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"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."
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"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
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