Part 2 (1/2)

”Fabulous wealth He arrived here with a chest of gold and silver worth 120,000 silver pence!”

”Then then why does he stay in a back woods place like Silesia?” I asked around the bread in my mouth

”Who knohy a wizard does what he does?”

”Ah, yes I saw his wheels and looic in those reat hall I've been over every inch of theht there but boards and thread They're clever, s of wool and wood”

”Indeed?” A wench refilled my bowl

”Then there's Conrad's sword It's a skinny thing with but a single edge, yet with it Count Lambert-in front of a hundred witnesses took the head off a fully grown pig with a single blow; and when Conrad becaered with a blacksmith, he chopped the anvil in half”

”Well, I can sympathize with that,” I said ”But you haven't toldto that” Bodan took another pull of beer ”He is huge and h that doorway His hair is a dark blond and he wears it very short, inches above his shoulders He has a proper moustache, but he shaves the rest of his face every day with a strange knife that never goes dull

Mostly, he wears ordinary clothes, but soarments of a thin, eldritch cut, with hundreds of buttons, clasps, and closures There's soood description of them”

”You mean you haven't seen him yourself?”

”What? No None of us have, except for Sir Stefan and the wenches Looking forward to it, but all I've told you is hearsay Oh, yes Besides all else, Conrad's a surgeon, a reat chess player He beat Count Laames they played and no one but he has beaten Lairl! Throw this back into the pot and bring oodly hot”

”Well, I know that foul warlock right well,” Sir Stefan said ”Too well! I've served here since Christht from dusk to daithout relief and I know the bastard for what he is”

”Dusk to dawn?” I said ”Long hours! Weren't you to serve with Sir Miesko?”

”Sir Miesko took Conrad's place in the service of a merchant, to do an errand for Count Lambert Then Conrad bewitched Lambert with drea the warlock's gear that you see in the hall and bailey I was forced to stand guard seven nights a week and they were long cold nights!”

Sir Bodan said, ”I've already shown that there's no witchcraft in those looms”

”No witchcraft? Do you realize that Conrad used this very table we're now eating from and drenched it with human blood!”

”I was there,” Annastashi+a said quietly ”One of thedown trees His foot was all smashed Sir Conrad had to cut it off and sew him up to save him”

”And that peasant was dead within a month! The witch's rite didn't help ”

”Shut up, wench!”

We were quiet for a bit, then Annastashi+a said softly, ”I remember Sir Conrad at the funeral of a peasant child He cried”

Chapter Two

Teeks slid pleasantly by The weather was lovely; supplies of food and drink seehts were excellent comrades; and the ladies, ah the ladies I'd sampled them all by that point, but in the end I found that the best was at the beginning I spent s at least, the graveyard shi+ft being what it was

Often Annastashi+a would come to me when I was on duty; sometimes ould talk and sometimes we simply held hands and watched the stars wheel by I was quite taken by her, although of course nothing could co,” she was a peasant and I was a knight and my parents were very traditional in their outlook Yet yet I tried not to think aboutSir Conrad with a mixture of joy at the arrival of a hero and of fear at the coot used to his astounding size, I found hiht that could possibly be

He had a fine voice and he knew thousands of songs; except on request, I don't think that he ever repeated himself He could dance and recite poetry for hours

The ladies insisted that we learn his polka and mazurka and waltz Sometimes Conrad would hire a few peasant ht

The warlocks of legend are all taciturn and secretive Sir Conrad was eager to teach his skills to all comers, peasant and noble alike; I found hisand in time I came to appreciate his reasons in the machines he planned, and even hoped that one day I would be able to imitate them

Yet in some ways he was decidedly odd The peasants had stopped cock-fighting because ”Conrad doesn't like it” The winter before, when Sir Stefan had brought in a bear for baiting-that is, to be tied to a stake and be ripped apart by the castle dogs for sport--Conrad attele stroke of his remarkable sword and ordered the hide to be tanned and the meat served for supper He did not do this in sport As he killed, they say, there was a look of great sadness on that noble face

Then there was his attitude toward children Now, a norh to be hureat pleasure in their cohts

He always took ti and never lost his temper with them as he often did with adults He paid the priest to teach theht ht theames and sports

Conrad was an absolute ularly every afternoon He disdained to use a shi+eld, trusting only to his blade for blocking Indeed, he had a low regard for the usefulness of arnorant of the use of the lance and was reood with a bow, yet sos only increased our affection for him; it was a joy to find that I was better than hi!

Lastly, there was Krystyana She was a wench from Okoitz who had traveled to Cieszyn with Conrad It was obvious that she was hopelessly in love with him; and somehow, much of his charm and courtesy had rubbed off on her, but in a race of a fine noblewohts could treat her as a peasant girl, but accorded her the courtesies due to one of high rank

Soon, soan to i the that Annastashi+a did to be charhts often reacted oddly To tu To have intercourse with a noblewo else!

Eventually Count Lambert returned, and with ale lord, Duke Henryk the Bearded, and that lord's son, young Prince Henryk, called the Pious I was not privy to their conversations, but they stayed closeted with Sir Conrad for much of the afternoon

The day after, there was to be a hunt and Count Lao I am famed for my ability as a huntsman and perhaps Lambert had heard of this

Perhaps also he did not know that I stood daily guard froe lord invites you to hunt with his liege lord, you go!

So after duty, I went hunting rather than to bed It was a good hunt and as Fortuna would have it, Sir Conrad took first blood on a winset Being inept with the lance, he botched the job, only wounding the bison on the shoulder Then he lost its trail entirely and even lost himself In the end, I finished the animal and Count Lambert retrieved our crestfallen Sir Conrad

Iasleep in bed still in my armor, but I was up before matins and at my post at the proper time

But within an hour, Sir Bodan relieved me and instructed me to attend Duke Henryk in his chah a personage and I was nervous as I knocked on his door

”Come in, boy Sit down and share a cup of ith me” The duke was an ancient man, fully seventy years old His face was lined and cracked and sunburned, his thick white hair brushed his wide shoulders and his huge white beard hung to below his finely tooled swordbelt He was dressed all in purple velvet, heavily e foppish or feeble about hi was robust, his ars

”Thank you, your grace” I made a full Slavic bow to him, on my knees with my forehead to the floor

”Up! Up child! No need for that nonsense e're alone I told you to sit”