Part 12 (1/2)
But France and the Middle East had been civilized er, and that's precisely where Lady Francine and Cilicia ca that this is Ultiue it over a beer
Cilicia's talents in bed were as outstanding as her abilities on the dance floor, and I'lad that I didn't have to take her as a slave because I certainly wanted to take her
She was bright, too In two short weeks, she'd picked up enough Polish to communicate, and her accent wasn't as thick as her father's I ad her people stay, despite all the problems that we both kneould occur
Her technique was to exaroup who could show us how to do it better She exaer that Sir Vladiiven me last Christmas and pronounced the steel to be inferior My sword met with her admiration, and when she asked if we could do such work, I had to admit that we couldn't But one of her people could
She talked about pottery and cloth and glass, but I think that it was the papere, you have to have plentiful books There sih parchment to do that, even if I could auto it It takes the skin of a whole sheep to e sheet of parchrow But if we had paper, I knew I could build a printing press
So that night, between bouts of Mil Spec, loveether without killing each other Essentially, the program was to keep them as separated as possible, with contacts only for professional purposes I would give them some land and keep my people out of it, except for apprentices, ouldn't be allowed to spend the night Except for Zoltan, her people would leave their land only with my per, enough to get theh the winter, and ould provide food for the first year, after which they would be on their own One half theirmy apprentices and in R&D work We shook on it, a novel custohted with the deal
Cilicia, of course would be staying with me My father didn't raise anybody that dumb!
Soand started putting up a housing unit No indoor plu, no defensive features, and the kitchens would be detached It wouldn't be as nice as Three Walls, because ere up against a ti in, but I wanted them out of Three Walls before the Great Hunt I didn't want fifty noble guests, a fehouests eren't even Christians! That was asking for trouble
But after teeks at Three Walls, I had toready to leave when Kotcha, irl I, all fifty pounds of excited nine-year-old, ran breathless into my bedroom
”Anna's had puppies!” she shouted
This announcement left me momentarily stunned ”Kotcha, horses don't have puppies They have foals
And Anna's not expecting You can tell on a horse The body gets bigger and the breasts fill withtime of the year for that, anyway”
Children in the Middle Ages didn't have to be told about the birds and the bees It was normal for the entire family, parents, children, and various relatives, to live and sleep in a single roo normal that had happened around theh, they wereit as far sex a secret is a modern perversion
”Anna's not a horse! And they look like puppies!”
”The first part is true enough”
”Maybe you'd better come and look My lord”
”Maybe I'd better”
A crowd had gathered around Anna's stall, and I pushed h it
What I saw turned my stomach If ever there was a bunch of prematurely born foals, this was it They really did look like oversized puppies, with tiny spindly legs they could barely crawl on Born in November, for God's sake, and there were four of them No wonder they had aborted It was incredible that they were still alive There was only one decent thing to do Put the poor things out of their et the hell out of here!” I shouted at the crohich evaporated
”Kotcha, you'd better go, too You don't want to see this”
”What are you going to do?”
I crouched down to her level ”I know that this will be hard for you to understand, Kotcha, but sooes wrong, and when it does, the only nice thing to do is toto do?”
”These foals, these 'puppies,' won't be able to grow up right Look, Anna's breasts haven't even started to swell yet She won't be able to feed them They'll starve”
”They eat hay, just like Anna does”
”They're too young to eat hay Small mammals have to havehay!”
”Kotcha, I've tried to explain, but I' that has to be done Now please go away”
”You're going to kill them!”
”Yes, Kotcha I have to”
”NO!” She ran to the back of the stall, grabbed a pitchfork, and stood in front of the colts pointing it at e and no brains at all
”damn Anna, would you talk to her You know that this is necessary, don't you?”
Anna shook her head No, and stood beside Kotcha
If I had to, I could always disarainst htforward She could whipin our sign language that covers this Let's go over to the letterboard and talk this over Kotcha, you can stay right here and watch the babies”
I'd o when I learned that Anna was intelligent She couldn't talk but she could spell things out by pointing at the letters If you could call it spelling
She went over to it and spelled out KEDS OK
”Kids okay? You're telling me that those are normal?”
She nodded yes
”They always look like that?”
Yes
I sat down on the ground ”Ohto eat? You don't have any milk”
ET HAY ET GRAN ET ENEDING
”They can eat anything, the same as you do?”
Yes