When the hourglass turned to midnight I left our rooms using the route of the wide window overlooking the city square. Across the small empty square and up a street which rose steeply to the summit of the city’s acropolis was the towering dark mass of King Gustaf’s stone keep. The city itself was mostly composed of buildings built of stout wooden logs. But here and there, prosperous burgers had begun building in stone. As I moved through the dark unlit streets, unpaved and nothing more than gaps between the buildings of churned about snow, I noted how much the city had changed over the years. Down one wide lane I caught a glimpse of the new stone wall which encased the city tightly and securely. The last time I was in Lavern Hill the outer wall was wooden logs and an encompassing outer moa
