Before he could recover, I gave him a stop thrust to the solar plexus. I caught him square and hard, but it didn't stop him! I think it stopped his breathing, but the man didn't even bend over! He swung again, and again I was able to knock the blade aside. But this time, I was in position to swing a strong blow straight down on his head. It staggered him, and I could see blood run down his forehead where the edge of his helmet cut his skin, yet he was still on his feet, or rather his foot, for one was all that he had to stand on.
I waited a moment, surprised that I hadn't knocked him cold. Then his sword arm started to move, so I hit him again with all my might, this time a side blow to the neck.
He crumbled at my feet. I stood there, breathing hard, absolutely expecting him to get up and fight again.
Then a cheer went up from my fellow grunts, and Sir Conrad and Sir Vladimir were cheering with them! Soon the applause spread even to the baron's men, whether because they did not like him or because they truly admired my performance, I did not know.
But it felt good, and it felt better yet to be alive!
Sir Conrad and one of the baron's knights came out on the field and examined the baron. He was dead. My last blow had broken his neck.
"A very good fight," Sir Conrad said, getting out the medical kit he always carried. "Let's take care of that leg."
Can you believe that I had actually forgotten that I was wounded? There was a trail of my own blood from where I was cut to where I stood, yet I had forgotten about it!
It took fifteen stitches to close my wound, by which time the knights had loaded the baron, without his armor or surcoat, onto the back of one of the squire's horses. All present felt that the baron's arms and armor were mine by right of combat.
I never used them and I never sold them either, though once a merchant offered me twenty-seven thousand pence for the set, mostly because of the solid gold fittings on the sword and helmet, and the spurs were solid gold, in the French style. It seems that the gold wash on the chain mail wasn't all that expensive at all, a mere five hundred pence, although it had to be renewed every year because it wore off.
No, I kept that armor and one day hung it on my wall, as a decoration and a memento of this day and all that happened because of it.
Sir Conrad asked two of Baron Stefan's senior knights to go with him to Okoitz, as witnesses as to what had taken place. Count Lambert's most powerful vassal had been killed, and a party would have to go and make explanation to him.
"Sir Conrad," I said, "am I in trouble for what I did this day?"
"Not as much as you were in a few minutes ago." He laughed. "But the fact remains that you have killed a man who vastly outranked you, and I'm not sure what Count Lambert will do. The duke would probably kill you on general principles, but I doubt if Count Lambert will. He never liked the baron, or his father either. Furthermore, the baron had no living relatives that I know of. He was the last of an old line. There will be no one powerful after your blood. I don't think that even his own vassals had much love for him, so it's likely that you're safe."
"Likely" is not a comforting word when the subject is one's own life.
Sir Conrad decided that it would be just as fast to complete the run as to go back, so soon the others left running. I returned with Sir Vladimir and the two of the baron's men who stayed behind. One of them, a Sir Xawery, was kind enough to lend me his horse, so that I didn't have to walk on my wounded leg. He led it by the bridle, so I had no difficulty with the animal. Baron Stefan's arms and armor were loaded on the back, and Sir Vladimir promised to send someone out later for the saddle and lance.
Five of us went to Okoitz that day, Sir Vladimir, Sir Conrad, the baron's two knights, and myself. We were all in armor and I was riding Sir Gregor's war-horse, for my own had been given to Jozef Kulisiewicz almost a year ago. It was the first time that I had ridden a real charger, and the truth was that he scared me almost as much as the baron had that morning. A truly ferocious animal!
We stopped at Sir Miesko's on the way and he joined us, for all felt that it would be useful to have someone along who was versed in the law. Sir Miesko spent some time talking with Sir Xawery and then told me that I had little to worry about. I had been on my lord's lands and fought at his bidding, so I had done no wrong.
This relieved me considerably, and I was in a light-hearted mood as we rode past the new construction and into Okoitz.
Count Lambert was in the bailey, talking to his master carpenter, Vitold, when he saw us.
