“Of such doctrine never was there school,

but the heart of the fool.”

-Samson Agonistes, Milton

The Wonders of Alchemy were a thing to test the morality, as they drew forth the mind, of the young scholar. Young Peter learned to read and write English from Cod Gee, Spanish and Latin from Mother, and Greek and Russian from Cyril, the Priest of Nether Alaska, who resided at Fort Ivanstar within that grand, cedar shingled church. Father could read and write, but had little patience for instruction.

Nearly as grand was Grim Hall. The hall was 90 feet long, 30 feet deep, made of chinked cedar from the forest margins, the young trees but 4 feet thick. The heart of the forest was dominated by trees between 10 and 20 feet thick, with a great flaring base. The chimney of black stone was center east, flush with the outer wall, protruding five feet within the hall, its stony spine to Cedar Mountain. Across the hall were two double doors, 12 feet high under a square cut beam, each 4 feet wide, all of maple planks sawed with the misery whip. [1] The doors were hinged with brass from beams sunk into stone-lined holes, a full 2-feet thick and 2 feet wide, square to the rule. These were barred by a 6 by 6 inch maple beam. 13 feet above, the 1-by-1 foot joices knit the long frame, forming the smokey ceiling of cedar planks, and the floor of the Dame’s Manse above.

The stair upon the south side rose the width of the room. A gun port over a shooting stair of three steps, was cut, 7 feet up the wall, every 15 feet, only one to each end, five to each long side, a musket, rifle or blunderbuss racked above each port with powder horn and shot pouch at the ready. Under the stair was the hard storage, tools, weapons, powder, shot, etc.

Before the hearth, where kettles and pots hung, was the kitchen, tended by the housewife, the maid and the sculler. The latter forever labored over cleaning pots and tending fire, splitting wood to kindling, removing ash, etc. Keeping Grim Hall warm, even with the addition of cedar plank floors, the spread of elk, moose, bear and cowhide on floor and walls, entailed a roaring fire that was not good for the deft cooking favored by mother or the housewife, of Russian serf stock. Soup, stew, cruel, roast meat and more roast meat. Along the north wall was a table and benches for 12 men, with a throne for the Lord at the head of the east end. At the west end sat the guest chair, lighter than the maple throne and of alder. The hall was lit by four oil lamps, one beside each post of the door, one over table, and one over stair, and, during the day, by the gun ports.

The Manse of the Dame, Young Peter’s mother, and before her his brothers’ mother, Leigh, beguiled and slain by a wendigo a year before Father acquired Mother by Grim force, resided above. The Dame’s Manse was partitioned into three rooms:

The shrine to Mother Mary shown under a west window set above the open stair. Here the urns of family were stored on mother’s shelves all about the rose nimbus of Mother Mary’s painted stucco figure, weeping beneath the cross:

Mother Leigh, 19 years gone

Baby June, 16 years gone

Tyke Christopher, 14 years gone

Housewife Gerd, 7 years gone

Brandon, 1 year gone

Trenton, 1 year gone

William, 1 month gone

Bondmen and freedmen were buried at the cemetery down by Fort Ivanstar.

The shrine was lit by votary candles.

The women’s room, accessed through a panel door, where the housewife, Bet [2] and maid, Celia [3] baked bread in the chimney oven, was occupied by cots and rocking chairs, the floor planks carpeted double thick. These women slept before the hearth below, while Young Peter’s three little sisters: Mary 12, Betsy 9 and Carmine 6, slept in their cots about the oven. There was one firing port and a rifle, powder and shot on the west wall. This room was lit by oil lamp.

Beyond the maple post door across from the women’s door, was the master bedroom, 30 by 30 feet, occupied by a great bed, where Mother and Father slept. A firing port on west and north walls, treasure chests and gear crates, gun locker, and sword rack, lining the wall.

To the back of this long hall, standing 30 feet tall, loomed massive cedars, who began marching up the mountain within a hundred yards, beyond the creek. The clear pasture, where only the horses grazed, behind the hall was ringed by Grim Creek. This rushed around the hall and the out buildings to meet Cedar River at the true foot of the mountain, for Ravensport was not upon the river, where it could be attacked by savages in canoes or raiders in long boats, but a mile above it, on a bench of Cedar Mountain, where ravens might dock their winged ships of the air. Peter Grim thought this the best jest. Other than obedience, the only oath Peter held his bondmen to was not to tell those below on the sound that Ravensport was an aerie of a sort.

The courtyard, cobbled in sawed cedar trunk flares to keep down the mud in the rainy season—now the snow season—of winter, was the same dimension as Grim Hall. The yard was surrounded by out buildings, all of cut and chinked logs:

South, the open faced woodshed, 16 feet deep and 30 feet wide, full of split and cured wood. Behind this was the curing yard where wood was split and aged in the dry season.

North, the smoke house, same dimension as the wood shed, but walled on the south face with panel shacking, where all manner of game and stock was smoked and salted. Behind that, to the north, between the smoke house and mountain saddle, was the slaughter yard, fenced in bone.

