Chapter 39 — The First Arbalest

Chapter 39: Chapter 39 — The First Arbalest

Chapter 39 — The First Arbalest

The arbalest already existed before Christopher ever sketched one.

Godfrey made that clear before he finished explaining where he wanted one.

"Northgate has six wall arbalests," the Silver Knight said. "House Drake had two at the southern keep before your grandfather sold one."

Christopher lowered the charcoal. "Then why don’t we have one?"

"Because they cost money, timber, iron, rope and the time of men who know how to build them."

They stood on the western platform with Owen and Wat Cooper. The repaired breach lay below, and beyond it, the newly cleared ground offered a broad view toward the ridge.

Christopher pictured an oversized crossbow mounted on a turning frame. Museums, games and pictures had taught him the basic shape, but he still lacked the measurements for the bow and stock, and he had no idea how to build a safe trigger.

Wat looked over the sketch. "That claw breaks, the string takes a man’s fingers."

"Can you build a trigger that will hold safely?"

"On a small model," Wat said. "We test that before trusting a full bow."

Owen nodded. "Test the trigger before we cut the best beams."

Good beams were scarce. The seasoned timber salvaged from the western ruin had already gone into the platform and breach, and green wood could warp as it dried. The soundest remaining lengths were needed for roofs, the gate and farm tools.

They settled on a model large enough to test the mechanism but small enough to waste little material.

Godfrey chose an empty stretch beneath the western platform for the work. Nobody stood beyond the target wall while the string was drawn. The apprentices carried timber and tools, but Wat allowed only Barlow and Owen near the trigger until it had held under strain three times.

Christopher watched the precautions without objecting. A machine meant to throw a heavy bolt could kill the crew as easily as an attacker if one pin failed.

Wat shaped the stock over two mornings while continuing his ordinary repairs. A carpenter cut the short bow arms from old ash. Bertram supplied a length of twisted sinew, then complained that he needed the rest for useful work. The forge produced an iron catch and a crude turning handle.

Christopher watched, asked questions and stayed out of the way when Wat began fitting the trigger.

The first release failed to release.

Wat pulled the handle. Nothing happened.

Walter, standing behind a plank shield, waited.

"Again," Christopher said.

Wat pulled harder. The iron catch remained locked.

"Better than firing early," Owen said.

Wat took the mechanism apart.

The second catch released without warning while the string held only half tension. The wooden bolt jumped from the groove, struck the ground and spun beneath a bench. Nobody was in front of it because Godfrey had cleared the yard and required the shield.

Christopher stared at the bolt.

"That would have been a hand," Godfrey said.

"I know."

"Knowing after the string slips is easy," Wat said. "Keeping your fingers beforehand takes care."

They changed the angle of the catch and added a separate wooden safety pin. The machine could not fire while the pin remained through the stock. It slowed loading. Christopher considered suggesting a more complicated safety and decided one obvious pin was better than a clever device nobody trusted.

The third test worked.

The short bolt struck a straw bale from twenty paces and buried itself halfway to the feathers.

Bram clapped once. Meg, watching from the marked edge of the yard with several other children, leaned forward.

"Again," she said.

Walter turned to her. "Are you operating it?"

"I am not."

"Then do not give orders while someone has his hands beside a drawn string."

The next bolt flew high and struck the stone wall above the target. Its shaft split.

The third went left.

They tested power only after the machine could survive repeated firing. Walter hung an old shield in front of the straw. The first bolt punched through the hide facing but stopped in the layered wood. A second buried its head without passing through.

"The model could kill an unarmored man," Godfrey said. "The full arbalest might pierce mail or a common shield. A Black Iron warrior would still need a clean hit."

"A full arbalest would drive the bolt through that shield," Christopher said.

"If the crew can hit the shield while men are moving and arrows are coming back," Godfrey replied.

They tried a salvaged iron head. The extra weight pulled the shot low, so Wat shortened the shaft, which made it unstable. By the time they found a usable balance, two heads had bent and the carpenter wanted payment for every bolt Christopher intended to break.

A wall arbalest would require ammunition as well as timber. Straight shafts, forged heads and proper fletching joined the growing list.

"The groove is uneven," Wat said.

Owen examined the stock. "And the left arm bends more."

Christopher had imagined testing whether the weapon could pierce armor. They were still trying to make it send bolts in the same direction.

Wat worked the groove smooth. The carpenter shaved the heavier arm. They marked the string so both sides could be checked before every shot.

By late afternoon, five bolts in succession struck the broad straw target. None landed close enough together to call the machine accurate.

Godfrey pulled one free. "Useful against men crowded at the gate. Less useful against one rider."

"This is the small version." Christopher pointed up toward the wall. "A full one will have more range."

"More force," Godfrey corrected. "Range depends on whether it throws where we aim."

Owen estimated the materials for a full arbalest. The list grew quickly: a reinforced bow of seasoned wood, horn and sinew, a thick stock, a stable mounting bed, more iron than the model used, a heavy string, a windlass, bolts, and a cover against rain. The western platform would also need reinforcement beneath its mounting point.

"Not before harvest," Bennet said when Christopher showed him the list.

"We may need it before harvest."

