Chapter 5

In which misfortune comes to the baron, while Holisz gains a pet and finds a temporary home.

The bard paused again, this time to lead a parade of those who’d been quaffing the tap-man’s excellent ale outside, that they might make room in their guts for more!

He soon led them back inside, sat himself down, and took a hearty slug from his jack. Refreshed, thirst temporarily slaked, he paused but a moment ere resuming his tale.

“The aged horse ambled up to the gate and waited for admittance. A rope had been tied around the animal’s head to lead him, and a part of the line was still present, although only a short length of the original braided lead-rope now remained below the knot. The rest had probably broken off as the horse grazed the three leagues back to the stable.

Still, there was no mistake; this was the horse that had been abandoned with Holisz mounted upon his back. Splashes of blood marked the withers where his wrists had dripped while he huddled in his agony. The gate’s warder saw the horse and notified his serjeant; that one called his ensign, and eventually the news came to the baron.

“Justice is done, and order has been restored!” the baron declaimed. “Let none forget what grows from ignoring one’s proper place in the natural order of things!” He paused for a moment. “Put the horse back in the stable with the others, give him grain and hay, and let this affair be put behind us.”

Others who heard his words wondered: did the punishment truly fit the crime? Was this justice, or only the baron’s fell temper wreaked against one who was as much sinned against as sinner?

But this was soon forgotten, for the castle’s folk gained other concerns. For ill luck and misfortune came to visit the baron, and remained to dwell in Castle Baldwin’s Junction. ‘Twas less than three weeks later when some wretch made away with Arrow, his favorite mount!

The thought that mayhap the horse had escaped unaided was stillborn, for no horse could have opened, then relocked, the sally-port’s gate! The beast had been tracked to that point, and a few other tracks had been found thereabout as well, tracks left by human buskins! Horses wear not such, as all men know.

No, someone had opened the gate, removed the animal from its stall, released it outside the walls, then closed and re-locked the gate from the inside. That ‘someone’ must still be in the castle’s grounds, for how would anyone have escaped after securing the sally-port latch from the inside? But a diligent search, followed by one even more ... well, diligent ... found only the usual dwellers, who swore they’d seen nothing and heard less.

This was only the first misfortune; other rumors had surfaced in the meantime, and this time not about missing horses! Ladies, as all men know, will talk, and the escapades of Holisz, Lady Rose, and Lady Dolores had become known, if but by rumor. Talk had surfaced, then found its way to the homes of the two ladies. The kitchen staff, those who’d known Holisz well and others who’d known him very well, believed the rumors and spread them widely while insisting that Holisz had not been the instigator, but merely a more-or-less willing participant. ‘Twas well known that Holisz had never pressed even the lowliest wench to share her favors! Indeed, he’d seemed reluctant, almost oblivious to their practiced wiles, requiring somewhat more directness than ladies normally employed to attract male attention in the usual way of things!

A week after the rumors surfaced, two parties arrived at the castle. Each of them left soon thereafter, one escorting Lady Rose, the other Lady Dolores, as the two were returned by male siblings and guards to their respective homes. Parents waited for them there, disappointed parents, as ye might suspect. For the young ladies had not come to the notice of suitable young men of good birth and station at the baron’s court, nor would they now. Sadly, there would be no alliances made by marriage to enhance the power and prestige of the families involved. Indeed, there might only be lesser suitors in future who would hope to gain from such an alliance, rather than share what social and political advantages they held with the families of Lady Dolores and Lady Rose. Gossip from there soon found its way back to Castle Baldwin’s Junction. Nunneries, sad to say, were mentioned.

But this tale is of Holisz, so we may gloss over the fates of the Ladies Rose and Dolores. We may hope that they avoided humorless nuns and far too much uncomfortable time spent in prayer; after all, they’d sinned rather less than the others who were involved. Perhaps the giggling gods would be merciful this time, for were the ladies but expressing the hot blood those same gods had gifted them with upon their birth?

But the fell event, the one that took from Holisz his hands, such had not yet played out.

There was still the matter of Johannes the Wise, and he was sore wroth at the baron for the intemperate act he’d ordered!

So it was that Johannes the Wise disappeared from Baldwin’s Junction and was seen there no more. Some claimed he took to drink and swore to renounce sorcery, taking to the roads in other guise, but we may not speak of such, for ‘tis the province of Old Johannes to reveal such details as he will. This tale is of Holisz, and the wizard played no more part in it so he may well be forgotten now, whatever his eventual fate may be.

The baron breathed a sigh of relief; Old Johannes was gone, and the walls of Castle Baldwin’s Junction yet stood.

True, one wizard had gone away angered but other wizards could be found! Surely there were many such who would enjoy employment at Castle Baldwin’s Junction!

But none there were who would come to accept the post that Johannes had vacated. Perhaps the word had gone from wizard to wizard, as is rumored to happen. Perhaps wizards viewed Baron Georg as accursed. It mattered not, for whatever the cause, the result was that Castle Baldwin’s Junction no longer had a resident wizard, not even a part-time one.

More ill luck soon plagued the baron! The loss of Arrow was but the first in a string of misfortunes, for the numbers of calves, kids, and lambs were noticeably fewer the following spring. Springs dried up too, even those that had been deemed ever-reliable ere this time. The rains that year came, but too late; instead of encouraging new growth, the heavy storms washed out the crops that had become established.

Full many demesnes there were that harvested bumper crops that year; only the lands of Baron Georg at Baldwin’s Junction were so stubbornly unproductive. The baron raved and shook his fists, but he avoided wholesale famine among his people only by depleting his personal accounts to buy food.

He was shortly viewed by all as cursed. ‘Twas a name he’d never sought, but when men referred to him now, he was Baron Georg the Accursed. The more he sought to deny it, the more that-well, accursed-name stuck!

Now, when his people fled to the wood to escape his temper, they returned not to their former duty. Work went undone, and slowly, the barony’s populace dwindled. The barony’s craftsmen also left, and soon there were none to repair things, to tuck-point the walls, to replace rotted wooden planks and cracked beams.

Worse, the king called for his levies during that evil summer to enforce his lawful claims against a rival, and the baron was unable to provide the full complement of troops that he’d promised, the soldiery that was his duty to provide his liege lord upon demand. The king noticed, and was displeased.

Ambitious nobles saw the failure as well, and plotted. But these matters took time to play out.

What, then, of Holisz? What had happened to him, even as the gods chuckled their amusement and nobles viewed the decline of one who’d been powerful, and schemed?

Holisz looked at his hairy hands in dismay.

Long the hands were, and narrow; the fingers were longer than normal, but at least there was a thumb of sorts. He rotated it around and attempted to form a fist. Finally, he was able to do so, but only with difficulty. ‘Twas clear, the replacement hands were not suitable for use as fists!