Worthy of your Love
CHAPTER 7: Fateful encounter
Recap
She kept her head down. Trying to hold her helpless, cries,and pain, all of that down. She didn't knew when but she fell asleep. For that night, it was done.
JON
His visit at kings landing had so far proved to be appeasing. His day usually begins with the sight of ceiling of one of many grand chambers of red keep. Then with a nice bath, and finally breakfast at some tavern. He would never admit, but he does feel at odd when his mates ditch him to get fun for themselves. Nizaam most probably remain at his side, but other were horror to be called friend.
But inspite all of that, it always feels nostalgic, all his life, he longed for familial love and care, he had his mother but no father, and that too taken away from him. He had to go on street, fight for life, like an orphan.
But now things are different, his mates are his family, they spent years together, watching each other back no matter what, good or bad, right or wrong. But now he was risking all of their lives for his ambitions but still it would end well, if his plan works out, his people would have a better life.
He was born a bastard, later became sellsword, and now with an army of thirty thousand men so it would be a shame, if he remained a petty sellword his whole life. He dreamt of having a life of respect, some day he might have his own family who wouldn't be ashamed of his name, instead be proud to call him their own.
That aside, admidst of all of this, another change of events came in his plan with that little cat, 'no, not a cat, little wolf'. Arya Stark, a girl whom he never met before setting foot in red keep, though heard her name but only name, and didn't cared enough to know more than that.
Daughter of Lord of Winterfell and warden of the north, later sister to King in the north.
First time his eyes met hers, he lost control of himself for no reason. More than two dozen men died because of his recklessness. He never cared if thousands of men died, he only cares about his friend, and yet he jeopardized their life just as easily for some girl.
And worst part is that there is no regret, he was shocked, perplexed but he do not regret his decision. whenever he thinks back to that day, Her wet eyes were all he could visualize, like if its the only thing that mattered.
That's why now he fully understand, that girl is a big trouble, and he cannot let her play with his head. Instead he would play with her, after all she is one of the crucial player 'no, not yet, still a piece but won't be for long' in this game. He should better get started.
'as they say winter is coming' he thought keeping a grin on his face.
Walking out through red keep was something that couldn't be considered normal. Also it's not hard to observe that number guards have increased drastically since the first time he set foot in capital. And again obvious as his arrival was followed by tywin lannister.
He had sent Nizaam to check whereabouts of his men sailing to westros while other three still haven't returned since yesterday. Even after his warning they still roaming in a foreign city recklessly.
Keeping them in back of his head, he was walking through the stairs, when his eyes found one thing which he was avoiding.
King Joffrey in his usual attire walking toward him with his famous annoying smirk he presumed, accompanied by two Lannistermen that he judged from their armour.
as Joffrey came forward, he half- bowed in fake-courtesy for sure but what he is not sure of was why boy king's face bring unwanted anger in him, he so badly wanted to drive his sword right though middle of his heart. Yet he had to keep his intent a down, that wasn't the time for it, neither a place.
"your grace," Joffrey looked at him with a smirk on his face.
" fast learner…. Good for you, otherwise your bastard attitude would get you killed" Joffrey said smiling down at him.
" man has to learn fast otherwise enemy would stand in his face and he wouldn't know what hit him" he replied sternly, which seems to irk the boy king. He could see that boy king was getting annoyed and he have to stop yet he didn't want to.
"you are good at sword, but you need to learn manners, which I am sure you will if you wish to live to see another day."
"I'll try my best" he replied sounding humble, surely he do not want another hunting party at night,
And thankfully boy king kept their short meet short and walked out without making some big scene. He already had a lot in his plate to get one more item.
Rest of the day after that went peacefully, loraz finally decided to show up for lunch and once again went out leaving him all alone. 'I should have brought Dorin with me' he thought. But no worries soon all of them would be here. And he was really bored, he needed some fun, some killing, or maybe a little cat to pass his time.
