The Queen of Penesthelia and Firman The Brave 9

The Wolf of the Long Wood

They left the dark place and the cabin and went further into the dark, dark wood in search of the Wolf. The trees were tall, the shadows deep, and eyes looked at them from behind every trunk. But Firman the Brave was brave, and his horse was brave, and the dog was brave, and for their sake, the child and the squirrel were brave. There were many wolves, but they felt at the sight of Firman until one alone was left, the greatest and grayest and longest wolf in the Long Wood, and out of its eyes looked not the cunning of a beast but the cunning of a man and yet not.

“Who are you that come into my domain?” the Wolf asked.

“I am Firman the Brave, and I have come to take you to the Queen of Penesthelia who summons you.”

“What have I to do with the Queen of Penesthelia, O Man? I have no interest in her, and she has no interest in me.”

“That only shows what you know,” said Firman the Brave.

“Perhaps, but I shall not go,” said the Wolf, and “none may take me thence against my will. Nothing can restrain me, for I am a force within the Wood, and I was placed here to guard it by the Men of War, and all that lies within is under my power.”

“I have the strength to take you,” said Firman the Brave. “I am not under your power.”

“We shall see,” said the Wolf.

He made to bite at Firman, but Ortrera’s calypscine steel sword was proof against the teeth. And he made to leap at Firman, but the lance of Ortrera bore him to the ground. The Firman made to wrestle at the Wolf, but the beast’s shaggy fur slipped through his fingers, and the Wolf slipped away. Strength, speed, steel, and teeth vied against each other, and man and beast fought in the Long Wood. Neither mastered the other.

“Go thence,” the Wolf panted, “and leave me be, O Man, in my domains.”

“I will not go until I lead you on a rope to the Queen of Penesthelia.”

“That shall not be, and no rope that ever was made can hold me.”

“That is not true,” said Firman. “I bear one that will do it. Let me try it, and if I fail, I will leave the Long Wood without you; if I succeed, you will go to the Queen of Penesthelia.”

“Will you not leave me be, O Man, until then?”

“Never until the sun in its age swells and burns all the worlds away.”

“What is this rope?”

“A little rope, see here?”

“That is not a threat to me,” laughed the Wolf in the voice of a man that it had. “Put your wrist in my mouth, for I trust you not, and I shall bite at you if it holds me.”

Firman the Brave put his mailed wrist in the mouth of the beast, and the child approached with the rope, and she laid it around the neck of the Wolf and tied it.

The Wolf pulled, and the Wolf struggled, and the Wolf fought the rope, but it could not break it. Then, in its rage, it made to bite the wrist of Firman the Brave to take off his hand, but Firman the Brave wore mail of calypscine steel. The bite only bruised and did not sever, so the Wolf was defeated, for the rope was made of the breath of a fish and the beard of a woman and the spit of a bird, and these things together mastered the power of the Men of War, and away went the companions and the Wolf.

They passed the cabin of the old woman, the glade of the scarlet bird, and the stream of the jeweled trout. They returned to the ship of the air, boarded it, and flew across the glassy land of knives, across Ortrera, and in time back to Penesthelia.

Firman the Brave led the Wolf before the Queen, and it slunk down by her to lie by the little golden man, and she put her pale hand on its head and held the rope, and it obeyed her, so the fourth task was fulfilled.

And the Queen of Penesthelia smiled, the little creature of eyes and wings and feathers on her shoulder and the pearl in the fillet in her hair, and yet she looked sad and said, “There is a fifth labor. You must go to the uttermost south, and there is a lake, and in the lake there is a fish, and in its mouth there is a nut that gives the fish wisdom, and the nut and the fish you must bring back to me.”

“That sounds like no challenge,” said Firman the Brave,

“This only tells what you know,” the Queen of Penesthelia said, and she left his company.