"Frankowski, Leo - Stargard 3 - The Radiant Warrior" - читать интересную книгу автора (Frankowski Leo)

After most of the gift-giving was over, I stood up again. “I’m going back to Three Walls after the wedding. I won't be here for Twelfth Night, when one gifts the members of the opposite class, so I have to give my gifts to the residents of Okoitz early. Bring it in!” Four men rolled in two heavy barrels.

“Last year, Ilya promised to make each of you a set of door hinges. Then I kept him busy all year long working on my projects, and now I’m stealing him from you!” Ilya looked surprised. This was the first he'd heard of my approval of his permanent move to Three Walls. “In those barrels is a set of brass hinges and a brass door latch for every commoner's door in Okoitz-no longer will you close your doors by lifting them into place!” That brought down the house!

When the noise stopped, I said, “What’s more, I'm going to be rude enough to hint at what I want for my present! You remember all those seeds I gave you last Christmas? Well, I want them back!”

“If you can’t do that, then give me about a quarter of your new seeds! And I'd like you to loan me the packages they came in, so I'll know what's what!” They all laughed and cheered again, so I expected that we'd have watermelon next year.

As things were winding down and I was leaving, Count Lambert half jokingly said, “You gave the priest that magnificent goblet and I only got this gold chain?”

I was dumbstruck. That chain weighed half a kilo! It was probably worth eight thousand American dollars!

“I didn’t realize that you wanted the goblet, my lord. But I'll make you a promise. In four years, I'll gift you with a hundred glass goblets, and enough glassware so that every man below you, commoners and all, can toast you with it!”

It was his turn to be dumbstruck.




Chapter Two


The next day we had a beautiful wedding. Everything went off nicely, the church was packed and I gave the bride to a beaming Sir Vladimir.

As father of the bride, I paid for the wedding feast, which also was held in the cloth factory for lack of anything else large enough. Lambert gave me a good price on the food and drink, since if it wasn’t for the wedding, he would have had to put on a feast that day anyway. It was the Christmas season.

The honeymoon trip wasn’t then a local custom, so the next morning we went back toward Three Walls, Sir Vladimir and his new wife included. We got as far as Sir Miesko's, where they were ready for us.

After the workers were settled into the copious hay of Sir Miesko’s biggest barn, we sat down to dinner in the manor. At his suggestion, since seven more places were available once Sir Miesko's family and my party were seated, I invited in my bailiff, my two foremen and their wives, and my accountant, Piotr.

These people were awestruck at the honor done them, and scarcely said a word as supper started, although Piotr kept glancing at Krystyana, who was sitting across from him. The poor kid was still smitten.

I told Sir Miesko about Count Lambert’s plan for the Great Hunt. I also told him that I really didn't want to get much involved with it, but that Count Lambert had insisted. “What I'm building up to is that I would like you to do the job for me. Would you like to be my deputy? Count Lambert said that we could take as our portion pretty much whatever we wanted. Do you think you might be interested?”

“I might. Even a small share of the take from all of Count Lambert’s lands would be vast! Consider what was harvested from your lands alone! But there are details to be considered…”

We were soon into a deep conversation, with Lady Richeza and Krystyana sitting between us. These two fine and understanding women looked at each other, got up, and sat back down once Sir Miesko and I had scooted close together. The conversation never broke and not a word was said about the new table arrangement.

The deal we made was that Sir Miesko would take complete charge of the project in all but name. He would divide the county into eight or nine hunting districts, and appoint a district master for each. The district masters would be responsible for building an enclosure if something suitable wasn’t already available, seeing that everything was properly arranged and feeding the people participating. In return for this they would get all the deer skins taken in their district.

Peasants participating would divide one-quarter of the meat between them, and the nobles there would get another quarter. The landowners would get half the meat, proportioned according to their areas. Sir Miesko would get all the furs taken, except for the wolf skins, which were to be mine. I also got any aurochs captured, to be delivered live to me. They were an endangered species and I meant to domesticate them.

“Sir Conrad, you’re taking the short end of the stick!” Sir Miesko said. It's interesting that he used an expression that has lasted to modem times. The local custom among these largely illiterate people was to account for debts by cutting notches into a stick. If I lent you three pigs, we would cut three notches into a stick of wood. Then we would split the stick about in half, down the middle of the notches, so we each had a record. When the sticks were put back together again, it would be obvious if either of us had done further whittling! Wood never splits evenly. and as the lender, the creditor, I got the larger stick of wood and became the stickholder. You, as the borrower, got the short end of the stick.

“I’m satisfied with the deal as it stands.”

“Be that as it may, Sir Conrad, wolf skins aren’t worth much. Half the time they're burned along with the rest of the animal! The other furs will be worth a thousand times as much.”

“Fine. You’ll be doing all the work and bearing all the expenses. I'm happy just to get the whole project off my shoulders. Just remember to stress that all the females and young of useful species, along with one-sixth of the males, are to be spared.”