- Is there anyone alive? Asked the young baron in Latin.

EricSon. it's you. How did you get here? Answered the alarmed voice of the woman.

"Quietly? ! Shhh! Yes it's me. The guy whispered. "Do not wake the guards. "

" All right, I'll speak quietly "Is that really true? Have you really lost your memory?

- Yes, alas, it's true. I do not even remember the native language, I can only speak Latin. And to find out about what really happened, I could not at once, from the peasants. I'm still trying to pretend that I do not know anything and support the game of my uncle. But that's all - empty chatter, let's talk about the matter - how can I get you out of here? I do not know the dungeon device at all. Are there secret passages?

" Son, do not pull me out. "Do not risk so. Leave. I can not help you at all. This scoundrel has so exhausted me that I will no longer have life. My whole being is torn. One or two more weeks and I will die. What can you say, you saw everything yourself, - her voice became completely sad.

" If I give you a knife, can you use it to take revenge on your uncle? "I am constantly insured in his presence, so I can not even jerk.

"Give me the knife, I'll try to die with honor. "

Eric pushed the knife into the slot under the door and touched the fingers of this exhausted woman to his fingers.

- Go in peace with your son, may the Mother of God guide you. God knows, my father and I did not wish you such a fate, but the ways of our Lord are inscrutable

- Bert. My mother. Come to think again! What are you saying! ? We ourselves are forging our own lives. And if fate destined us to die - we must meet death with weapons in hand and a proud, bold look - let fate be suppressed. I do not even know if Walgal will take you. But go to the end, fight this insidious reptile until the last breath. We are not slaves in order to bow our heads to accept the fate of this weak and frail god - Jesus. If there is no other way, then go to death and accept this last battle as a warrior, even if weak in body, but strong in spirit. And let your enemy be afraid of you, even slain.

Son. Is that you!

- I'm a mother, I am this. In me much has changed after that blow. I already died once and my body was lying dead for 24 hours. I know what I am saying. Forgetting my past life, I remembered the ancient knowledge. We are not slaves of any God there. We - the descendants of ancient and proud warriors, that they cut their lives through the boiling waves of adversity. And you - a woman, going to meet your fate should not humbly wait for the death of someone. Or are you like a slave to endure violence against yourself and humiliation to the laughter of the crowd, not having the pride to fight even without a chance of success? Too much is forgotten, too much is etched out of us. But I say, fight, and let your last battle light the ancient Ass - One, and your hand will be as hard as the mighty hammer of the Torah.

" It hurts to hear this, my son. "But you're right. So right that in my chest everything is compressed from pain and grief. We were humble and cowardly in the face of the enemy, in fear we relied on God's will, not hardness of the hand and fled. For this and paid with their lives. You're right, my son - we all need to fight for every sigh, every moment and I'll fight - for you, for the sake of those who died, for the sake of those who will live. Now go, I need to prepare for death to meet her with dignity.

There was a long-awaited morning. Eric went on a hike, taking with him provisions for four days and with full armor, putting in addition to the sword, a dagger with a crossbow caught from the crypt. Rudolph regarded this as a whim of an inspired neophyte, and only smiled. They moved north not along the road, but along forest paths. The whole day passed fairly calmly. They spent the night on a picturesque edge with a gorgeous view, not a field and a small overgrown duckweed pond. In the morning, having left the parking lot in the field behind the pond, Eric was alert and began to peer into the distance, which extended beyond Rudolph's distant shoulder. He noticed the look and turned to look at what had so alarmed his young companion. Eric did not hesitate, snatched the dagger and slashed it on the girth of his master's saddle. And then, under the weight of a large man, it began to crawl swiftly, Rudolph, waving his hands, yelled, in his whole tinnitus, loudly and ornately swearing. Taking advantage of the satellite's confusion, the young baron rushed on his horse forward at full speed. When he disappeared behind the far turn of the road, Rudolph was already standing on his feet, holding the horse by the bridle, and smiling with a kind smile. He was a good student, smart.

