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weather. But theoretical calculations are often a long ways from reality! I was relieved.
Work was progressing on the grain mill, but it was simpler than the wet mill we'd built last summer, and
Vitold, the carpenter, needed no help from me.
Quite a bit of logging was going on, mostly to clear land for pasturing more sheep. Count Lambert had
been buying wool to keep his mill running, and he thought that this was stupid. They were using the steel
saws I'd shown the smiths in Cieszyn how to make, but they didn't need my help.
So I took a sauna to make sure that I wasn't carrying anything communicable, and then looked up Kotcha.
I sort of fell into the position of Janina's sister's foster parent. Janina was living in my household, and in
fact I slept with her some of the time, so I suppose that the relationship was a natural one. Kotcha was silent
through the mass and funeral ceremony. The world can be very brutal when you're nine years old. After her
family was in the ground, she wanted to talk to Anna.
My mount was not an ordinary horse. She was a bioengineered creation from some advanced civilization
somewhere. Or maybe I should say somewhen, because Anna said they were in the distant past and they
used time machines, which she didn't understand. She couldn't talk, of course, but she could spell things
out. She was intelligent in an odd sort of way, and she was a full member of my household. She even got
paid like everybody else, not that she spends much of it. Most adults wouldn't believe any of this, but a
nine-year-old girl has no such difficulty. They were good friends.
"Kotcha, do you think that you would like to come to Three Walls with Anna and me?"
"Where would I live?"
"Why, in my household, with your sister and me and Anna."
"Anna lives in your house?"
"Some of the time, and it's more of an apartment than a house. Anna has a stall in the barn, too, but most of
the time she sleeps in the living room.".
"Could I sleep with Anna?"
"if you want to. Or you could sleep with your sister or even have a room of your own, except when we have
company over. I bet you'd take good care of Anna. She gets a good grooming in the barn, but I've always
felt that she deserves special care."
Anna nodded her head, Yes. Then she tapped her right forehoof and scratched the ground with her left. We
had this code worked out.
"You want something that you want to pay for," I said to Anna. "You mean you want to hire Kotcha?"
Yes.
"Well, what do you think, Kotcha? Do you want the job?"
"Yes!"
"Good. Does a penny a week sound all right to both of you?"
Yes and "Yes."
"Then the two of you have a deal, and you might as well start now. Give Anna a good rubdown. If you
need anything, I'll be at the castle. Remember that you're in my household now, Kotcha. You can always
come to me with problems."
Giving her something to do was probably the best thing for the kid. Physical activity is usually the best
therapy for someone whose problems have no real solution. Nothing in the world could bring her family
back, and the best thing to do was to forget.
At the same time, it was sort of funny. Lord! It was strange enough when my handmaids got handmaids.
Now my mount had a private rubdown girl!
Back at the castle, I asked Count Lambert if I could take off early, since there wasn't much for me to do *
He had other ideas. He handed me a cup of wine and sat me down. "Sir Conrad, last summer you talked of
various flying machines, and how most of them were too complicated for us to assay to build. But my mind
has been turning over that 'hot air balloon' you mentioned. I see no reason why we couldn't make one."
"I have bolts of good linen cloth, plenty of rope, and most of that barrel of linseed oil left. There is a pile of
wicker for the basket you mentioned, and I've a big, light brass serving-tray that would do to hold the fire.
My wife bought it but I never use it. What say you?"
Lord. Another fad coming up. I could see it. Now that every knight in Poland was flying kites, Count
Lambert had to upstage them all with a hot air balloon. But kites at least were safe. There's no telling where
a balloon will come down. A man could drown, if he didn't fall out.
"My lord, this sort of thing is dangerous. You can't control a hot air balloon. You go wherever the winds
blow you, and the winds up there can be pretty fierce! You could end up in the Baltic Sea!"
"Well, what of it? You're the one who's been taking all the chances lately. Didn't we decide that last
month?"
"Count Lambert, your support has meant everything to me and my projects. Without it, I might never get
things going well enough to fight the Mongols in eight years."
"That's touching but no longer true. It might have been, a year ago, but now you have the support of Duke
Henryk. I suspect that if I died, he just might give all my lands to you, and let my wife go hang in our lands
in Hungary. Isn't it enough for me to say that I want this balloon?"
I exhaled. When Count Lambert wanted something, he got it. To try going against him was pissing into the
wind. "As you wish, my lord. You want me to design a hot air balloon?"
"Of course! What have I been saying? Just a small one, enough to take me alone high above the hills and
trees!"
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