Again to his surprise as why he is so much fixated on her, he even went and searched for her but couldn't find her, she was most likely be in maegor's holdfast.
But no worries, maybe tomorrow there will be another fateful encounter. Keeping it in his head he finally drifted off to sleep.
Bells of sept broke his slumber, its frustrating, 'why made such a revolting thing in the first place' he thought.
Slowly he pulled his sleepy head and body up to have a look outside of window, clear sky. Hopefully something big was coming for today. He pulled himself up and then walked straight for bath.
He was getting dressed when he suddenly heard someone's footsteps. He turned around to see Nizaam.
"so how long" he asked plainly.
"a week at most," Nizaam replied with a smile on his face, that in turn made him smile.
Soon he would have his army surrounding king's landing. But still its taking a lot of time for Lannisters to agree to his terms.
"do you think queen regent would agree before dorin and others arrive" Nizaam asked while moving towards the bed.
He was setting his hairs, he turned to him.
"it's the only option they have" no one would support Lannisters, Freys don't have support of Riverland neither does Bolton over the north, if Lannister wish to avoid their slaughter in their own house then they have to come to him.
But still Nizaam held the worried look and it wasn't for nothing as Tywin Lannister have left for only god knows where. And Tywin sending words to essos was also unsettling. That too was a big issue to consider, he had started a dangerous game here and now there is no turning back.
"Tywin Lannister is not in capital," Nizaam averred looking straight at him.
"that I know but to where" it wasn't a question though the look on Nizaam's face told him that he did knew something,
And suddenly a smile crept on his face,
"you know something don't you" he asked while keeping and searching for Nizaam's mischievous smile.
Nizaam chucked at that.
"not much but words tells me, last person whom Tywin Lannister visited was your latest infatuation," Nizaam vocalized while looking at him with a mischievous grin.
He himself laughed at that,
"so finally Tywin Lannister started missing a women in his bed after so many years," he said amidst of his laugh,
"looks like I have to visit my silver mistress" he added,
But to his bewilderness, Nizaam rolled his eyes,
"not talking about whore, its Arya stark, your latest fascination" Nizaam finally declaimed clearly, staring straight at him.
'Arya stark' again that girl,
"Arya stark is not a infatuation but a crucial piece in my plan, even you wouldn't ignore her worth," he said staring at his friend,
But in his head, he knew Nizaam wasn't completely wrong in his assessment, that girl do have some uncanny ability to get into his head like no one else.
"whatever" Nizaam said with an irk evident on his face,
"why would tywin visit stark girl, it won't be for a good fuck?" Nizaam said more to his annoyance.
Suddenly he felt heat rising to his head, unknown to the reason, its something that wasn't in his control, but again he looked at Nizaam and tried to calm his nerves,
" I will look into it, and that aside where are other three," he asked trying to displace the conversation,
But look of Nizaam's face told him that he wasn't the one to be fooled, but Nizaam didn't press more into that matter,
"loraz and Leon are looking for escape routes, while as expected Hazeal is scouring the city for best of whores" Nizaam averred with a slight smile on his face.
" and what about you, what's you plan on spending your day," he asked
"I will stick with you, maybe have some arm practice," Nizaam answered plainly, and more to his pleasure, he was also aching to have some fun, otherwise his swords will get rusty.
"then get your ass outside" he declaimed while walking out door, but not before picking up his sword and his dagger.
Both walked outside toward training square next to traitors walk,
Fascinating place, rotten head of traitors on spike, he heard one of those head belong to former warden of the north, Eddard stark.
It shows another idiocies of boy king, what kind of idiot kills a valuable hostage, but anyway, he moved toward the square.
Nizaam was more interested in fight than the rotten head, so while he was busy taking the view of traitors walk, Nizaam already prepared his sword and stance.
"all set to get another beat,"
Nizaam rolled his eyes,
"no, its time to make some changes to it." Nizaam replied,
He couldn't keep his chuckle at it. Usually killing clears his head but he would manage with a friendly fight, god knows he need some clearance and regularity in his mind.
