Authors: Tom Doyle

American Craftsmen (41 page)

The successive debacles of King Philip’s War and Salem’s witch executions reminded Jonathan of ancient injustices, and he expanded his House. It now loomed up three stories with seven high and pointed gables, in an ostentatious yet grim and outmoded style shared by the sans-W Hathornes and the Endicotts. “I have built my House in deep sympathy with mine enemy’s,” Jonathan told his sons on his deathbed. “Remind them of their errors when you can.”

Obedient to their father, they buried some rocks in his coffin and burned his body by night in the woods. They took his ashes and mixed them in mortar with their own summer sweat, then built the high stone walls of the inner courtyard. “That I may stay with you as long as I am able,” Jonathan had said. “Remember that you are begotten of brave warriors of the Englands, old and new. Learn the mundane arts of war and our lore of craft, and when the way is prepared, use your skills to free this land.”

When Jonathan had said this, his sons had thought that he was half in the bag with the farm’s whiskey and half-infected with Puritan bombast. But to repeat, they were obedient. They trained their children in the family arts. Those that were craft-worthy joined the so-called French and Indian War, but didn’t dare reveal their peculiar talents except to their native craft enemies.

After Jonathan, the Morton line split. The eldest son fathered the orthodox line, while the second eldest fathered the Left-Hand lineage.

Then came the Revolution. The eldest son of that generation, Captain Philip Morton, revealed himself to General Washington during the siege of Boston. After the Battle of Brooklyn Heights, Philip summoned the bad weather that delayed the British advance and saved the Continental Army from destruction. During the Battle of Yorktown, where several of the craft families were active on land and sea to insure the trap, Philip became the first in a long line of Captain Mortons to die for their new country. Like the Morton courtyard wall, the relationship of craft and army was cemented with blood.

Washington and his inner circle were grateful enough to the craft families to sign a secret covenant with them, pledging the new country’s protection in recognition of their services. The Mortons and Endicotts tried to exclude each other from the covenant, but Washington wasn’t interested in their feud.

After the Revolution, the more vital, orthodox parts of the Morton line scattered to the far ends of their new country’s service: attending the new military college at West Point, trying out their craft at sea against the British, pirates, and whales, and riding with Sam Houston (they weren’t at the suicidal Alamo though—using a Catholic mission for a defensive position was a nonstarter for a Morton).

The story of the Left-Hand Mortons, the disappearance of Ezekiel, and his grandson Joshua’s successful fight against Roderick and Madeline is recounted elsewhere. Joshua led the Union Mortons during the Civil War. He was responsible for the death of Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson and fought against his brother Jebediah “Jeb” Morton at Gettysburg.

Of the Mortons between the Civil War and Dale’s time, two were particularly noteworthy. The first was Joshua’s son, William “Mad Buffalo” Morton. Bill ignored the Family boycott and fought in the Plains Indian Wars. He then went completely insane.

The second noteworthy Morton was Richard “Dick” Morton. Dick Morton mitigated the weather over the English Channel enough to allow the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944.

BRIEF NOTES ON THE OTHER FIGHTING FAMILIES

Endicotts

American Founder: John Endicott
(before 1601–1665). Name also spelled Endecott. John featured in the Nathaniel Hawthorne stories “The May-pole of Merry Mount” and “Endicott and the Red Cross.” Endicott College in Beverly, Massachusetts, was named for him.

Abram Endicott.
Antebellum patriarch of the Family, Abram (along with Joshua Morton) led the craft forces that besieged the House of Morton and defeated the Left Hand under Roderick and Madeline.

Oliver Cromwell Endicott.
Father of Michael Endicott and head of countercraft operations.

Michael Gabriel Endicott.
Son of Oliver, code name Sword.

Hutchinsons

American Founder: Anne Hutchinson
(1591–1643). Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a biographical sketch about her and may have used her as a model for the character of Hester Prynne. The Hutchinson River Parkway in New York was named for her.

Elizabeth Hutchinson.
H-ring colonel and Dale Morton’s superior officer.

Attuckses

First Historically Known American Founder: Crispus Attucks
(c. 1723–1770). British soldiers killed Crispus in the Boston Massacre. The memorial to the massacre in Boston Common depicts his death in the foreground of its bas-relief bronze plaque.

Calvin Attucks.
Head of countercraft operations in
The Left-Hand Way.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tom Doyle’s first novel,
American Craftsmen,
is the beginning of his original military fantasy series. A graduate of the Clarion Writing Workshop, Doyle has won the WSFA Small Press Award in 2008 for his short story “The Wizard of Macatawa” and third prize in the 2012 Writers of the Future contest for “While Ireland Holds These Graves.”
The Internet Review of Science Fiction
has hailed Tom Doyle’s writing as “beautiful and brilliant,” and
Locus
magazine has called his stories “fascinating and transgressive.” Doyle resides in Washington, D.C.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

AMERICAN CRAFTSMEN

Cover art by Dominick Saponaro

A Tor Book

Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

175 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10010

www.tor-forge.com

Tor
^®is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Doyle, Tom, 1964–

American craftsmen / Tom Doyle. — First edition.

p. cm.