"Sir Conrad, don't tell me that you've gotten into more trouble!"
"Not I, my lord, but perhaps my squire has. Baron Stefan is dead."
I was thrilled that Sir Conrad had acknowledged me as his squire!
"Dog's blood! Next you're going to tell me that little Piotr has killed him!"
"I'm afraid so, my lord."
"Him! What did he use, poison?"
"No, my lord, he fought the baron at that man's insistence when he was naked and had only a stick, while the baron was fully armed, armored, and on horseback. These knights can all attest to that, for they were all witnesses."
"Dog's blood! They'd better, because right now I don't believe it! Gentlemen, this is best discussed in my chamber."
Some grooms came up and attended to our horses, and we were led to the count's chamber. A pretty wench served us the count's mead, of which he was inordinately proud, and in real glasses, the gift of Sir Conrad. It was remarkably good and had a flavor of rose hips.
Sir Xawery gave an accurate account of what happened and the three other knights attested to the truth of his statements. Sir Miesko discussed the legal aspects of the thing, most of which I could not follow, but the gist of which was that I was not at fault.
Count Lambert thought for a few moments.
"Well. It seems that Baron Stefan was crass enough to challenge a defenseless peasant and inept enough to lose the fight! Damn! And I'd always thought of him as one of the best fighters I had!"
"Crass he might have been, my lord, but my late lord was a great fighter! I tell you that he fought for a long while standing on one foot with a broken leg!" Sir Xawery said.
Count Lambert sighed. "As you will. But it doesn't solve what I am to do now! If a naked peasant can defeat one of my best knights, what am I to do? Some would say that Piotr should be hung as a public menace! Yet I must agree that he did no wrong if I am to believe you four, and how can I call four such honorable knights liars? Yet we can't have peasants killing full belted knights, can we? The whole social order would suffer!
"Much as it galls me to reward a man, especially this smart aleck, for killing one of my own vassals, I don't see anything for it but to knight the bastard!
"Piotr, kneel before me!"
I could scarcely believe my ears! Count Lambert himself was about to grant my fondest wish! Me! Sir Piotr! I quickly knelt before him as the count drew his sword.
"Wait, my lord," Sir Conrad said. "Piotr is my vassal and a student at my warrior school. The truth is that Baron Stefan picked him from among three dozen others because he looked to be the worst fighter of the bunch. And the baron picked right! Any one of the others could have done a better job than he did, and finished the matter quicker. I don't like the idea of one of my students being rewarded for dumb luck!"
My heart fell back into my knees. I was so close, yet I was being shot down by my own lord, whom I'd thought was my friend!
"Maybe they could have, Sir Conrad, but 'maybe' isn't doing it! You forget that I am your liege and I'll knight whom I damn well please! As to the others, knight them yourself if you want."
Count Lambert gave me the three traditional blows with the flat of his sword, the last of which nearly knocked me over. Thank God in Heaven that I was still in full armor, for I think the ring around my collar saved my life!
"I dub thee knight. Arise, Sir Piotr," Count Lambert said.
I did so and all the knights rushed over to congratulate me, and welcome me to their
order. Yet Sir Conrad was somewhat distant.
"Count Lambert," Sir Conrad said. "What did you mean by saying that I should knight the others myself? I didn't think that a mere knight could do that."
"A mere knight can't. But there is a second matter created by today's doings. Baron Stefan had no heir, nor any relatives at all that I am aware of. Even his mother was an only child with both her parents dead. Therefore, all his property escheats to me. The bunch of you have seen fit to award his arms and armor to Sir Piotr, and I'll not dispute that, but all the rest is now mine.
"I'm minded to give it to you, Sir Conrad, and the baronage that goes with it, but we'll discuss the terms in private."
Sir Conrad was genuinely surprised. "Thank you, my lord. I don't know what else to say."
"Then don't say it. For now, supper will be served soon and I think Sir Piotr would like to tell his parents of his good fortune, or his 'dumb luck,' as you called it. Sir Piotr, be sure to be back in time for supper. I'll try to work some knightly courtesy into you!"
