"Frankowski, Leo - Stargard 5 - Lord Conrad's Lady" - читать интересную книгу автора (Frankowski Leo)

УSir, I didnТt find any of my people, but there was so many dead in there that I knew weТd be weeks sorting them all out. I figured my family was done for, but then some of the troops found this young feller, and what he says is that it wasnТt our people who was murdered in there. I mean that they wasnТt army families. He says that all them women and kids was the families of nobility from Cracow, Sandomierz, and points in between! But maybe you better hear about it straight from him.Ф

УMaybe IТd better, Tadaos. How about it, son? Are you up to repeating your story for me?Ф

УYes, sir. I think so, sir. I was a corpsman working in the hospital that was set up in the loft of the boat house, I mean the Riverboat Assembly Building.Ф

УRelax, son,Ф I said. УYouТre among friends here. Just tell us the story the way it happened. And tell me, how old are you?Ф It was maddening to take all this time listening, but unless I knew what had happened, I wouldnТt know what to do next.

УYes, sir. I just turned fifteen. Anyway, I heard my captain telling one of the banners that he had just come back from the fort and that they couldnТt give us any help. He said that the womenТs army contingent there was pulling out with all the commoner refugees in the whole fort. He was pretty mad about it, but he said that there was nothing he could do to change things. He didnТt command the stupid cunt in charge of the fort. Excuse me, sir, but thatТs what he called her.Ф

УYes, yes. But why was she abandoning her post?Ф I said. A captainette was the woman left in charge of an installation when the men went off to war. It was an unusual position in that it was temporary in nature. For example, Captainette Lubinska, who had been in charge of East Gate, was ordinarily in charge of the accounting section there, and during normal times she had no authority at all outside of accounting. But once the men went off to fight the enemy in the field, she was in absolute charge, subject only to a clearly defined chain of command that ended with me. She even outranked the six baronesses that ordinarily lived at East Gate, for example, and they were expected to obey her orders.

The reason for all this was that men rarely chose their wives for their ability as battle commanders, and it was important to have the most competent woman in charge, no matter who she had married.

But nobody except me and Baroness Krystyana could have legally ordered Captainette Lubinska from her post.

УSir, I was just overhearing somebody elseТs conversation, and my captainТs at that, even though he was pretty loud about it. He said that Count HermanТs wife came up with a few dozen bodyguards and a large group of other noblewomen, and the captainette wouldnТt let them in. She said that fort was full and that these new refugees would have to continue on down to Hell, I mean the WarriorТs School, thirty miles away, for shelter. But the countess talked the captainette into coming down and talking to her, and then the countess said that the fort wasnТt your property, sir, so it wasnТt army property. The fort really belonged to Count Lambert, her brother-in-law, and Count Lambert wanted her to take it over and shelter there, since it was the strongest fort in Poland, and everybody knew it.Ф

УThat wasnТt true,Ф I said. УCount Lambert paid for the fort, but I was to see to the manning of it. He wouldnТt have changed that without talking to me about it. I canТt believe that he would ever have given anything to the countess. He hated her! Not that weТll ever know for sure. Count Lambert died days ago on the battlefield west of Sandomierz.Ф

УYes, sir, but she got the captainette to believing her, anyway. They went into the fort. Then an awful lot more nobility kept coming, and the countess turned every commoner out the fort to make room for them. Some of them went on to Hell, or the WarriorТs School, I mean, and some went up to the hills to take their chances up there.Ф

УAnd this happened three days ago?Ф I asked, trying not to vent my anger at the captainette. It was really all my fault for appointing that woman to so important a post in the first place. IТd had a bad feeling about her, but IТd done nothing about replacing her.

