Chapter 10

Fálki was not in the barracks, but we were told that he was coming back into the city to eat. The man jokingly said that he didn't like to miss a meal. There was a watch tower above the barracks that looked over this area. A taller one stood over the castle itself to check in all directions. Jón took his time and we climbed to the top and looked out.

Jón said, "It would be nice to have one of those things for seeing far away."

"I think so too. That is why the stonecutter is making a kiln for us. Glass is very valuable to us."

"Why, you know how to make it, and it's easy?"

"I know how and that is the important part. The craftsmen usually built small."

Forni said, "Why are we here?"

Jón said, "I forgot that you cannot hear the talk Vic and I have. We were talking about shaping glass so we can see things far away."

"You can?"

"Yes, and it can be used for those that cannot see very well. Small pieces of glass are used to make everything clearer."

"Astrid can't see very well. Did you see how she puts her hand down and has to search for things by feel?"

"No, I never realised that until you said it. It is lucky that I have such a good friend that is so observant when I do not."

Forni smiled and looked at the stone at his feet. "It's nothing."

"Who else cannot see very well?"

"Your father. He pushes things far from him when he looks at them when we bring them close to see all the small details."

"You're right again, Forni."

We were on hand when Fálki returned. He had nearly all of the soldiers out with him. It appeared that all the Franks were with him too. They smiled at seeing Jón. I guess that they took Fálki as my representative and left to do some manoeuvres. When Fálki got down he handed the reins of his horse to a groom and came to see us.

"Greetings, milord. Have you come to see me?"

Jón said, "I brought you a gift. It is a toy but it shows something important. One day we may use it to fly above the clouds."

"Really? What is it?"

He was presented the helicopter and Jón put it properly into his large hands. "Pull the thong."

The man looked at the device and so did a great many others that started to cluster around. Fálki said, "This is a toy."

"A toy that teaches if you have the mind that can learn."

"I just pull the string?"

"Yes and pull it fast but don't break anything."

Jón had to hold the man's hands so the propeller was aimed up and the man pulled it very quickly. The launcher fell and men backed up many steps as the device climbed nearly five metres.

When the helicopter came to earth everybody avoided it as if it were magic. To these people many things were magic.

Jón said, "When it spins, it catches the air and climbs until it slows down. If we had a machine to turn a big one we could go up with it. We could fly over the fields and look down on both friend and enemy."

Jón put the propeller back into position and wound the thong around the shaft. "Try again." Fálki didn't want to touch it.

"Look at how this is made. It is only wood and a piece of leather. It is not magic. Make some of your own and they will fly too. Everybody knows that they have to be magicked to make them work and nobody will be able to do that."

Albrecht came close and Jón handed him the device. The man studied it from every position then asked, "May I try it?"

Jón said, "I have given it to Fálki. You should rightly ask him."

Before the question came, Fálki said, "Keep it. I have no use for toys even if they are not magic."

I could feel that Jón was disappointed but Albrecht seemed to be very happy. He pulled the thong and it rose just as high as what Fálki had made it do.

Jón said, "Make a bigger one and leave more room for more leather. You may need to have somebody else pull it. We can see if it will go higher."

Albrecht asked, "Why does it make that odd noise?"

Jón asked me and then he said, "It is not balanced. One of the wings wants to climb more than the other. Both wings need to be the same length and weight too. Not easy to do but good enough for a toy so we can learn."

We went to eat and Albrecht displayed the toy to all those that were around him.

When the girls came in Jón stood and gave them each one of the toys. Dagmar and Astrid wondered at this for they were obviously not children.

Dagmar seemed to be happy. I was not sure if it was Jón or me but she did look like she had no worries. Her hair was back in a ponytail and she proudly had the end hanging over her shoulder and onto her chest. It finally occurred to me that it was the prince that was making her happy. For a second I was jealous but then rationalised that she was a sister of my body.

I ran possibilities through my mind. The prince could very well be having sex with her even though she vowed to put a knife between his ribs. I wanted Dagmar to know love but I had to overcome what the 1970s had done to me and all my people. Now there was little in the way of methods to keep a woman from getting pregnant. She may do something where Clovis would force her to marry the prince if he were not married already. I cringed at the thoughts of having Prince Egill of the house of Finnbjörn as my brother-in-law.

My attention shifted as Astrid said, "Thank you Jón but why have you given me this?"

"It is simply a gift. I don't think anybody has made these before."

Jón remained quiet and then Astrid said, "Thank you again. I will treasure it because you made it."

