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uncles, who had ridden off to war. Emotions rode high.
Lukasz had been shocked to learn that Lord General
Reynhard Dreslin and Prince Tibalt had been taken by the demons and possibly
eaten. The boy could not conceive of something of this magnitude happening in
Angrim, where he had often visited with his uncle.
Because he was thinking so furiously, Lukasz missed a parry and his sparring
companion hit him in the chest with a
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55
practice blade so hard it knocked him backwards into the dirt.
Gunther Chudzik, Lord Hagen's youngest son, liked having
"accidents" with Lukasz. They were second cousins, since
Lord Hagen's father a minor baron had married Lukasz's great aunt Sylwia.
Gunther smirked at Lukasz with an angry gleam in his eyes. Lukasz knew that
Gunther, like several of the other boys, was angry over all of the adult males
in their family being sent south to fight, but Lukasz resented Gunther taking
it out on him.
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Lukasz sprang to his feet snarling, grabbed the larger boy around the waist,
and took him down. He hit so fast and from so many directions that Gunther
could not successfully fend him off.
A large hand seized Lukasz by the collar and jerked him off
Gunther, who favored him with another quick smirk before wiping the look off
his face.
"That's enough," Brainerd the armsmaster growled. "Hold your temper for an
enemy."
Lukasz almost spat back that Gunther was his enemy and thought better of it.
It would only get him lectured on proper behavior by Brainerd. "He didn't have
to hit me that hard,"
Lukasz snarled and immediately regretted it.
"Learn to take it boy, or you'll never be a man." Brainerd unfastened Lukasz's
leather padding and examined his chest.
"You're getting a nice bruise. Go have Gunda put a poultice on it."
Brainerd picked up Lukasz's practice sword and turned away with it in
dismissal. Lukasz stalked off the yard, feeling humiliated. He entered the
palace from a side door through
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56
the servants section and headed up the stairs. Lukasz did not intend to go to
Gunda the housekeeper, deciding that a little suffering was good for his soul
and at least he himself would know that he was as tough as the others no
matter what some of them said.
A willowy blonde that Lukasz recognized as Iwona descended the narrow stairs
toward him with a bundle of laundry. When she got within a few steps of him,
the bundle slipped from her hands, struck the steps and spilled. Iwona cried
out in frustration, squatted and started picking them up again. Lukasz bent
over her and handed her things that were out of her reach so that she would
not have to stretch for them. As he raised his eyes while handing her a dirty
shirt, Lukasz's gaze slid down the front of her low cut blouse and he found
himself staring at her large breasts, dark brown nipples contrasting sharply
against her white skin. His penis jumped to attention, embarrassing him.
"You like them, don't you?" Iwona asked with a conspiratorial wink.
Lukasz gave a vigorous nod, his cheeks burning, and fled.
Sixteen-year-old Iwona had only worked in the palace for a year. For the past
two months, she had begun to tease and flirt with him whenever he was running
around the servants section of the palace, which he did a lot. The servants
were all nicer to him than the members of his own social class were. He
speculated briefly on what Iwona would do if he decided to call her bluff and
shove his hand down her blouse the next time she did that to him. Lukasz knew
he would probably never have the courage to do so, and Iwona would
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57
probably scream if he did. He felt a humiliating dampness in his pants: Iwona
had done it to him again.
He shoved Iwona out of his mind with a sigh and went looking for Hartmut the
Steward. At four weeks shy of fourteen, Lukasz was still a month away from
being legally an adult, so Hartmut was in charge until his uncle returned.
Uncle Stefan had always taken Lukasz along when he had to travel. However, war
was a serious business, and so for the first time he had been left behind.
Lukasz had started worrying about Uncle Stefan from the day his uncle donned
his armor and set out. People got killed in wars, and from what the boy had
heard this was shaping up to be an extremely ugly one with demons and monsters
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out there
although Brainerd and Hartmut did not entirely credit those reports, Lukasz
did. Demons and monsters had been filling his dreams for months. He had never
told anyone about the dreams because he did not want to sound like a baby.
Little boys shivered in their beds over nightmares, not thirteen-
year-olds.
He felt the servants' eyes watching him as he walked the elegant halls of the
palace in his dirty leathers. Lukasz went up to the second floor and found
Hartmut at his desk going over some paperwork.
"Hartmut, I want to talk to you."
"About what?" Hartmut looked up from his papers with an impatient expression,
tapping his fingers on the desk.
Lukasz dragged a chair up close and settled into it. "About my uncle and this
war."
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58
"I wouldn't worry about it. They're linking up with the
Kyser at Saynkyorbirg. Thirty thousand myn is more than enough to throw back
whatever the Minnorians have brought here."
Lukasz sighed heavily. "But I am worried."
"There's nothing to worry about. Go take a walk in the gardens, read a book,
find someone to play a game with you."
"Hartmut..."
"Off with you."
Lukasz's mouth pursed up in distress as he obeyed. He went to his rooms,
washed himself off a bit, and changed clothes. Lukasz adjusted his sleeveless
green tunic and pulled at the full sleeves of his black shirt. Knotting his
long black hair at his neck when he finished brushing it, Lukasz stared into
the mirror resenting the fact that he was not tall, blond, and fair-skinned.
Furthermore, if not kept trimmed, Lukasz's hair grew longer than most women's,
all the way to his knees.
It was no wonder the other boys looked at him as if he were some kind of
freak. But once he was duke well then that would be different and maybe he [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]