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  Jakob patted the bed. 'You look like you could use some sleep, want me to leave you be?'

  This brought a faint smile from Jimmy. 'Do I really look that tired? I was thinking of staying up until the party tonight.'

  'Party?'

  Jimmy sat up. 'You mean you haven't heard? There's a gathering at Harvester's farmstead this evening, it's the biggest event of the year. Celebrating a new season and all that.'

  Jakob shrugged. 'I hadn't been invited.'

  'Well you have been now, though I'm beginning to doubt I'll make it through the rest of the day without my bed.'

  Jakob shook his head. 'You look like you could last a few more minutes at best, get some rest.'

  He sank into his bed gratefully, briefly opening his eyes as Jakob walked out the door. 'You want to do something later before the party?'

  Jakob gave him the thumbs up, which only seemed to confuse Jimmy. 'I'll be around this afternoon to wake you if you're too lazy to rouse yourself.'

  Jimmy closed his eyes and grinned to himself. 'You sound just like my father. Thanks for offering me my own bed, you're most generous.'

  Harold Gooseman. Like a flash of remembrance it hit him, that was why he was here in the first place.

  He started to make his way down the stairs with some trepidation, knowing that Ella may well be there, the last thing he wanted was a confrontation in a public place. The creaking noise of the wood sounded treacherously loud in his own ears, as if half the inn could hear him descending.

  He caught himself peering down the final flight of stairs, why was he being so stupid about this? It was only a joke, she'd forgive him in time. Or it could cost him a job he hadn't even started if she had the ear of the owner.

  She was furiously wiping a table that most certainly didn't need it, it left little doubt that he was the reason her back was to the stairs.

  Reaching the final step, Jakob took in the rest of the room and spotted a bald head behind the bar. It would appear that Harold Gooseman had returned and he wasn't alone.

  There were three other men at the bar, a scrawny-looking wretch at the far end who seemed to be scowling at everything and two large and rugged looking men opposite him, one that Jakob recognised as the local smith.

  The smith locked eyes with him and a huge grin spread under his beard, he pushed himself off his stool and without warning Jakob found himself engulfed in an enormous bear hug.

  'Jakob, my boy!' the stranger roared, crushing him in his embrace. 'It's been years since I last saw you, you're all grown up!'

  When the man finally let go he seemed somewhat confused, perhaps he was waiting for some outward sign from Jakob. He decided that honesty was the best course with someone so large and intimidating. 'I'm sorry, I don't believe we've met.'

  A laugh came from the bar. 'That's two gold bits you owe me Garth, I told you he hadn't mentioned you to the boy.'

  Garth muttered something and tossed two coins with undue force in Gooseman's direction. 'One of these days Harold, we're going to come across something that you don't already know.'

  Gooseman smirked. 'And when that day arrives I will happily concede my ignorance. When it comes to Thom, I have always known best.'

  Thom. Nobody that valued their health called his father that. Both of these men were either fearless to the point of stupidity or very close friends. Jakob couldn't tell from the initial exchange.

  Garth was eyeing him now, with what Jakob hoped was a kindly expression on his face. 'We've known your Dad since way back before you were born. He never told you about me then?'

  Jakob shook his head, not knowing what to say. Garth beckoned him over to the bar and pulled up a stool for him, he didn't feel all that comforted by the action. There were too many judging eyes on him now, it made him wary of slipping up.

  'The ill-looking fellow at the end there is Aldred, he owns the Golden Rat upstairs.' Jakob didn't recall seeing another pub, then again Ella had been very distracting.

  Aldred gave him a look somewhere between a grimace and a shrug, not remotely encouraging.

  'Don't mind him,' Garth continued, walking over and slapping Aldred on the back, nearly sending him face-first into his beer. 'He's always been a sour-puss.'

  Aldred grunted but didn't deign to comment on what must have been a very old jab at him.

  'The next man to your left is Simon Harvester. He owns the biggest plantation in all of Escana, none of us would eat without him.'

