leader!"
"Not your superior, though, only your senior! You just keep riding. After all, you're the one with the armor."
"'Tis only a mail coat." But he seemed relieved. "Even so, Wizard Saul, 'tis my duty to advise you that distance will not stop a troll, nay, even if he did not labor under a geas," That was doubly less than reassuring. It didn't exactly guarantee that Gruesome was under a geas. Compulsions I could understand, but greed was even more comprehensible.
We strolled along, exchanging biographical notes, and I switched the topic to future aspirations. Gilbert practically glowed as he recounted the glories of knighthood and the potential glories of martyrdom. You can't help liking a guy with that much zeal, but I couldn't help feeling that somebody was playing him for a real sucker. On the other hand, I think Jonah felt that way, too.
The sun was almost overhead, and I was just beginning to think of calling a halt for lunch, when Gilbert looked back and said, "Yonder he comes."
I spun about, staring. Sure enough, there he came, snowshoe feet and turnip shape, grinning from ear to ear with pathetic eagerness. I had to remind myself that I was the one who was likely to be pathetic, not him.
"No help for it," I decided. "Time for lunch, anyway. Let's relax and rest awhile - and if he attacks, he attacks, and we'll deal with it then." I was nowhere nearly as nonchalant as I pretended. The presence of an actual, me - eating troll was incentive enough to get me to working up some good verses, not that I really thought they'd help any.
On the other hand, if my hallucination included trolls and elves, why not magic? Though a troll was hardly the kind of opponent you would expect to start slinging rhymes.
"He will not attack," Gilbert said with blithe unconcern as he dismounted. "He goes under a geas."
Obsessive-compulsive disorders, I could understand-it was just the object of the obsession that worried me. Nonetheless, I let Gilbert lay the fire while I waited, arms akimbo, looking a lot more certain than I felt-but as Huge-and-Ugly came closer, I felt the old, familiar chill within me that seems to come whenever danger looms. I didn't feel fear, because I didn't feel anything. After the crisis was over, I'd turn to jelly-but there'd be time, then.
"Running behind schedule, I see," I commented, as he came up. The troll looked surprised. "Ske-dool?"
That's right-I remembered he'd demonstrated a limited vocabulary.
"Took you awhile to catch up with us." I braced myself and said, "I'd really rather you didn't."
It stared down at me with blank incomprehension.
"Don't catch up with us," I explained. "I don't want you near me. Go. Away. Shoo!"
He stared, grin fading, mouth loosening. "Go?" And, so help me, a huge, fat tear welled up in one eye.
My inner chill almost warmed into remorse for a second, but I focused on the shark teeth inside that woebegone lip and said, "You tried to eat me. I can't trust you. I don't want you along."
"Me come!" he protested, in a voice like a basso chain saw.
"Fairies see! Fairies say! Want only ward you!"
"He speaks truth, Master Wizard," Gilbert said, his voice low and completely calm. "He cannot turn his heart against you now, not under the elf prince's geas."
He sounded very confident, and it occurred to me to wonder how the troll would react if I really did drive him away. if this was anything like a love-hate relationship, I could find myself with a real nemesis on my trail. "Well ... if you're sure The troll's grin came back, and he nodded eagerly. At least, I think it was nodding; it might have been bowing. But Gilbert assured me, "He is your guard and servant now, till the Wee Folk remove the geas." That was the other thing that bothered me. If some enemy magician came along and counteracted this artificial compulsion, I could find myself on the inside real fast, in small pieces. But I didn't really see that I had much choice. I sighed and said, "Okay, Gruesome, you can join us."
The troll looked hugely delighted, then frowned, puzzled.
"Goosum?"
"Gruesome," I amplified. "That's my name for you." Then one of my few moral principles kicked in - I hated infringing on anybody's identity; I knew what it felt like to have people try. "But I'll drop it if you have a name of your own."
"Name?"
So much for that idea. "What do other trolls call you?"
"Odder trolls?"
"They are solitary beings, Master Wizard," Gilbert explained.
"They are never seen together."
I frowned. "They have to now and then, or there would never be any little trolls."
Gilbert blushed. So help me, he blushed. I tried to remind myself he was an adolescent, and a very sheltered one, in some respects.
"All right," I sighed. "If they don't have a social structure, they don't have any need for names."
"Well, there is the secret name," Gilbert said slowly. "Every creature takes the first sound of its own kind that it hears after birth, as the designation for itself. It is this the elf prince used to compel the troll. "
"But it's secret?"
Gilbert nodded.
I'd heard of it. Almost every primitive culture believed that identity was so intimately linked with name that your enemy could use it to work magic against you-so the true name was secret. Everybody had a public name for communication, and a private name for identity. I turned to the troll again. "What is the sound that means you?
"No say!" Gruesome almost looked panicked - and I wasn't an elf prince, with a host of little accomplices that could pinch hard enough to be felt through that igneous hide. So, "No se, indeed," I muttered. I fell back on primitive communication, pointing to the troll's granite chest. "You. Gruesome." Then I pointed at myself. "Me Saul." Then I jabbed a finger at the squire. "Him-Gilbert." I frowned up at the dinner-plate eyes. "Understand?"
"Unner ... ? " He didn't have the concept of understanding.
"Gruesome, go to Gilbert."
His face cleared, and he turned to trot over to the squire. Gilbert braced himself, but he didn't need to - he was still kneeling by the camp fire, and the troll shied away at the sight of flame.
"Gruesome!" I called. "Come to Saul!"
"Gruesome come," he said brightly, and shambled back to me. I nodded, satisfied. "Good. Now, eat." The troll stared, unbelieving.
I suddenly realized what he thought I meant he should eat.
"Gilbert, food! Quickly!"
"Here, Wizard." A round, hard loaf came flying through the air. I caught it and presented it to the troll. "Gruesome eat." The troll frowned down at the loaf, then took it from me between thumb and finger. His lump of nose wrinkled.
"All right, let it go if you want." I said. "But it's all we've got, isn't it?"
"There is a little dried beef." Gilbert held out something that looked like a collection of buckskin thongs. I took them and held them out to Gruesome, but he backed away, shaking his top.
"Well, sorry." I went to sit down by Gilbert. "But we have to eat."
I took another loaf, broke it, handed half to Gilbert, and started munching. He handed me a wineskin; I took a sparing sip, then handed it back.
Three bites later, I happened to notice Gruesome. He was sitting down now, with his hands on his knees, eyeing us hungrily. I told myself it was the food he was eyeing, but I didn't believe me.
"I mistrust his gaze," Gilbert muttered.
"I mistrust this whole geas thing." I frowned at Gruesome. "I'd feel a little safer if it had been my idea."
"An excellent notion!"