章節 749: 43
Chapter 43: Ch 34 Sweet Apples
Chapter Text
As the first light of dawn broke through the horizon, painting the sky in hues of pink and gold, Jon Snow stood at the bow of the ship, his gaze fixed on the distant shoreline that was slowly coming into view. The brisk sea breeze ruffled his dark hair, and the rhythmic creaking of the ship's timbers beneath his feet seemed to echo the anticipation in his heart.
Jon took a deep breath of the morning air and a smile automatically appeared on his face. It had been a long time since he was on a ship that he wasn't commandeering, but being a customer just renting a cabin also felt good from time to time.
And then, through the gentle morning mist, emerged the first sight any arriving sailor sees—the Hightower... said to be older than the city itself. Rising impossibly tall, it seemed to touch the very heavens. Its white stone glowed ethereally in the growing light, and its form was a striking blend of strength and elegance. Jon had seen castles and fortresses before, but this was something altogether different.
And then finally, his destination, Oldtown, a city so old that no one knows how old it is, became visible a few minutes later. It was the largest and richest city in the Seven Kingdoms, although the capital, King's Landing, is more populous.
The Citadel, the greatest seat of knowledge in the known world, home to the Maesters and their Conclave, was located upriver on both sides of the Honeywine River. Boys and Men gather here from all over Westeros and even from Essos, to learn, study and forge a Maester's chain.
Also located in this town was the Starry Sept, the seat of the High Septons for a thousand years, which made Oldtown the unquestioned centre of the Faith for all of Westeros, until it lost that status to Great Sept of Baelor in King's Landing.
As he was lost in taking in the beauty of the city, he felt Sam arrive beside him, who was also in awe of the splendour of the magnificent city, "So did you finish writing the letter?" Jon asked after a few moments.
"Umm... Yes," Sam said, reluctantly taking his eyes away from the beacon of Hightower, "I wrote one for my mother and one for my sister b-but I wasn't able to think of anything to write to my father... J-Just imagining his angry face..." Sam gulped and shivered, before shaking his head.
"How about you get creative..." Jon smirked as he said to Sam, "You know curse him, tell him what a shitty father he was... How he has a stick up his arse or how you'll beat the shit out of him when you grow up... What? Is it too soon?" Jon asked.
Sam's eyes widened in horror as he shook his head fiercely, even the thought of doing things made Sam almost piss his pants, so Jon shrugged, "Mmm... Then maybe not writing one for him is the best... It would probably irk him the most to know that you didn't even consider it relevant to tell him that you're running away..."
"I don't know about that...." Sam said, self-deprecatingly, "I think he would probably be the happiest knowing that I've run away... that I won't disgrace him anymore..." Sam shook his head before he took a deep breath and changed the subject, "Anyway, Where are we going to send these letters from? Are you thinking about borrowing a raven from the Citadel because I heard they are a bit costly and that they charge by the letter..."
"Oh, you don't need to worry about that..." Jon said with a mysterious smile while patting his shoulder, "You just need to think about what you're going to do in Oldtown... you said that it was your dream to become a Maester didn't you... So why don't you come with me and while I check for some information I want, you can see how the people there actually work..."
"Yes... I'd like that," Sam said with an honest smile on his face, just imagining all the books he would have access to, all the history he could read about from the Targaereans to the Doom of Valariya, from the Long Night to the Andal Invasion and so on, filled his chest with jubilance.
Jon looked at the silly smile on Sam's face with pity, "You imagine that if you became an acolyte you would have access to all the books and that all you would have to do is learn, Don't you?"
"Hmm..." Sam let out a confused noise as he tilted his head, "Yes? Isn't that so? I-I mean I know that they have to do some work like copying things but..." he stopped when he was the look of sympathy that Jon was giving him.
"You'll know the truth when you see them... when you see what acolytes actually do... Then maybe you wouldn't be so eager to become one..."
...
"Mom! MOM!! Where are you?!!" cried a 13-year-old girl, rushing around her home in search of her mother.
