'Of course. There's a fair profit in copper, though nothing outstanding. You understand that I'm not wealthy enough to get involved in the really big commodities like cloth, so the best I can do is to connect individuals with diverse needs who are not aware of one another.'
'This I did with a certain red Hungarian wine. It is not highly regarded in Hungary and is therefore inexpensive, but the Bishop of Cracow was quite taken with it. He ordered a huge amount at a price that will leave me well compensated for my services.'
'The difficulty is that the amber market is now poor, and had I repaid Schweiburger, I would not be able to deliver the bishop's order. Discreet inquiries indicated that my lender was in no immediate need of cash, so I thought it best to delay paying him until spring. It was the profitable thing to do, even though I shall have to pay him damages.'
'You mean extra interest on his money?'
'Interest? How can you say such a thing, Sir Conrad? Don't you know that the charging of interest is usury, a crime against the Church?'
'Oh. Then what did Schweiburger get for lending you the money in the first place?'
'Why, nothing. Of course, he was concerned about the safety of his money and insisted that some of his men carry it over to me. I had to agree to pay them for this work. These carrying charges amounted to twelve hundred pence, but the loan of the money was free.'
'And you'll pay him no interest, but damages or other carrying charges when you pay him late.'
'To the tune of one thousand to fifteen hundred pence, depending on just how late I am. It's the way things are done.'
We rode in silence until noon, and then he said, 'Sir Conrad, that blow you took to the shoulder, it isn't serious, is it?'
'No. I'll probably have a bruise as big as my face, but the arm works all right.'
'Then why so glum? Two days in my employ and already you are a prosperous man.'
'I hate killing.'
'You are in a strange business to entertain that attitude. '
'I seem to be good at it.'
'Indeed you are! That blow you struck was remarkable. Your blade was suddenly on the other side of his sword. Then you didn't really strike him at all! You straightened your arm and sort of pushed into him, and your blade came out of the back of his neck!'
'That is called a beat with a double. You tap his sword, and as he moves to knock your blade away, you drop your blade under his and come up on the other side. Then I lunged, which uses the leg instead of the wrist. Much stronger.' He wanted me to recap the fight the way he recapped his haggling sessions. I was surprised that he didn't order an ale.
'Next time we're afoot, you must show me how that's done. We've lost time, and we must pass through the Moravian Gate while the weather holds. Sext already. Sext and not a drink all morning!' He unslung his leather beer sack and drank deeply. He threw the sack at me, and I found that I needed it.
'The horses were resting during the fight, Sir Conrad. What say we eat in the saddle and push on?'
'You're the boss.'
We trotted on. When you're in a huffy on horseback, you don't gallop all the time unless you want to kill your mount. You gallop for a while, walk for a while, trot for a while, gallop again. Just then we were trotting.
We passed the castle town of Oswiecim when it was still light.
'We could ford the river and spend the night there, Sir Conrad, but I fear the weather. If we get snowed in before we pass the gate, the good bishop will be late in getting his wine.'
'Whatever you say, Boris, though the weather has been fair all day.' I was not used to riding, and I was getting sore. My mount was excellent, but ten hours in the saddle is a lot.
'Right, and the ground is hard enough for good riding. All the same, it feels wrong and I worry.'
So we pushed on until dark, fed and rested the horses, and rode on again with moonrise.
Three hours later, all the horses except Anna were stumbling, and it was time to stop. I pitched camp and got some dried venison and barley stew boiling while Boris tethered and unloaded the horses.
After we were both crammed into my dome tent, he said, 'That arithmetic of the Arabs, it's interesting, and I can see that once you're used to it, it would be a lot simpler than the old Roman system. But it retains one of the disadvantages of the old system.'
'Eh?' God, I was tired.
'It still goes by tens and hundreds. Most of what I buy and sell goes by dozens and grosses, and a dozen is a good number. I can split a dozen into two parts, or three, or four, or even six. With ten, you can split two ways, or five, but that's all.'
'There's no reason why you couldn't develop an Arabic number system to the base twelve,' I said. 'Just add two more symbols for ten and eleven. You'd have to memorize new multiplication tables and so on, but you haven't learned the old ones yet. I'll show you in the morning.'
That was probably one of the more useful things I did in my life. It was also one of the more painful.
'As you like. Oh, you did something sensible with your newfound wealth, didn't you?'
'Yes. I tied it to my ankle. ' I was in the thirteenth century now, surrounded by cutthroats and thieves. I knew, because I had become -one of them.
Chapter Eight
The beer sack was empty and I was about talked out, when it started snowing. In the twentieth century this area would be all factories and apartment houses, but we had not seen a soul all morning. We had worked out-in our heads-the tables for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division required for base-twelve arithmetic. Boris had them all memorized and was doing long division by noon. It was an incredible display of intelligence.
In fact, almost all the people I had met in the thirteenth century were intelligent, way above average. They were ignorant, to be sure, but smart. Was intelligence a natural compensation for ignorance? Or was there something about modem education that destroys the mind? I had certainly been bored enough in school. Or were we just breeding for stupidity? You could see where the priesthood was encouraging that. The clergy was the only educated class here, and for a lot of peasant boys it was the only way up in the world. Making them celibate, as the new Gregorian reforms demanded, was biologically equivalent to killing them. The reforms had not been accepted in Poland yet, but they would be. The monasteries had been celibate for centuries.
The cities attracted the bright kids who didn't join the clergy. Filthy as the cities were, they had to be cauldrons of disease. Were seven hundred years enough to make a difference? Possibly.
I was pondering this while Anna was at her calm, steady walk. A horse is a lot like a bus in that you really don't have to pay attention to where you are going. I was thinking and sharpening my sword. Yesterday's fight had made the other guy's weapon look like a saw blade, but mine was uninjured.
The falling snow was muffling sound, and we proceeded in silence until I heard muted hoofbeats and the jingling of armor. Bemused, I looked up absently to see an armored knight galloping toward us. He rode a massive black horse that was plunging hard, its eyes wide and bloodshot. His surcoat was red with black trim. His barrel helm was polished and had an eye slit only two centimeters wide. His shield was red with a black double-headed eagle. His lance bore a red and black pennant.
And his shield was raised, and his lance was pointing directly at me!
Suddenly, Anna became completely uncontrollable. This was a game she had been taught well. She took off at a full gallop, directly at the attacking knight!
She might have known what to do, but I didn't. From what little I had seen of this type of fighting, I had to sheath my sword, get my shield out from in back, and level my lance at him. I was then to brace myself on the stirrups and prepare to take part in an imitation train wreck.
I dropped the sharpening stone and tried to put away my sword, wasting precious seconds; at a full gallop it is not possible to sheath a sword. The sword was the only weapon that I knew how to use, and I didn't want to drop it. I looked up, and the knight was entirely too close. No time for the shield!