Eric ran at a gallop on his horse for about a quarter of an hour and, only realizing that he was not being pursued, dropped speed and went easy trot. Toward evening, he met a small group of clerics and asked them about the area in which he is and what cities in the district. It turns out that in the daytime passage to the north-west, the border town of Basel was located. I went to him. At night he was able to stop at the tavern of a small town Olten, which stood next to Aarburg, neatly on the other side of the river. The next day I decided to go faster, and by trotting, by noon, I reached my destination. At the gate, surprisingly, they let him through without any problems, they did not even ask who he was or where, and did not take the fees. Apparently its appearance had affected - on horseback, in chain mail, helmet, with a sword and crossbow. So commoners do not go mostly, but noble people do not like it when they are stopped. In Basel, he did not particularly linger, just crashed on the bargain, where he was able to exchange his strange, massive sword of bicentennial aging, which he was barely pulling, because he weighed a half kilogram or so, on a comfortable Hungarian sword, weighing only eight hundred grams, why stale from the seller. And since there was much more in the sword of metal, and buyers for a sword for four years did not appear, the seller also paid Eric two denarii. Asking the price to new armor, our hero very quickly rolled his lips back, so much so that his teeth could be seen. He missed even half of the new mail, not to mention the smart and beautiful scaly and lamellar kits made in the lands of the Slavs and Hungarians. So he went for a couple of days on the market, licking on delicious devices. By the way, like the market, he learned about the most expensive coins in this region and their course. The most frequent guests were four coins, this is a stamp that is minted in Vienna, denarius and a marriageate that are equal to each other and obol. For one brand, 192 denarii or 412 obols are given. Although the rate may fluctuate, as coins may not be local, and therefore by weight and composition are different. It was funny that in the course were almost exclusively silver coins, and the few gold coins from the East that fell into Europe, very quickly went to the treasury and jewelry. About the people in general, almost nothing said, only occasionally smirking inexperience of the youngster and explained that the coins from such a despicable metal takes only a rare mole.

