Alred was coming down the passage from the northeast tower to his bedroom when he noticed the door to Iylaine’s room standing open and a light inside.
“Now,” he murmured to himself, “I distinctly remember that I had elfin accompaniment when I sang Gwynn her bedtime song, so what is that Baby doing over here now?”
But when he peeked inside, he found not Iylaine but her father, seated on a chair near the door.
“Oh, you here!” he said.
“Aye,” Egelric said, ducking his head to unlace his boots – deliberately, Alred thought.
“We haven’t seen you since it snowed.”
“That’s why.”
“Is that so?”
Egelric grunted.
Alred stood tapping his fingers against the doorframe for a moment, watching him, until he realized that Egelric was not unlacing his boots but lacing them up. “Wait now – are you going out?”
“Aye.”
“Didn’t you just get in?”
“Aye.”
“What’s this about?”
“New moon.”
“Ah! That again. Is it truly necessary? You haven’t seen anything since…”
“October.”
“Right.”
“That’s only two moons since. I saved one elf out of three.” He stood and turned to look down on his lord, his face an expressionless mask but for a certain grimness at the mouth.
“I see. And do you truly believe it a good use of your time and health to go marching through the snow all night – snow that has been too deep to allow you to come and visit your daughter over the past three days – in order to accomplish precisely nothing?”
“I might save an elf. I did once. And I hope to rid the valley of the woman once and for all.”
“I see before me a man who once wished to kill all the elves and now wishes to kill himself in order to save them.”
Egelric bowed.
“I would rather you cared so much about the men. As long as you feel like going out in the snow, you might go up to the Hogge farm tomorrow. Gunnilda’s baby is very ill.”
“She is?”
“Didn’t know that? She has the flux.”
Alred saw a quiver pass over the mask, but the grim line of the mouth was unchanged.
“Her Aelfie’s baby died a week ago. Know that?”
“Aye.”
“The Ashdown baby has it too, and I suppose you know about Cenwulf’s daughter.”
“Aye.”
“You see, it’s beginning to climb from the peasants’ huts up into the gentlemen’s homes and finally into the castles. Even the babies that have had enough to eat are dying now. And you want to go walk all night in the snow for your one chance out of three to save a single elf.”
Alred was vaguely disturbed at the disgust he heard in his own voice. He could blame it on his exhaustion, but he knew that none but Egelric could have brought it out of him. Wouldn’t it have been a relief to have simply hit the man!
“No fewer babies would die if I went to bed instead,” Egelric observed.
“One fewer man might.”
“A bit of cold and snow won’t hurt a shaggy beast such as I.”
Alred shook his head and sighed. He was too exhausted to argue with him. “I can’t stop you,” he muttered. “Give Midra my love if you see her.”
“I shall.”
“Nonetheless I hope that you will find the heart to go say a kind word to Gunnilda before it’s too late. If not the heart, then I hope, at least, that you will find the kind word.”
“Will it die?” Humanity flickered again over Egelric’s face.
“She very well may. About half of the peasant babies who have had it have died, and worse down towards the river, I’ve been told.”
“It is so.”
“Well, Squire, since it seems to be how you are approaching the world these days, tell yourself that there is one chance out of two that Angnes Hogge will die, and plan your walking accordingly. Good night, and God be with you.”
If Egelric replied, Alred was already too far down the corridor to have heard it.
And how do you have babies stolen? Like when Elfleda found Baby and the elves took Finn?
Chapters
Is Egelric really than uncaring about his human friends?