  The wild-looking red-headed man was squat and muscular, he sported a tangled beard like Garth's and looked even less friendly than Aldred. He stuck out a calloused hand and nearly shook Jakob's arm off in greeting.

  'Last and especially least we have Harold Gooseman, proprietor of The Chipped Flagon.'

  Jakob had thought his father was being unreasonably malicious in his description of the man, now he realised how accurate he'd really been. Harold Gooseman was the ugliest man he had ever laid eyes upon. Gaunt features, a pasty parlour and a hooked nose set between cavernous eyes, the man looked like a walking corpse.

  He didn't know why but upon looking at this man an intense feeling of hatred bubbled up inside him. The sensation was almost murderous yet he couldn't think of any root cause of it. Were his emotions trying to tell him something about the man? Was he one of The Six? He certainly didn't look like any of the Daelovian statues.

  Realising they were waiting for a response from him and that he'd been staring, Jakob quickly stuttered greetings.

  Gooseman nodded in return. 'A little bird with a big sword told me that you were seeking employment here, is that correct?'

  'Yes sir, it is.'

  The innkeeper smiled at the title, as if manners were a rare thing in his line of work. 'I'm afraid I can't let you work here.'

  Garth furrowed his brows. 'Now wait a minute Harold, the boy...'

  Gooseman raised a hand and the smith was surprisingly silenced, he didn't break eye contact with Jakob. 'I have received a complaint about your behaviour from one of my members of staff. I cannot employ anyone that would sew the seeds of disharmony amongst us.'

  Jakob looked over at the table Ella had been cleaning, she had made her exit and left the cloth behind. Had he really been sewing seeds of disharmony? It was one joke, albeit in poor taste.

  'Yes,' Gooseman continued, noticing where his gaze fell. 'You know very well what you did and it's cost you this job.'

  The anger was starting to ignite, if he didn't get out of here there was going to be trouble. He had been sent here to destroy six powerful men, why was he wasting his time trying to get work?

  He did his best attempt at nonchalance with a shrug in Gooseman's direction and walked out the door, not allowing himself to look at the man's expression. Or think about what Ella may have told the man of their encounter last night.

  5

  Jakob

  He was about half way to the square when he heard the trotting of a horse pulling a cart. He stepped off the side of the path in order to let it pass but it slowed as it approached him.

  'Need a lift?' Garth asked from above.

  Jakob looked up, Harvester and Garth were sat atop the cart. The smith wore an easy grin but the farmer's face was firmly neutral. It would appear he hadn't planned on stopping for him.

  'Are you headed to the square?' Jakob asked.

  'Well that's where my forge and all my tools are so I'd guess so, yes. Simon rode the cart up this morning on account of his leg playing up again. Do you need a lift or not?'

  Jakob nodded before clambering aboard with the help of Garth and they set off at a leisurely pace.

  The cart rattled in an unnerving fashion as they made their way down the tracks that led from the inn to the smith's home and the nearby Warden's house. Presumably Harvester's fields lay beyond this point somewhere in the distance. Jakob couldn't tell which of the sloping fields were his and the forest did a good job of concealing the barns the man must own.

  'So are you going to talk to him ab
out what happened or not?' the gruff man asked Garth. They had spent the last few minutes in uncomfortable silence.

  'Very well then, I was just looking for the right time to mention it but it seems like you want it talked about now,' Garth replied.

  The slightest hint of a smile crept across Simon Harvester's features. 'I appreciate you trying to coddle me Garth, but I know that Ella can be trouble.'

  Jakob didn't pay much attention to the banter, he had lost the job and that was all there was to it. He could patch things up with Ella when he next saw her and gossiping with these two men about it wouldn't change matters.

  'She's a handful, I'll give you that much,' Garth agreed, ever the peace-maker. 'I still think it was a bit harsh of Harold to withdraw the job offer. Especially considering who he has to go back to.'

  An involuntary shiver crept up Jakob's spine, he wasn't looking forward to the latest encounter with his father off the back of this failure.

  'It's his place, his rules.' Harvester said, cracking the reigns and sending the cart forward in an even more precarious fashion. 'A man is free to do what he wants in his business, fair or not.'

