The Pixilated Peeress Read Online Free PDF Page A

on?"
     
                  "Certes, as do many nobles and royals, to be sure their baubles be not stolen whilst they snore."
     
                  "Is it not uncomfortable?"
     
                  "One gets used to it, as you are accu stomed to strut ting about with a sword banging your shins ... Tho rolf! You shall not get into my bed with those dirty clothes! Strip down like a man of sense!"
     
                  "You mean — ah — "
     
                  "Nay, silly, I make no lewd advances; my person is off-limits to commoners. Lend me that great knife of yours!"
     
                  "Not to stab me asleep, I hope? "
     
                  " Nay; but if I feel something poking me in the mid section, I shall know what to do. Good night!"
     
    -
     
II – The Senescent Sorcerer
                  Tired though he was, Thorolf found sleep hard to co me by. It seemed to him that he was just dropping off when he was aware of light and motion. He found Yvette already dressed, winding cloths around the coronet. He said: "Sleep well, Countess?"
     
                  "Not so well as sometimes, with you tossing and turning all night."
     
                  The soldier reddened. "Your pardon. I fear the con tiguity of one so fair ... "
     
                  "No need to apologize; at least it proves you no ef feminate. Vulfilac yonder snores like a sawmill. Do not folk of his class rise early?"
     
                  Thorolf smiled. "Not wh en they've spent half the night rescuing penniless damsels from their pursuers!"
     
    -
     
                  Breakfasted and mounted again, Thorolf turned his horse toward Zurshnitt. Clad in the smith's wife's feast-day finery, Yvette sat pillion behind him on the mare. On h er head she wore her coronet so wrapped in cloth as to seem a turban. Out of sight of the smithy, Thorolf said:
     
                  "We must needs deposit that golden hoop safely and descend upon Doctor Bardi. But first I have my duties — "
     
                  "Not so, Sergeant! The care of me and my small treasure should come first."
     
                  "Sorry, my dear, but I cannot — "
     
                  "And what preempts my orders, sirrah?"
     
                  "First I must needs report to barracks and get leave for the day. Then I must visit the Constabulary about last night's fracas and the c orpses we left at the smithy."
     
                  "Marry come up! The wishes of one of my rank — "
     
                  "Mean nought in Rhaetia, since you are but one more titled refugee, entitled to kind treatment but no master ship."
     
                  "But I insist — "
     
                  "It's a long walk to Zurshnitt," growl ed Thorolf. Yvette subsided. After a while she burst out:
     
                  "It is so unfair that I, a descendant of a hundred kings and princes, should have to beg and wheedle for what is mine by right! Means it nought that I am a direct, legitimate descendant of the her o-king, Ricolf the Third?"
     
                  Thorolf grinned. "But if you claim credit for the good deeds of King Ricolf, then you must accept blame for the crimes of the mad King Leodast, who murdered his parents and then burned all those people. Certes, if we hanged eve ryone with a murderer in's pedigree, not enough would survive to bury the bodies!"
     
                  "Master Thorolf, I wish no more of your irksome speech!"
     
                  "Aye-aye, your Highness!" With his most irritating chuckle, Thorolf fell silent.
     
    -
     
                  Smelling of decades' accum ulation of dust, Doctor Bar di's sanctum resembled a small-town museum into which heterogeneous objects had been crowded far be yond the room's capacity. A