The Incorporated Knight Read Free Page A

plainly discern things lying still and pursued only those that moved."
     
    -
     
                  They got back to Liptai after dark. Both were barely able to stagger, Eudoric from his sprains and bruises and Jillo footsore from the unaccustomed three-league hike.
     
                  Two days later, when they had recovered, they set out on the two palfreys to hunt for Morgrim. "For," Eudoric said, "that nag is worth more in solid money than all the rest of my possessions together."
     
                  Eudoric rode unarmored, save for a shirt of light mesh mail, since the palfrey could not easily carry the weight of the plate all day. He bore his lance and sword, however, in case they should again encounter a dragon.
     
                  They found the site of the previous encounter but no sign of dragon or destrier. Jillo and Eudoric tracked the horse by its prints in the soft mold for a few bowshots, but then the slot faded out on harder ground, and despite diligent search they failed to pick it up again.
     
                  "Still, I misdoubt Morgrim fell victim to the beast," said Eudoric. "He could show clean heels to many a steed of lighter build, and from its looks the dragon was no courser."
     
                  After hours of fruitless searching, whistling, and calling, they returned to Liptai. For a small fee, Eudoric was allowed to post a notice in Helladic on the town notice board, offering a reward for the return of his horse.
     
                  No word, however, came of the sighting of Morgrim. For all that Eudoric could tell, the destrier might have run clear to Velitchovo.
     
                  "He'll probably pass his remaining days," said Eudoric, "in pulling some peasant's plow. Now then, good Jillo, you're free with advice. Well, rede me this riddle. We've established that our steeds will bolt from the sight and smell of dragon, for which I blame them little. Had we all the time in the world, we could doubtless train them to face the monsters, beginning w it h a stuffed dragon; and then, perchance, one in a cage in some monarch's menagerie. But our lucre dwindles like snow in the spring. What's to do?"
     
                  "Well," said Jillo, "if the nags won't stand, needs we must face the worms on foot."
     
                  "That seems to me to throw away our lives to no good purpose. For these vasty lizards can outrun and out-turn us and are strongly harnessed to boot. Barring the luckiest of lucky thrusts with the spear—as, say, into the eye or down the gullet—that fellow we erst encountered could make one mouthful of my lance and another of me."
     
                  "Your knightly courage were sufficient defense, sir. The Divine Pair would surely grant victory to the right."
     
                  "From what I've read of battles and feuds," said Eudoric, "methinks the Holy Couple's attention often strays elsewhither, when they should be deciding the outcome of some mundane affray."
     
                  "That is the trouble with reading, sir; it undermines one's faith in the True Religion. But ye could be at least as well-armored as the dragon, in your panoply of plate."
     
                  "Aye, but then poor Daisy could not bear so much weight to the site—or, at least, bear it thither and have breath left for a charge. We must be as chary of our beasts' welfare as of our own. Without them, 'tis a long walk back to Arduen. Nor do I deem that we should like to pass our lives in Liptai."
     
                  "Then, sir, we could pack the armor on the mule, for you to do on in dragon country."
     
                  "I like it not," said Eudoric. "Afoot, weighted down by that lobster's habit, I could move no more spryly than a tortoise. 'Twere small comfort to know that, if the dragon ate me, he'd suffer indigestion