"What?!" Bran and Gared cried simultaneously with a shocked look on their face, as they wouldn't have thought of poison in a hundred years, but there was someone there who sported a completely unchanged look as if he had expected it.
"From the book we got from Oberyn, right." Jon stated, rather than asking, and when Sam nodded his head in confirmation, his eyes narrowed as he murmured, "I was afraid of that..."
"W-What do you mean, Jon?"
"Yes, What do you mean by that? Did you know that Lea was poisoned?"
"No. I didn't know...at least not for sure, but I suspected something like this when you told me that she had suddenly fallen sick..."
"What? Why?!"
"Well... because there were too many coincidences involved in him leaving the camp," Jon said while jerking his head towards Bran who still had a wide-eyed look on his face, "Lea suddenly getting ill, you falling for that lion cub scam, and then being immediately getting caught by those Gallant Men sellswords the very next day...it all felt like someone's plot— as if someone was deliberately trying to lure you out of the camp to capture you..."
"B-But why would—"
"Argh! Fuck! It must be those same cunts again," Gared suddenly cursed while scratching his head fiercely with a frustrated look on his face, "That must be how they were able to send the ransom letter so quickly, it must have all been pre-planned..."
"Ransom letter? What are you talking about, father?"
"The one I got just before you arrived..." Gared explained everything before shaking his head, "Before, I had assumed that it was just a coincidence that it arrived so quickly, but now... now it seems to be the work of those damn spies once again," he said before he gritted his teeth angrily, "They are getting on my damn nerves now,"
Jon involuntarily raised an eyebrow at the overzealous response before saying, "It doesn't seem like a rare occurrence from the way you reacted..."
"Yes, it isn't," Gared replied in a frustrated tone, "There have been more than a few times where my company has been ambushed or lost a good opportunity because of these spies leaking the news... but to think that they've become so brazen as to poison someone and even try to abduct my son. If only I could somehow get my hands on them... then I'll show them the consequences of crossing me," he said ferociously while twisting his hands in the air as if he were squishing someone's head, before sighing, "But the thing is that no matter what method you use, there's really no way to root them all out. In a company like ours with almost 500 fighters, it is almost impossible to find who is a spy and who is not,"
"Hmm, Maybe... Maybe I could help you out with your spy problem..." Jon said slowly, a distracted expression on his face.
"You could? How?"
"Well... I would need your cooperation and a few days to scout all your fighters before I can say for sure... But it shouldn't be too much of a problem to root out most of the rats... but I think that is a discussion for later, for now, let's get back to the patient," Jon nodded to Gared before turning back towards Sam, "So tell us Sam, can you cure her, now that we know what she's suffering from..."
"Er... I guess, I mean it's not like it's a rare poison so the antidote should be quite easy to make and... I think that I can find most of the required ingredients right here," he said pointing towards the pots of different herbs on the healer's workstation, "And if any herb is missing, I am sure that Frost can easily find them in the nearby forests..."
"Frost? Who's Frost?"
"Well... she's just a very helpful friend," Jon shrugged with a mysterious smile, "Maybe you'll get to meet her someday..."
...
About a week later, the atmosphere of the Company of Rose had completely changed, all the lethargy and laziness seemed to have simply evaporated from the air, and everywhere you looked you would only see alert and vigilant sellswords, who were either going about their training or clearing their worn equipment and weapons religiously. The company appeared as if they were preparing for a war... which they were, in a way.
The Company commander had passed down an urgent order about a week ago, that they were going to launch a full-force attack on the Gallant Men campsite very soon, so all of them had to prepare to the best of their abilities as they could set off at any time.
The order had left almost everyone bewildered and confused, and all of them agreed that this order didn't make any sense... mostly because of two reasons.
Firstly, it came completely out of the blue, without any indications whatsoever which meant that they didn't have enough preparation, and secondly, the Gallant Men were not some small-sized sellswords that they could attack and destroy at any time, no, they had almost the same amount of fighters as them, and were even considered better off than them with higher quality weapons and armour.