УI think four, sir. Then about noon yesterday, I was outside taking a breather, and I saw about a hundred oldstyle knights ride up in chain mail and all. I thought it was kind of funny because they were all riding little horses, but their leader spoke real good Polish to the sentry, and their shields were all painted with Polish arms. Anyway, the leader said that they had word from Cracow, and I heard the countess yell that they should be admitted. I saw the gates go up and the drawbridge go down, but then my break was over and I had to get back to tending the wounded. I didnТt think much of it at the time, but I guess I should have. That must have been how the Mongols tricked their way into the fort.Ф

УThen, about a half hour later, one of our men came up shouting that the place was crawling with Mongols, that they were streaming in on us from the south. We all armed ourselves, but my captain said I was to take care of the wounded, since some of those men were badly hurt. I was the only corpsman left behind. I didnТt like it, but orders were orders. I could hear screams from the castle and shouts from the fighting down below. All the wounded who could move had gone down to join the fight, even some guys with only one arm, but there were still more than two dozen of them up there that were helpless.Ф

УA while after that, one of my patients started shouting that the building was on fire, that we all had to get out somehow. From the smoke and the smell, I could see he was right, but there were so many of them and only one of me! I picked up one of the men who was near the stairway and carried him down to the ground floor and outside., but the fighting was so bad out there that he was killed by a Mongol arrow before I got out the door.Ф

УI went back up, and the fire had gotten real bad. Men were crying to me, begging me to not let them die by burning to death. One man, a captain with his legs both messed up, he grabbed me by the arm. СYou know what youТve got to do!Ф he says, and I said that I didnТt. He says, ТYou canТt let all these men die by fire! ThatТs the worst possible way to go. ItТs so painful that any man doing it would die with a curse on his lips, and then what happens to his soul? YouТve got that axe, boy. Use it! And use it on me first!С

УThen he starts singing СTe Deum,Т sir, real loud, and the rest of the men starts singing with him, those who were conscious. IТd armed myself when everybody else had, and my axe was sharp and new in its sheath. IТd never used it, not till then, anyway.Ф

УSir, I chopped that captain straight across the neck, and it took his head almost off. Then I went down the line of wounded men and did the same to almost every one of them. They kept on singing until I was done. Some of those men I killed were already unconscious. Some of the others gritted their teeth as I came up to them, and a few nodded to me that it was okay, what I was doing, but only one of them said I shouldnТt do it. He was Robby Prajinski, and I knew him because he was from my own village. He screamed and begged me not to hurt him, so I didnТt. I just went to the next man. I guess the fire was real bad, because I couldnТt see so good. Maybe it was the smoke, or maybe I was just crying, but I hit every one of those poor men square, sir, even the last one where the floor burned out under us. He was singing until I hit him. I guess thatТs where I got these burns.Ф

УI lost my axe in the fall, and I could hear Robby screaming somewhere, but I couldnТt find him in the fire. I got outside somehow, and all of our men out there were dead. I was thinking I should go back in to try to find Robby, but my clothes outside my armor were burning. It was like the Mongols didnТt see me somehow, because I made it into the river, and that put the fire out. I drifted downstream for a while, and I was kind of surprised that I floated in my armor. Maybe itТs the goose-down in the gambesons. Anyway, I crawled out, and I guess I mostly slept until the sentries found me.Ф

I buried my face in my hands, unsure whether I was crying as much as the young corpsman was.

УYou did what you had to do, son. Fate put a horrible job in front of you, but you did your duty, and you did it well. May God bless and forgive you,Ф I said. After a bit I added, УYou did fight, son, but maybe youТd better go to confession. There are a number of chaplains around here somewhere. Ф

УYes, sir.Ф The boy got up to leave, and Tadaos put some more food in his blistered hands before showing him out.

УTake care of him, wonТt you,Ф I said to Tadaos.

УWill do, sir. Now, before you leave, do you have any spare ammunition? WeТd stripped most of the ammo from the fort for the fight on the river, and it seems like the Mongols burned all the rest of it they could find.Ф

УWe can give-you a few dozen cases. YouТre going to see what you can do about patrolling the river?Ф