21 Bitterbridge Part II

Damian thought about asking a local for directions but then he saw several columns of smoke in the distance rising into the clouds. Recognizing the source of the smoke he began to walk in that direction and after about fifteen minutes of walking he began to hear the familiar song of the hammer and anvil.

Entering the street he saw a sign with the name: Iron Street.

`Here it is.`

He walks and sees that this street is in much better condition than the others, the road is paved with stone and the buildings seem very well maintained. It is undoubtedly a richer area, and rightly so. Everywhere he looks he sees men dressed in clean, good-quality clothes strolling and chatting among themselves, some standing in front of some stall and discussing prices with the vendors.

Bitterbridge has a total of six smithies, all of which are located on this street. Unlike the small smithy where Damian learned the trade, these are huge, have shops attached to the forges and a large number of weapons and armor can be seen on display.

Knights abound here, he can see more than twenty of them walking around the smithies.

Damian is on this street for one reason and one reason only: to sell the crossbows.

`My age is a double-edged sword, I have to be careful not to cut myself.`

The redhead walks to the nearest smithy and ties Marengo and Sam to a post before going inside. Upon entering, the first thing he notices is the great difference in temperature, it's almost like walking into an oven and the smell of smoke fills his nostrils.

Damian watches a blacksmith instruct an apprentice, the blacksmith a man a few inches taller than him with a chest as broad as a barrel and thick, hairy arms. His voice sounds rough as if he hasn't had a drink in a while.

The second apprentice is cleaning an armor and he looks up at him before turning his attention back to his task.

Damian doesn't approach any of the three, instead he starts looking around. All kinds of weapons are hung on the walls and he looks with a sharp eye at the quality of the work.

`Not bad, not bad.`

"Are you going to spend all day looking at my weapons, boy?" The blacksmith frowns at him, and if Damian were an ordinary twelve-year-old he'd be very intimidated.

"No, not all day." He responds nonchalantly.

"A cheeky brat." The blacksmith snorts and walks towards him. "The knight you serve should give you a good slap on the wrist to correct that attitude of yours."

`Knight? I see, he thinks I am a squire. I can work with that.`

"He likes my attitude. From what he said nowadays asslickers abound, it's quite refreshing to meet someone with character."

The blacksmith begins to laugh, his laughter is loud and echoes throughout the room. The apprentices look up and stare at their master in disbelief.

"That insolence of yours would have earned you two good slaps if you were my apprentice."

"Good thing I am not, then." Damian's response elicits another laugh from the blacksmith.

"I am Dennis, the best blacksmith in this part of the Mander. What does your master want, some new armor? Swords? Maybe spears?"

`Yes, yes. I'm sure all the blacksmiths in this town proclaim themselves "the best in this part of the Mander".`

"Ser Arthur is interested in crossbows."

"Crossbows? Good for hunting, I suppose. Not many knights use them." Dennis grabs a crossbow from a shelf and shows it to Damian, the model is the same as the ones the bandits used. "This model is quite new, created by some essosi half a century ago. It has this little lever to pull the string and load it much faster. With a good bolt you can shoot through steel armor."

"I see." Damian closely observes the quality of the crossbow and to his delight it is not much superior to the crossbows he has on the back of his mule. "What is its price?"

"2100 silver stags." The blacksmith answers quickly, one of his apprentices snorts and stifles laughter, Dennis turns and glares at him. The apprentice quickly falls silent and looks at Damian impatiently, probably thinking his master will share some of the money.

`10 Golden Dragons? Yeah sure. And I was born yesterday.`

"It's more expensive than expected..." Damian says, suppressing his joy.

"The price is good, boy. A crossbow is much more difficult to craft than a sword or a spear. It takes a lot of skill and time, in the time I craft a crossbow I could forge four swords. When you pay for a product you pay for the skill and the time of the artisan."

"Of course, of course. I can't dispute that, Master Dennis. Knowing that, 2100 silver stags seems like a very fair price."

The blacksmith's eyes shine with greed and he begins to grin broadly.

"When will ser Arthur come to pay for the crossbow? For just a few more coins I will include fifty bolts."

"I think there's a little misunderstanding, Master Dennis." Damian smiles sheepishly but his eyes shine like a tiger's. "Ser Arthur is interested in crossbows but not in buying one."

"What?"

"During our trip we were ambushed by some bandits and after killing them we found some crossbows. He wants to sell them."

Dennis's smile fades from his face.

When Damian shows him one of his crossbows, the blacksmith begins to find a thousand flaws: the trigger is too rigid, if the string is worn,... He offers to buy them for 200 silver stags each.

"But Master Dennis." Damian replies looking at him innocently. "Didn't you say that when you pay for a product you pay for the skill and time of the craftsman. Are you saying that your crafting is worth ten times that of any other blacksmith on the Reach?"

