Fusel

"There are those who say that schlitz, the fermented horse urine of Gala, is the most unsavoury liquor. Others will swear that the adulterated brews served in the taverns of Walants are the most vile. I have tasted them both, and would drink six glasses of either, before I would down a glass of fusel, the local beer of the Duchies of Suffex and Wiffex.

Lord Fred knew that he could not win. Not only was his opponent heavier than him, and therefore had a greater buffer against the influence of alcohol, but Fred was not a drinking man. Fred liked to think that this was due to the self-discipline taught at the royal court of Suffex, where it would be a great loss of face at court to let drink influence one's conduct, and where the unspoken rule of the court was that one would consume no more than one glass of beer a night.

The virtue of the Suffetian nobility was guarded and nurtured by fusel. It had been a long-standing order of the House of the Duchy that wine, beer, and spirits from outside of Suffex were forbidden, in order to encourage the local industry. However, the soil of Suffex (and the adjacent duchy of Wiffex) was not kind to the taste of the local barley and wheat. The beer that was brewed from this tasted like nothing else in the world. Somehow the villiens and yeomen of Suffex and Wiffex got used to it, and, the beer being nutritious, drank a lot of it with no apparent ill effects. However, the Suffetian nobility, and those outside the two duchies, drank it with all the enthusiasm of a child taking a bitter medicine.

Fred stared at his opponent, and the crew of the strange ship, and smiled. He tilted his glass and swallowed the ouzo, and thought of dried biscuits. His uncle had brought him dried biscuits from Calife, that had little seeds of a plant called the caraway in them. They had an exotic taste, and compared to his native fusel, this drink was quite tasty. But he hoped that he would not be forced to consume too much of this ouzo.

As Fred had feared, his opponent quaffed his drink in one draw, as a thirsty man might do after hard work. The men in the room shouted and cheered, and many splashed some of the ouzo from the keg into their glasses.

The captain stood up, and raised his glass. "To the brotherhood of mariners."

Everyone raised his glass and drank the toast. Fred already felt himself getting warm.

After the second round and another toast to "free trade and free men", Fred noticed that Solbert, like a physician, felt the pulse of his opponent, and then he came to Fred.

"Can you hold out for three more rounds?"

Fred did the arithmatic. Five rounds at two drinks per round was ten drinks. "Maybe. I have never had nearly that much."

"Splash only a little in your glass for the toasts," Solbert suggested.

1. The drinking bout went on.
2. Back in another place ....

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