The others looked at what they had but it seemed that they could not decide what they did. Jón said as he held Elfrieda's toy and said, "Pull the thong as hard as you can."

The toy flew into the air and almost instantly the hall was quiet. Forni retrieved the propeller and Jón showed how to rewind it. The five year old was less awestruck and pulled her thong again. She laughed as it flew into the air but it landed close to Dagmar's plate. The woman picked it up with a finger and thumb distastefully and handed it back.

Astrid said, "Play with this outside not here." Elfrieda seemed a bit heartbroken but she and her sister Sieglinde now looked anxious to eat.

Dagmar said, "How did you discover this idea?"

"It occurred that it would catch the air. I cut one but some men cut the rest. They liked them though and may get to sell some."

The meal was indeed eaten quickly and not just by the children. There were many spectators to watch and one of them was Helga. I knew Jón was smiling as he ran to the woman and handed her one of the toys.

"This is a gift to you."

"I am not a child."

"I know that but it is still a gift. There is little that I can give to a person that has helped me so much."

Helga's face softened and she said in a lower voice, "I will accept your gift. It almost seems magical. Is it?"

"Not in the least. Simply copy it. The copy will fly too. If it were magic that was making it fly, then your's would not."

The women seemed to weigh his words. Jón said, "Aren't you going to pull the thong?" The woman did and her face lit up as the helicopter took to the sky.

Jón ran around showing people how to rewind the thong until they did this on their own. It was Astrid that put a stop to it. "We have work to do girls. We can't be playing here all day."

The two youngest would gladly stay but took their toys away. Brigitte and Gudrun came up to Jón and the former said, "It is a fun toy. Thank you Jón."

Gudun pushed in on her sister's words and said, "I think it is fun too. I want to see how far I can make mine fly."

We went back to work ourselves. The forge was checked and more wood had been delivered. This time there was much more than last time. Sander was not there but Wiebe and six children were. An explanation of the days activities was given. The man liked the idea of being able to support his family even if it was only through silver and not his bow. The children were not afraid to go near the man so I had to assume he had a proper personality.

Jón said, "I want the potter to make something for me and he can cure the clay in the fire we have here."

"I will tell him when he returns."

This could be anytime. Time was a very flexible commodity and people basically came when they felt like it.

"Tell me about your helpers."

Wiebe called the children over and introduced them one by one. They seemed to be around Jón or Forni's ages. One boy was larger but his expressions and mannerisms made me understand that he was just large for his age.

Jón treated them as equals which made me feel good that he was learning. Too many times an adult or another child treated children with distain. The children seemed to be admiring Jón and Forni and one girl even more so.

Dina had long red hair. Her chest was as flat as any boy and her clothing was dirty but she had no fear in approaching Jón. Jón didn't retreat but I could feel that he was uncomfortable. In any case Jón left as soon as he could. Forni or I said nothing to him. Even if Jón had not been malicious before, he could explode now with his hormones.

Andsvarr seemed to be less angry when asked to make two more saddles. This time he was going to take the effort to make them all himself. He was working more but making more money than he had except during the first part of the war when he could demand any payment for his work. This he let us know because he was also saying he was worth more money.

Andsvarr added, "People have been coming around and asking about the saddle. I would like to keep the next one for a while so I can let people know about it."

Andsvarr looked sneaky but Jón said, "You may do so. The more people that try it the more that will have one made for them. I would order hundreds now but I need to have them tested so we know about all the little things that can go wrong."

"You talked about the saddle also fitting the horse but that is foolish."

"Just because a horse cannot talk doesn't mean that he is not in pain. You try doing your best, even with great boots, if there is a stone in one of them."

Andsvarr was not pleased with the analogy but abandoned his objection. I didn't want any defects in the saddle attributed to me. This happened much too often in my previous existence.

Jón and Forni walked the city and talked to some people that looked predisposed to do so. Most of these were older man and some women. Jón talked of his fights but then asked about their concerns. Jón was going to be a diplomat now if he could control his temper.

Those people that he knew, were explained to me including his feelings toward them. Clovis had done much the same thing to his son, and Jón was able to repeat some of the information but not accurately.

Jón said to me, "What are we looking for? I know it is something."

"It is a combination of objectives. The stonecutter is making a kiln. This will produce one of the ingredients to make glass. We need silica sand and either potash or ashes. We need lots of wood for construction and fuel then a place to make the glass."

"For lenses?"

"Yes but I need it for our laboratory. We need to produce some chemicals and glass is good for most of them."