"Err- Well, my crossbows are better in quality and obviously new. These are old and of inferior quality." The blacksmith answers.

"Are you that skilled?" The redhead makes sure to use his most innocent and incredulous tone.

"Of course." Answer Dennis confidently, his apprentices are stifling their laughter thinking that their master is fooling this "dumb squire".

"I'll tell ser Arthur, then! I'm sure Lord Shermer will be delighted to know that the best blacksmith in the Reach is on his neighbor's land."

The color drains from Dennis's face. Lord Shermer is known for his fascination with weapons and armor, his fascination is so great that he even paid to bring several blacksmiths from Qohor to work for him. If he were to hear someone claim to be a better blacksmith than the men he brought from Essos, he would not sit idly by; Lord Shermer is too proud and vain to not do something. And surely that rumor will reach the ears of Lord Caswell, who will encourage them even more just to annoy his neighbor.

The rivalries between neighbors are not a joke and it is most likely that both lords will organize a competition to decide who is the best blacksmith. Such an event will attract the attention of many lords and become almost like a festival, with competition as the center of it. If Dennis's skill doesn't surpass that of the essosi blacksmiths he will not only embarrass himself but also Lord Caswell, the punishment will not be pleasant...

"You see, ser Arthur is the cousin of a knight who serves Lord Shermer and we are just heading over there to visit him." Damien continues talking, with each word that comes out of his mouth the blacksmith turns even more pale and it seems that he is about to faint.

"Wait, wait-" Dennis cuts him off, his voice shaking. "It's just a saying, it's just a saying."

"Eh?" Damian looks at him confused.

"You know how things are, one has to say those things to get a good price." Dennis chuckles weakly.

"Did you lie?" The redhead seems offended.

"No, no- You know what, I'll buy you the crossbows for 600 silver stags each."

"600? Ser Arthur told me secondhand items usually sell for half the original price. If you sell them for 2100 silver stags each, the fair price is 1050 silver stags."

The blacksmith protests and after a brief discussion in which Damian implied that he will spread the rumor of the blacksmith's dishonesty and how he said he is the best blacksmith of the Reach Dennis accepted the price of 900 silver stags.

In the end Damian walked out of the smithy with 17 golden dragons and 30 silver stags, almost double what he expected to get from the sale of the crossbows.

He doesn't feel remotely guilty for fleecing the greedy blacksmith.

`If you try to fool someone, be prepared to be fooled.`

Damian hummed happily on his way to the inn. He already had 1582 silver stags to his name and with the gold he just earned he has exactly 24 golden dragons and 142 silver stags.

After a fifteen minute walk he finds the inn where he agreed to meet his fellow travelers. The inn is located just a few minutes from the largest market in town, among a few houses.

The Basket is a well-known inn in the town, it is not the most famous or the most frequented but it enjoys a good reputation and is the place where many traveling merchants stop to rest during their stays in Bitterbridge.

There are two buildings attached in the shape of an L. The first building is the stables, it has spaces for twelve horses and has four pit latrines next to one of the walls. Damian ignores the foul stench as he brushes past them and tells the stable boy to take care of his horse and mule.

The boy, a year or two younger than him, looks him up and down and makes a contemptuous face. When Damian pulls a coin out of his coinbag and begins to roll it between his fingers, the stable boy's expression does a 180 eighty degree turn. Grinning broadly and his eyes fixed on the coin, he begins to compliment how beautiful and well-groomed Marengo and Sam look.

"Yes yes." Damian tosses him the copper coin. "Brush them, give them oats and water, and if you do a good job, I'll be generous when I leave."

"Of course! Of course! Leave your horses in the hands of good Will! I'll take care of them as if they were my children."

The redhead looked at him for a moment and suppressed the urge to roll his eyes, the boy's open greed is not something unexpected and his attitude even less. After taking all the valuables from his mounts and putting the travel bags on his shoulder, he walks to the door of the inn. Will looked at him with a frown when he saw that he took practically all the luggage that was on the back of the horses.

`I am no fool, boy. If I leave my things on the saddles one or two things will mysteriously disappear before nightfall, by the next day a few more, and by the time I leave Bitterbridge, half my things will be gone. You will not be responsible for it, no, you will just say that you left my luggage next to my mounts, that you are not responsible if some thief broke in in the middle of the night.`

Damian enters the inn, a long rectangular room with a huge fireplace on one side of the room and a bar on the other side. Next to the gigantic fireplace there is a small stage where a bard is playing a flute.

Between the fireplace and the bar there are several rectangular tables with space for ten people each and some smaller round tables. Right now there are only a few customers drinking beer and chatting.

To his surprise, he does not see any member of the caravan. Alysanne told him that the first thing they would do is come to the inn and rent some rooms for their stay in Bitterbridge.

`Did something happen?`

***

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