"But enough of that. What sum had ye in mind?"
"Enough to cover the cost of my good destrier Morgrim and my panoply of plate, together with lance and sword, plus a few other chattels and incidental expenses of travel. Fifteen hundred marks should cover the lot."
"Fif-teen-hundred! Whew! I could never afford— nor are these moldy patches of dragon hide worth a fraction of the sum."
Eudoric sighed and rose. "You know what you can afford, good my sage." He picked up the roll of dragon hide. "Your colleague Doctor Carpono, wizard to the Count of Treveria, expressed a keen interest in the material. In fact, he offered me more than I have asked of you, but I thought it only honorable to give you the first opportunity."
"What!" cried Baldonius. "That mountebank, that charlatan, that faker? Misusing the hide and not deriving a tenth of the magical benefits from it that I should? Sit down, Eudoric; we will discuss these things."
An hour's haggling got Eudoric his fifteen hundred marks. Baldonius said: "Well, praise the Divine Couple that's over. And now, beloved pupil, what are your plans?"
"Would ye believe it, Doctor Baldonius," said Jillo, "that my poor deluded master's about to disgrace his lineage and betray his class by a base commercial enterprise?"
"Forsooth, Jillo? What's this?"
"He means my proposed stagecoach line," said Eudoric.
"Good Heaven, what's that?"
"My plan to run a carriage—ye know, like that thing the Emperor rides about Solambrium in, but of vastly improved design—weekly from Zurgau to Kromnitch, taking all who can pay the fare, as is done in Pathenia. We can't let the heathen Easterlings get ahead of us."
"What an extraordinary idea! Need ye a partner?"
"Thanks, but nay. Baron Emmerhard has already thrown in with me. He's promised me my knighthood in exchange for the partnership."
"Nobility hath been extinguished!" wailed Jillo.
Eudoric grinned. "Jillo is more loyal to the class whence I have sprung than I am. Emmerhard said much the same sort of thing, but I convinced him that any enterprise involving horses were a fit pursuit for a gentleman. Jillo, you can spell me at driving the coach, which will make you a gentleman, too!"
Jillo sighed. "Alas, the true spirit of knighthood is dying in this degenerate age. Woe is me, that I should live to see the end of chivalry! How much did ye think to pay me, sir?"
III – The Count's Coronet
When King Valdhelm II of Locania died, his heir, King Valdhelm III, bade all his nobles to his coronation in the royal city of Kromnitch. This was also the county seat of the King's feudatory, Count Petz of Treveria. One of Petz's liege men was Baron Emmerhard of Zurgau, among whose vassals was Sir Dambert Eudoricson of Arduen.
After the royal command arrived, Sir Dambert and his family met before dinner to discuss their plans. Eudoric joined them late and dirty.
"Eudoric!" cried the Lady Aniset. " 'Tis the third time of late that thou hast tracked mud into the castle. What's got into thee?"
"Mother!" exclaimed the young man. "If you'd had my troubles—"
"Thy carriage-wagon?" asked Sir Dambert.
"Aye. The thing overset on a turn and spilt me into the mud. Lucky I wasn't slain, besides which, the vehicle has suffered scathes that'll take a fortnight to remedy. I fear the fabrication of such a device be beyond our local wainwrights. I should have thought on that ere I entered into this compact with Baron Emmerhard."
"Belike," observed Eudoric's middle brother Olf, "your coach be too high and narrow."
"Aye, but there's no easy remedy. If I make the tread wider, the cursed thing can't pass the narrow straits on the Zurgau-Kromnitch road, for which traffic the wain's especially designed. If I make the wheels smaller, they'll give the passengers a fine bouncing."
Eudoric's sister asked: "Why go you not back to Pathenia, where this art be better understood, and buy a carriage-wain already made?"
" Tis an arduous two-months' journey, and the road over the Asciburgis is a mere track, impassable to wheeled traffic."
"Then," said Eudoric's younger brother Sidmund, "why not hire a brace of Pathenian wainwrights to come hither and work for us?"
"They would not depart their own land unless compelled by force."
"Then compel them!" snorted Sir Dambert. "By the Divine Pair, are we of gentle blood or are we not? Where's thy knightly mettle? Eh?"
Eudoric smiled. "Father, you know not the Pathenians' persnickety ideas of the rights of their citizens. 'Twould but get me mewed up in prison again, with none to go bail for me."
"The Emperor hath an one," said Sir Dambert thoughtfully. "This carriage must needs have been made by local wainwrights."
"Aye, I've seen it," said Eudoric. " 'Tis but a farmer's wagon with a fancy gilded body on top. Gives the passengers a fearful shaking; can't turn sharply-angled corners. My coach, contrarywise, suspends the body from springs and leather straps, to soften the jouncing, and can turn in its own length. I marked these virtues of the Pathenian coach when I rode in it, when Jillo and I were on our way to Velitchovo."
Sir Dambert sighed. "A fantastical land, this Pathenia, where dragons have the law's protection and villeins assert their rights against their betters. But let's to this question of the coronation. Wilt thou come, Eudoric? 'Twould pleasure me to have thee by me, but the choice is thine."
"Your pardon, Father," replied Eudoric, "but I plan to tarry here. Not being knighted, I'm not included in the royal command. Someone should remain to keep an eye on our demesne, lest that caitiff Rainmar raid us. I must, moreover, ride my wainwrights with a needle-spined spur, lest Baron Emmerhard seize the pretext to flout our compact."
"Doth he cool towards thee, then?" asked Dambert, frowning.
"Aye. 'Twas all firmly fixed: he to pay for the building of the coach and, upon its completion, to knight me and give me Gerzilda in marriage, in requital for a partnership in my coach line. Now he holds back the money and sidles around his promises like a crab on the strand. Meanwhile, my wainwrights grow loud in demands for arrears in their pay—"
"Part of thy trouble," said Dambert, "lies at the door of Emmerhard's lord. Petz of Treveria is a man of antique fancies, who likes not the grant of golden spurs for aught but deeds of dought upon the battlefield. Quotha, there's been too much purchase of honors and titles by baseborn tradesmen—"
"My spurs will be for the dragonslaying, not for carriage building."
"But, son, thy dragonslaying was done, not in the Empire before witnesses, but in a distant, heathen land. So Petz and Emmerhard have nought but thy word—"
"What ails my word?" began Eudoric angrily.
"Oh, I believe thee; so do we all. But these others know thee not as we do."
At an inn of Kromnitch, Baron Emmerhard admired his scarlet-and-ermine reflection in a pier glass. He ran a comb through his graying beard, slapped a sandstorm of dandruff from his robe, and said to his wife:
"Not bad for a man of mine age, my dear. Now, prithee, the coronet!"
The Baroness Trudwig turned to Emmerhard's body servant. "My lord's coronet, Sigric! 'Tis in the trunk with the scarlet stripes."
"Forgive me, Your Ladyship," said the valet, "but 'tis not there."
"How now?" said Emmerhard. "Let me see ... Thou are right, varlet! Then where is the accursed bauble?"
"I know not, my lord," said Sigric. "Mona and Albrechta and I have already searched the twenty-three trunks and coffers. I know not how to tell you, sir, but I fear me it hath been left behind in Castle Zurgau—"
"What!" roared Emmerhard, hopping and stamping. "Thou dolt! Ass! Noodlehead!" He aimed a punch at Sigric but was careful, even in his rage, to move slowly enough to give Sigric time to duck. Good valets were not easily come by.