"Over here!" came the shout from the backyard, and the girl darted through the house toward the back, "Didn't I tell you not to run—"
"A SHIP!" the girl interrupted her mother hurriedly, her eyes were wide and she was sweating from running all the way from the port, "There's a ship at the port," she said out of breath.
"So? I can't believe you still get so excited about seeing a ship," her mother remarked, shaking her head. She sat on a wooden chair under the shade of a tree in their backyard, knitting a woollen sweater. "Honestly, Sara, when are you going to grow up—"
"You don't understand," Sara interrupted impatiently, finally having caught her breath, "It's filled with all kinds of food from the South like wheat, barley and other stuff and I even saw apples, APPLES! mother, they have apples,"
"What Apples? And who would bring crops at this time of the year..." Sara's mother calmly asked while tilting her head, her hands hadn't stopped knitting yet, "Where did you say the ship came from?"
"The Reach! REACH" Sara shouted, trying to make her mother understand the urgency of the situation.
"Why are you shouting?" the mother said with a frown, "And do you mean the Reach in the South? I didn't ships went that far south wherever that is..."
"Yes, That Reach! Now, don't just sit there!" Sara said, jumping at her place from all the excitement, "We need to hurry up or all of the stuff is going to be sold out of apples... everyone's already rushing to buy them,"
"Why? It's not like we'll be able to afford it..." the mother said, she still remembered the last that she'd seen apples was when she had got a job as a temporary maid at a feast thrown by Lady Barbery Dustin in the castle of Barrow Hall. She had sneakily stolen a single apple and then when she got home, she and her daughter shared it, and from that day her daughter had become a fan of the fruit and it became her favourite one, not that they were ever able to partake in it again.
"We can! That's what I've been trying to say all this while," Sara said, finally having enough of her mother's tardiness, she snatched the knitting needles and wool from her hand, "HEY!" and then pulled her inside the house ignoring her protest, "It's all stupid cheap! We can easily buy them,"
"What's Cheap?"
"EVERYTHING! Everything's cheap from apples to wheat, everything's being sold for pennies,"
"What? What did you say?" the mother asked in shock.
"Yes, I saw the old lady who lives two houses down from us buy 2 stones worth of wheat at just 30 pennies, and that was just because she only had that much money on her... I think she's going to go with more money and buy more,"
"Are you joking? You know I don't like Jokes—"
"I AM NOT JOKING! Now hurry up," Sarah shouted and finally her mother seemed to get the urgency of the situation as she immediately hurried into her room and took a purse from her hiding place where she had saved some money for some rainy days. She quickly went out of her room to find her daughter impatiently waiting at the door.
"Finally," Sara sighed, when her mother closed the door to their house after wearing her shoes, "Come on!" Sara said and started running while pulling her mother along as fast as she could.
They lived in the quaint town of Barrowton, one of the most prominent towns in the North, where House Dustin had ruled for centuries from their castle of Barrow Hall. The town lies at the confluence of two rivers which flow south into Saltspear.
Their town was usually a calm one, and except for the occasional merchants that came from the Kingsroad, interesting things rarely happened here. But today the whole town seemed to be up and awake, there was an air of excitement everywhere and people were running to and fro from the port to their homes, the people who were going were empty handed while the ones coming from the port had sacks with them along with wide smiles on their faces.
"Calm down," The mother said while huffing, "Or you'll make me fall," but her child wasn't listening at all she pulled through the village road, with most of her neighbours running along with them some in front and some behind her, and none of them even stopped to talk, 'It seems her daughter wasn't exaggerating, after all,'
They reached the port after a few minutes, it was a small one only capable of hosting a dozen ships or a few dozen fishing boats at the same time, which was sufficient for the need of this town in the north as most of their good usually came from the road through Moat Cailin.
It was usually deserted here, but today the moment they reached the port they were immediately hit with a loud cacophony of people selling and buying and yelling prices, woman bargaining, and some people being rowdy for no reason. The port was filled to the brim with a crowd of men and women of all ages, it felt as if the whole town had gathered here, the people were surrounding a small circle of sailors who were armed and were making sure that situation doesn't spiral out of control, which didn't seem to be working too well.
The mother tried to stand on her tiptoes, but she was barely able to see inside the circle over the people's heads and catch a glimpse of the place her daughter had told her about where the grains from the South were being sold.
