Wynn had bored one functional cylinder in the days Beorn spent occupied with the city management. Tam had run the corrective magnetic force on the tool while Aestrith handled the outside compression. The bored barrel now sat in the courtyard on a low bench, made into a flintlock pistol prototype by the foundry, together with a powder container, and a stone block set against the far wall as a target.
The chalk marks from the Tam session were still on the ground. Beorn had not bothered to clear them. He set the powder container beside the bench and looked over what he had.
The powder had taken a few days after the nitre arrived. Two of the three ingredients were already in the citadel. The charcoal was a foundry byproduct that had been piling for weeks, and the sulfur had come in on a trade shipment Beorn had arranged quietly through a merchant contact, listed as a preservation and metallurgy supply.
The third ingredient was the nitre from the mine shaft.
