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burning people to death. I came here and found it was true. I put them under arrest, but they resisted, with
the result you see. The survivors are in that barn."
"Dog's blood! Sir Conrad, you have the damndest talent for finding trouble! What was Baron Mieczyslaw
doing while this was going on?"
"Who, my lord?"
"Baron Mieczyslaw. These are his lands. That's his castle over there. Where is he?"
"I'm afraid I've never met the gentleman, my lord. I've only been here an hour myself."
"Sir Lestko! Go with my men to the castle and see how matters stand there. Come back as soon as you
may. I want to talk to the prisoners."
Count Lambert went to the barn and I went back to my doctoring. I was an amateur, but I was the best
available.
Tadaos came back from helping secure the prisoners and started retrieving his arrows. "There's a lot of stuff
laying around here, my lord," he said, gesturing to the booty scattered about.
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"You'll get your share. We'll sort it out once things settle down. That was some pretty good shooting. You
probably saved my life."
"I still owe you a few, my lord."
"Except for that fourth shot, of course. Missing a man clean at only a hundred yards. I'm surprised at you."
I tried to say it in a humorous way.
Tadaos looked genuinely hurt. "That was an old arrow, my lord. A feather came loose as I let fly. The glue
must have gone bad."
"I was only joking. Those things happen. Look, when you finish up with that, count the bodies, get the men
together, and dig some graves. But leave things here as they are for a while. Count Lambert might want
another look. "
I was finishing up with the last of our men when Count Lambert came back. "Sir Conrad, do you realize
that some of those prisoners are priests?"
"I know that some of them were wearing priest's robes and have their heads shaved, my lord. I believe they
are impostors. Real priests don't fight and real priests don't commit murder."
"That's true enough. Still, you can't be too careful. What do you advise we do?"
"Well, I suppose we ought to hold a trial, my lord. We have to find out what these people were doing here,
and why they seemed to think they could get away with committing murder in broad daylight and in public.
For all we know, there could be other bands like this around."
"Yes. We'll do it in the morning, once we've all had a chance to think." He was walking up the line of burnt
bodies. "These were all old women."
"Except for the one on the end, my lord. She might have been sixteen, but it's pretty hard to tell."
"Dog's blood. How could anybody do something so... so..."
"Evil, my lord?"
"I think that's the word I wanted, but it doesn't seem bad enough. Well. Have your men clean up the mess
here, and distribute the spoils as you set fit. I don't want any of it. It seems unclean."
Sir Lestko came up with six knights.
"Count Lambert, the castle was empty save for Baron Mieczyslaw. All of the servants seem to have run off.
I left half your men there to secure the place."
"Good. You other knights, go to that barn and relieve the peasants securing the prisoners. Sir Maciej will be
in charge. Sir Lestko, what of the baron?"
"My lord, the baron is in a very bad way. He cannot speak. He is bedridden and cannot move half his body.
It is very strange. It's as though a line were drawn from head to navel, right down the middle of his face. All
that is to the left of that line is cold and insensitive. It's as if he were half dead."
"Dog's blood! That smacks of witchcraft!"
"No, my lord, that smacks of a stroke," I said. "It's a common enough malady among the very aged. Is the
baron very old?"
"Very. He served my grandfather," Count Lambert said.
"That explains it, then. You probably don't see much of it around here because you all die so young of other
things first. It's all too common where I come from."
"I see. Can anything be done for him?"
"Not really, my lord. In time, he may regain some of his faculties, but until then he must be tended like a
baby. There are a few women back with my baggage. I'll send two of them up to the castle to tend him until
someone permanent can be found. But beyond that, there isn't much that I can do."
I had the baggage train brought up and sent two mature women to tend the baron. Taking care of a stroke
victim is hardly a job to dump on a squeamish young girl.
Our field kitchen was set up, and Krystyana got a meal going. Some of the carpenters dismantled a shed to
make coffins for our dead and the burnt women. The Castilians were simply thrown naked into a pit, the
general consensus being that they didn't deserve any better. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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