  Garth clearly wasn't looking for an argument and nodded affably. 'What do you think, Jakob? You've been very quiet.'

  Did the smith really expect him to wax lyrical about all the negative things bubbling under the surface regarding their best friend?

  'I'd rather not talk about it,' he said, subsiding into silence at Garth's puzzled look.

  Harvester let out what sounded like a chuckle but could as well have been his hacking up phlegm. 'You don't need to pull any punches when talking about old Gooseman to us, boy. We're not a bunch of old hens that will go clucking back to him as soon as we can.'

  Was the man speaking truly, or was this an attempt to goad an opinion out of him? He had already lost the job, it didn't really matter if he went even further in his criticism now, did it?

  'It was reactionary, and he only heard one side of the story,' he began, feeling the anger rise in a manner that was impossible not to show. 'If he's that distrustful of his potential employees I'm surprised there's anyone other than Jimmy working there.'

  Harvester let out a laugh. 'That's what I've been telling his friends ever since I laid eyes on him, boy! He's a lady's man is our Gooseman, always is siding with the women. Makes a pretty penny when they drag their families out to the Chipped Flagon too mind.'

  Jakob took a deep breath and let the anger subside. Why was he getting so worked up over the man? Was it because he knew that he was one of his father's old associates? No, it couldn't have been that or he wouldn't be chatting away to the likes of Garth. There was something more sinister in his irrational hatred of the man that he couldn't quite comprehend.

  'I see you're musing over what you said to the girl,' Harvester said, now seeming to warm to him after his display of honesty. 'She'll sulk for a while and then she'll get over it, don't worry.'

  Jakob offered him a smile at his false assumptions but said nothing further. Let the man think all he was concerned about were the feelings of a pretty girl, he need not know the truth of the matter.

  'How's the pile going, Garth?' the farmer asked the smith, seemingly moving on from the previous discussion.

  Garth's face frowned into the middle distance. 'Ever growing. I don't know how they expect me to fix up this latest order, it's getting worse.'

  Harvester patted his shoulder consolingly, a surprisingly gentle touch for such a man. 'It's tough times for us all. You have to make sure they're armed and I have to tighten my belt and make sure they're fed.' He cracked a grin then, the previous display of compassion gone. 'Not that it'll stop me from putting on a brave feast later on tonight! You had best wet your beard at my table, smith. I'll not have you hammering all night while the rest of us are in merriment!'

  Garth offered the man a smile in return but his heart clearly wasn't in it. 'If I can get this latest shipment done I'll try my best to make it.'

  'See that you do. I'll have a barrel with your name on it.'

  Jakob listened to the two men chat back and forth about local affairs, from the state of the work for hire to the potential marriage of someone he'd never heard of. He would have found it reassuring had he not been so dislocated from it all by the continued thoughts of Gooseman, and to a lesser extent Ella.

  Finally the cart pulled up outside the Smithy and the Warden's house, all his previous concerns vanished at the sight of the place.

  Garth bid them a hasty farewell, apparently to get started on the work that was piling up and required his immediate attention.

  Jakob gazed across the square to the small house built onto the local gaol, he wasn't looking forward to this. His father was going to be livid when he found out that Jakob had squandered the opportunity of a job practically handed to him.

  It was then that the thought hit him. What allegiance did he owe his father at this point? He had been distant, resentful and occasionally violent towards him. The man offered a roof over Jakob's head and the occasional bite to eat but he couldn't protect him from himself.

  A hand descended upon his shoulder and he jumped in shock, so absorbed had he been in his own thoughts that the world around him had receded.

  'You're a jumpy one, aren't you?' a gruff voice said.

  He looked back at the rough-hewn features of Simon Harvester and nodded. 'Sorry, I was elsewhere.'

  Harvester grunted. 'Another one with your head in the clouds I see. What you need is something to occupy your time with.'

  Jakob didn't care much for being lectured about what he was supposed to be doing, especially by some farmer he barely knew outside of a few minutes of chatter on his cart. He was about to excuse himself when the man spoke again.

