Part 6 (1/2)
Anna said that she'd be just fine outside, and there was plenty for her to eat
Sleeping in platedown in a well-designed contour chair and twigs and stones on the ground don't bother you in the least The only problem was that I'd closed my visor to keep my face warm, and there was half an inch of condensed frost inside my helmet when I woke up I had to remove the helmet (no easy job) and scrape it out Even then I'd h so that when it war down , I found that Anna had eaten most of a medium sized hazel tree!
This surprised me, and we talked about it It seeanic Given her choice, she preferred fresh green grass and, after that, grain, but in a pinch, as just fine Hazel was better than pine, and fruit trees were downright tasty She didn't like coal because she didn't like the taste of sulfur, but coke was okay ”Anna, you never fail to astoundfor copper ore It will be copper sulfide, which is a black, heavy stone”
She said that so was stinky around here and went off to look for it
I finished off ear packed by the time she came back I saddled her up and ent off to look at what she'd found They were heavy black stones, all right, and Anna said that they s We spent theup about six dozen pounds of the stuff, Anna pawing at the snow and round About noon, I loaded them into my backpack and told Anna to head -for Wroclaw
She never has to backtrack Once she's been somewhere, she always knows the direction between here and there
We got there in time for me to take a bath before supper, and this time I didn't have to dance in aret permission to leave, but he cheered up when I showed hined and sealed both copies of our contract that night
”One other thing, boy I said I'd put up two hundred thousand pence, and you've said that you can't start until late spring That's the thin tiht after the harvest, so I' to pay you the money now You can pick it up from the exchequer when you leave”
”May I have perrace?”
”Granted I'll co Everyone else is too busy to talk toin my room
Chapter Six
Even loaded doith the ore and all that ood because the last few h a heavy snowstorm
The snow didn't let up for three days, and by that time ere coet in or out Work went on as usual, of course, and we had plenty of supplies to last us, so it wasn't too bad But there was no way that I could get to Okoitz to make my monthly visit to Count Lambert
One day, after we'd been snowed in a month, I heard a commotion outside I ran to the rear balcony to see what it was, and everybody was pointing up and back over my head I had to run to the front balcony to see it
Count La his balloon! It had red-and-white vertical stripes and a huge white Piast eagle on a red shi+eld sewn on its side Only judging froer than it should have been
I waved, and I think he waved back But there was nothing else I could do
Eventually, a merchant made it to Three Walls and told us that the snoas really deep for only about the last e lord I found hi
”Sir Conrad, where have you been?”
”I was snowed in, ?”
”A likely story I broke ed along just after that I tell you that I flew halfway to Kiev!”
”What happened,to tether the balloon”
”I did, but it broke the tether rope as if it was a piece of thread That was the second balloon, of course”
”The second balloon, h to lift me with a decent supply of charcoal With et ht happen, so I ”
”Twice as big, my lord? You mean twice the volume?”
”I suppose so We just took every measurement you showed and doubled it It took a deuced amount of cloth, but I had plenty”
”Yes, my lord I expect that it took four tiht times the volume It probably had a dozen tiht have It just snapped the rope and up I went like a frightened bird! I think I headed south at first, at least I think that was Three Walls I saw Things certainly look different from up there!”
”We saw you, my lord”
”Hoonderful! You saw my proud Piast family device? Some of my ancestors doubtless bore it with her! I think a lot of other people must have seen it as well, because I think the winds shi+fted and I' I could see the wind blowing the trees, but I couldn't feel the wind myself! I was in a dead cal! Can you explain this strange thing?”
”Of course,with the wind You feel the wind only when it isat a different speed than you are”
”That doesn't make much sense, but if you're not worried about it then I won't be either I tried to land at Wawel, but I couldn'tthe fire, but the cathedral towers on Wawel Hill were gone before I started to get low By then, I was over another forest and had to buildthe treetops before I started to go up again And once started up, it continued to a vast height And so I went, up and down until my charcoal was exhausted Then I went down and stayed there I ca
”Why didn't you throw out your sandbags at the last instant, my lord”
”Because I didn't have any I know you said to carry the the saht in charcoal After all, I could always throw out the charcoal at the end, just as I could have the sand And the charcoal could be used to take her, if that was necessary But as it was, I could never find a big field to land in Most of the world is forest You don't realize that traveling on the roads, but it's true!”
”At least you're alive, my lord, and you've had an adventure that most men only dream of”
”More adventure than you know, Sir Conrad Once I was down, and lying there helpless and alone, a crowd of damn peasants wanted to bu in that half understandable Ruthenian tongue If a nobleman hadn't seen the Piast crest on ht be dead now As it was, he took ht up with me But my lovely balloon is no more The peasants ripped it to shreds I'll bet that every peasant in Red Ruthenia has a red-and-white raincoat!”
”Sain”
”And why not? I'll learn the way of it next tiht come down in the middle of the Baltic Sea!”
”Well, what of it? Why should any sanefrightening, think about being wrinkled and crippled and sick all the tie and I don't want it! The Baltic would be a glorious death, and would givein battle”
I tried a different tack ”In eight years, we have one of the biggest wars in history co up You don't want to ols? Of course not!”