Chapter 7: Steps to create a miracle 3
Chapter 7: Steps to create a miracle 3
Kassia, who was sleeping on Einar’s chest, opened her eyes when she heard someone knocking on the door.
With great care, she moved the bearskin that covered them and tried to get up from the bed but realized that her legs had no strength to get up and that Max’s arm was around her waist so she could only sigh and scream, ” Gerd, I’m sorry, but I can’t go out right now if you can come tomorrow I would appreciate it. “
Gerd heard Kassia’s words and looked at his friend Ibssen who just smiled at him wryly. “Very well, Kassia, we’ll come tomorrow.”
The two walked and away from Kassia’s hut “Gerd, you know what that woman is doing that prevents him from opening the door.”
Gerd held his beard. “From my experience, I would say that she must be with a man in her bed, but knowing that Kassia has not accepted any man in her bed since the death of her husband.
It should be that she was doing some of her strange experiments. “
A laugh began to be heard, and Ibssen gave Gerd a light blow “For Kassia to be with another man is impossible !!.
The only person in his cabin is young Einar, and he is injured; you know well that no one has been able to sleep with Kassia.
They don’t call her ice beauty for anything. “
Gerd frowned. “To think that I tried to make her fall in love, but everything failed, it’s a shame there isn’t a man as her guardian.
Otherwise, she couldn’t refuse to marry someone, but since we’re outside, I think we should go to Jarl Sven’s parlor.
I heard that the Skaldo would compose a poem about the victory against the Vikings we killed in the morning. “
Ibssen smiled and rested his hand on Gerd’s shoulder. “Whenever there is new poetry, there will also be mead.”
At night Kassia woke up when she heard Max talking between dreams, capturing that she did not understand what he was saying; she realized that he seemed to have a nightmare, so she decided to put her hand on Max’s face to calm him down.
Max, looking at the corpse of his daughter Erika woke up when he felt a hand on his face; the first thing he could see in the dark was Kassia’s look of concern.
Very carefully, he moved Kassia’s hand from his face. “Thanks for waking me, Kassia.
You have an idea of how long we were asleep. “
Kassia shook her head. “It should be early morning, but I’m not sure I woke up a little earlier than you because I heard you talking in your dream.
By the way, in the afternoon, Gerd and Ibssen came to the artisans that you asked me for, but I couldn’t stop. “
Max looked at a small blush on Kassia’s face, so he put his hand on Kassia’s chin. “You don’t have to worry about that since I woke up, and I don’t want to go back to sleep; let me do some blueprints so the craftsmen can work. “
Kassia could feel a light kiss on her mouth and watched as Max got out of bed. “Kassia, before I’ve seen you use a piece of papyrus to write, you will have a little more papyrus so that I can write.
I promise you that in some, I will make something similar to papyrus so that you can write, it will not have a very high value for the members of the tribe, but it will help us to write and document everything we see. “
From the bed, Kassia tried to get up, but her legs were still aching; Max realized that and using his hands, he carried her like a princess.
Kassia smiled at him and told him to take it to her desk; once on the desk, she opened a drawer, and from inside, she took out a parchment with nothing written “I don’t have much parchment in my hand since the only merchants in town arrive in April.
But what are you planning to write on the parchment? I am very curious. “
From the drawer, Kassia also took out a small bottle of black ink and an eagle quill that had a little metal point at the bottom.
Max sat Kassia on a chair and wiped the dirt off the table using water; when he was done, he lit the little oil lamp and the fire in the middle of the hut.
Before writing on the parchment, Max asked Kassia for help adjusting to the use of the pen as he did not want to put shit on the parchment.
Once he adapted to the use of the pen, he began to draw some schemes that made Kassia unable to take her eyes off the papyrus since Max’s drawings were very realistic.
“You know Kassia, your words about traders made me think if we want to survive in Iceland, we need trained people, a superiority of weapons, and something valuable to trade.”
Max pointed to the schematics he had drawn. “I’ll start by explaining the first three schematics about weapons.
The first one is called Atlatl or propeller; it is a small wooden tool that will help to launch javelins further, and with greater force, by itself, it is almost useless, so the javelin has to have an elongated metal tip like the pilum.
The second only requires a wooden base, bowstring, and a small iron mechanism; it is a primitive crossbow, you know them. “
Kassia looked at the outline for a moment and nodded, “Its shape is very much like the ballista that I could once see in an ancient book.”
“The process is almost the same, only that the crossbow only shoots bolts, I would like to design a steel crossbow, but from the tools that I have been able to see in the hut, I can assume that the blacksmith only knows the most basic forge.
But to achieve the forging of steel, we need firebricks and some other things; I would like to say that I have the experience, but I would be lying.
This is a short-term problem; I can only fix it if I get enough manpower and some experienced blacksmiths. “
Max scratched his chin and used the pen to point to the outline of a small ceramic jar, which seemed to have some metal pieces inside. “Of the three schemes, this will be our secret weapon; he called it primitive grenade.
It occupies a substance called gunpowder, which is placed near the fire, it can ignite, and if it is in a closed place, it can explode.
I think you can get an idea of why I put a few small pieces of metal inside the jar. “
Kassia swallowed hard in fear as she imagined what an explosion would be like and the damage that small pieces of metal would do to anybody.
“The only problem with this weapon is that the most crucial ingredient to be able to make gunpowder can only be made using excrement and in low quantities.
It will be necessary to make some septic deposits where the saltpeter can form; also, another option for the future is to trade with the Muslims of the Iberian Peninsula to create a route of the saltpeter. “
Max smiled as he tapped on the wood. “Perhaps the saltpeter route can help the Muslims to maintain the peninsula for a long time.
This will help us to keep Christians busy for many years, but before I forget and we continue, we have to use what you picked up from the calf as otherwise it can rot and cannot be used. “
Kassia felt a small chill as she saw Max approaching her.