บท 17: Entry Thirteen
Date: 298 After Landing, Winter
Dearest Peggy,
And now I am a warrior, noble and inventor. Behold the miracle of concrete.
On the way to Harrenhal, near High Heart, there is this area full of limestone. I mean, long sheets of the stuff. There are a few farms nearby that use a little of it for building stuff, but otherwise it is untouched. And this got me to thinking about concrete. One of the problems I'm running into is the manpower needed to haul stone from place to place just to rebuild Moat Cailin or some other fort. But concrete, mostly powder that can be hauled where needed and formed into stone, that could solve a lot of issues. So we stopped there for a few days, I ground some limestone down into a fine powder, mixed it with crush rock and then added water. Of course it didn't work, but after a few more attempts I figured out what was missing. I wrote down instructions to search for certain rocks I'm going to need, as well as sources of volcanic ash, and had a raven sent out. I'm also going to need to build a kiln to turn the lime into burnt lime. Hopefully, we can get find a place where all of these things are close to one another and a quarry can be constructed. In the long run, it will allow us to build much more quickly.
Also, it has come to my attention that I have been using the wrong name. I am supposed to call him King Eddard, not King Stark. But why? I addressed him at Lord Stark before, so why not King Stark now?
Anyway, with permission from Lady Shella Whent, my Commandos and I have taken control of Harrenhal and begun upgrading the structure as well as building a small harbor on Isle of Faces. At the same time, I got permission to raise a volunteer army for my PT fleet. But King Eddard and Lord Tully argued that some noble-born officers need to lead each vessel, which I don't agree with. We eventually compromised, and agreed to a quarter of the boats having a noble-blood officer. I don't like it, but as commander of this force I will determine who is raised to what post. Hopefully they can accept having a low-born giving them orders, and if not they can leave.
We have three of the ballistas atop the first tower, "Tower of Dread." One of my Commandos, Watt, a hell of an archer out of Barrowton with an amazing eye, has the task of setting the sights for each of them. He put a five pound dart though a pig near the tree-line a mile away from the castle, which was very impressive. The dart destroyed much of the animal, but he ate what was left.
One surprise I have enjoyed was the large bathhouse. It's a low-ceiling room filled with several massive stone tubs, each large enough to hold six or seven men comfortably. I expected the water to be cold, but was delighted to find it warm, apparently fed by a hot spring. I hadn't realized how badly I needed a good bath until then, having been running from one fight to the next for months, so I didn't hesitate to make use of them that night. I need to remember to produce soap at some point.
Lady Whent has been most hospitable with us. She was barely using a tenth of the castle, and so was fine with us sharing the place with her. I think he was just glad to see it full of people for a change. While her and most of the staff has been shuffled off to the Kingspyre Tower, there is a bit of an overlap with some rooms. The bathhouse is one, but another would be the kitchens, which are large as Winterfells Hall. Her cooks and ours work side by side, so I offered to share our food-stuffs with Lady Whent which she happily agreed to.
I feel rather sorry for the Lady, being barely more than thirty and already widowed with no heirs. And with the reputation of this castle, there isn't exactly a line of suitors to save her.
Well, Watt is wanting to test the range of the ballista from the tower top so I should go and help set things up. Until next time…
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