Part 14 (2/2)

”My ancestors were here for hundreds of years before anybody ever heard of a Piast!”

Count La I couldn't hear

”I don't owe fealty to a man whose wits are not his own! Your o! Yours and the duke's, too!”

Baron Jaraslav's face got redder as his blood pressure went up I could feel h, your swiving every wench in the county, turning the like you've ruined the wo your mother's tits!”

The baron's face and hands were as dark red as dried blood I'd never seen such a thing before, but I'd heard about it Not good in an old man

”That warlock wants to turn the whole duchy into a stinking, dirty factory! I won't stand for it! Better to die fighting than to fall sickened by his poisons!”

The baron becaan gasping and suddenly he toppled from his horse

I didn't know if this was a heart attack or a stroke, but it looked to o see what I can do for hinaled Anna forward

”Stay back here you fool!” Sir Miesko shouted, but I ignored hiht was that if I could do Baron Jaraslav a real service, like saving his life, ht not hate me as much Okay, so it was a dumb idea

We sprinted to where the baron had fallen I pulled o back to the line I didn't want her to interpret some movement by the baron as an attack on ue and checked his breathing There wasn't any! I started giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation as I checked frantically for a pulse A lot of shouting was going on but I ignored it I couldn't find a pulse but that didn't et athis heart to be on the safe side, a thing that would have been ih with the baron's gold-washed chain mail

Then I took a blow to the side of the head that ht have killed me if it hadn't been for my new helmet It didn't h h to send

”Stay away from my father, you filthy witch!” Sir Stefan shouted, sword in hand

”You Stupid John!” I swore at hi to die!”

I started to ain, only to have his blade parried by Count Lambert's

”STOP! Both of you!” Count La's blood! You have both dishonored yourselves! Sir Conrad, I told you to stay in the line! Get back there, da a peace parley, a hanging offense anywhere!”

”My lord,” I said, ”his heart and breathing have stopped! If I don't-”

”If his heart's stopped, then he's dead! Get back to the line or I'll put this sword in your face!”

I could see that Count Lambert meant it, and the baron was probably really dead by this tiauntlets

”Yes, ave Sir Stefan a chewing out the likes of which I hadn't heard since boot cas alone, but then Sir Stefan would probably have blamed his father's death on my ”witchcraft” in any event It orth a try, I suppose I certainly shouldn't have called hie often don't translate well into another, but that particular phrase is a deadly insult and fighting words in Polish

”You're a daot back and mounted Anna ”If ever a man's foul words stuck in his throat and killed him, it was Baron Jaraslav's It looked like a sure Act of God! But when you ran out there, you took everybody's mind off of what had just happened This sorryafloat It could still end with fifty good uess I screwed it up,” I said

But the parley went on for another half hour, and we couldn't hear a thing of as said Then so happened Count Lambert and Sir Stefan turned and faced the sun, raised their right arms to it and Sir Stefan swore fealty to Count Lambert

Count Lambert and his barons came back to us and he addressed those of us in the line

”This matter is ended! Baron Jaraslav is dead! Baron Stefan has sworn fealty to me and will obey me as all of you have done this day! I thank you all for coo home! I will see many of you in a week at the Great Hunt' For the rest of you, good hunting!”

And so we left, and soon there was no one left on the field but the dead baron and Baron Stefan, standing over his father's body

It all worked out as best as could be expected Having Stefan instead of his father for a neighbor wasn't much of an improvement, but Count Laht of inheritance His own lofty position was based on that very sahts and squires broke up into groups as we headed home in our various directions By late afternoon there was only myself, Sir Vladimir, and Sir Miesko As we passed Sir Miesko's manor, Lady Richeza invited us in, but there was still tiates, the band was up on the balcony to welcoiven permission for this waste ofup there for half a day, but I had to ad the theme from Raiders of the Lost Ark

I announced at supper what had happened, that Baron Stefan was our new neighbor, and that the Great Hunt was on as scheduled

Sir Miesko had setthe valley at Three Walls for our killing ground, just as we had last year Only this year, it would cover not only my lands, but Sir Miesko's as well as those of Baron Stefan and two other knights

As Master of the Hunt, I got the wolf skins and any aurochs captured on all of Count Laot all the deer skins taken locally As a landowner, I got a share, about one-fifth, of one-half of the et about one-third of the one-quarter of the meat reserved for the beaters And since I personally would be participating in the kill, I got a share of the one-quarter of the kill that was divided a the nobility present

Complicated, but profitable, especially since the fashi+on of wearing wolf skin cloaks was taking hold I had already sold the six hundred wolf skins we had taken last year at very nice prices, and I was looking forward to taking twenty times that nu all of the detail work of a Local Hunt Master for me, except for the feasts, and that was Krystyana's proble coet them out of Three Walls beforeWe alet out anyway They could live in the nearly finished buildings until the hunt was over, and no, they couldn't act as beaters alongside Christians, although they were responsible for sweeping all the wild ga care ofthe hunt

Thebefore the hunt, hts on the periphery of the hunting district, leaving behind only a skeleton crew to keep, the blast furnace fed and a few pregnant women to take care of the small children To minimize friction, none of my people were sent to Baron Stefan's lands My own station was at Sir Miesko's

The plan was to have a line of peasants and workers backed up by a line of horseencies, such as an irate bear

Since Piotr Kulczynski was spending half of his life on horseback, I assumed that he would be one of the riders Sir Miesko objected ”All the other horsemen will be of the nobility, their ladies or at least squires