He and Ser Criston Cole watched the departing dragons from the
walls of Longtable, though in truth only the bulk of Vhagar was still
visible, Tessarion's smaller shape having long since disappeared
from view.
Neither man spoke for a while, each lost in their own thoughts, until
Cole broke the silence "we should have sent him on his own and
kept Prince Dearon behind."
"Yes, but in truth we could not, Daeron would not countenance it, he
can be as hot headed as his elder brothers. And it would have made
Aemond suspicious of our motives."
"He is already suspicious of our motives" came the deadpan reply
from the Hand of the King.
"That he is, but this will hopefully give him something to occupy
himself and keep him away from us and out of our hair, while we get
on with the business of winning this dammed war!"
"I don't trust him" replied Cole "Oh I trust him to be a vainglorious
prick, but I don't trust him to not do something stupid."
"Nor do I Ser Criston, nor do I. Which is why I had a rather long talk
with young Daeron before they left. I laid out certain things before
the young Prince, and I brought him in on some of our more, devious
plans…"
"And?"
"The lad is smart for his age, much smarter than either of his older
brothers for a start. He carries certain orders with him, orders that his
older brother is not to be made aware of. Orders which should
ensure that all our planning and efforts do not go to waste, spoiled
by the lusts and lack of sense of our Lord Protector."
"Princess Rhaena…."
"Aye, left to his own devices Aemond would likely rape the girl
insensate, and probably even kill her. Daeron carries orders from my
hand that Princess Rhaena is to be removed from the Eyrie by the
Lords of the Vale who will have deposed Lady Arryn. She is to be
spirited away post haste to prevent Aemond from spoiling the girl. I
have even hinted to Daeron that he might expect a betrothal to the
girl once the war is over and reminded him that his vows as a Knight
of the Seven Kingdoms charges him to protect women."
Cole raised an ironic eyebrow at this "and you expect him to, to
adhere to his vows as a knight?"
"The lad is young and still idealistic, I impressed on his that him
marrying the Princess would be for the good of the Targaryen family,
that it was in no way a shame upon him, that it was indeed his duty
to do so. I also stressed that the girl was quite the beauty and was of
more than sufficient station for him as a Prince of the realm."
"And?"
"He of course asked about what his King and his mother would say
about him wedding the daughter of traitors…."
"You are dragging this out like a fishwife with a particularly juicy
piece of gossip about a neighbours' indiscretions….." remarked Cole
drying.
"I assured him that all was well and that none would object, and that
the sins of the parents should not be visited upon the head of
innocent children."
"And I assume he bought it?"
"He did."
"Hrmmmm, he might not be such a good candidate to pin our hopes
on then…."
"Stop worrying Cole, the lad can learn, can be moulded as required.
I have also impressed upon him that his dragon is small and that he
must let Prince Aemond on Vhagar do the bulk of the fighting."
Cole pondered this for a few seconds before saying "I still think we
should have kept him here with us, made up some pretence to have
him accompany us on our march to Tumblestone, after all we will be
bereft of dragons and facing an enemy with a surfeit of dragons."
"Aye I know, but what is done is done. And we have not been idle
either, we have hundreds of Scorpions available to us now. The very
first thing I did when this conflict broke out was go to the Citadel and
ask the Maeaters for the best weaponry to deal with dragons, based
on the requirements that said weapons had to be mobile with the
army. They came back with a design that is a good compromise
between power and weight. As I said we have hundreds of them
now, let's see how the dragons like facing a wall of scorpion bolts
eh? I think they will shy away like horses do!"
"I bloody well hope you are right!" was Cole's response to this.
"If those degenerates in Dorne can kill a dragon, the men of the
Reach can do so easily!"
Cole did not respond to this, instead asking "and the preparations in
Kings Landing?"
"Well in hand, it's now a matter of timing as much as anything else.
The various potential options are primed and ready, Lord Strong has
things well under control. This laughable so called 'Mistress of
Whispers' a whore who occupies Prince Daemons bed, apparently
with the consent of that harlot who calls herself Queen..is no match
for lord Strong, believe me!"
"Just as well Prince Aemond is not in earshot my Lord, he would
bring down dragonfire on your head!" quipped Cole, a barked laugh
accompanying his words, reminding him of the threat by the Prince
regarding the use of Queen to describe Rhaenyra.
"That cunt has threatened me for the very last time Cole, I was
toying with the idea of ending him after we spoke on your arrival, but
now, he will have to go. And mayhaps even sooner than we had
planned…."
"He lost me over a third of my forces during the retreat from
Harnehal, his failure to follow simple orders….." Cole balling his fists
and gritting his teeth at this.
"I know Ser Criston, I know…..but at least you managed to give a
reasonable account of yourselves, the Riverlanders are spent, or at
least so injured as to be no longer a threat to us."
"The Lannister forces are grumbling, they want to return home, the
Red Kraken is making a nuisance of himself along their shores."
"A 'nuisance' you say? Don't let the Wsterlanders hear you say that
Ser Criston, least they line up ten deep top challenge you with live
steel for making such a statement. Dalton Grejoy is buggering the
Westerlanders senseless, he has already sacked Lannisport and
countless other towns and villages, and not just those on the coast
either, his reavers have even sacked Cornfield, many leagues inland.
The Westerlanders are not grumbling Ser Criston, they are on the
edge of open revolt. That is why we need our Princes to win us
victories and for us to get a move on. An army sitting around doing
nothing is prone to ill disciples and factionalism, better for all if we
move soonest."
"You were speaking of Lady Misery….?"
"Oh yes, where was I, ah yes, well Lord Strong has her so called
'spies' mostly blinded and being fed only what he wants them to
hear. The preparations underway should be invisible to Daemon, his
whore, and his other whore…."
Cole grinned at this, but the smile slipped from his face rapidly "I'm
still worried that Aemond will find some way to, to…"
"To fuck this up?" asked Ormund "Yes I know, it is a concern of mine,
but if he fucks it up and gets himself killed? Mayhaps that will
balance things out in the grater scheme of things, eh?"
"I hope you are right Lord Ormund, I hope you are right…."