West, The barracks, two 16 by 16 cabins where the men lived, 8 bunks to each, faced Grim Hall across the courtyard. Behind these abutted, the stables and smithy kept by the two freedmen, Ben and Juan down to cleared pasture ran down to the river, providing some 120 acres of cleared land a mere 120 feet in breath, down to the river, just above the rapids of the first portage.

Snowqualimie Pass, along the shoulder of Tiger Mountain—for what else were Siberians going to call a cougar—rose into the clouds, towards the Yakima and Blackfeet Countries, their chiefs eager for Spanish slave girls. That trade ended abruptly a year ago when winter replaced the rains and had yet to abate, even in the dry season of summer.

This place was achieved by the men and beasts, after a hard days pull up from the sea, just before dusk, as the shadows began to creep down the Misty Mountains. Old Ben, Young Juan, and the women and the children of the household, the men bearing arms and fearing the coming of dark, cheered when the men came up from the river along the creek trail, the mules and horses snorting with happiness.

Peter Grim detailed his men to take the swivel guns into the cabins, one each, to be crewed by the men and cleaned within after dinner, then to feed in The Hall under their overseers. He gave this order without a word, with hand and eyes, certain they were watched by sentient eyes.

He then turned and faced Young Peter, standing dwarf-like next to Thirteen, and commanded, “Not a word from you, Thirteen, in such a new land—a mind of iron you have. The three of us now, we walk the circuit from south of Grim Hall to North—that hall is good as any wall, and shall be the keep of our wooden castle.”

He lead and they followed, darkness coming on of a sudden under a thundercloud, “Hurry, before the snow.”

Thirteen drew his arming sword and held it, point down, between his gauntleted hands and worked a switch in the crosspiece. The Pummel lit like a nimbus.

‘Rarest alchemy! He is a Merlin, I knew it, an eldritch knight come to push back the horrid night!’

Thirteen winked and held high the sword pummel, and asked the Lord Almighty for light in Latin. The circle of light brightened. Under this lamp, as snow kicked up unnaturally quick, they walked the circuit, Peter Grim narrating, “Walls 20 feet above ground, 4 feet below, of rough timber—no time.

“South wall, medium timber, catwalk, a hundred feet…”

“West wall, a turret with swivel-gun over a narrow corner post gate, our only gate, gun to sweep face of south and west walls. Medium timber, ninety feet, catwalk sentry shed at the northwest corner, elevated to thirty feet, two men, always. Peter, each man assigned a gun from the hall tonight, powder and shot, to bear them always, at the ready, even when working, especially when felling.

“North wall, a hundred feet long, heaviest timber! Center turret with swivel gun, got by ladder, no catwalk—none. Firing ports every 20 feet. Clear the out buildings, here and on all sides, by only two feet, just enough for a man to squeeze.”

Within a hundred paces, the walls were marked off in their minds, the snow driving hard down the mountain, thunder cracking the sky. Peter looked at Thirteen, “You understand?”

“Yes, Master.”

“How long with but a dozen men?”

“Ten days, Master.”

“Shit too!”

“I will remain on the wall trace, with your leave, Master, as your men feed and rest.”

“African, you will catch your death out here!”

“Death shall be sought, Master—God-willing, caught.”

“As you will. Peter will bring you grub after dinner.”

With that, Peter Grim nodded for his son to come, and they stalked to Grim Hall, Father snorting in the icy blast, “Son, if that African is alive at midnight, I’d say we just might see the summer light.”

“Father, he will freeze.”

“If so, I’ll dice you for that bright sword—the long one is mine and the dirk yours. Lord knows the armor and duds will only fit Cod Gee.”

“Father?” objected Young Peter, already afraid for the loss of his exotic tutor.

For answer, as he grabbed that heavy door, Peter Grim growled, “Don’t you forget it, Son.”

Mother looked a world of worry in her bearskin robes, so thin and pretty, dark hair a shine, as she whined, “Husband, Young Peter, please, eat.”

Peter Grim slapped her on her petite rump as Young Peter winced and took his seat in the guest chair, the rest lining the table and holding back their forks and spoons until Peter Grim took his throne and grumbled, “I said feed, men! Dig in—that praying African is saying grace for the lot of us as we eat,” and so they fell to, after 40 miles up hill in a day, footsore and famished.

…

Notes

-1. A two man steel saw.

-2. A housewife was married, in a manner, to the house, cared for its interior, tended her lady, and, in dast lands, comforted the Master when the lady was with child, unwell, or simply would rather be left alone.

-3. A maid assisted the housewife in all of her duties and served as chief nurse to all injured and ill. A maid bought with child out of wedlock, the child sold off separate to Indians, who dearly liked to raise Christian babies as their own, was best, as she might serve as a wet nurse for the lady of the house.

-4. The sculler, a slow youth of half breed make called Breed, slept under the table.