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swear to defend Sir Conrad and by that oath, I was bound to attack the Crossmen
in Sir Conrad's aid.
Now, did my oath to the duke, who after all was neither my liege nor my father's,
take precedent over my father's oath to Lambert? Or did the fact that the duke
was Lambert's liege mean than an oath to him was more important than an oath
to his vassal? I could not resolve it in the time I had.
In truth, I have not resolved it yet.
All I could think was that if there were no survivors, no one would hear of Sir
Conrad's indiscretions. The matter would never come before any of the liege lords
involved and so my dilemma would not require resolution.
I lowered my lance and charged the Crossmen.
"For God and Poland!" I shouted, out of habit. In part, a battle cry is made to
warn an opponent that you are coming, so that you won't dishonorably take him
unawares. But now the niceties of civilized combat were less important than the
fact that all the Crossmen must die. After that, the baggagetenders and other
peasants would be the work of a few moments.
They didn't notice me coming, probably because of those barrel helmets they
wear. There were so many of them trying to get at Sir Conrad that they couldn't
all fit around him.
One man was hanging back watching the fight as I went by. I caught him square
in the throat with a quick side jab of my lance. I saw the blood squirt and the
Crossman start to topple. Then I was onto the main crowd of them and my lance
tip caught one in the back of the neck just below the helm line. He fell beneath
Witchfire's hoofs as we went by, and I knew he was dead.
On my next pass, a Crossman turned to me as I came. I changed targets at the last
instant and caught him in the eye slit. A difficult blow, but it went right in!
All the stories always talk about flashing swords and singing swords and every
other kind of swords, but I tell you it's good lancework that wins battles.
I was feeling glorious, unbeatable, as I turned again to see Sir Conrad's sword
trailing flecks of blood and a Crossman's body sitting headless on its horse.
The remaining two Crossmen, seeing five of their number dead without injury to
Sir Conrad or myself, promptly turned and fled. I raced after them. We ran a mile
or so, with Witchfire glorying in the race as much as I did in the fighting. Then
they stopped and saw that the two of them were being ignominiously chased by a
tone knight. Their pride got the best of them.
They turned and they charged.
They came at me together and passed one at either side of me. I managed to parry
both their lances at the same time with my shield-no easy feat! Try it in your next
battle!-but my lance got only a glancing blow off the helm of the Crossman to my
left.
We all three of us turned and went at it again. Something Sir Conrad once said
occurred to me, that when faced with a problem, one should be wary of thinking
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r r
in ruts.
Knights always pass on the right because they carry their shields on their left
arms and their lances in their fight hand. So they're used to striking another
knight on their left, as I had done on the last pass.
This time I started out as usual, but switched opponents at the last instant and
skewered my man fight fair in the gut! He hadn't thought to cover his belly on
that side. More, my brilliant tactic so startled both of them that they both missed
me entirely.
I turned to see the last Crossman riding for the horizon. Watching all six of his
comrades die was just too much for him. We chased after him but to no avail.
After two miles he was still drawing ahead of us. In hindsight, I blame this on the
barding Witchfire wore. It was a warm day and I think it overheated him.
I turned back with an enviable fighting record, but having ultimately failed. That
Crossman didn't look likely to stop this side of Torun and once he was there all
the forces of hell would break loose.
But we are all in the hands of God. A man can only do what is right and hope for
the best.
For myself, why, I had killed four full knights in a single afternoon. Crossmen [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]