Chapter 4

The minor social rituals of the military bathhouse now completed, and when most (especially Ben) had drunk their fill, the assembly largely went their own ways, mostly in search of a good dinner. After dressing, the prince found Ben a quiet seat at the back of the main feasting hall where his presence would be unlikely to be marked upon. After the meal, as neither the Justicar or the palace Steward seemed to have any urgent need for him, such as to pronounce some dire judgement upon him, the lad found his way (a tad bit unsteady on his feet from all of the ale he had consumed that afternoon) back to the library and encamped himself in the most comfortable oversized padded chair he could find and promptly feel quite asleep with his book in his lap.

His routine the following day was largely identical. Sometime at about dawn, an entirely too cheerful Prince Carl awoke him to announce that a good hearty breakfast was awaiting them at the senior officer’s mess. Following the breaking of their fast, the late morning was filled with more sword drills with the prince himself until luncheon, also at the officer’s mess, and in the afternoon a new practice session was begun with alternate and very unfamiliar weapons like war-axes, maces, spears and also the bow and crossbow ... and even a proper mounted lance. That afternoon the prince had other professional duties to perform, so he was given over to a grizzled old sergeant for this additional basic arms training.

This was all brand new to Ben and now he was much less accomplished than most of the group of young armsmen and squires that were training beside him. Still, while far from the most promising student, he could admit with some pride that he was not the least accomplished of the trainees. “You’ll do well, in time young serr,” the sergeant admitted, when the long session was over and once again the young man’s tired arms felt as if they were on fire, “as unlike most of the younger lads I teach, you’re quick enough in the head to learn from your mistakes and you rarely make them twice. That’s something that a few of these recruits haven’t learned yet in over a month. Prince Carl says you have potential to be trained as a young war-leader, and I want you to know from the start that I agree with him. Tomorrow, I’ll be even harder with you and the day after that harder even still ... because I’ll expect far better things from you than from the rest of this camp fodder. If you can last out three weeks with me, suffering constant pain in every part of your body, I’ll have you ready to train beside some real veteran soldiers, and by summer, you’ll be dueling their sergeants with ease. So get that contented smile off of your face or I’ll slap it right off, and prepare yourself for the worst month of hell that I can imagine for you to suffer ... all for your own good, of course!”

The old sergeant wasn’t much mistaken, and two months later near the end of spring, Ben already felt himself to be the physical better of most of the younger castle guardsmen, and often proficient enough now to be an equal to some (but not all) of the older veterans. By the time Prince Carl determined that his basic military training was acceptably complete, he could hold fast in a duel facing up to three opponents at once, hold rocks the size of bread loaf spread out from his arms, unwavering, for up to the length of an hourglass. He could also run nonstop for two full leagues (or further) with a heavy backpack filled with rocks and sand, and march without rest for up to twice that distance as his body continued to grow hard muscles from head to toe, and even several inches of manly height as trained daily at least twice as hard as any other veteran soldier he could note ... and ever pushed himself to redouble his efforts yet further. If Prince Carl believed him suitable for becoming a junior war-leader, then that would be his goal!

Now, for the duration of the summer, Ben was assigned to a cavalry training squadron for a month of initial instruction on the arts of fighting on horseback, after which he was assigned to a full lance of veteran cavalry in a supernumerary non-command capacity, training daily out in the field

It was on the very first day of autumn when a messenger from the castle rode up to the encampment where Ben’s wing of fifty cavalry troopers was practicing, enjoying a full week of field exercises and mock battles against similar friendly units of ‘enemy’ troops, of both mixed cavalry and infantry. Technically, Ben had very little actual authority as he was now just a recently promoted junior lieutenant placed under another more senior full lieutenant, and he was under specific instruction to shadow and learn the handling of men and logistics of supporting a unit in the field from this well-regarded senior, a career officer with the likelihood of significant further promotion in the future.