Most importantly, large-scale rarely happened in the Disputed Lands, especially between similar-sized companies... as anything more than skirmishes almost always meant huge losses for both sides, which no one wants.
So whenever a battle occurs, the losing side is usually very quick to disengage and retreat (run away) to minimize their losses. After all, they were sellswords and not a peasant army of Westeros.
So even with more than a few dozen companies active in the Disputed Lands at all times, battles rarely happened here, which might seem a bit ironic but it was the truth. Everyone here followed an unspoken rule of never participating in decisive fights and just quietly leeching off of the three free cities safely by offering protection to their occupied lands for the long term.
But even though the order was unusual no one objected or hesitated to follow it... which spoke quite well of the Commander's prestige and reputation.
Anyway, the atmosphere inside the healer's tent was a lot more peaceful, unlike the excitement outside.
"S-Sam, you are a fucking genius," Bran cried while shaking Sam's hands enthusiastically.
He had seen Lea's complexion improve with every passing day due to the cure that Sam had brewed. While before she had been constantly suffering from dry painful coughs, now she was sleeping almost peacefully. Looking at her now it was almost impossible to believe that she'd been so close to death before, "I don't know how I'll ever repay you, my friend. No matter what happens, I'll forever remain in your debt."
"I-It's fine. I didn't help that much, I just made the antidote so..." Sam replied while rubbing the back of his head embarrassingly, before turning away from Bran's genuine adoration towards Lea who had fallen asleep after taking some milk of poppy, "A-Anyway, while she might be out of mortal danger, Lea still needs plenty of rest for her body to recuperate from the damage the poison had done on her body, so you need to let her have a lot of rest and take good care of her, and..."
While Sam was giving Bran some basic instructions, Jon was standing with Gared a few feet away watching the scene with a smile on his face.
"I should beat the shit out of our fucking healer," Gared cursed abruptly in a low voice, "That bastard kept telling me that there's nothing we can do about Lea and that any new medicine is useless and... that we'll only kill her faster with this antidote. Thankfully I chose to believe you, otherwise..." Gared shook his head with an angry look on his face, "Where the hell is he anyway, I haven't seen his ugly mug in two days, is he hiding in embarrassment from his failure..." he scoffed before looking towards the entrance with narrowed eyes as if contemplating immediately running out to find the company healer to give him a piece of his mind.
"Don't bother," Jon said calmly with a distracted gaze, "The healer is long gone by now, in fact, he is just about to reach the river halfway through Pentos at the moment..."
"W-What? He ran away!!" Gared asked in a bewildered tone, "But why? There was no need for him to take such drastic measures if it was just a mistake. He should know that I wouldn't blame him too much..."
"Maybe because it wasn't a mistake..."
"What?! What do you—" Gared's eyes abruptly widened with comprehension as he realised what Jon was insinuating, "You mean he was a FUCKING SPY!!"
"No." Jon shook his head calmly, "But he probably worked for one..." he continued in a low voice in contrast to Gared's agitated one, "I think he was probably also the one who administered the poison so that it only harmed Lea but not killed her..."
"Who is it? Who was the one that ordered him? Just tell me their fucking names?!" Gared growled with his eyes spitting fire.
"No, can't do that," Jon shook his head indifferently, "I've only caught two rats till now and we still need to wait for the Merchant's supply run tomorrow to lure out the rest of them, and I don't want you to spook the nest before that happens so you'll just have to wait..."
"Ugh! You're killing me, Jon," Gared said in a frustrated tone, "I've already staked my reputation by giving that absurd order on your behalf. So you should at least tell me their names, a-and I promise that I will control myself..."
"Hmm..." Jon looked scrutinizingly towards Gared for a few moments before simply shaking his head, "No. I don't believe you're the kind of person who would be able to control yourself after finding out the spies' name... especially since one of them is quite a big fish..."
"Argh!! I just want to kill those fuckers with my own hands as soon as possible!!"
"Oh! Don't worry, you'll get your chance in two days... Just have patience my friend...just a little patience..."
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