Part 8 (1/2)
”You've said that you can't possibly survive without the half pay you've been 's blood! You and your husbands can survive quite ithout any pay at all!”
”You were all starving in Cieszyn before I brought you here, and if you left, or if I threw you out, you would go right back to starving there! I could stop paying you all and you would keep on working here
You'd do it because it's the best thing that's ever happened to you!”
”Who pays for all the food you eat, that soot the cloth you're wearing? I did! Who puts the roof over your head? I do! Who built the church you go to? I did! I even pay the priest!”
”And what do I get for this? Do I get your loyalty? No! All I get is complaints! What would Count Lambert do if his people met like this and coed, and you know it! What would the duke do? You'd all be hung!”
”But you think that because I've been good to you, you can get aith being bad to me Well, you can't!”
”You co your jobs because of the new steam sawmill Well, you'll lose your jobs when I tell you to lose them, and not before”
”Is there anyone here who actually likes to walk back and forth on that walking ht as well leave now; you're too du three steale Nest The second will go to the duke's new Copper City And the third will be set up right here at Three Walls And when it's working, we'll tear down the walking mill and saw it up for lumber”
”I took an oath to take care of you, and I have, even though you have asyour disloyalty, I am half tempted to throw out the lot of you!”
”But I won't I take our oaths seriously, even if you don't Things are going to go on just as they have been
Women with children ork half a day for half a day's pay Those without children will go on working a full day for full pay”
”You hen and where I oruntil I tell you that you have lost your jobs If you want to change jobs, co out Or anize a protest ainst me, I'll throw the leaders out and have the rest of you working without pay for ato be madder than I really was Had the , I would have been easier on them But I couldn't tolerate protests over every newin fast and furious
But Count Laht You can't use reason on a mob You have to tell theht
I was taking a group of seventy-nine nica to build Copper City
Another crew of about the sa done, Count La to arrive The Krakowski Brass Works and Three Walls were running with skeleton crews leading a bunch of rookies
Annastashi+a was due for her child, so I'd assigned Sir Vladimir to take care of Three Walls He'd have his hands full, since Ilya was the only real foreing about two dozen miles a day, or about a tenth of what Anna could run in the same time Despite my precautions, we'd had to take the steained Between them, the pieces occupied half our mules
On noon of the third day, ere near the boundaries of Count Lahts, Sir Lestko, his horse lathered with sweat, overtook us
”Sir Conrad, thank God in Heaven I've found so all yourin Toszek!”
”What do you ?” I said
”I' people! They are so people alive at the stake!”
Toszek was about awas about a quarterprominently on a hill I detailed two e, and led the rest, mostly armed with axes, picks, and hae, since he had too good a brain to lose, and he was too sht, anyway But he wouldn't stand for it He was still trying to prove so to himself, or ue with him
We surrounded the place, a process that, for lack of training, took a quarter hour A ue idea as to what to do; these round, and I almost had to tell them individually what I expected of the above Toszek, and we could hear screa while we blundered around Yet if ent in like a s!
When the men were all in position and understood that they were to advance when called, keeping the ht, Sir Lestko, Tadaos the bow to help provide meat for the camp, but I had other uses for hi sohtened In the ht stakes had been set in a line, and tied to theht women Three dozen soldiers and some priests stood around thes to bum, and I think that so the clothes burn off the women
Tadaos rode his mule to the side of a shed, stood up on its back and climbed to the roof, where he could cover the square with his longbow
Sir Lestko and I were actually in the square before the soldiers noticed us Soldiers? The assholes didn't even have sentries out! Women had died because I had overestimated the opposition I made a sole to just charge straight in and let the chips fly any way they would
”You people are all under arrest!” I shouted ”You are outnumbered five to one and we have you surrounded! Drop your weapons and raise your hands!”
The soldiers and priests looked at each other, confused They started babbling to one another in soht have been Spanish, but which I didn't understand
”Don't any of you bastards speak Polish? Speak up or we'll shoot you down!”
”I speak a little, knight What is it you want?” An older priest said in very broken Polish
”Want? I want you to drop your weapons and raise your hands! Tell theue you speak, or I'll have the lot of you killed right now for resisting arrest!”
He hesitated a bit and then announced so and drew his sword He got one step closer to h his throat Tadaos was on the ball
”That's one, you old fart! Anybody else want to play target practice? Tell the that I couldn't understand Thesethe e person for intruding on the, oldthe town! Advance sloith your axes high!”
Myless sure of themselves than I would have wished
”Last chance, old ible shouting Then two soldiers dropped their swords, but three ed me Tent down quickly with arrows in their throats, but the third arrowbehind I had been so overconfident of Tadaos's shooting that I hadn't even drawn my oord The soldier was only a pace from me as my blade cleared its scabbard, but I needn't have worried
Anna kicked thecrunch and he cruh I'd expected that Pointing with my sword, as if that was the reason I'd drawn it, I said, ”For there Search them carefully for weapons!”
Of course, the ene what a capitalist salesman calls an ”assumed close” Pretend that your opponents will do what you want them to do, and maybe they'll do it
They didn't