‘Makee-Learnee’ was Prince Carl’s name for this, to learn best while observing and actually doing the responsibilities of a very junior officer. A great many things, especially in military matters needed to be learned by hard experience ... and not from any book or field manual. Formally, he was now entitled a Knight bachelor, but currently prohibited from bearing his Baad family coat of arms on his shield. This made him largely a complete unknown to his men, and he enjoyed earning some slight respect for his growing meager leadership talents and more importantly he soon felt no disrespect from any of his soldiers. If anyone knew that he was one of the accursed Baad, no one appeared to care.

His father certainly had possessed no skills with managing large numbers of soldiers, and now that Ben had largely mastered the physical tools of the military profession he was quite eager to start learning the administrative and leadership aspects of that craft as well, first assisting a senior sergeant with the handling of small squads of soldiers, both foot and mounted, and now he was just starting to also learn how his field captain handled his full lance of one hundred soldiers and the wing of fifty cavalry.

Warfare can be uncertain, and if his captain should fall then his senior lieutenants must be trained and ready to immediately take over, and should they fall as well, then the most junior officers must then make good! Before gaining any promotion, an officer must clearly demonstrate that he has at least one sufficiently trained junior ready to step into and fill his shoes upon a moment’s notice.

The message from the court was frankly disappointing. He was to leave at once to present himself at once before the High-King’s Justicar and Steward. It seemed that his long overdue ‘justice’ was about to be delivered and his long six months of hard training could possibly now be for nothing. Unlikely, he thought as he rode back to the castle; that would be wasteful. The High-King had always had the reputation for being something of a dullard, and now that he was quite advanced in years his mental acuity had certainly not improved, and it was no court secret that now had a pronounced tendency to dither over even simple, inconsequential matters. But it was admitted, he also had excellent senior advisors (like his Justicar) who could be counted upon to always offer proper advice ... and seemed to have a fondness for the young lord. Prince Carl had also loudly championed him in court, and his continued patronage had tended to silence most of the obvert objection to the final remaining heir of Baad, as he had remained in or near court those long seasons.

From the hard frown upon the face of the Steward as he presented himself, Ben now became far from certain that the final judgement that was about to be rendered would now be a happy one.

“Sir Benjamin,” the surly Steward announced as he rolled out the parchment to read forth the High-King’s justice, “as of this time, any and all pending charges against you are put into abeyance, up to and including the charge of treason, are held pending but without pronouncement of either guilt or innocence or without royal pardon, for such a period as His Majestic should desire, to be not less than seven years. It is further confirmed that Sir Benjamin von Baad, Knight, once formally titled as prince from the former Petty-Kingdom of Baad, shall henceforth be confirmed as the hereditary and rightful holder of the county and keep of Baad, thus entitled to be known as the just and proper Count of Baad, to rule there at His Majesties pleasure for such time as all vassal obligations are upheld.”

There was quite a bit of small print, like obligations of loyalty, his availability to serve the throne and obey all orders given to him, upon the slightest of notice. Attendance at the quarterly formal court assemblies was virtually mandatory, specifically as a demonstration of loyalty, unless it was shown that he had served the crown on military duty for at least 99 consecutive days, or about a full season within the last year. Also, after considerable polite ‘discussion’, it was agreed (and annotated) that due to the extremes of winter in the far north, where Castle Baad was located on one of the highest, least accessible mountains known, that winter seasonal travel was deemed quite impossible for the young Count to perform, thus pardoning his absence from any winter court. The Justicar seemed to think that this exception was quite reasonable and eventually the Steward scrawled his approval, in the High-King’s name. That personage (the Steward) was quite out of temper today, largely due to the fact that he currently had a large boil on his bum, from too much sitting behind a desk ... and his general displeasure at life had little, if anything, to do with Ben.

Oaths were taken and several parchments pledging faithful behavior were duely signed, and at length a wax sealed chapter was presented, formally and officially granting Count Benjamin von Baad the county of Baad, and the holdings within. Nothing was said, or could be said, about the status of the two other counties that had been stripped away from Ben’s father and give (or rather taken) by petty-king Egner. When Ben casually mentioned the topic, the Justicar simply stated that the young count was under strong oaths to ‘keep the peace’.

