Chapter 20: Bitterbridge Part I
After a short rest they continued on their journey to Bitterbridge. The road made the trip much faster and more agile but it also came with many dangers. That ambush was not the last, in the next week they were attacked two more times by bandits.
In truth, the brush on the sides of the road is the perfect place to set up an ambush, a lot of people noticed that. The second attack was more severe and they almost lost a man, a guard named Rodrik was stabbed by a bandit, luckily the sword didn't pierce any organs and the guard is recovering aboard one of the carts.
After that incident, Benton became even stricter with the guards and even forced some of the caravan employees to take some of the leftover weapons and train with them. Damian didn't join the training, he just watched them from a distance as he didn't want to start any more arguments with the grumpy guard.
One night while the others were training Alysanne approached him with a somewhat unexpected request.
"I want you to train me." At the surprised look of the redhead she elaborated: "Clearly this damn road has more bandits than Flea Bottom rats, it's just a matter of time before one of those bastards gets too close."
"You have your guards and your father to defend you, merchant girl." Damian remembers her and she just looks at him annoyed, like what he just said is stupid.
"These guards are hardly better trained than the bandits we encountered and my father- My father is good at many things, but fighting is not one of them."
Damian thinks about it for a moment.
`I do want to be friends with her. I have no doubt that in a few years she will be the one leading this caravan. Given her intelligence and cunning she will be very successful in this profession. A friendship with someone like that will be very beneficial to me in the future, after all the merchant class will be essential to my plans.`
"We'll make it to Bitterbridge in about five days," Damian says, he watches as Alysanne hides her disappointment thinking he's turned her away, suppressing his smile he continues, "It's not long but at least I can teach you the basics."
"I see-wait, will you teach me?" That's the most youthful expression he's seen on her face in the last two weeks and the redhead thinks she looks much younger and more innocent with it.
Damian was amazed to see how serious Alysanne was during their training sessions, she was very interested and eager to learn, so much so that her eyes would often sparkle with childlike enthusiasm whenever the redhead showed her a new technique.
Given her eagerness to learn, he wondered how come she had never received any kind of martial training before. Damian thought that perhaps her grandfather was too traditional and wouldn't have allowed it but again that same grandfather taught her the ways of a merchant. Expressing his thoughts Alysanne told him that when she was younger her health was very fragile and any amount of prolonged physical exercise was almost impossible. It was only a few years ago that her health improved. The symptoms that Alysanne described are quite common in asthmatics so Damian could only assume that she must have suffered from some respiratory disease but that doesn't make much sense since she healed naturally without any type of medication.
`Medicine is not one of my areas of expertise, I can only make vague assumptions based on past experience.`
During those hours at dawn and dusk their bond grew enough that they could call each other friends.
During the day they talked about a thousand topics and Damian verified many of his assumptions, Alysanne is not only incredibly intelligent and cunning for someone her age but she is also more knowledgeable than many scholars.
She confessed that when she was younger she shaved her hair off and went to the Citadel, where she studied for two years before getting bored and returning home.
"Mother and grandfather approved my little excursion saying that all kinds of knowledge is useful in the long run. I wish I had stayed there longer, but at the age of 10 studying began to bore me and by the time I regained the desire to learn I was too old to pass for an acolyte."
Alysanne taught him a lot about how trade works in the Reach. The amount of taxes merchants have to pay is frankly ridiculous: for transporting a product through the kingdom they have to pay 10% of the product's value to Lord Paramount, if they cross from one kingdom to another they have to pay customs duties in addition from having to pay the Lord Paramount of that kingdom another tax to have permission to trade in his kingdom, for using the roads and bridges they have to pay other taxes,...
Next to the legal taxes are the bribes they have to pay to town guards to ensure the "safety" of their goods while they are in town, or simply to be allowed in.
"The most important are the memberships of the Merchant Guilds. Each merchant is a member of one of the Merchant Guilds of the kingdom, that membership costs 40% of the annual benefits and to that is added what you have to pay to be able to trade in the town under the control of another Guild."
Damian did the mental math and was astonished to realize that even if Alester sold all of his wares at market price, after paying his employees, his guild and everything else, he would only have 20-30 golden dragons left. That amount is far more than most peasants earn in a year but still ridiculously small considering the value of the goods Alester is carrying in his caravan.
"That's what most merchants earn in a year, few are richer than lords and you won't see any of those leading their caravans, those merchants live in mansions in Oldtown, Lannisport or Kings Landing."
"What are the benefits of membership in the Merchant Guilds?"
"Benefits?" Alysanne looked at him blankly. "You are allowed to practice your trade."
Damien was speechless.
`T- that is worse than I thought.`
Guilds are associations of workers of the same trade formed to promote the economic interests of their members as well as provide them with protection and aid. They were a vital part of the economy for several centuries in Damian's past world, what Alysanne is describing is not a Guild but more like a gang. A group of people that forces others to pay them money for a "service", Damian remembers the gangs that forced businesses in their territories to pay them a fee for "protection", from his point of view these "Guilds" and those gangs are two sides of the same coin.