By the end of the second day, he realized that he was wasting his time, and decided to assess the situation, for starters. So - he is Baron Eric von Lenzburg and a legitimate contender for flax vassals to his very influential cousin Count Ullrich Kiburg. The hereditary possessions were an old castle, requiring serious repairs and nine villages of 50-100 inhabitants with the corresponding agricultural lands, eight of which stood far from the castle in a separate enclave. In the courtyard danced 1196, which means that the level of agriculture was absolutely terrible, and these lands gave very little income. What are his chances of capturing his hereditary possession? Honestly speaking - very small, since for the squad he is not an authority, even if Karl dies, Rudolph will take his place, most likely, as he is not only a knight, but also an experienced person. His cousin, although young, but clever, and therefore easily support a new dynasty of barons, especially since the previous one has some rights to his title and can potentially be dangerous. In short - he does not shine in the current situation. Of the property he has only a young mare, a worn aketon, chain mail, breathing heavily on the incense, an old helmet, a saber, a crossbow and a dagger. In total, less than a third of the silver mark is obtained, even with coins taken into account. As they say - for Athos it is too much, and for the Count de la Fere - too little. I will explain - the fact is that it is quite possible to start a good farm with this money and quietly, peacefully living huddled somewhere in the corner and working from dawn to dusk, in order to eat, however, for a nobleman, even such a small as he, this money is clearly is not enough. That is, there is also a nerd, although, as a "starting pistol" will completely come down . . What is his position? He is a strong young guy of 14 years old, who managed to escape from the clutches of a very dodgy predator - his beloved uncle. Now he is actually in a clean field, without a stake, without a court and without prospects. Unless to go as a volunteer to some petty nobleman. The situation is still obtained. So you need to think hard and understand what he wants here - in a new body, a new world and a new status? The first thing that comes to mind - it's good to live, that is, not strongly straining to eat delicious and softly to sleep. To achieve this goal, there are only two ways: the first - to become a trader, the second - to attach to the title of the land and live with them. Of course, being a nobleman at the land is a much more interesting prospect than just speculating with one or another property. To do this, you need to solve three problems. First, find a livelihood. Secondly, to put together a gang around itself, since ambitious loners do not live long. Thirdly, to feed the gang you need to find a permanent source of funding. So, for the first task the solution is simple - you need to steal a little. This is unaesthetic, ugly, immoral and completely non-curse, but was someone in history otherwise able to earn decent money for a short period of time? Robbery, slave trade and extortion are traditional sources of initial capital. The solution of the second problem is much more complicated. There are three problems. The first problem is the personal qualities of the candidates. Aby whom to take no meaning, and good specialists are always on the bill and they can not be caught in free swimming. The second problem is a matter of personal devotion. What will motivate these very gifted people to remain loyal to our hero? Money: This is unlikely, since in this case the devotion will end exactly when the money runs out. Here you need to think. The third problem is the problem of leadership. Having a strong, smart and enterprising people on the team, he might just not wake up one fine morning. Strangely enough, but usually these people also have ambitions and rarely they are small. With the solution of the third task in general, everything is vague and depends on how his life will turn out his life, as well as who and how much he will be able to assemble into a gang. Since it is very dangerous to loot in one territory for a long time, it is necessary to advance on a trip, and not to waste time and energy on unnecessary movements - to move slowly to the place where it will seize the land. The most reasonable in this matter was to go to the lands of the weakening Byzantine Empire, since the famous autocratic clown Alexei III was in charge there. The angel who can not grab a piece of land with only a blind and toothless rickets. Of all the territory that was under the control of this emperor, Tavria was the most tasty piece, that is, the modern Crimea, which has a very successful strategic position, both in the military and in the commercial sense. Yes, and the influence of Alexei there is almost equal to zero. But you can not go directly there, you need to collect resources and troops. For this purpose, Eric compiled a route and outlined, in general terms, work tasks that will need to be addressed in the course of the action. The very first task was to bring his equipment into working order, as it is very difficult to rob people with this garbage. From the next morning, he ordered three dozen crossbow bolts with faceted tips and went to fix the belt for the charging hook and the crossbow, or at the most crucial moment or the bow would break or the trigger would fall apart. By the end of the fifth day, he was ready to leave for Augsburg. And further to Vienna, where, according to rumors, there lived an intelligent master blacksmith, glorious in all the Austrian duchy with his chain mail and helmets. To him, Eric also wanted to go to the apprentice, in order to get used to this difficult matter in contemporary realities. From his thoughts, that he can again engage in a familiar and interesting business, he was completely excited. Of course, this will look very strange - a noble man learns from a simple peasant, but, in principle, this can be attributed to whimsy and courage. I bet I can not. Among the feudal lords will understand, but the opinion of the crowd is not interesting to him. Everything was ready, but it was unreasonable to leave on the night, so I had to spend the night in Basel. The most unexpected and, at the same time, pleasant news was that Bertha, nevertheless, was able to meet her tormentor worthily. Literally on the last day before his departure, rumors began circulating around the market, about how she not only injured his manhood with a knife, but also cut her face and neck well. He survived, although very sick, but it is still not known whether this is good or bad, since the well-known beauty and thunderstorm of women - Baron Karl von Lenzburg - was eventually not only terribly fearful but also empty as a man, having lost the most active part of his body. And this despite the fact that he is not yet married and childless! Berta herself took death from the ax, which she was hacked by the guard who ran to the baron's cries. Eric slept badly, now and then waking up - he was overwhelmed by thoughts. Yes, the Middle Ages proved to be the most natural with all its charms and customs. These are not the times to squeal about human rights with a nasal voice. Only a firm hand and an iron will are valued here, and human life costs only how much when you yourself can not take it away and have to pay a mercenary. All the rest is just the entourage, which for some aesthetics is adorned with all the filth and filth that here blossomed a riotous color under a wide variety of sauces.