As Egner had expanded out his own realm considerably during his life (quite at the expense of his neighbors), his was one of the larger (and military strongest) petty-kingdoms now in the realm, and clearly military reconquest would be quite impossible, even should the High-King desire to rid himself of that overly powerful and most troublesome nobleman ... which according to court gossip, he quite did, if it could be managed with clean and innocent hands. An open conflict between the High-King and the Lord Egner would require the massing of every royal regiment that could be found or hastily established, and the outcome was likely to be highly uncertain ... especially since relocation of all of the High-King’s armies to the far north would like trigger fresh ducal rebellions by the other Petty-Kings of the south and west. A situational (likely) problem that much of the royal court would prefer would never occur, and the current status-quo ‘peace’, such as it was, should be preserved at all costs ... especially if the young count Baad could be forced to bear those costs.

As for traveling expenses, no monies were on offer, a decision that clearly the Justicar didn’t entirely concur with. It was a matter of long precedence, he admitted, that nobles were always responsible for their own expenses, too and from court, and that knights and other officers on temporary duty received no pay or reimbursement for travel expenditures, as they were compensated by the values of their lands and properties. Ben had received no compensation from his land while he had been imprisoned, the land held in trust these long years by the steward was appointed by the crown to handle them, pending Ben’s fate. While this was quite unfortunate for Ben, if the young count were to be given extra compensation now, other lords in equally dire financial circumstances would insist on this assistance sometime in the future. When considered in that light, Ben supposed that this firm and hard policy did make sense, it was just a pity that his scant private purse was unlikely to up to the hardship of a near three week journey home.

It was down by the castle stables that Ben received his next big surprise. Prince Carl himself was personally helping to saddle up a fairly good-sized charger, complete with several bulging saddlebags, more than suitably provisioned for a long overland journey. The pair of bosom friends embraced, with multiple kisses upon the other’s cheeks. Since their first encounter at the start of spring, their friendship had become increasingly cordial and the pair had become near inseparable, drinking together several evenings each week, taking the baths and riding the outdoors together hunting, flying falcons, fishing and the occasional search to apprehend a local bandit, such as often as the prince’s duties (and Ben’s intensive training schedule) would permit. Ben had never had a close friend before, and already the immanent loss of his company greatly pained his heart.

“Everything is packed and in readiness for your long overdue return trip home, my young noble friend, although this temporary parting gives me great sadness,” the prince said, also clearly holding back a few tears of his own. “You’ve got trail rations packed here for two full weeks, but with some extra hard biscuits and cheese, should you wish to make it home faster, without stopping at inns along the way. There’s a full feed sack of grain too for Mather, your gelding, enough for a week or so on the road anyway. Not my naming, your new mount ... he belonged to another knight who got thrown one time too many, so after we buried the poor bastard with the broken neck, we wasted no time afterwards cutting off this bastard’s balls right off, to bury along with his former master. It made the animal much more tolerable to ride, everyone agrees. He, or ‘it’, is not quite fierce enough now to be an officer’s primary warhorse but he’s still a bit too high spirited to let a lady or weak-armed nobleman ride, so he needed a new home from these stables. He can gallop like the wind still, should you give him the spurs, and he’s got a nose better than many hounds and is trained to follow a scent. Most of the orneriness is safely gone and he takes a lead well ... you’ll like him. Oh, and should you encounter difficulties or some unexpected expenses, I might have misplaced an odd coin purse or two somewhere, while packing the front saddlebags. Should you happen to find them, you can happily repay me back later, in full if desired, on that proverbial day when the sun rises up from the west, and not the east! Now keep to your exercises, daily ... and bring me some happier news from Baad when I see you again next early springtime ... and plan on staying here until at least mid-summer, as we might have a bit of field action with some Brantish southern border raiders by then. That should serve your 99-day service commitment nicely, so that afterwards you can ride home and not have to return to court until the following spring! Also, as a matter of slight interest to you, I’ve arranged for several of your favorite books to be copied. Five of them are packed there in your front-right saddlebag, but another three books remain uncompleted, but asre certain to be ready in time for your return next year.”