Golden Fool

Page 62

I found Hap behind the shop with four other apprentices. All appeared younger and smaller than he was. They were engaged in moving a stack of drying wood, turning and shifting each timber in the process. The trampled earth told me this was the third such stack to be turned. The other two were draped with roped-down canvas. There was a scowl on Hap’s face as if this mindless yet necessary task affronted him. I watched him for a time before he was aware of me, and what I saw troubled me. Hap had always been a willing worker when he toiled alongside me. Now I saw suppressed anger in the way he handled himself, and his impatience at working with lads younger and weaker than he was. I stood silently, watching him until he noticed me. He straightened from the plank he had just set down, said something to the other apprentices, and then stalked over to me. I watched him come, wondering how much of his manner was expression of what he truly felt and how much was show for the younger boys. I didn’t much care for the disdain he expressed toward his current task.
“Hap,” I greeted him gravely, and “Tom,” he responded. He clasped wrists with me, and then said in a low voice, “You see now what I was talking about.”
“I see you turning wood so it dries well,” I responded. “That seems a necessary task for a woodworker’s shop.”
He sighed. “I would not mind it so much, if it were an occasional thing. But every task they put me to demands a lot of my back and little of my brain.”
“And are the other apprentices treated differently?”
“No,” he replied begrudgingly. “But as you can see, they are just boys.”
“Makes no difference, Hap,” I told him. “It’s not a matter of age, but of knowledge. Be patient. There’s something to learn here, even if it’s only how to stack the wood properly, and what you learn from seeing it at this stage. Besides, it’s a thing that must be done. Who else should they put to doing it?”
He stared at the ground while I spoke, silent but unconvinced. I took a breath. “Do you think you might do better if you lived here with the other apprentices, instead of with Jinna?”
He met my eyes suddenly with a look full of outrage and dismay. “No! Why do you suggest such a thing?”
“Well, because I have learned it is customary. Perhaps if you lived here, close by your work, it would be easier. Not so far to go to be on time in the morning, and—”
“I’d go crazy if I had to live here as well as apprentice here! The other boys have told me what it is like. Every meal the same as the last one, and Gindast’s wife counts the candles, to be sure they are not burning them late at night. They must air their bedding and wash their own blankets and small clothes weekly, not to mention that he keeps them at extra chores after the day’s work is done, shoveling sawdust to mulch his wife’s rose garden and picking up scraps for the kindling heap and—”
“It does not sound so terrible to me,” I interrupted, for I could see he was but building himself to more heat. “It sounds disciplined. Rather like what a man-at-arms goes through in his training. It wouldn’t hurt you, Hap.”
He flung his arms wide in an angry gesture. “It wouldn’t help me, either. If I had wanted to break heads for a living, then, yes, I’d expect to be trained like a dumb animal. But I didn’t expect my apprenticeship to be like this.”
“Then you’ve decided that this isn’t what you want?” I asked, and near held my breath awaiting the answer. For if he had changed his mind, I had no idea what I would do with him. I could not have him up at Buckkeep with me, or send him back to the cabin alone.
His answer came grudgingly. “No. I haven’t changed my mind. This is what I want. But they had better start actually teaching me something soon, or . . .”
I waited for him to say “or what” but his words ran out. He too had no idea what he would do if he left Gindast. I decided to take that as a positive sign. “I’m glad this is still what you want. Try to be humble, to be patient, to work well, and listen and learn. I think that if you do so, and show yourself a sharp lad, you will soon progress to more challenging tasks. And I’ll try to meet you tonight, but I dare not make any promises. Lord Golden keeps me very busy, and it’s been hard for me to get this much time free. Do you know where Three Sails Tavern is?”
“Yes, but don’t meet me there. Come to the Stuck Pig instead. It’s very near Jinna’s.”
“And?” I pressed, knowing there was another reason.
“And you can meet Svanja, too. She lives nearby, and watches for me. If she can, she joins me there.”