"Be assured that I shall always be the most courteous of all your knights, my lord!" I said, for I truly meant it. At last, through the oddest of chances, I had attained my goal!
Chapter Twenty-one
FROM THE DIARY OF CONRAD SCHWARTZ
I don't know which startled me more, Piotr being knighted or my being granted Baron Stefan's lands. That barony was huge and contained some of the best farmland in Silesia. It was hopelessly backward now, since the baron and his father had refused to allow any of the new seeds or methods to be used, but I could have it in shape in a year or two. With that land, I could easily feed all my workers and wouldn't have to buy food anymore. I could expand the school system into the area and do a lot for the people who were living there. As to the baron's knights and squires, well, if they wanted to swear to me, they'd have to go through the Warrior school!
About Piotr getting knighted, well, I was happy for the kid, but it caused a fistful of problems. For one thing, an army can only hold together if it is essentially fair. If Piotr was knighted, I'd have to knight the rest of his class, probably at the graduation ceremony. I'd expected to have to knight my officers eventually, but these men were at the level of sergeants.
One of my long-term goals was to eliminate the gap that existed between the commoners and the nobility. At the base, it's an ugly thing. All men should be born equal. Now I was going to have to enlarge the nobility, rather than reducing it.
But maybe that was the way to remove the gap! If everybody was a knight, or could at least become one by dint of hard work, then there wouldn't be any nobility, at least in the old sense of the word. What's more, it was politically feasible. My knights would be the toughest fighters in the world and no one could doubt their right to the honor. I could knight any man who was good enough, whereas it would be just about impossible to "unknight" someone who was already knighted. He'd fight before he let that happen!
Maybe it would all work out for the best.
"Sir Conrad, just what was your objection to my knighting Piotr," Count Lambert said, once the others had gone.
"It will cause some problems, my lord. If Piotr is a knight, I'll have to knight the others in his class, and those who graduate from the Warrior's school in the future."
"I don't see the need for that, but if they're all as good at fighting as Piotr apparently is, why not? A good fighter ought to be knighted, and if you're right about the upcoming Mongol invasion, we'll need all the fighters we can get!"
"True, my lord, but I don't see how it will be possible to grant them all the privileges that your present knights enjoy. I don't think that they should have the right to peasant girls the way your present knights do."
"What?! Sir Conrad, rank hath its privileges! The right to dalliance with unmarried women is one of the biggest ones, and I won't let it be interfered with! Anyway, there are always plenty of eager wenches about."
"My lord, there are plenty of wenches about because at present not one man in a hundred is a knight. If my plans work out, I'll have every man in this part of the country in my army, at least on a temporary or standby basis. If we are going to knight them at the sergeant level, that will mean that one man in seven will be knighted. They'll be knights for the rest of their lives, whereas wenches stay unmarried for at most two years. If you do the arithmetic, you'll realize that knights will outnumber wenches by at least two to one!"
As matters sat, while a knight had the legal right to force a young woman to have sex with him, in fact rape in the usual sense almost never happened. There were more volunteers than an ordinary man could handle! But with knights outnumbering unmarried wenches, the situation could get ugly.
"Sir Conrad, I don't feel like doing any arithmetic and I don't believe that even you can have every man in the country under arms. Anyway, if that many men are out there making the beast with two backs, there'll be a new crop of wenches coming out shortly."
"But my lord . . ."
"No 'buts' about it! I tell you that I won't have the privilege removed!"
"Yes, my lord. What would you think if I formed a special order of knighthood, for my own knights only. Then I could have certain rules of the order that would help alleviate the problem."
"Just what rules did you have in mind?"
"Well, for one, I would restrict the rights to wenches to those knights who are already married. That way they could get most of their sex from their wives and the wives would stop most serious abuses from occurring."
"I suppose that I could go along with that. Married men make better fighters, anyway. They're steadier."
