Frankowski, Leo Conrad 3 The Radiant Warrior

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I spent three days, including Sunday afternoon, talking about aircraft, about lift and drag and the other
forces on a plane. The type I got them going on was a high-winged glider, halfway between a sailplane and
a piper cub. Sort of an observation plane without an engine.
The steam saw was put to work cutting very thin strips of wood, and I headed for Okoitz.
Count Lambert was enthusiastic about my idea for limelights in his cloth factory, mostly because it would
permit his massive harem to stay there all winter. He was less enthusiastic about putting in a second shift.
As it was, the girls not currently being used slept on cots in the factory itself. Putting in a second shift
involved building housing for all of them, and if I was going to do that, I insisted that we put in plumbing
and kitchens of the sort we had at Three Walls.
What finally sold him was the thought that he could sort the workers according to sexual desirability and
keep the best ones on the day shift, thus improving the quality of his already beautiful ladies.
If that's what it took to get better sanitation at Okoitz, then so be it. Our infant mortality rate at Three Walls
was one-eighth of what it was at Okoitz. If saving thirty-five children a year meant hurting the feelings of a
hundred girls, then let their feelings be hurt!
And yes, I would accept cloth instead of cash for all the plumbing fixtures, and yes, I would design and
supervise the construction of the new buildings as part of my feudal duty to him.
That settled, Count Lambert wanted to talk about the Great Hunt. Sir Miesko had done a competent job
organizing the thing. Everything was ready. The local hunt masters all knew their duties, invitations to all
the knights in the duchy had been sent, and the enclosures for the killing grounds had been sent and
enclosures for the killing grounds had been built. The only problem was Baron Jaraslav and his son, Sir
Stefan. They were adamantly refusing to have anything to do with anything that I was involved with. I was
hoping that Count Lambert would talk to them.
"What!" Count Lambert said. "They refuse? Do they know that I want this thing done?"
"They do, my lord. Sir Miesko has been very adamant on that point, and they still won't have anything to
do with it. If we bypass them, we've left behind a breeding ground for wolves, bears, and wild boar. They
know it but don't care."
"Well, I'll settle with Baron Jaraslav! I've had enough out of those two! I'll visit them within the week with
fifty knights at my back, and they'll obey their liege lord or pay for it!"
"Yes, my lord. Was there anything else you wanted of me?"
"Dog's blood! There is! You and Sir Vladimir will attend me here in one week. Sir Miesko is on your way,
so tell him and any others you meet to come here as well."
"Yes, my lord. You are expecting battle?"
"I'm expecting my vassals to obey me. All of them!"
"Yes, my lord." When he was in this mood, it wasn't smart to argue.
Count Lambert had five knights in attendance, and he gave four of them exacting verbal instructions to ride
out in the morning, contact certain specific barons and knights, and have them report to Okoitz. Verbal,
because Count Lambert still couldn't read or write.
It was an hour before he calmed down. Then he started hinting strongly that he'd rather like to try out the
wench I'd brought along.
I wasn't happy about lending out Cilicia, but Count Lambert's current mood still wasn't anything that I
wanted to trifle with. Anyway, he had always been so generous with me in this regard that it would have
been niggardly of me to refuse him.
"Of course, my lord. But remember that she is a foreigner, and the customs of her people are different from
ours. I'd best talk to her first."
"Do so." And I was dismissed.
Cilicia was not at all pleased at being lent out "like horse for rent," as she put it. I said that this was a
custom of Okoitz, and one must conform to local customs, but she wasn't convinced. I finally had to say
that she could obey me or she could go back to her father. She obeyed, and I picked up one of Count
Lambert's ladies for the night.
Neither Cilicia nor Count Lambert ever mentioned what went on that night, but he never asked for her
services again.
Sir Miesko was appalled that Count Lambert was considering war against Baron Jaraslav. He sent a letter,
carried by his oldest son, to the baron urging him to make immediate apology to their liege and so forestall
any violence, but he had scant hope that the irascible baron would do so. "I wish I could understand their [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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