Ch 58 A little patience... Part 1

A few minutes later, Jon and Sam were finished with their food and then all of them quickly went towards the healer's tent.

The only company healer, a 50-something-year-old man was not inside the tent at the moment so they were the only ones there.

The tent wasn't too fancy with only three beds laid on the ground, and a small wooden worktable nearby stocked with about a half-dozen various sized pots filled with all kinds of herb mixtures.

Bran, Jon and Gared watched from a few feet away as Sam diagnosed the thin young girl, Lea, who was the only patient inside the tent at the moment. The girl looked unusually pale and bloodless, and she couldn't seem to be able to keep her eyes open for very long. Her breathing was heavy and laboured and her frequent coughs sounded dry and painful.

"I didn't know Sam was a Maester, Jon," Bran asked in a soft tone, trying to distract himself from getting anxious after seeing the miserable state Lea was in.

"Oh, he is not." Jon said with a shrug while watching the boy nervously taking Lea's pulse, "Though he always wanted to be one, he never really took the training..."

"What? B-But didn't you say that he was a healer?"

"And he is. He's probably got more knowledge about the healing arts than most Maesters out there and has read dozens of books about it, so you don't need to worry about his skills," Jon said confidently, "Plus he paid special attention to the Essosi diseases, herbs and healing books before coming here so he may be even better than your company's healer."

"I-If you say so..." Bran replied with a confused look on his face, but didn't ask any more questions because he was already at the end of his rope regarding Lea and as long as Sam could give him some hope that Lea could survive he didn't care whether he was a Maester or a hedge witch.

There was silence for a few minutes after that before Jon suddenly felt a big hand on his shoulder and turned around to find, Bran's father, Gared gesturing him with his head to move towards the corner, "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

"Sure." Jon nodded and both of them left behind Bran, who was too preoccupied with Sam and Lea to pay them any mind, and went a few feet away.

"Er... Jon Snow right?" Gared asked in a low tone which seemed out of character on a big man like him.

"Yes and you're called Gared Hornwood," Jon said with a smile as both of them shook hands, "Your son told me a lot about you."

"What? What did he tell you?" he asked with narrowed eyes, "Don't tell me he whined to you about how I am a big brute who is too violent and that I take advantage of my big size to bully him and that he would take his revenge and beat the shit out of me when he grows larger..."

"Umm, no, nothing like that..." Jon replied while looking at Gared with a weird look on his face, "He only told me that you're a good father and an even better commander and that you've always kept to your roots and still consider yourself a Northerner..."

"Oh...That's fine then," Gared said with a sigh of relief before shaking his head, "Anyway, the reason I called you out here was to express my gratitude to you for going out of your way and saving my son. I'll always be in your debt because of that and as long as it is in my hands, I will try to help you in any way that I can to repay this debt. And while Bran told me that you're the son of the Lord Stark—"

"Yes, the one who has the blood but not the name," Jon clarified just for the sake of it.

"Doesn't matter. Out here, a son is a son," Gared said seriously while shaking his head, "Anyway, while I know that you probably grew up in a castle and that you may not be lacking in anything, but still, if there's anything I can help you with, anything at all, then don't hesitate—"

"Actually, there is something that you can help me with."

"Really? What is it," Gared asked with an interested expression on his face before his eyes suddenly widened, "Wait, don't tell me, do you and your friend want to join the company? Is that why you came here? Because if that's the thing then it's no problem at all." he said thumping his chest with his fist, "While most people who come here from the North, to earn money, fame or battle experience, start from the very bottom, I can make sure that you won't have to do that and can even get you good positions—"

"Umm, there's a misunderstanding here," Jon interrupted with an amused smile, "We didn't come here to get hired.... we came here to hire you."

"What? You want to hire...me?" Gared asked dumbfoundedly while pointing at himself.

"Well, not you especially, but your whole company. I want to hire your company for a long-term job of protecting my shipping company and some other things,"

"Oh..." Gared said with a blank look on his face as he was having a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that the young man in front of him, who couldn't have been older than his own son, not only wanted to hire a whole sellswords company, he also wanted it for a long term contract.

While he knew that one shouldn't judge a client by how they look... Gared felt that he was quite justified in being sceptical here even if the man in front of him was the son of Lord Stark. "W-Who do you mean 'I' here, is it actually you or your..."

"No, just me and no one else," Jon shrugged with a calm smile on his face as if there was nothing absurd about what he just said.

"Er... I don't mean to be rude but do you know how much it costs to hire us for the—"

"Of course I do, I already scouted the costs of hiring all the sellsword companies in the area before coming here. While yours was not the cheapest, it was definitely the most compatible with my requirements and what's even better is that you're from the North so it would be a lot more comfortable for my sailors, than if I hired another Essosi sellswords company. In fact, if you agree to terminate your current contract and set off with me immediately, I can even agree to pay you one and a half times your usual rates." Jon said with an eager gleam in his eyes, "So what do you think? Shall we write a contract immediately..."

"Um..." Gared just blinked stupidly as he was quite overwhelmed by the sudden offer and his instinct was to immediately accept the delightful proposal which couldn't have come at a better time considering their financial condition. But he controlled himself at the last moment, because for one thing, it felt too good to be true, especially considering how young the client was and secondly..."I am sorry, Jon, while I am very tempted, it would be against my principles to terminate my contract just because I got a better offer."

"But what if—"

"Are you done, Sam? What did you find? Is Lea going to be fine?" Bran's anxious voice interrupted Jon and Gared's conversation and after a quick look both of them decided to shelve their conversation for later and went towards Sam who appeared to be quite overwhelmed with Bran's barrage of questions.

"Let him breathe, Bran," Gared rebuked gently, "I am sure whatever happens, Sam here tried his best so you shouldn't pressure him like that,"

"Yes, Sorry, Father," Bran said before taking a deep breath, "So what did you find?" he repeated, making Gared shake his head helplessly.

"Well...after diagnosing Lea and recording all her symptoms, I tried to remember if any of the normal Essosi diseases that I've read about resembled her symptoms... but no matter how I tried to recall, there was no disease that came to mind... that either means that she's got a very rare disease which would make it almost impossible to save her or..."

"Oh..." Bran and Gared said as their faces fell simultaneously at the familiar answer that they had already heard from their own healer. While they had been prepared for it, it still hurt to have their hopes dashed like that, "D-Don't worry Sam, I am sure you tried your best and—"

"Or maybe... it's not really a disease," Sam suddenly interrupted Gared's consolation with an uncertain look on his face.

"W-What? What do you mean?"

"Well... I am not completely sure about it, but there was a book that details the exact symptoms that Lea is sporting almost word to word but it's just that..." Sam said while scratching his head, "It's just that, that book was completely unrelated to healing,"

"What book are you talking about, Sam? Where did you read about Lea's symptoms?" Bran asked hurriedly, his hopes igniting once again as he knew that knowing the disease was more than half the battle.

"I-In a book about poisons."

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