"Then choose what stops. Roof work? Tool repairs? The second turnip weeding?"

Christopher studied the figures. Dragonwatch had coin, but no merchant wagon carried the matched materials for a wall arbalest by chance. Sending to Bellford might find them, though it would also require guards, carts and days on the road.

"We finish the model," he decided. "Mark the position. Gather materials when they become available. We don’t pull men from the fields yet."

Bennet folded the list. "Good."

Godfrey gave no sign of approval, but he allowed it to proceed.

They mounted the small machine on a waist-high frame near the gate for further testing. It was too weak to serve as a true wall arbalest, though it could kill an unarmored man at close distance. Godfrey kept its bolts locked away and allowed only Walter, Ivo and selected apprentices to operate it.

Simon and Adam learned the loading sequence first: set the safety pin, draw the string with the handle, check the catch, lay the bolt, clear the front, remove the pin only on command.

Simon rushed on his fourth attempt and reached for the bolt before checking the catch.

Walter struck his hand away.

"Start again."

"The string is held."

"Start again."

Simon reset the entire mechanism.

Ivo tested the model after him. He took longer to load but placed three bolts within the same handspan at twenty paces. When Christopher asked how, Ivo pointed to a knot on the frame.

"Same feet. Same shoulder. Same mark."

Wat later fitted a simple upright sight. It helped at the practice distance and became useless when they moved the target farther downhill. Godfrey had the apprentices record which mark worked at each measured range. Wind changed the result again. So did a loose mounting wedge.

Christopher found the failures useful. If they built the wall arbalest, they would understand some of the problems before trusting it during an attack.

Christopher ordered another practice cycle.

For the next three days, the small bow remained part of the apprentices’ afternoon drills. Its accuracy improved when fired from the fixed frame. The string stretched and needed tightening. One safety pin cracked and was replaced with a thicker one. Damp air changed the pull enough for Wat to complain.

On the fourth morning, Wat assembled a second crew from men who had never touched the model. Christopher wanted to know whether the loading order made sense only to the people who had built it.

The first man placed the bolt before the string was secured. Wat stopped him and removed it.

"The string first," he said. "A loose catch can throw the arm while your hand is above it."

The second man forgot the safety pin. The third stood behind the bow arm where a break could strike him. Wat reset the whole crew.

Godfrey watched the next attempt. "Call each step."

The loader named the string, catch, safety pin, bolt and firing order. The words sounded slow, but every hand remained clear when the model released.

They repeated the sequence until Wat no longer corrected them. Only then did he allow the crew to aim. Their first bolt struck the ground before the target. The second passed above it.

"The machine is not inaccurate," one man said.

Wat looked at him. "The machine goes where you point it."

By midday they placed two bolts into the target. Christopher ordered both crews to continue. A wall arbalest needed replacements for wounded loaders as much as it needed a strong bow.

Owen brought a board showing the proposed full frame. Wat reduced the arm length before approving it. Godfrey asked for a wider base. Barlow circled the iron parts he could forge and marked two that required better stock than Dragonwatch possessed.

The final board carried more corrections than Christopher’s first drawing. He preferred it that way. Every mark represented a problem found before men trusted their lives to the larger weapon.

The machine worked because Wat had rebuilt the trigger, Owen had chosen the wood and Godfrey had corrected the crew’s stance.

At the western platform, Owen marked a square where a future mounting bed might stand. He also marked the beams beneath it that would have to be doubled.

Christopher looked from the square to the ridge.

"How long to build the full one once we have everything?"

Wat scratched his beard. "First one? Long enough to discover three things we did wrong."

"And the second?"

"The second will be faster."

Christopher laughed despite himself.

Dragonwatch had taken a first step toward a great weapon. It had gained a working model, a list of missing materials and several men who understood the danger of the trigger.

Wat marked every part before taking it apart for inspection. The bow arms showed no crack, but the cord had begun rubbing against one edge of the stock, so he shaved the channel wider and wrapped the contact point before the next test. Barlow altered the catch so the release lever required a deliberate pull instead of a careless touch.

It gave Dragonwatch one working design to improve.

He ordered the model covered whenever rain threatened and the string removed when it was not being used. Wat objected to leaving the mechanism outdoors at all, so four men carried the awkward frame into the gate store each night.

Barlow kept the bent trigger pieces rather than throwing them into the scrap bin. He wanted the iron beside him when he forged the next catch, so he could see where each earlier piece had failed. Wat did the same with the split stock.

That inconvenience went onto the list too.

Meg asked Walter whether she could help carry bolts when the larger weapon was built. Walter told her there was no larger weapon yet and sent her back to Joan. Bram offered to carry the entire model alone. Godfrey refused before he could try.

The machine was a test, not a toy and not a promise. Christopher ordered the apprentices to treat it that way.

Wat locked the trigger pieces in his workshop and stored the bow arms above the damp floor. Walter assigned a different loading crew for the next practice so the weapon did not depend on the same four men. Bennet listed the missing iron, cord and seasoned wood, but none would be taken from the gate repairs. The full weapon could wait until its platform and supplies were ready. Wat and Barlow agreed to forge two catches when better iron arrived, then test both until one began to show wear.