"Frankowski,.Leo.-.Conrad.Starguard.4.-.Flying.Warlord" - читать интересную книгу автора (Frankowski Leo)

courtyard. They burned my clothes and I had to make do with a set
of Sir Conrad's with the cuffs rolled up.

So we headed north and west, and when we got to Cracow, the
ferryboat there had been changed at Sir Conrad's suggestion. It
had a long rope running upstream to a big tree on the bank, and by
adjusting that rope, the ferry master could take the ferry back and
forth without needing any oarsmen!

I'd known Sir Conrad was smart, but this amazed me. I was still
staring at it when we was attacked by a band of unemployed
oarsmen. They blamed Sir Conrad for robbing their jobs, and
maybe they was fight. Sir Conrad, he got knocked off his horse by
a rock that hit him square in the head, but Sir Vladimir, he went out
and started smashing them oarsmen, and darned if Sir Conrad's
mare didn't go out there and help him with the job. That horse is
spooky, smarter than a lot of men I've hired. Sir Conrad says she's
people, and he even pays her a wage for her work, swearing her in
just like she was a vassal, but she scares me sometimes. It just
ain't natural.

I got my bow bent, but I noticed that Sir Vladimir was using the flat
of his sword on the oarsmen, so I didn't kill nobody either. I just
nailed a few of their arms to some trees and buildings, me being
that good a shot.

Once Sir Conrad got his wits back, he talked to the oarsmen and
said that if any of them couldn't find work in Cracow, well, they
could come to his lands at Three Walls and get work there. Most of
them took him up on it, too. So did a lot of others that never was
oarsmen, but it wasn't my place to say nothing. Why should I cost a
man his job?

Sir Vladimir. he led the party right up to Wawel Castle, and all the
pages and grooms scurried around like our party was real
important. I got put up in the servants' quarters, of course, not
being quality folk, but it wasn't bad. Them castle servants eat good,
and I was still a month behind on my eating.

Besides filling me up on food, them servants filled me in on what
was happening. They said that Sir Conrad got on the right side of
Count Lambert by building all sorts of machines for him, and the
count gave Sir Conrad a huge tract of land in the mountains near
Cieszyn. Sir Conrad was building a city there when he heard I was
in trouble and he got into a cesspool of trouble hisself on the way
to get me.

They said he met a band of Teutonic Knights what were taking a
gross of young heathen slaves to the markets in Constantinople,
and Sir Conrad wouldn't allow them to do it. He said they was