Square plaza was empty other than few servants doing their work, and it felt relieving because every time he meet someone in that place he end up getting more tense and stressed.
"ok then lets begin" he said while unsheathing one of his sword, he didn't plan on using two sword right there, his bastard sword with a golden pommel shaped sharp at end in order to use it a addition during right time.
He straightened his right arm in which he held the sword, flexing his arm a bit to get some warm up for muscles to keep up his reflexes,
Nizaam eyes went casual to sharp in an instant, there was 4 step distance between them, so he calculated the distance and time accord to his reaction time,
He lunged one step predicting Nizaam to move one step and then before his leg make proper contact, a slow swift to give him a smooth clash, and their sword clashed, Nizaam was using a longsword, while his was bastard sword, so it was pretty obvious that Nizaam had range over him,
A loud cling of metals marked the first clash,
Instantly Nizaam played second draw, with changing the swing arch from left to right.
But he countered it easily, and after that same casual swing started, swing and clash, suddenly Nizaam pulled back and then moved in with a swift pace to attack his head with the pummel of the sword.
Nizaam's attack didn't give him much time, so he used his arm to take the impact, with a heavy thrust on his arm, he fell sideward, giving Nizaam time to attack his left, his body was still in halfway recovery from the last attack so his right hand was by far possibility for defence against Nizaam's attack.
Keeping that in mind, he switched his sword to his left, and clashed their swords, his eyes met Nizaam's, it was getting intense, he had improved a lot from last time they duelled.
"you are getting rusty" Nizaam said while grinning like an idiot,
"yeah but still better than you," Nizaam rolled his eyes, and in that instant,
He gave a slip slide to Nizaam's leg, making him lose balance ands to fall down, with his sword pointing at his neck,
"this doesn't count" Nizaam shouted,
While he was laughing,
"no, it does, never take your eyes off your opponent," while giving his right hand to Nizaam,
Nizaam grabbed his hand and stood up while keeping an unsatisfied look on his face, obviously he wanted to win, he had been at it for last 10 years, while other lose hope after so many defeats, on the contrary Nizaam didn't , he is still very much energetic and hopeful about his skills.
But in all of this he failed to notice that there was someone else who was watching them from the corner,
"quite impressive" a man in golden armour with white cloak and with a makeshift golden hand, quite tall and even something one would call handsome, with a longsword tightened to his waist with a pummel similar to a lion.
From the appearance it wasn't hard to identify the man, it could only be one person, ser Jaime Lannister, eldest son of tywin Lannister. He had heard about him, kingslayer they called him. He turned his eyes to Nizaam, and by the looks Nizaam also recognized the men most likely.
"an honour from the renowned knight of seven kingdom, ser Jaime" he stated with a genuine smile up his face,
But suddenly he thought of something interesting,
"so would you like to have sword against sword ser Jaime," he asked, Jaime was well known for his sword skill, and he himself like to test his limits, he could feel, Nizaam's smile on his side.
While ser Jaime's face was difficult to read,
"you are certainly good, but you still need years to match me, ser-"
"Jon, you can call me Jon, and I am no knight, but it would have been nice to have duelled with someone like you," he stated in his clear tone,
Jaime's eyes widened for a second before coming back to casual, which was certainly something perplexing.
"maybe some other time" Jaime stated in his casual tone with his slight smile, and with that turned and walked away from the plaza toward the maegor's holdfast,
It was sad to not get his sword on Jaime Lannister but as Jaime said, maybe some other time. And after all he plan on staying in Westeros for a very very long time.
"that guy just called you a noob, you know right?" Nizaam said in low at his ear, before walking away.
"what"
"see you later Jon" Nizaam waved his hand without even bothering to turn around, freaking shit, he don't like to be underestimated.
And now its getting over his patience level. He need to get something to kill as soon as possible. And it's disappointment, as that wasn't the expected encounter he was looking forward too.
A/N- reviews um
