Part 1 (1/2)
The Radiant Warrior
Adventures of Conrad Starguard
By Leo Frankowski
Prologue
She unloaded the telanced quickly at her new subordinate, loaded it with her last superior, and sent it two and a half million years uptime One contact every fifty years and that for only a few seconds Life this far back was a bitch
The new arrival was biosculpted into a male version of herself, a type twenty-seven protohuman He was barely four feet tall, skinny and with dark brown skin He was also naked, since clothing wouldn't be invented for millions of years
She switched off his stasis field
He looked up at the stalactites hanging above him from the cave roof Confused, he looked over at her
”Surprise! You son of a bitch!” she shouted ”Welcome to two and a halfleopards and eating grubs and shi+vering up in a tree all night, you bastard, because it's all your fault!”
”What? Where am I?”
”The where is eastern Africa, you lucky boy, but the fun part is the when! You're in the Anthropological Corps now and you get to do the exciting work of tracking protohuration patterns!”
”This liest woe, buster! I'm your boss and will be for the next fifty years And if you think I'ly, just wait until you see yourself in aon here? None of thismy paperwork, when the monitors came in and I woke up here And I look like you?”
”Yeah, ly”
”Butwhy?”
”Your file says it's a punishross incompetence You completely failed to brief a new subordinate on security procedures! She left the wrong door open And the Owner's own cousin, who had never heard of tiot transported back to Poland's thirteenth century, ten years before the Mongol invasions Then the Owner hi the invasion The man had been there for ten years before he was discovered! There was nothing they could do about it without violating causality When you screw up, you don't fart around!”
”Butwithout notification, without trial?”
”You mess with the Owner's family, you're in deep shi+t, boy!”
”Wellwhat are you doing here, then?”
”You don't recognize me? I suppose I should be crushed, you bastard, but I'm not I'm the woman that you failed to brief, you shi+thead! I've been in this lousy pest hole for fifty years because of you, and now I've got fifty et you back for it!”
”Surely, madam, there's no reason to be vindictive about it After all, if we're both in the same boat-”
”A boat wouldn't be this bad, bastard! We are in theto eat but carrion and grubs! There's nothing to do but wander around after a tribe with less brains than a bunch of morons, and nobody to talk to that has a vocabulary of over forty words except each other”
”hell yes, I' to stay that way for the next fifty years!”
He rolled over and groaned
She looked at him ”Well, in fifty years, my replacement will be the dolt at the thirteenth-century portal who should have caught your screw-up Then you get to be his boss It gives you soain
Chapter One
FROM THE DIARY OF PIOTR KULCZYNSKI
My naht ard
He is a good lord, and well loved by his people, for he is a giant inis renowned above that of all other men, and scarce half a day passes when he does not create so soreat mills and efficient factories for his lord Count Laifted to his in but a few months Our Church of Christ the Carpenter at Three Walls is reputed to be the biggest in Poland Sir Conrad says that soon ill beiron and steel in vast quantities, as well as a sort of mortar called cement
He is vastly tall, and h any nors at Three Walls, he decreed that the doors be tall enough to let hieneration of children will be, so properly The carpenters built as he required, but they laughed that any children of his size et
His prowess in battle is above that of all others, and but three days agone he defeated one of the greatest champions in Poland, the Crossman Sir Adolf, in Trial by Coht of the Cross easily, he actually played with theaway his shi+eld and then his sword, winning the fight with his bare hands to show that God was truly on his side
And he is a saintly man, kind to those in need and always ready to help the poor, the aged, the oppressed
The very Trial I ross of Pruthenian slaves, he beat seven Cross a sixth alical skill He reat distance to ransom a casual acquaintance with a vast su
And he has been blessed by God At the Trial, after he had defeated his opponent so easily, he was foully attacked by four other Crossolden arrows fall fro the men ould have harmed the Lord's Anointed
Yet he is my enemy
Never would I do harm to my lord, nor even think evil of him, for evil is far from all his words and deeds
But since I was a small child I have loved Krystyana
Before I dared profess my love to her, she was chosen by Count La
I could do nothing while she warhts, for she went to this task willingly Yet I was consoled, for it is the custom of that lord, once one of his ladies ith child, to e My father promised to talk to Count Laht, and I thought that one day within the year I would have my love by my side
But then Sir Conrad cah froeas on hi those to whoht matheavethe books of his inn, his brass works, and now the city he was building at Three Walls This made me a man of some substance, which bolstered my claim to Krystyana's hand