"I can see images of some odd devices that are clear and hard."

"That is the glass." I pictured various pieces of glassware and explained what they were for.

Jón finally said, "I did not know you needed all those kinds. The number is just too high to count."

"That is just some. We need lots of it too and most have to be built large. We are not experimenting but going into production."

"You are looking in this part of the city with few people. Why is that?"

"We are going to make dangerous substances. Some will burn while others will kill with just a smell. Many will explode like our powder though that is not what I intend. Your father may get the residents to move to where it will smell better and they would not get hurt."

"My people are not afraid to die."

"That may be so but why do something foolish that endangers many?" Jón did not say anything and I continued, "We have to build a foundry too. This is best far away from where people live but we are at war now. It is dirty and we need so many tools, buildings and equipment that we would take over this entire city and more. I want to build a smaller scale foundry here but produce the coke elsewhere if possible."

I showed him the images of a building with brick lined troughs in the floor. Holes in the floor allowed the high temperature crucibles to be lowered into the stream of hot gases. In a few hours, if there was enough coke and enough air then the iron would melt. It would be skimmed a few times then large tongs would take out the molten metal and it could be then poured into moulds. It was now steel.

The moulds would produce swords, knives, cannon, shot and a lot of other products we would need. Various forms of cast iron could be made in a copula far from the city and these castings would be used in the machinery that had to be made. A lathe and a milling machine were on the top of my list but simpler tools would have to be made first.

We spotted an area where it looked like three out of seven homes had been abandoned. Those standing were not as good as those in the other part of the city. All the homes though and greenery around them as well as trees. Most of this I had to attribute to their religion. The tree was sacred even if they had to be cut for fuel or lumber.

It was near one of the gates into the city which would help somewhat but there were no services. Water would have to be carried and sewage was thrown on the ground. Building right would mean a great expense. This could only be done when my products were sold. This brought on the thoughts of Greece under Alexander or when Spain found the new world. There was so much money or gold coming in that inflation ruined the countries concerned. To counter this, money had to go out and this could be in the form of investment.

We would have to check other areas of the city then find out how a person went about gaining property. It just may not be possible to get more than one lot in a community like this where the people were tied to the earth so tightly.

Fálki was available though he was currently talking to some of the men and even some of the Franks. We were admitted to the group and Jón asked, "I want to construct a large building in the city. There are some abandoned homes that I may be able to get. How do I go about using them?"

"I don't know. If it is abandoned then you can ask the neighbours and if it is truly abandoned, you may take it as yours. Why would you need more than one house?"

"It is like running a stable. You need a house and a place to put the horses. You would also want a place to store the food for the animals."

"I do not know. The priests would know. Why not ask your father?"

"He is not here yet and I am beginning to worry."

"You shouldn't. He has been gone for much longer sometimes. He may have to teach the Romans or the Gauls a lesson or two to make them keep their distance. You probably should stay away from the priests if possible. Your father had to work hard to keep them from ruining his work."

"What work was that?"

"What you said before about beating sense into us. We have a leader but he does not control our movements. The Romans taught your father and a few others that this is wrong and will lead to defeat. We even used it against some of Rome's enemies when we were allied with them."

I knew he meant paid by Rome but I said nothing. Jón said, "We will have to wait then for my father's return. Has anybody sent out messengers to Augsburg, Zweibrücken or Braunschweig? He may even be in one of the other cities."

"It is much too early for this to happen. Give him another month and if he is not back we will try to find what has happened. If it were important, he would send a messenger here."

This was a rational idea but Jón was becoming angry but he said or did nothing overt. Again I hoped this was just his hormones and not any inherent weakness on his part.

We walked back into the courtyard and found the three old men joined by two others and all of them were making the wood helicopters. Some were larger and used only the hands. We went over and talked to the men. They were now quite talkative and explained about the toys they were able to sell.

Modius seemed to be their spokesman though this seemed odd. The Germans didn't like to have someone speak for them and especially not a Roman.

"I will have your sword tomorrow. What do you think of our toys?"

Jón handed some of the new toys and said, "They are good. Why not make the propeller of lighter wood like birch or even willow. The shaft will have to be strong though."

"We will try that."

Dagmar was still happy at supper and I wondered if it was her vengeance that was making her so joyful. Jón asked for me, "How is your guest doing?"

"He is eating well. He has a sore jaw and I have to cut his food fine like a baby." In a lower voice she said, "I am even dressing him like one. He does not like it. He would rather walk out into the hall naked than to have his men see him thus. I have removed all his clothes and left only what I would wear."