`If this is how the so-called "Guilds" work, I am not surprised that the merchant class is not increasing its power and influence, only by working together can they tip the scales.`
Damian can't help but wonder if there isn't some kind of foul play involved, since with the merchant class divided and in disarray there is no one who can threaten the power of the nobility.
`If so, it must be some very old organization, or some noble houses doing the same thing generation after generation. Six millennia is a long time, it is too long.`
***
Almost a month after leaving Greenwood Damian has the first of the great towns of the Reach in sight.
Bitterbrigde is a town built on the banks of the Mander, its population exceeds thirty thousand inhabitants almost equaling the population of the capitals of some kingdoms in size.
Thirty thousand inhabitants is considered a large town in most of the continent but in the Reach that is the norm for noble house seats. In fact, that number is much lower than it was a few decades ago, since less than half a century ago several plagues devastated the continent and millions died in the Reach, such was the tragedy that the population of Oldtown was reduced to less than half.
The town lies on a flat plain with only a large green grassy pasture for several kilometers around, the Mander runs along one side of the town and several stone bridges pass over it connecting the ancient Road known as the Roseroad with the town. The largest of the stone bridges has various sculptures on the sides and was supposedly built during the reign of Garth Greenhand, the legendary High King of the First Men who is said to be the common ancestor of most of the noble houses of the Reach.
Bitterbridge is surrounded by a stone wall that reaches fifty feet high and hides most of the town from view, only the castle towers are visible in the distance.
There are four entrances to the town, the one the caravan has to pass through is called the Gate of Silver, the place through which all merchants must pass to inform the town officials of their purpose in Bitterbridge. They have to report what goods they are going to sell, show the necessary permits and pay an "Entry Tax" which is just a fancy name for bribery.
Damian is not part of the caravan nor is he a merchant so he parted ways with his fellow travelers once they crossed the Mander promising they would meet in town at an inn called The Basket.
The redhead dismounted from his horse and held the reins of Marengo and Sam (his mule) while he passed under the iron gates. More than a dozen people entered the town at the same time as him so Damian was unnoticed in the crowd, his age and weapons hidden by his cloak so no one gave him a second glance.
Once inside the city he breathed in the air and was pleasantly surprised by the absence of foul stench. His previous knowledge had led him to think that all towns and cities inhabited by large numbers of people smell like a pigsty.
`Maybe it's just Kings Landing, maybe even that is an exaggeration to show the decadence and ineptitude of the Targaryen and Baratheon dynasties.`
The air doesn't exactly smell like flowers and grass but it doesn't have a very annoying stench either, just a faint smell of horse manure, something much expected since horses are the main method of transportation in the world and they abound everywhere.
Most of the roads are not paved which causes the streets to be muddy from continual use, Damian did his best to keep his boots from getting too muddy but eventually gave up and resigned himself to having to give them a thorough cleaning once he gets to the inn.
Throughout his walk to the inn he observed the town with barely concealed fascination, Damian does not look at his surroundings with the eyes of a child who has never seen a city but with the eyes of a strategist, he is taking mental note of everything from the number of guards he sees patrolling the streets to the number of stores and how crowded they are.
'I just arrived in Bitterbridge an hour ago and I've already seen over thirty beggars, among them a dozen children dressed in rags and with cheeks so sunken that the bones stick out. The dichotomy between the nobility and the peasantry is...`
Through the streets he can see some knights walking proudly with their shining armor and their well-groomed hair and just a few meters away a woman with her two children kneeling in a corner begging for some coins. As they passed by her, the knights did not even look at the desperate family and when one of the children, a boy of about seven years old, grabbed the cloak of one of them, he looked at him with disgust and revulsion. Without saying anything to the boy he released the boy's grip with such abruptness that the little boy was thrown to the ground, the knights kept walking ignoring the boy's crying.
The mother took the child in her arms and bowed, apologizing profusely for his actions, the redhead could hear the desperation and fear in her tone. The knights ignored her and Damian could see the relief on her face as they turned a corner.
Damian watched the whole spectacle with revulsion, his blood boiled in his veins and if it weren't for his self-control he would have already stuck two arrows into the skulls of those two knights.
He remembers his uncle's words about wanting to keep him and his brothers apart from the rest of the world in the little piece of paradise that Greenwood is, a place where life is quiet and simple, a place away from the filth that abounds in this world. In Greenwood everyone knows everyone, the neighbors are friendly to each other and live mostly in peace and harmony. If it wasn't for that incident three years ago, Gawain would never have left his home and Damian would never have been reborn. He would never have seen how rotten this society is.
Damian continues on his way and throws a copper star at the mother as he walks past her, she grabs the coin as if it were a treasure and looks at him with big teary eyes.
A copper star equals 8 pennies, barely enough for a few loaves of bread but to that impoverished family that coin means the world.
`I can't do more for you right now, but I promise I will burn the wheel.`
***
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