Lady Isolde now sat in a safe house on the edge of Augsburg.

Across the table sat Elias, a clerk in the Bishop’s own courts, bought body and soul by von Frundsberg coin.

Elias pushed a deciphered letter across the wood. "The Bishop of Augsburg no longer looks to the paralyzed Diet, Lady Isolde. He means to choke your lands with a slow noose of coin and trade."

Isolde read the writ... it was a holy command, bearing the Bishop’s seal, giving leave to all Catholic lords within a fifty-mile bound to seize any wagons bearing the von Frundsberg mark!

"The Bishop names all your goods as unholy," Elias explained, "The writ gives the lords the lawful right to steal your steel and cloth, calling it the taking of unpaid tithes."

The Church was using its holy power to wage a war of thieves.

By giving the lesser lords the Pope’s blessing to steal, the Bishop was building a ring around the valley without spending a single copper of his own.

This was a deadly peril to the von Frundsberg rule.

Konrad’s forges needed endless fuel, but more, the gunners needed Baltic saltpeter to make their powder.

If the eastern roads were choked by dozens of lesser lords stealing the wagons, the cannons would be silenced within two turnings of the moon.

"The Bishop calls a war of a thousand cuts..." Isolde reckoned.

Elias nodded frantically. "You must tell Lord Konrad. If he sends his great guns to guard the wagons, he will be drawn into a dozen small fights across the borders."

"Lord Konrad lacks the powder for endless skirmishes." Isolde corrected, seeing the trap at once.

The battering of the Rechberg keep had eaten deep into their stores. Konrad was already giving strict measure to the powder just to hold the walls.

Isolde sent the clerk away, bidding him keep a close eye on the Bishop’s purse.

As Elias fled, Isolde sat in the freezing quiet.

The von Frundsberg men could not break the ring alone... they needed swords from without.

Her reckoning led straight to Lady Katarina of Bavaria.

The Bavarian lady had the ear of the Duke, who commanded a great host of pikemen.

If the Bavarian footmen marched to open the roads, the lesser Swabian lords would scatter, terrified of waking the wrath of the greatest house in the land.

Yet, Isolde knew the terrible danger in this path... If Konrad learned his master of spies had begged a foreign house for aid, he would not call it a cunning stroke. He would call it treason!

Isolde stared at the oil lamp. She held no love for Lady Katarina... the Bavarian Duchess was a creature of the soft world, a woman who wept for honor and sought kind words.

But the guns needed powder...

Rustle... scratch... Isolde drew a fresh parchment toward her and took up a sharp quill.

"To the Bavarian Court," Isolde wrote, using the exact words of her master.

"The Bishop of Augsburg has set a lawless snare upon the eastern roads. This theft blocks the very steel needed to finish the plans for the great guns promised to your father’s armories.

If the Duke wishes his promised arms before the season turns, he must send his footmen at once to sweep the priests’ thieves from the roads.

The von Frundsberg forges will bear no blame for delays born of your own failure to keep the roads open."

By painting the Bishop’s snare not as a threat to Konrad, but as a theft of the very arms the Duke had paid for, Isolde ensured Katarina would demand her father march.

The proud Duke of Bavaria would never suffer a greedy Bishop to steal the cannons he had bought with his own silver.

Isolde sealed the letter with a plain wax stamp used by the smugglers. She sent the writ by a hidden rider, ensuring no trail led back to her hand.

...

Barely seven days later, the swift success of her hidden letter reached the stronghold.

In the master’s room, Konrad and Isolde sat at opposite ends of the table, eating prescribed portions of salted ham and sour Swabia beans.

The rest of the von Frundsberg house was shut away in the deeper chambers of the keep.

Hidden near the doorway stood Elise von Frundsberg. Konrad’s sister was watching them in secret.

Konrad knew she stood there... he could hear her breathing and mark the shifting of her skirts.

"Talk about Bavaria’s march," Konrad ordered, swallowing a measured bite of grain.

Isolde laid her knife beside her bowl. "The tidings are true, my Lord, the two thousand halberdiers are tearing down the toll gates of the lesser lords who sought to steal our steel."

By binding the Duke to the plans for the new great guns, he had forced the Bavarian host to act as guards for his own trade roads.

"You do not eat enough for the bearing of the child," Konrad stated, looking at her bowl.

Gasp...

Elise, trembling in the shadows, choked back a gasp.

"I’m fine. Morning sickness is normal, I’ll get over it."

"See that you do." Konrad commanded. "We must set a name for the child."

Isolde nodded, "The name must strike fear and order into the peasants and the Fugger merchants."

"Just so," Konrad stated.

"If the child is a boy," Konrad ordered, "he shall be named Maximilian." 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

"And if the child is a girl?"

"She shall be named Katarina," Konrad stated without a heartbeat’s pause.

"You mean to chain the Bavarian Duke with empty flattery."

"...In truth, it merely buys the swords of his halberdiers for another ten years without spending a single silver coin." Konrad explained.

Elise burst into the room, her silk skirts rustling wildly. Her face was red, and tears streamed down her cheeks.

"You are a monster, Konrad!" Elise cried, "You cast Friedrich into the frozen wastes and you have not spoken to me or mother in two weeks! We are your blood!"

"Hmm, why are you screaming?" Konrad asked. "Shut up and stand up straight."

Elise froze, "I only wanted my brother back," Klara stammered, "I wanted you to say that we still hold worth in your eyes."

"Of course you matter to me," Konrad said.

Tap... tap...

"You say I have forgotten you," Konrad stated. "I have kept you safe, given you meat and bread, and held the Pope’s men from your door. In return, you shout at me."

"..." Elise stared at him silently.

"Furthermore," Konrad went on, "Lady Katarina of Bavaria left these walls. You did not bid her farewell. You did not secure her ear for our cause."

"She was leaving! I was weeping for Friedrich!" Elise cried out.