Obara III
Greengard had been abandoned and derelict for decades. Obara had seen worse ruins in Dorne but there the dry weather tended to preserve the stonework. The North's weather seemed to be more destructive.
"Is it this bad at all the other castles?" she asked the other visitor to the keep.
Renly Baratheon shook his head "I think some of them are even worse. "Greengard was only abandoned around the reign of Aegon IV. I haven't been westwards from Castle Black but even Robert isn't talking about restoring the Night's Fort."
The Prince of Summerhall and his party had arrived the day before, charged with gathering an overview of the situation along the wall. Wrapped in every fur she could find and feeling slightly ridiculous, Obara had welcomed them in her uncle's name and offered the hospitality she could - fortunately she'd been able to bring down a boar the day before. The woods south of the wall were lousy with game.
"There's still a lot to do. Just to begin with, the forest's grown far too close to the castle."
"Well at least there's a source of wood."
Renly chuckled. "Just don't cut down any weirwoods. This is still the North."
Obara turned her head towards him. "So what do you think about the North? Other than that it's cold."
The man shivered. "That's the first thought, isn't it? Certainly my first regret in asking Robert to give me something important to do."
"Is that why you're out here?"
"And to think I could be in Summerhall, overseeing the repairs there." He stretched. "It seems so empty here. I grew up at Storm's End and in King's Landing but here... you could ride for days and not meet anyone."
"There are parts of Dorne as desolate as that," she told him. "Away from the rivers there are deserts and mountains where no one lives."
"Somehow I doubt anyone seeks those places out."
"Well, not often."
"I suppose my dear good-sisters have a point about King's Landing having nothing for young men save drink, dice and..."
"And whores? I do know the word, Renly."
He gave her an uncomfortable look.
"My father gave me a choice when I was a child. My mother's way or his. I chose the spear."
The Baratheon threw back his head and laughed. "Aye, you do. Although I suppose I'm like my brothers in that wenching isn't a passion of mine."
Obara blinked. "It's odd to think - the King is said not to have mistresses or aught else, but when my father speaks of him, he claims he was a lecher. And he has his elder daughters." Born outside marriage, like herself and her sisters.
"A young man's folly, or so he says." Renly shrugged. "Stranger take it, I've never understood what goes on inside his head."
She nodded. "So if it's not your passion... have you ever..."
"Gods, woman!" He sat up in the bed. "I'm not that inexperienced."
"Oh good." She caught his shoulder and pushed him against the thin mattress. "First times can be so tedious."
Renly yelped in surprise and, she thought, excitement as she began to nibble.
Cassana II
Cassana had to bite her tongue during dinner so as not to ask her father about... about the Rayder Matter, she decided, capitalising the second word in a way that would have gotten her a scolding from a Maester if she'd written it down.
With dinner complete, she was escorted back to the royal bedchamber by a maid and the silent Ser Mandon. By the time her father caught up, she was in her nightgown and tucked beneath the heavy blankets of the truckle bed brought for her. On entering, he smiled at her, plucked her night cap from the foot of his bed and knelt to tuck it over her head.
"That will be all tonight," he said firmly and Ser Mandon nodded, ushering the maid out before him and then closing the heavy door. He'd stand watch outside though, for some hours before one of his fellow Royal Guards relieved him.
Cassana's father sat on the bed and started working his boots off. "So what's on your mind, daughter of mine?"
She looked at him and he smiled. "You were too quiet at dinner."
"I don't understand what you said to Mance Rayder," Cassana admitted. "You're the king. Can't you just order it and and free him?"
"That I cannot." He tucked one boot under his bed and started work on the other. "For a start, legally the Night's Watch are under the authority of no king. They listen, because they aren't fools, but they owe me no obedience. To add to that, there are a number of them - not many, but vocal, who joined the Night's Watch becase they didn't want me as their king."
"Why didn't they?"
"Loyalty to the previous king, or at least to his dynasty. Not everyone was as displeased with Aerys as Ned and I were." Her father finally rid himself of the second boot and rubbed his feet, still wrapped in stout woollen socks. "Anyway, in legal terms all I could do would be to make a request. I could pressure them, of course. Bullying, basically. I don't admire the tactic but I've used it in the past."
"Couldn't you do it now?"
"Probably. But in the past I've only done so to give them something that they needed. This is something that could destroy them, Cassana."
She sat up, pushing back the blankets. "How could that happen. Haven't the Night's Watch been here forever?"
"Don't do that. It gets really cold at night." He padded over and pushed her back into bed and tucked the blankets around her again. "The Night's Watch is old... eight thousand years, some of the Maesters say. They might be right. All that time they've been held together by their traditions... and by their oath. If one person is released from that oath, why should others not be released? And in that case, what value does the oath have?"
"Then you're not going to help him? You said you'd look into it?"
Father shrugged and sat back. "Sometimes if I sleep on a matter, I'll come up with an idea. It's worth a try."
"And if you don't?"
He went back to his own bed and pulled back the blankets. "He's a ranger, Cassana. What, exactly, is stopping him from going on a long ranging and never coming back to the Wall?"
"But would the Night's Watch let him go?"
Father smiled at her and unbuckled his belt before slipping under the blankets. A moment later he pulled his pants out from beneath the blankets and threw it onto a chest. "Only if they know he's dissatisfied, Cassana. So if you like the man, don't tell anyone about his request, right?"
Cassana nodded.
"Good girl." Father blew out the candle and plunged the chamber into darkness.
She lay in the darkness and snuggled deeper beneath the blankets. Father was right about it being cold. "Father?"
"Yes?"
"When Mya marries Lord Ronnet, will I ever see her again?"
"I should think so. Griffin's Roost isn't all that far from Storm's End so she can visit when we're there, or we can visit her... and she might well come to court sometimes."
"Ah." Well that was good. "I'm going to have to get married too, aren't I?"
"It's not absolutely definite, but it seems likely that you'll get married one day."
"If I marry Eddard, can I stay at the Crown?"
"Cassana," her father said patiently. "If you and Eddard married, you'd kill each other within a week. As it is, I suspect I'm not short two children because when your mother sends you to your rooms they're different rooms."
"Oh."
"Besides, Aerys the Mad married his sister. And his parents were brother and sister too. I'm not convinced it's healthy. Do you remember the studbook for our horse breeding? What are the rules there?"
"Don't breed horses with a sire or dam in common, or if their sire or dam have a sire or dam in common," she recited. "So is it the same with people?"
"It's a good guideline."
"What about Ser Tyrion?"
She heard some movement from the bed. "Cassana, what's all this thinking about getting married? You're years too young."
"You told me it's never too early to think ahead. And mother said you were taking me with you to show me off to lords with eligible sons."
There was a groan and father mumbled something under his breath.
"And Prince Jaime's aunt Genna was married when she was my age."
"I don't think she's ever forgiven her father or her husband for that. And why Ser Tyrion?"
"Well he's only as tall as me so we could dance together..."
"You're likely to get taller, Cassana. But if he's not married when you're old enough and if you still want to marry him by then, remind me and I will think about it. I'm not promising anything more than that."
"I will, daddy. Good night."
"Good night, Cassana."
That night she dreamt of being at Storm's End, watching birds flying over the ocean. A black one circled the tower though, while her father rode his horse across the waves towards her, always getting closer but never quite arriving. It was a silly dream, because the bird had three eyes.