Behind the stall were two familiar ships that had been making rounds along the western shore of the North since a few years ago, they were well known for selling those Starkhorses.
"Quick, let's go!" Sara urged, pushing her mother toward the masses.
"But—" her mother protested, apprehensive about the large crowd shoving and jostling to get to the front. However, Sara wasn't about to wait, "I'll go if you won't." She snatched the purse and the empty sack from her mother's grasp, "Wait!" her mother called out, but it was too late. Sara rushed into the crowd without heeding her mother's exclamation, calling out, "Coming through! Make way!"
"Ah! Girl!"
"You! Brat!"
"Don't push!"
"BITCH!"
Amidst screams and curses the daughter skillfully swam between the gaps as he mother watched on until the crowd completely swallowed her. The mother could only wait and pace anxiously as she waited for her daughter to exit.
After what felt like an eternity, she finally saw her daughter emerge from the crowd. Sara skipped toward her with a wide grin, "Are you okay—" Before she could finish her question, Sara presented her with a bulging sack that the girl could barely lift, "Look, Mother, I got so much..."
The mother opened the sack and her eyes immediately widened and she gasped as she looked inside, "But how..."
"And there's more," Sara mischievously revealed, extending her left hand to display two ripe, red apples.
"You got all this with that money?" the mother asked in astonishment. The amount in the purse couldn't have covered a fraction of the grains, and the apples must have been quite pricey too, "Did you steal them?"
"Nope, they weren't expensive at all, and—"
"Excuse me!"
Their conversation was abruptly interrupted by a portly man, his greasy smile making him easily recognizable as a travelling merchant who went from village to village buying and selling, "Hey there, girl! How about selling me those apples? I'll pay you three copper pennies more than what you got them for. How does that sound?"
"Really?" the mother exclaimed, but before she could even think about it, Sara shouted in indignation, "No! You can't them! I brought them, they are mine!"
"I say, girl! you should listen to your mother—" the merchant tried to persuade her but Sara wasn't having it and cursed him, "Fuck You!" and then without waiting, the next moment she immediately started licking all over the apples without leaving a single spot.
"Do you still want them?" Sara said with a cheeky smile as she presented the apples to Merchant who immediately grimaced and went away cursing.
"You little brat..." Sara's mother sighed helplessly as her daughter stuck out her tongue, she was already used to her daughter's antics, "But why didn't that man just buy from them..." she asked while pointing at the stalls surrounded by the people, "...if he wanted more apples?"
"Because they got some rules," Sara said while biting into one of the apples, it was sweet and delicious, "I don't why but they will only sell a limited amount to a single person and a single person can only buy once or something like that,"
"But that would reduce their profits, Why would they do that?" her mother asked confusedly.
"Who knows?" Sara shrugged, not caring about the purpose behind those rules but happy for them as otherwise all the merchants would have already brought all the stocks before she had the chance.
Just when they were about to leave for their home, they suddenly saw the crowd start to disperse with some having satisfied smiles on their face while others groaning in misery, 'It seems all the stocks have been finally finished...' the mother thought.
"HEAR! HEAR!" a sailor came forward and shouted, grabbing the attention of the crowds who were about to leave. When he felt that he had everyone's attention, he went back and the one who came forward was a familiar person, easily recognisable in her leathers with the bear insignia.
"I want to say for those of you who were late and missed out on our cheap goods... Don't worry!" Dacey shouted loudly, "Another shipment will be arriving in two weeks and that one may even have more goods—" The crowd immediately cheered loudly and Sara immediately started jumping on the spot thinking that she could eat apples every week.
"And I promise everyone that they will keep on coming..." Dacey continued while looking everyone in the eye, "So don't bother hoarding them... I am especially talking to all the merchants here, the cheap goods are going to be a regular thing from now on and may even become weekly in the future so don't think about waiting for the prices to decrease to make a profit because... You'll only be disappointed,"
"And lastly, if anyone wants to get recruited the ships will be here until dawn..."
///
每周推薦票狀態
-- 推薦票
榜單 
-- 推薦票