Chapter 40

It was late June in the court of King Hardrada of Norway when a strange man approached him. The man wore just threadbare clothing since he had been traveling for many weeks, and his beard was long. The man claimed to have a weapon so powerful that even a small child who knew how to use it could easily defeat the most powerful and skilled warriors. When the king heard this, he and his entire entourage fell over laughing, but the mystery man was not dismayed. The man stood quietly until the king could recover.

“I have a few of these weapons with me, Your Majesty, and I will be pleased to demonstrate their power to you.”

“Very well, if you insist, but you must do this outside because I don’t want my floors soaked with your blood!”

The entourage started laughing again, but the mystery man just smiled.

Everyone went outside, and the King’s best warrior stepped forward in full armor and with his fearsome battle ax shining in the late morning sun. The mystery man just stood still and waited. Finally, having enough of this, the warrior sounded a war cry and charged. The mystery man pulled some small thing out from under his coat. He raised it, and smoke and flame came out of the end of it. The warrior’s head jerked back, and he fell, blood and brains coming out of a large hole in the back of his head. Everyone was stunned; this man had just defeated one of the best warriors in the kingdom without even breaking a sweat.

“How is this possible?!?!” demanded the King. “Witchcraft!?!?!?”

“No, Your Majesty. I have made a new weapon that uses a special powder to propel a projectile forward with enough speed to punch right through the thickest armor a man can wear and still move. Furthermore, I can teach your people how to make this powder and the weapon that uses it. All I ask for in return is protection from an extremely dangerous man who told me that if he found out I am telling anyone these secrets, he would hunt me down and tear me apart with his bare hands. I believe him because he makes even you look small and weak, Your Majesty. I have even watched him send one of his fists through the side of a barrel. His name is Luke MacDougall, and he is the husband of Marion of York and the commander of her army.”

“Very well. But should you fail, I will rip you apart with my bare hands.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” the man said as he bowed.

After the man was escorted out, the King turned to Tostig.

“Well, he comes to us from your area of England. What do you know about this Marion and her husband?”

“I have met Marion on several occasions, and her beauty would put Aphrodite to shame milord. She is also timid and weak, although the way that man talks she might have changed since I last met her. I have never met her husband, but it was rumored that she and her sister were saved from an ambush by a passing stranger last year; this could be the same man as her husband.”

“Very well. We shall see what kind of weapons our new friend can make for us. After all, this deal is costing me almost nothing.”

Three weeks later, the mystery man, who had been identified as an alchemist, presented the King with 30 weapons and the men to use them. These muzzle-loading weapons used a flint striking a piece of steel to set off the powder. Starting with the bullet shapes that Luke used, the alchemist designed a conical bullet that could be quickly loaded but still grip the rifling. He promptly proved these men could hit their targets almost 300 paces away. These weapons were a bit slow to load but were faster than crossbows and didn’t require too much skill, making the soldiers much cheaper to train. They would be vulnerable to cavalry, but that problem was lessened with bayonets for the rifles.

The King was profoundly impressed and asked how many weapons like these the man could produce in a couple of months. The man told him that he could probably make a couple of hundred and that training to use these new weapons was very important because if they were not appropriately used, they were very dangerous to the user. By this time, the King had reports that Marion was now in complete control of most of Northern England, and nobles who opposed her were quickly deposed. She had accomplished this by using the same kind of weapons that this man was making. Tostig was impressed by how much stronger Marion seemed in these reports from when he had known her.