"I was worried that you may want him for other purposes. I want you married to a man we can respect. The prince is not one of those men."

This seemed to please Dagmar. She gave us a coy smile and said, "What if I like him?"

"Then my judgement about you had been wrong. I thought you were too intelligent to think that way."

Jón turned his face away and in a moment he heard, "I was only thinking. I would never have a child by him and I would never want him for a husband."

"Then my opinion about you has been restored."

Jón and Forni turned in early and I thought it was to catch up on sleep. I was very wrong and they worked on each other like sex starved rabbits. Jón tried to enter Forni but they had no lubrication. There were two tired boys that went to sleep in each other's arms.

The night allowed me time to think with very little interruption. I found that the Frisians were ethical people but were too hardheaded to change to the way I needed them to. Clovis may have subdued the priests in this city but they still had power to guide the people to the way they wanted. They had not bothered me yet. They caught a lot of meaning from the way people talked to know that they would not want progress.

I had not asked the foreign priests explicitly where they had found the ingredients for the black powder. Even without making an explosion, I could be testing rocket motors. I didn't have enough money to buy the bronze I needed and I could not get into Clovis' supply without angering Fálki.

The cannon I wanted to build had now changed. With two or three times the amount of bronze, I could make a full sized mortar. The range would be much less but I could now put a hollow iron sphere filled with black powder into the midst of an enemy line. This full scale working model would not only serve for testing and demonstration. It would also be used as a weapon where the other cannon would not be very practical unless the barrel were lengthened considerably.

Lead would be in demand for smaller weapons and there were even deposits close by but this meant months in search even if I knew approximately where they were.

Potash was all around us but I had to dig to find a deposit. Clovis could help by just issuing a few words. Getting some of his men to follow me while I prospected was not a serious alternative. Going alone was even more foolish with the Romans and Gauls fighting us.

The two boys were woken up at the usual time but they only wanted to sleep more. They did get up especially after I used Jón's right hand to goose Forni. The boy seemed to like this but he was just not prepared. Usurping the voice I said, "Get up Sweetie. Both of you have to wash very well. Then we have to go see the cook."

"Why?" came from both boys.

"We need children and young men that have not let their thoughts harden. The church and every other organisation has tried to educate children their way before they act like their parents. The food is a way to encourage the children to come even when they want to stay away."

Jón asked silently, "What is wrong with parents?"

"What is wrong with parents is that they want to do what their parents or grandparents did. If the children learn to count with the new numbers and use new Latin letters for their words then they will be much further along than their parents. When I use mathematics with our weapons the children will know what I am talking about while their parents won't. When I want to do a new way of fighting the parents will not be as easily convinced."

Jón asked, "How are you going to do this?"

"How?" I repeated for Forni's benefit. "We start a school. Your father asks the parents to send their children. We teach many subjects they would not learn at home. There are many old people that still have a good mind even if their bodies are not up to fighting. They serve a useful purpose once more. I am going to let Jón talk now."

I pulled back and the two boys got up. They didn't talk much but both looked to be thinking.

Forni said, "Will I learn numbers and letters?"

With a little prompting, Jón said, "You will learn the most of all. You have a very important job. You have to learn then teach others."

It took a moment for the boy to digest this and said, "I would have to leave you. I don't want to learn."

Jón said, "Vic is right. You have to learn. You are intelligent. You are a gentle person and you would be able to teach. You will still be with us but not all the time."

"I don't want to learn any more."

"Forni, you will learn. I want to be proud of you. We are fighting for our lives and learning to read and do numbers may be a way of staying alive. What would you do if you didn't know how to use one of these devices and killed our own men or maybe didn't do anything and let many die. One of them could be me."

"I would do anything for you."

Jón hugged then kissed Forni before saying in a low voice, "I know that and I would do the same for you. We are both going to learn and then we are going to teach."

Helga was busy with breakfast but smiled at the two boys in front of her. "And what do you two want? Another bath?"

"Maybe later thank you, but I came to ask some questions."

"Ask away."

"I have to teach some children. Children usually get to eat but not always what they need. I want to find out about how we get our food and how plentiful it is."

"Those are odd questions. Most of the food comes from the farmers. I think that everybody gives a portion of their crop to us. Your father had a great many slaves." This was news to me. "He gives them land and tells them how much food he wants and they give it to him."

"Do we have enough extra food to feed fifty children. Some of the people I hired are already coming here to eat."