"And I don't like this business of getting girls pregnant and then pawning them off on the peasants. I don't think it's fair to the girls. I think that the relationship should be a fairly permanent one, and with the wife's permission."
"That smacks of bigamy, Sir Conrad."
"Maybe so, my lord, but I think it would be far less cruel than the present system."
"Perhaps. Well, I won't bother forbidding it because the Church will do that for me. Set your order up any way you will, Sir Conrad. What I want to talk about is our arrangements on your new barony. I have been buying materials from you to build my new castle, and I am now considerably in your debt. I want that debt canceled."
"Done, my lord."
"And I want all future materials needed for it and for Eagle Nest to be given me free of charge."
"Very well, my lord."
"And that armor you're wearing. You gave the duke and his son each a set and now I even see Piotr wearing it. I want some for myself."
"You shall have it, my lord. Two sets, now that we have it in mass production. We can even make one set gold-plated if you want."
"Gold-plated? What's that?"
"My jeweler and I have come up with a method of putting a thin layer of gold over good steel, my lord. It looks like solid gold but it's as strong as steel. It doesn't rust, either."
"Then I'll take it! Lastly, my old arrangement with Baron Stefan had it that he was to provide me with twenty knights a year, each for three months. You should do the same."
"If you wish, my lord. But I had hoped to use those knights otherwise, at the Warrior's school. What say that in place of that service, I equip each of your knights with a set of plate armor. And in a year, we'll be set up to produce horse armor, and I'll give each of them a set of that as well."
"That seems generous, Sir Conrad. Throw in two sets of this horse armor for me, and one of them in this plate gold, and we'll call it done."
"Then done it is, my lord."
"Good. We'll swear our oaths at sunrise tomorrow. For now, I think supper should be ready."
* * *
FROM THE DIARY OF PIOTR KULCZYNSKI
My father was astounded at my good fortune, and soon took me around to all his friends in the town to show me off. My old playmates looked at me with awe, and two of the town bullies, who had once made my young life miserable now fairly g
roveled before me.
My mother, however, was much less than pleased. She much preferred me as an accountant than as a knight and cried for a long while as though I was going off immediately to die in battle. This got my parents into an argument and I was happy to have the excuse of the count's supper to get out of there. Already I was beginning to realize that these good people were now far below me.
Supper was served formally at the castle, with attractive wenches bringing our food and drink to us. Fortunately, this situation was well covered in the lessons that Lady Richeza taught us, so I committed no gaucherie.
All of the wenches, or more properly, "ladies-in-waiting" were anxious for my attention, all smiling and winking at me. Perhaps I should have expected this, for I had heard many stories of the vast privileges of one of Count Lambert's knights, yet I had somehow never dared dream of myself being the recipient of these feminine favors.
In truth, I didn't know how one went about accepting their offers, for it was a topic that Lady Richeza had never mentioned! But I had heard that when in doubt, it was always wise to ask direction from one's liege lord, so I asked Sir Conrad.
"Well, personally, I've always let the girls decide that for themselves, and so far I've never been disappointed. But if there's one that you particularly favor, you have but to ask her. In fact, you have the right to order any unmarried peasant woman in Count Lambert's domains to your bed, but I wouldn't do that sort of thing too often. It might cause hard feelings. You won't have to do any ordering, because you'll be hard enough pressed just taking care of the volunteers!"
I had of course been studying the serving girls who waited on us, and there was one blond girl who strongly resembled my love Krystyana. When next she came by, I softly said, "Tonight?"
"Thank you, Sir Piotr! I'd love to!"
From that point on, the meal went both too fast and too slow. On the one hand, I was most eager for the favors of my intended bed partner. On the other, well, the truth was that I was a virgin. I had only the foggiest of notions as to what precisely I was to do with the girl. Such was my love for Krystyana that I had never thought to pursue any other woman, and, of course, most of the women that I had met were either friends of hers or were waitresses at my lord's inns, who must needs retain their own virginity or lose their jobs.
Conrad Starguard-The Radiant Warrior Page 73
