The Worlds of Katherine Kurtz

Quote from: Demercia on October 10, 2025, 03:18:08 AMIt's your very careful wording that worries me. 

*casually sips tea as I queue up my next four chapters and watch the speculation mount*

It's your very careful wording that worries me. 

Quote from: DerynifanK on October 09, 2025, 08:34:39 PMI can't think of any punishment equal to Davirin's intent to murder 5 babies. Hoping Joss can somehow rescue them

No worries, he doesn't plan to murder five babies. He absolutely needs the Royal Children alive, especially the little Hort, but even the Princesses will be valuable someday as potential marriage alliance bargaining chips.

I can't think of any punishment equal to Davirin's intent to murder 5 babies. Hoping Joss can somehow rescue them

That's why I wrote "a Hort". Horts come and go, and eventually one might like to play with trains, even though it will be human-drawn or horse-drawn.

Railways go back a long, long way, if grooves count for rails. As in circa 600 BCE, ancient Greece about 300 years before Alexander the Great. It was for hauling ships across the Isthmus of Corinth.

(Nero tried to have a canal dug, but after he died and work stopped, nobody tried again until 1881-93. There was another trackway in ancient Egypt, to haul ships between the Nile and the Red Sea, an easier Suez Canal).

Quote from: JudithR on October 09, 2025, 09:03:30 AM

Quote from: Evie on October 09, 2025, 08:54:16 AM

Quote from: tmcd on October 09, 2025, 08:39:10 AMI think it's past time for a Hort to install a railway up that big hill. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reisszug dates to 1460. A funicular railway would be higher volume and less effort to haul, but it wasn't invented until the 1820s.

OK, now that is pretty cool! I had no idea that anything even remotely resembling a railway dated that far back!

I think we might require a necromancer's services if we're to expect the Hort to install one, though! Or do you mean the new Hort, who is only 13 months old at the moment? Maybe that can go on his future to-do list once he's done teething on his crib rails. 

Is this a hint of the final outcome or are you getting our hopes up?

Oh, I hint at nothing except for the fact that at this moment in time, neither Hort is exactly capable of making technological history at present. 

Quote from: Evie on October 09, 2025, 08:54:16 AM

Quote from: tmcd on October 09, 2025, 08:39:10 AMI think it's past time for a Hort to install a railway up that big hill. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reisszug dates to 1460. A funicular railway would be higher volume and less effort to haul, but it wasn't invented until the 1820s.

OK, now that is pretty cool! I had no idea that anything even remotely resembling a railway dated that far back!

I think we might require a necromancer's services if we're to expect the Hort to install one, though! Or do you mean the new Hort, who is only 13 months old at the moment? Maybe that can go on his future to-do list once he's done teething on his crib rails. 

Is this a hint of the final outcome or are you getting our hopes up?

Quote from: tmcd on October 09, 2025, 08:39:10 AMI think it's past time for a Hort to install a railway up that big hill. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reisszug dates to 1460. A funicular railway would be higher volume and less effort to haul, but it wasn't invented until the 1820s.

OK, now that is pretty cool! I had no idea that anything even remotely resembling a railway dated that far back!

I think we might require a necromancer's services if we're to expect the Hort to install one, though! Or do you mean the new Hort, who is only 13 months old at the moment? Maybe that can go on his future to-do list once he's done teething on his crib rails. 

I think it's past time for a Hort to install a railway up that big hill. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reisszug dates to 1460. A funicular railway would be higher volume and less effort to haul, but it wasn't invented until the 1820s.

Quote from: revanne on October 09, 2025, 06:49:36 AM

Quote from: JudithR on October 09, 2025, 06:11:29 AMThank you Evie.  I have a rope and crampons, I don't think my finger nails are sufficient.

I think you will find that both gin and single malt whisky are needed too.

As long as it's Isle of Jura - family favourite.