Read Online The Incorporated Knight by L. Sprague de Camp, Catherine Crook de Camp - Free Book Online

import of my words, my lord, albeit I should have framed my request more tactfully. Secundus, you've promised me Gerzilda's hand; and when I've pressed you of late, you've put me off, as if you were minded to renege on our bargain."
     
                  "The final word shall be the lass's own. I'm no petty tyrant, to give my ewe lambs to husbands against their will."
     
                  Eudoric waved a hand. "That aspect frets me not. And lastly, there's the money I owe the wainwrights, which you've promised me and then withheld—"
     
                  "Thy damned coach-wagon hath been a-building for months, with no end in sight. Am I to pour my silver down a bottomless well?"
     
                  The argument raged for another quarter-hour, while Baron Emmerhard grew ever more agitated. At last he burst out:
     
                  "Oh, very well, thou scoundrel! I'll yield to thy extortionate demands because I must. Now show me the way to Baldonius' house!"
     
                  "Not that I mistrust your word," drawled Eudoric, "but I shall be able better to guide you when your undertakings are writ on parchment."
     
                  "Impudent knave!" shouted the baron, waving clenched fists. "What shall we write upon in this wilderness? Bark?"
     
                  Eudoric brought out of one saddlebag several sheets of parchment and a quill and stoppered inkhorn. "Here, by good hap, are the latest drawings of plans for our coach. The backs will serve nicely."
     
                  "Hast pen and ink, too, thou young devil?"
     
                  "Certes. A gentleman of business like me must ever be prepared. First we'll set down my patent of knighthood. I'll serve as scribe if you wish, my lord."
     
                  "Write clearly, then. Remember, I read not badly."
     
                  Another quarter-hour passed while Eudoric painstakingly composed three documents binding Baron Emmerhard to fulfill his promises. The documents signed, Eudoric seated the wrathful baron upon his horse's rump and clucked the beast to a trot.
     
    -
     
                  Doctor Baldonius weighed the coronet, peered at it through a lens, and pressed an ear against the gold. Then he shook his head.
     
                  "Typical of Calporio ' s incompetency," he said. "The demon was entrapped in the great emerald for but a single usage. When my lord scratched his nose and murmured a wish to be back in his own demesne, the demon whisked him hither and then fled back to its own plane. Now the coronet bears no more magic than any other headpiece."
     
                  "Why didn't the sprite deposit me at Castle Zurgau instead of in the woods?" asked Emmerhard.
     
                  "The spell had been tailored to the needs of Count Petz. All the demon knew of you was that ye were the Lord of Zurgau; so it dropped you at random in the barony. Or else it was the simple inaccuracy that one expects of a pilot model. 'Twas a stroke of luck that ye encountered Sir Eudoric."
     
                  "Luck, say ye? Humph!"
     
                  Doctor Baldonius' smile showed briefly through his long gray beard. "I said not what kind of luck it was, my lord. Would ye enact the ritual of knighting now, ye twain?"
     
                  A moment later, Eudoric grinned wryly as he felt his sore shoulder. "My father-in-law-to-be has had his revenge. He dubbed me nigh hard enough to break my collar bone."
     
                  "No more than thou meritest, whelp," growled Emmerhard. "Now, Doctor, canst send me back to Kromnitch ere the damned ceremony be over?"
     
                  "There is a spell," mused the wizard, "but 'twill cost you a thousand marks—"
     
                  "Hoy! Art mad, old man?"