Part 32 (1/2)
Kornglow now perceived that something was wrong. His way was supposed to have been prepared for him. It was probably the loss of the magic horse that had put him in this strait.
He turned and tried to prod the donkey to a gallop. It set its heels and bucked, throwing Kornglow violently to the ground.
”Call my guards!” cried Sforza.
His men came hurrying around the corner, buckling up their doublets and strapping on their swords.
”To the dungeons with him!” cried Sforza.
And so Kornglow soon found himself in a dark hole, his head ringing from numerous blows.
Chapter 6.
Well, Morton,” Azzie said, ”this is a fine mess you've gotten yourself into.”
Kornglow sat up, blinking. One moment before he had been alone in Sforza's dungeon, nursing his bruised head and contemplating his unhappiness. The cell had been bare, with no more than a scattering of moldy straw on its earthen floor, and there had been little Kornglow could do to make himself comfortable. But now he was outside again. Kornglow was getting awfully tired of all these sudden moves, and the strange wavelike motions they involved tended to upset his stomach.
Azzie was standing before him, splendid in a blood red cloak and soft leather boots.
”Your Excellency!” Kornglow cried. ”I'm so glad to see you!”
”Are you, indeed? I'm afraid I must tell you, you have compromised your adventure before it even got properly started. How on Earth did you misplace the magic horse?”
Kornglow fell back on the excuse that all men used in that day and age. ”I was tempted by a sorceress, most n.o.ble one! I am a mere man! What could I do?”
He then described his adventure with the fair Leonore. Azzie detected a familiar hand in this.
”The horse was there at the beginning of your adventure?” Azzie asked.
”Indeed it was, Your Excellency! But when I looked again, it was gone, and there was only a donkey. Could you bring me another, sir, that I might try again?”
”Magic horses aren't so easily procured,” Azzie said. ”If you'd known how we had to search for that one, you would have taken better care of it.”
”But surely there's some other magical object we could use instead,” Kornglow said. ”Must it be a horse?”
”I suppose we might come up with something.”
”I'll do it right this time, Your Excellency! Oh, but there is one other thing.”
”What is it?” Azzie said.
”I'd like to change my wish.”
Azzie stared at him. ”What are you talking about?”
”I had asked for the hand of the fair Cressilda in marriage, but I've since reconsidered. She's apt to hold it against me because I'm not gently bred. But fair Leonore suits me to a T. I'd like her as my prize.”
”Don't be silly,” Azzie said. ”We already have you down in tide books as getting Cressilda.”