I was getting ready to make the trip to Okoitz one more time when there was a commotion on the trail.
Friar Roman Makowski came in riding a mule with his cassock up almost to his waist. As he dismounted, I could see that the insides of his thighs were worn raw. Overexcited and limping, he rushed over to Sir Vladimir and me.
“Sir Conrad! Thank God I’ve found you!”
“Slow down, kid. What’s the problem?”
“It’s Tadaos, the boatman! They’re going to kill him!”
“You’d better start from the beginning.”
“You remember the boatman we rode with on our way to Cracow? Well, this spring you wrote him a letter bearing Count Lambert’s seal that was sent through my monastery. Since I knew the man, I delivered it to him. He had to leave for Sacz immediately, but he said that he would reply on his return to Cracow.”
“You remember the deer he shot by the River Dunajec last fall? Well, he shot another one in the very same place two weeks ago.”
“Except this time it wasn’t a real deer, but only a dummy. As he got out of his boat to get his kill, the baron’s men arrested him for poaching. They would have hanged him forthwith save that he had the letter from Lambert with him and the baron was loath to offend so great a lord as your liege.”
“He threw Tadaos into the donjon and wrote Lambert that unless a fine was paid, Tadaos would be hanged in six weeks! Again the letter came through my monastery and I obtained permission to deliver it directly to Lambert.”
“Lambert told me that it was none of his affair, but that you could do as you saw fit. So I came here and had the awfulest time finding you.”
“Then there’s a month to go before they hang him. We don’t have to panic yet,” I said. “You have the baron’s letter?”
The kid handed it to me and I read it. Medieval letters were just folded and only sealed shut if the matter was private. The seal on this one dangled from the bottom on a ribbon. They didn’t use envelopes, but parchment is pretty tough stuff.
“Baron Przemysl wants four thousand pence? For one lousy deer?” I gagged.
“And not a real deer, at that,” Vladimir said. “I’ve heard of this Tadaos and his poaching is notorious. But Cousin Przemysl is being even more greedy than usual.”
“You’re related to him?” I asked.
“He’s a third cousin, actually. Doesn’t like to eat anything but fresh-killed game.”
“I hope he gets the gout.”
“In fact he is so afflicted. How did you know?”
“A pure meat-and-fat diet can do that to you. I guess I have to go to Sacz right after I do my duty at Okoitz.”
“But no, Sir Conrad,” Friar Roman said. “Count Lambert said that you could be excused this time if you wished to save Tadaos.”
“Sir Conrad! Do you mean to tell me that you actually intend to pay this fabulous sum to save the life of one criminal?” Vladimir said. “Why, knights have been talked into marriage with that as a dowry!”
“I guess I have to. I mean, I know the man, and once I was hungry and he shot a deer and I helped eat it. It’s not as if poaching was a mortal sin.”
“Mortal enough in this case. But if you mean to go, let’s make a lark of it. Let’s take Annastashia and perhaps Krystyana and combine duty with pleasure. It’s the best time of the year for traveling and I could show you all the sights.”
“I know most of the important people in that part of the country and we’d be invited in everywhere. Why, the whole trip shouldn’t cost a penny, except you could buy salt at the mines where it’s cheap. And I could show Annastashia to my parents.”
As soon as Krystyana heard of this one, I’d have no peace until I went along with it. Best to bow to the inevitable as soon as possible. Anyway, things were going smoothly here and I was ready for a vacation. I’d been working hard for almost a year and it was time.
“You talked me into it. We’ll leave in the morning. Friar Roman, do you want to come along?”
“With your permission, I have done certain damage to my privy members and-”
“And you’d better have them rubbed down with goose grease or some such and rest up here for a few days. Riding a hairy mule bareback while wearing nothing but a cassock was a dumb thing to do.”
“Yes, my lord. Also, I won’t be returning to Cracow for some time. My abbot has asked me to go to Okoitz to team about your cloth works there. He wants looms of his own at the monastery.”
Chapter Nine
We got a very early start, with the sun still far below the mountains as we rode out. The girls were on their palfreys and each led two of our sturdiest pack mules. Our baggage wasn’t all that much, but I wanted to bring back a ton of salt from the mines near Cracow for the winter. Salting was about the only way we had of preserving meat and I had a big hunt in mind come fall. The ladies did the leading, as Vladimir insisted that a knight must not be encumbered, in case of emergency. He and I were in armor and on our war-horses, and Anna seemed to be delighted to be traveling, instead of hauling logs.
Krystyana had insisted that I wear the gaudy gold-and-red velvet surcoat given me after my run-in with the whoremasters guild in Cieszyn and I found Anna in the matching barding. I was surprised to find Krystyana in a matching dress with barding for her own horse. Furthermore, Vladimir and Annastashia were similarly decked out, but in Vladimir’s family colors, silver and blue. We even had pennons for our lances, which meant that I had to take a lance along, even though I’m not much good with one.
The girls had to have planned this weeks ago and must have bought the cloth in Cieszyn. I supposed that they had a lot of fun, sneaking around getting it made and that the others had similar garb. I’m sure I had paid for it somehow, but I was on vacation and wasn’t going to let little things bother me.
So we made quite a pageant leaving Three Walls and despite the early hour, most of the people came to see us Off.
I’d been mostly wearing my grubbies for the last few months and I hadn’t much noticed how shabbily my people were dressed. Now, the difference in our dress was so extreme that I started having guilt pangs and I vowed to buy a few dozen huge bolts of cloth next time I was in Okoitz.
We got to Sir Miesko’s manor just in time for dinner and by noon were on the road again under a clear blue sky. In a few hours we were on Lambert’s trail, heading east and hoping to make Vladimir’s home by nightfall.
We were laughing and singing all the way, acting for all the world like a bunch of drunks although none of us had downed more than a few beers in a row in the last month.
We met a caravan coming west, dozens of pack mules and a few guards in the somber garb of the German Teutonic Knights. They were friendly enough and saluted us as we got off the trail to let them by.
After the mules came a long line of prisoners and something hit me as being terribly, horribly wrong. There were maybe six dozen boys chained neck to neck. They were all naked, or nearly so. Their feet were bleeding and there were whip marks on their backs.
Behind them was a line of girls in the same pitiful shape. None of the children had much body hair. They were all adolescent or even younger.
“What-what is all this?” I asked the black-and-white clad knight at my side.
“Why, that’s a prime lot of slaves, heathens every one of ’em. My order saves the best ones when we takes a Pruthenian village. We sell ’em to merchants in Constantinople, Jews mostly, who sell ’em to the Moslems far south of there.”
“I know they look pretty rough now, but give ’em a bath and a few days to heal, and them Saracen buggers’ll snap ’em up. Them girls’ll all do harem duty and half the boys’ll be castrated, ’cause them buggers’re like that.”
“But none of those children is old enough to be a criminal.” I was flabbergasted.
“Well, who said anything about criminals? There’s no money in criminals! Who’d want to buy one? These are prime slaves we’re taking to Constantinople.”
“You can’t do that!”