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Ch 66 Wolf's Blood Part 2
🕑 Added 2024-07-02 14:10:53 +0000 UTCThe shop was situated in the prime location near the dock where everyone who landed in Braavos would have to pass through so it wouldn't take them more than ten minutes to reach it.
Along the way, Jon decided to ask in detail about the incident because of which he had to come here in such a hurry.
"...And since I wanted the new wargs, Jarl and Nal, to improve themselves and get their birds used to Braavos, I was having them make regular trips to Braavos every other day just for the sake of it. And that is how I knew that something was wrong immediately when the shop remained empty and closed during midday."
"After searching for him and not finding him even at the mansion, I began to worry that something had happened and immediately alerted Darrio through a letter straight to his table in the Bank..." Merchant Sam said before an impressed look appeared on his face, "And I have to give it to that banker, the man managed to find him that very same night using his resources and I guess the pirates not being the subtle sort had a lot to do with it too..."
"He is related to one of the most powerful men in Braavos so it is somewhat expected of him..." Jon said while nodding in a nonchalant manner. "Anyway, what happened to the pirates, did you manage to catch them alive?" he said with a dark expression on his face
"Sadly, no. The pirates were too good at fighting to capture them alive and they managed to kill five of Darrio's guards before they were eventually felled..."
"It's alright. I already know who pirates belonged to. So that's not much of a problem," Jon said with narrowed eyes, "Tell me about the ships. Are they all ready?"
"Yes, I had them begin repairing and stocking them the moment we docked here. I am also having the lads get used to the new galleys and Warships that Darrio managed to deliver to us, and even though the Warship is giving the boys a bit of trouble, they shouldn't have any problem after a few months of practice..."
"Good, then. Have them practice and be ready by the time we come back so that they can immediately come with us on our next trade trip."
"Huh? So we aren't taking the warships along with us to deal with the pirates..."
"No," Jon answered while shaking his slowly, "On this trip, I only want speed and efficiency and besides this is not going to be the naval battle you're thinking about, so don't worry."
"Oh..." The Merchant said with a confused expression on his face since according to what he knew, they were about to get into a confrontation with a pirate fleet that had a lot of ships... so if not through naval battle, then how else were they supposed to defeat them?
But alas they reached the shop at that exact moment so he could only suppress his curiosity inside him.
"Huh? Looks like those people still don't that the company has arrived back in Braavos..." Jon said after seeing that the shop was empty of customers lining up to ask about the date of their new shipping excursion as he had expected.
"Ah, no. They do know," Merchant Sam said shaking his head with a wry smile, "In fact, most of them already knew from the moment we stepped foot inside the port that we had arrived and they have all been hounding our shop and filling it to the brim for the whole last week, and they would still have been if Gill hadn't sent more than a dozen of our sailors to all of our important merchant customers to tell them that the ticket sales would begin in a month's time... so their curiosity has already been satisfied now that an exact date has been given..."
"Good then, this should also give us enough time to see if everything went smoothly with our trip to Stepstones and send back the message to prepare for the next trade excursion..." Jon nodded before he opened the wooden door and entered the shop.
The shop was simple, clean and big with plenty of space for a dozen people to stand around comfortably, which was more than anyone could say about any other shop on this street. There were a couple of beautiful paintings of ships, sailors and sea hanging on the wall and on the left side, there was a wooden desk counter behind with sat an empty chair.
"He must me in the back," Merchant Sam murmured before shouting towards the back room, "Gill, come out here, boy!"
"Coming!" came the shout of a young boy whose voice had barely started to deepen, "What happened, Uncle? Why did you come—Ah! Captain! You're back!!" he abruptly exclaimed in a surprised tone when he caught sight of the man standing beside Merchant Sam.
"Gill, how are you—" Jon abruptly died in his throat when he fully laid eyes on the exact condition of the boy in front of him and almost immediately his eyes widened and his mind went numb.
Of course, he had expected that it wouldn't be a pretty sight but he didn't think that they would be this cruel to a child who was barely 16...
The boy had dark purple bruises all over his face, his left eye was swollen shut and it seemed to have only just begun to heal, a few of his fingers were swollen as if they had been broken and healed...
All the nails in his left hand had been plucked brutally and he was limping when he walked out so he could imagine the same had been done to his leg... and these were the injuries that could be seen on the outside, so he couldn't even fathom what the rest of his body looked like...
When Gill saw where Jon was looking at he immediately tried to hide his hand behind him as if he was a child who had been guilty of wrongdoing... and that sight immediately broke something in Jon.
Jon rarely felt anger.
In fact, he couldn't even remember the last time he had been genuinely angry.
