The Honorable Barbarian Read Online Free Page B

arresting as your delectable form."
    "Then take your damned dress!" she flung it at Kerin. "You Prime Planers make us work our arses off as familiar spirits, but you never let us have any fun!"
    Kerin sighed. "Sorry, Belinka. And now the time for sailing nears, so we'd best be on our way."

II

    The Ship Dragonet

    As the sun sank redly towards the serried roofs and sparkling towers of Vindium, Kerin neared the Dragonet 's pier. A baldric over one shoulder supported his sword, while a strap on the other took the weight of the duffel bag on his back. As Kerin climbed the gangplank, Captain Huvraka said:
    "Aha, Master Kerin, you are coming in good time. I am showing you your cabin. . . . But what is this?"
    Belinka, glowing bluely and visible even in daylight, was flying circles round Huvraka's head, tinkling: "Oh, Captain, what a beautiful headdress! I must find somebody who can make me its ilk!"
    "This your familiar spirit is?" asked Huvraka.
    "Well, ah, yes it is," said Kerin. "She's quite harmless." Unless provoked, he silently added.
    "You are thinking to bring it along on voyage?"
    "Aye; she'll be no trouble."
    "That may be; but then I am asking five marks more, for her passage."
    "What!" cried Kerin. "That's an outrage! We had a firm agreement—"
    "Ah, yes; but the agreement is not including other life forms. I am charging you same if you are a cat or dog aboard bringing."
    "But she won't eat any of your food—"
    "That is no matter. I am sticking to consistent policy. Pay or find another ship."
    "Curse it, I will!" said Kerin. Defiantly he strode back down the plank. In his ear Belinka chirped:
    "I am glad you won't sail on that ship, Master Kerin."
    "Why?"
    "There is a feel of evil about it."
    "What sort of evil?" Kerin walked back towards the base of the pier.
    "I cannot tell; 'tis a feeling I have, as of some evil supernatural presence. We sprites are sensitive."
    Kerin drew a deep breath. "Then there's nothing for it but to hunt up the harbor master again. Let's hope he have not closed his office. . . . Oh, oh!"
    He stopped. Coming upon the pier were three large, stout men with cudgels, and a smaller fourth man. Although the sun had dipped below the roofs of Vindium City, the sky was still bright above. By its light Kerin recognized Garic and his companions. The remaining man, a slight, gray-bearded oldster, wore a black robe to his ankles and a pointed skullcap.
    "Well, fry my guts!" roared Garic. "Here's our little would-be wizard now! Give him the treatment, Frozo!"
    The older man stepped forward, pointed a wand at Kerin, and shouted. With a whiplike crack, a jagged streak of blue luminescence shot from the wand towards Kerin. Even as Kerin winced, the streak ended in midair, a foot from his face, throwing a shower of sparks.
    Again the words of power; again the crack and the flash; again the sparks. The small man said: "He is protected by a counterspell, like that which I put on you. I cannot pierce it."
    "Well then," rumbled Garic, "we must needs use simpler means. Come on, boys!"
    The trio started for Kerin, cudgels aloft. Kerin seized his sword but found it still affixed to its scabbard by peace strings. By the time he untied or cut them, the men would be upon him with clubs. He ran back along the pier, the duffel bag bouncing against his back.
    At the Dragonet 's berth, Kerin found a pair of loinclothed sailors preparing to haul in the gangboard and others standing by to cast off the mooring lines. He panted up the plank.
    "Well," said Captain Huvraka, "you are changing your mind?"
    "Aye," panted Kerin. "I thought that. . . ." He paused for breath.
    Huvraka and the mate unhurriedly stepped to the inboard end of the plank, each with a slender, curving sword in a bronzen fist. Huvraka shouted: "Keep off, you! I am not letting you on board!"
    He added a command in Mulvani. The sailors cast off the hawsers and dashed back up the plank, which the deckhands hauled aboard and stowed. The Dragonet drifted away from