  'I see it in your eyes boy, you don't care for me telling you what to do. You might be a quiet one but I like a bit of fire in my workers and you certainly ain’t getting work at the Chipped Flagon no more. You come up to the farm tomorrow and we'll set you to task on something.'

  He couldn't believe it. After treating Harvester's friend so poorly the man was offering him job, where was the sense in that?'If you don't mind me asking sir, why on Earth are you offering me a job?'

  Harvester frowned. 'Why on what now?'

  Jakob caught himself, not knowing what he said, the pain in his head started to surge back into life. 'Sorry, it's a saying from the city,' he hedged.

  The man seemed mollified by the explanation. 'Strange sayings you folk have. Let's hope those city hands are as strong as your father's.' He limped over to his cart and started climbing with great difficulty up what appeared to be wooden steps that had descended from it. 'Yeah, you see it yourself boy. I'm not as able-bodied as I used to be, it's okay to stare. I need all the help I can get and right now there's a real shortage of men I can trust.'

  He believed the old farmer, Jakob didn't think much of people in general. It still didn't explain why he specifically wanted Jakob's help. 'What makes you think I'm any more trustworthy than the people you already have?'

  This brought what he thought was a laugh from the man, it sounded like more of a snort. 'I don't trust you. I'd be a fool to trust you so freely, I'm offering you the chance in spite of this. Keep your head down, work hard, get your pay and do as I tell you and maybe after a few seasons I will trust you.' He grabbed the reins of his horse and prepared to leave. 'There's a gathering tonight at my homestead, if you're serious about wanting work I'll expect you to be there to try and drink me under the table.'

  Jakob gave him a wave as the cart rattled past him, it was the second invitation to the party he had received, was this a thread that he was meant to follow or just coincidental? He wished he had some clearer indication. Were the unbidden feelings the indicators he was seeking? Why then was his hatred of Gooseman so powerful?

  He watched the cart trundle off into the distance and took a deep breath of the cool morning air, it was time to tell his father before anyone else did, not that i
t would make much difference. At least he had the saving grace of being offered work at the farm. He hoped that would calm the reaction he was about to witness.

  He knocked on the door of what was supposed to be his own home, it always paid to be respectful around a man like his father, especially if you were the bearer of bad news.

  An unbolting sound came from behind the door and a weary-looking face peered back at him.

  'Oh, it's you,' Thom said.

  He had long stopped asking where Jakob spent his nights when he wasn't in the house, probably because he didn't care enough for the answer. Jakob had always been told by strangers that they looked identical. He didn't see it personally.

  Thom wandered back into the house, not waiting to see if Jakob followed, and slumped down onto a chair in front of a desk. He didn't offer his son a seat.

  'Out with it then,' he said, as Jakob reached through the door and undid the final latch. 'How did you cock it up this time?'

  He froze on the spot. There was no way that Gooseman could have got word to Thom as quickly as that, the man was just out of his bed. How did he know?

  'I upset one of his employees last night in jest, she told him about it and he said he didn't want me.'

  Thom let out a short chuckle then. 'Well done son, I didn't know you had it in you, whoring around like that. Thought you were one of those queers like the ones you used to play with in the city. Figured they had infected you and made you their prissy bitch.'

  Jakob didn't rise to the bait, he knew Thom was just trying to antagonise him. Let him think that he fucked the girl, it wouldn't improve his mood to contradict the man.

  'I've been offered another job at Harvester's plantation out west.'

  At this Thom started roaring in laughter, it wasn't the reaction Jakob was hoping for. There was something dangerous he was clearly missing that could cause such mirth from his father.

  'I bet you think Simon was doing you a mercy and all, don't you?' He slapped his knee and his laughter fell away as he searched for breath to mock Jakob with. 'The plantation is one step up from slavery, all the cons and petty criminals are rounded up and put to work there. Any of them get out of line and he sets the dogs on them.' He glared at him now, a hard look. 'Yeah, you'd fit right in there.'