“If you say so. How long does your ritual require before we can go back to the cave?”
“It’s not a ritual and we don’t go back, ever.”
“Right. It is not a superstition. The cave is merely permanently defiled and unclean.”
It was a long night and I spent it soul searching. I suppose I did the man a favor, giving him a quick death. Rabies is a rough way to die. Maybe he would have bitten one of us and maybe I saved one of the others from joining his sad fate. There was nothing I could do to cure the disease.
But this was all rationalization after the fact. In truth, I had murdered a man because he frightened me.
The lands we rode through the next morning were cheerful, despite the depressed mood of our party. The fields were well tended and soon to give a good harvest, the peasant, cottages were big and well built and most had brightly painted trim. The people were well fed, half of them were fat, and all were fairly well clothed. And, everybody bustled, as if whatever they were doing right Id then was the most important thing in the world.
That sort of attitude is contagious and we had cheered up some by the time we entered Uncle Felix’s manor in our second-best clothes. I had to call him that even though he was Sir Vladimir’s uncle and not mine. He was the kind of man who is everybody’s uncle. Big, bluff, crude, and wholesome, he radiated good cheer and good wishes.
“That you, Vlad boy? You big enough for girls already? Pretty ones, too! And a giant! You must be Stargard! Welcome! Mama! Go kill a fat calf for supper! We got company! Iwo! Iwo -you lazy peasant! Come take care of the horses! Well, you people? Get down!”
A little intimidating at first, but you couldn’t help liking him. Soon dozens of people were rushing about, our horses unloaded and put in a barn, and our baggage opened out. Some women tsk-tsked at our wet finery and took it away, while the four of us were treated to an impromptu dinner for twelve.
Uncle Felix had already eaten, but sat down to join us and ate enough for six men just to be, sociable.
“So, boys. You are out adventuring? Have you killed any dragons?”
“No dragons, Uncle Felix,” Sir Vladimir said. “But we killed five Crossmen in an open fight and we dispatched a vampire last night.”
“Another vampire in my hills, eh? That’s the second one this year. I’ll have to warn the peasants. Tell me about the Crossmen.”
Sir Vladimir launched into his tale, which grew better each time he told it. He never exactly lied, you under stand, but the embroidery around the edges got constantly brighter.
“Whew! The duke may like it, but the duke is not your liege lord.” He waved -a chubby finger at Sir Vladimir. “You know, your papa is not going to be happy about this!”
“I know. I was wondering if you could intercede for me. ”
“Maybe. But it’s too close to harvest for me to leave now. After that, well, maybe the trial will settle everything. But if he’s still mad at you at Christmastime, I’ll go talk to him.”
“Now you, big fellow-I’ve heard so many things about you that I don’t believe that I’m thinking I should have believed some of them after all. Tell me what you know.”
“That’s quite an order, Uncle Felix-excuse me, I mean Sir Felix.”
“Uncle Felix is okay. Everybody calls me that. Never could figure out why. I heard that when you came here, you were walking through the woods with nothing but what you could carry on your back. With no weapons and no armor and living wherever you stopped for the night. And you did this just for sport. That true?”
“Well, yes.”
“Then you’re either a very brave man or a damn fool.”
“I don’t think I’m either of those. It’s a common sport where I come from. We’re mostly city dwellers and you need to get back to nature every now and then. The equipment we use is very lightweight. You can actually carry everything you need.”
“But no weapons?”
“Uh … weapons are frowned upon. But they’re really not needed. Most animals will leave you alone if you don’t frighten them.”
“Animals, maybe. What about men?”
“What about them? I wasn’t looking for any trouble.”
“Trouble finds you in the woods. What about thieves?”
“There aren’t that many of them. Look, I shouldn’t be talking about this. I made a vow.”
“As you wish, Stargard. What about all these fights you been in?”
“Well, four times I’ve been attacked by crazy people on the road. I defended myself. What more is there to say?”
There was no question of our proceeding that day. Uncle Felix wouldn’t have stood for it. It was raining again and anyway, Sacz was a full day’s ride away. It was best to leave in the morning.
I never quite left the table that afternoon. With dinner completed, more beer was brought, with a few snacks: -sausages, cheeses, breads, cold pies, preserved meats, .smoked fish, puddings, spreads, pickled fish, pickled cabbages, pickled pickles, and a vast pile of etceteras.
It was Tuesday, but somehow a holiday had been declared. Maybe it was the rain and maybe it was the fact of our visit. Or maybe these people always acted that way.
Chessboards and checker sets were broken out, as well as a half dozen board games I’d never seen before. There was Nine Man Morris, which had elements of tic-tac-toe and Chinese checkers. There was Fox and Geese, a chase-and-capture game, and Cows and Leopards, a vastly more complicated variant. There was Goose, a race game.
Furthermore, every game seemed to have a skill variant and a chancy gambling variant. Uncle Felix got me into a game of Byzantine chess, which was played with normal chesspieces but on a circular board. He further insisted that we play it with dice. You had to roll a one to move a pawn, a two to move a knight, and so on.
If none of the moves permitted by the dice was possible by the rules of chess, you lost your turn; if you were in check, you had to roll the right dice to get yourself out of check or you lost your turn. Then your opponent had to roll the right dice to take your king to win. This resulted in some very strange games and I’m glad I wouldn’t bet him. Anyway, I think his dice were loaded.
Sitting and playing board games suited my mood, but Sir Vladimir was feeling far more energetic. He had Krystyana, Annastashia, and a half dozen or so of Uncle Felix’s ladies playing something called The Last Couple in Hell. I never quite figured out the rules, but it involved a lot of running around and screaming.
People wandered in and out, bringing things, eating things, and taking things. At least three conversations were going on at any one time and the noise never stopped. Children and dogs wandered through and were petted, spanked, or ignored as the case required. Uncle Felix almost never used a proper name. He just pointed and yelled, and things happened.
I never figured out who were family and who were servants; perhaps they weren’t too clear about it themselves. When Uncle Felix yelled, people jumped, but not always the same people who jumped last time. The girl who brought in a steaming plate of braised meat promptly sat down with us to help us eat it. Later, Uncle Felix pinched her butt; up till then I’d been sure that he’d been patting his daughters and pinching the servants.
Try to imagine a friendly, loosely organized madhouse with sound effects. Intimidating, but you grew to like it.
After six hours of continuous eating and drinking, Uncle Felix got up, belched, and announced that supper was served.
They really had killed a fatted calf and two men brought it in on a spit. Having already done a full day of heroic trencher duty, the best I could do was dawdle at my food. Uncle Felix looked at me, genuinely hurt.
“There’s something wrong with the food?”
We were back in our best clothes, only slightly the worse for wear, the next morning. The sky was gray and we were all still logy from too much to eat and drink the day before, so we were mostly silent on the way to Sacz.
The land and climate around Sacz were identical to Uncle Felix’s, but the living was far worse. The leader sets the tone of an organization, and the tone of Sacz was bad. Half the fields were unplanted and I don’t just mean those lying fallow. The forests were encroaching on the farmland. Those fields that had been planted were rank with weeds.