But this time... after seeing the bruised and beat-up look on the young boy's face he felt rage like never before...
He had been the one to recruit the boy and he had been the one to bring him all the way from North to here in Braavos, so he had always felt that it was his responsibility to take care of him...
But he had failed in that...
He had let this young boy not only get captured but also get tortured and almost killed and that thought made his blood boil and sent him into such a fury, that he couldn't control it...
He wanted to bring those dead pirates back to life and then torture them himself... he wanted them to suffer the same pain that boy had...
And then he wanted to find all the pirates that had been involved in this and tear them apart piece by piece with his own hands... and then...
His left hand was tightly gripping the sword at his waist while his right hand was making a deathly fist so tight that he could it become wet with blood... and his urge to kill became stronger and stronger...
"Jon...Jon...JON!!" Uncle Sam yelled in an alarmed tone suddenly bringing Jon back to the present.
"Huh? Wha..."
And just like that the haze in his mind cleared and Jon felt as if his mind was hit with a splash of cold water.
It was then, that Jon realised that he was shaking, sweating and breathing heavily as if he had trained for hours in the training yard and his heart beating so fast that he felt as if people would be able to hear it from a mile away.
'What happened to me... Why did I...' Jon had never felt like this, he had never lost control like this, ever. He was not a person prone to anger, not in this life especially not in his previous... In fact, this was the first time he had felt so...
"A-Are you alright?" Sam asked in a concerned but also slightly scared tone, his eyes flickering between Jon's face to his left hand with something akin to amazement.
"Huh? Oh, no, I am fine. It's just..." And that is when Jon noticed where the Merchant was looking and lowered his head to see a sight that dumbfounded him.
The sword handle he was gripping with his left had been completely bent and was almost on the verge of cracking...all because of how tight Jon was holding it. Which was humanely impossible, "Ah, this...hmm... I guess the sword..." Jon replied while shaking his head and removing his hand from the sword while deciding to leave this mystery for a later time. "It must have been from a defective product."
'But it had been made by the best blacksmith in Winterfell...' Sam wanted to say but kept it in. He wasn't sure what exactly had happened but he heard plenty of stories about the so-called wolf blood, and since the boy already had an ancient magical ability in him that was supposed to be a part of legends... it wasn't too out of the realm of possibility that he had other abilities too...
"Anyway, How are you now, Gill?" Jon asked after taking a deep breath.
"I am fine now, Captain." the boy replied while scratching his head before he flinched in pain and looked at his tremoring nail-free hand with a wry smile, "Well mostly, fine..."
"Tell me everything, from the very beginning..." Jon asked in a very solemn tone.
"Well, I closed the shop early that day and was on my way back..." He immediately began telling the story with a practised tone as if he already told it to others countless times.
"...Hehe, and since I knew that Merchant Sam and the other were going to arrive in Braavos in just a few days. I was sure that I would be saved by them, so I didn't panic and resist them instead I gave them the wrong information that you were in Pentos for a meeting with Magisters about some goods so that they would leave me alone..."
Gill then shook his head with a wry smile, "But I guess they didn't like that I gave them the information too quickly or maybe they were just bored while waiting for a ship to take them away... anyway, even though I gave them the information, they still came by every few hours to ask the same question to see if I crack and change my answer... But I didn't. Not even once."
"That..." Jon didn't know how to reply to the hint of pride in the boy's eyes and could only say, "I... am very proud of you Gill. You are the bravest boy, no Man that I know."
"Hehe, I didn't do that much," the boy said shyly but his chest swelled with a surge of happiness at that and even though he knew that Jon was almost the same age as him and that he could be only saying those words to comfort him but still... those words almost made him feel like he was praised by his...parents.
"Now, Tell me, Gill. Are you fit enough for long-term sea travel, or do you need some more rest?"
"Eh? Oh, Yes, I am completely fit." Gill replied enthusiastically to Jon's question, "Maybe I can't fight for a while but I can still help around the ship and..."
"You misunderstand," Jon said shaking his head, "I don't want you to come with me for those things. I want you to come with me because I am going to destroy all those Pirates belonging to that group..." Jon said in a dark tone, "and I want you to be there to witness that. So do you want to come with us?"
"I...." Gill was flustered for a while on how to answer this before he abruptly remembered what it had felt like staying inside that closed room with no windows, getting starved, tortured, screaming with no one there to hear him, feeling so helpless, so weak... and almost immediately a resolute expression appeared on his face and he replied, "I want to."
"Good." Maybe Jon was wrong and maybe the boy would be better off with some therapy or even retiring from this job but this wasn't Earth and here in this world, it was believed that revenge was the best therapy, "Then let's go catch some pirates..."
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