"I noticed the new faces. Fálki said it was alright to feed them. Food is easy to come by now but in the middle of winter it is harder to find and we all eat less."

"If I found students, then there is enough food to feed them until the winter."

"Yes, I guess that is true."

Jón reached up and hugged the woman and then kissed her cheek. "Thank you Helga. When my father gets home we can see if this had to be changed or not."

The flustered woman said nothing as Jón and Forni turned and ran to their seats at the table.

Astrid asked, "What were you talking about?"

"Teaching and feeding children."

"What?"

She was given a sanitised version of the reason but still asked, "What do you have to teach?"

"I have talked to the foreign priests and father. There is another way of counting than the way we do it now."

"What is wrong with the way we do it?"

"Ours is fine for small numbers but when they get big they are too difficult to handle. I am going to make paper one way or another. We will write our ideas down on this paper and others may read. It is far better to use the symbols the Romans use than our own. Most people cannot read now so if they learn my way then it will be just as easy or just as hard as what was taught before."

"That may be true but why put this in books?"

"I want to make the Roman characters in lead. We can put a full page of these together to say what is needed. If you roll ink over the lead and push a sheet of paper onto it the characters will be seen on the paper."

"It is easier to use a quill."

"It is but I can put more ink on then make another page then another and another. I can make many of them. Then I make what another page has to say and print many of them too. When all this is done the pages will be sorted and bound together and each book will be the same as the others."

"Why do you want to make books Jón?"

"I know how to make saddles and yokes. If I put these ideas on paper, I can send it to everybody so they will know how to do this too."

"The Romans and the Gauls will find out."

"That's true but it will take a long time for them to even start. By that time I will have better weapons. The idea is to train our people. They can make tools if they are shown how. I have thought of a better plough. If the farmers see this, they can make it and grow more crops and do it with less work. Making paper and making books can be described and the people may decide to do this for themselves."

"Paper is expensive Jón and not to be used for such foolishness."

"What if I could make very good paper. I could sell it to the Romans for gold. They would buy it because it is the best. I will do the same with glass."

"Glass? You can make glass jewellery?"

"More than jewellery. I want to make large flat sheets of it. When it is put in wooden frames it can go into the openings in our walls. It will keep out most of the cold air. In the summer they are folded out of the way to let fresh air in."

"I didn't know you could do that."

"I need people to help me do this. Some people will gather what is needed and others to mix and melt. Others will make paper and in the end many people will have a way of making more money."

"We don't need money. We have Woden."

"Our god needs people to praise him but if we make silver by selling tools then we can make more weapons to make ourselves safe. The people now work just hard enough to enjoy their beer and have enough crops to last them through the winter. All I want to do is have them work a bit more. When a bad harvest comes they will be able to eat instead of starve."

"They cannot eat glass and books."

"That is where you are wrong. You can make a large glass jar and a tight fitting top. Put food into it then put a good top on. This is boiled for half an hour and the food inside will not go bad for years. I can prove this when I have made some glass to make jars with."

"I would like to see this."

"I am hungry now and I have not even eaten the food before me." Everybody started to eat now because they had been intently listening to my words.

Helga supplied the food again and we left to find the carvers. They were at their spot bright and early and Modius presented Jón with not three swords but four. Two of the katana length and two of the slightly shorter wakizashi swords.

After a friendly greetings all around, Jón said, "My wishes were for two swords and our wager was for one more."

Modius chuckled and said in his broken speech, "Wood is cheap and the other is just to show my surprise for the device working."

This time Jón smiled and soon got onto describing how the swords were to be trimmed now that there was a rough blank available. When the instructions were done Jón passed on more information. "Make a new launcher this way." He drew it in the dirt with a piece of wood. "Make a piece of wood like this now with a blunt point and a smooth top."

"What does this do?"

The second part will spin with a thong the same way as the toy you made yesterday. This one will stand up on its point and even lean over without falling. When I come by tomorrow I will look at what you have done and talk more about it."

The men were all smiles and there was not even a request for services for this information.

We went out of the castle and back in another gate to get to the forge. Wiebe was there pumping on the bellows slowly. He stopped his work and greeted Jón with a smile and a handshake. Jón was surprised and Wiebe smiled at the shoe being on the other foot this time.

"What can I do for you, milord?"

"I need the potter's help. I want another bushing made but this time it is longer and thinner. I want to make something for Dagmar's hair. A piece of metal goes on the outside of the bronze. It is all heated in a fire but not so it is too hot. Hair pulled through this will come out curled."