Tyrion studied the skyline as the sun dawned above King's Landing, it was an ugly city at ground level, but up here, up here he could pretend. Up here he was as tall as a giant. He contemplated what he had done over the last few months to get so high. 'Protector of the West' it was a somewhat empty title, he'd been given it, yes, but only on the terms that he claimed it for himself. For a man that enjoyed war King Robert had seemed rather eager to sit this one out, leaving the marshalling of the crown forces to Ned Stark. Most of those forces still hated Ned, for defeating them during Robert's rebellion, but it was their lands that were being attacked. So, after Janos Slynt lost his head, and a couple of Thornes' were sent to join their cousin, Ser Allister, at the Wall, the Crownlands fell into line.
Oh yes, the Stormlands rallied their forces, but with Stannis hiding at Dragonstone, licking his wounds, and Renly proving incompetent as a battle commander (And far too comfortable to actually leave King's Landing.) Ned had to find somebody else to lead them and quickly. Tyrion was intrigued that Ned had chosen Selwyn Tarth, or at least he was until he heard that Selwyn's daughter was riding south with a Riverlands force. He found it quite amusing that Edmure Tully was left holding the babies whilst his warrior wife rode off to war. News had it that Brienne had given birth to another set of twins only weeks before, how disheartened would her foes be to be defeated by a woman who had birthed six children in as many years?
The Reach had done enough to protect their boarders and little more, But Tywin had been surrounded on all sides none the less, Tyrion's job had been the easy part: Convince people, that could already see that they were going to lose, that they were going to lose. Give them another option, and make them help eradicate the undesirable aspects of his father's legacy as part of being given that option. Tyrion used his best weapon, words.
Turning against his own father wasn't so difficult, but Uncle Kevan's death, and his cousin Lancel's, that had been a bitter cup to swallow. At least Kevan's twins, Martyn and Willem, were safe, and his young daughter, Janei. Tyrion personally considered having the boys brought to King's Landing a stroke of genius, especially getting them close to the Wolf-Girl, maybe one of them could tame her? Probably Martyn, Willem seemed scared of Lady Arya. Oh yes, there were rumours that the King wanted to wed Arya to Gendry, but Mya was already wedding Robb Stark, it didn't make political sense to have marriage ties to the same House twice. Lady Arya was up for grabs and Tyrion was good at grabbing.
And having them train with Prince Gendry could only be a good thing. They had been training with Arya and Gendry for a month now, and by all accounts nobody was going easy on them, give them a few more months, then Tyrion would have them made squires again, he'd approach Lord Stark about a betrothal, although the marriage wouldn't happen until after the lad had gotten his knighthood. Martyn, yes, it would have to be Martyn. Would giving Martyn the land taken from House Lorch be enough to seal the deal? No, probably not, but Tyrion was confident that he would come up with something.
And if that didn't work Tyrion could try wedding Janei to Bran Stark. The boy might be a cripple, but that didn't necessarily mean it was impossible for him to have children. By all accounts the boy was awake now, and would live. True, Tyrion had allowed Janei to go into the custody of her maternal grandfather, Harys Swyft, in return for his support. (It had been beneficial at the time, and he had never seen a man turn on Tywin faster.) But, as the legal head of the household, Tyrion could still negotiate an engagement for her. Or he could always legitimise Joy Hill, Uncle Gerion's bastard daughter. Legitimising bastards seemed all the rage right now.
The war was won, well almost. There were still a few small pockets of resistance to quash , but Tyrion was confident. He still believed that one of his cleverest moves had been enlisting the wandering Sell Sword Company known as the 'Scorched Hounds'. They were some of the toughest killers in the land, not encumbered by annoying constraints such as duty and honour. Getting their leader, Sandor Clegane, to have a conversation with him had been the hardest part.
With men like Sandor gold worked best. It had cost Tyrion 500 dragons to get Sandor to come to King's Landing, and another 100 to talk to him. But eventually Tyrion had convinced the Hound of a man that the time had come to get vengeance on his big brother. Sandor was an ugly giant of a man, although smaller than his brother, Gergor Clegane, half his face was melted. Supposedly an oil lamp had set fire to his bedclothes when he was a boy, yet Tyrion had heard a far more likely version of events, that Sandor'ss older brother had held his face in the fire for playing with a toy knight that wasn't his. Sandor had been but six at the time. Tyrion took the ease with which he had used Sandor to bait his mountain of a brother into a trap as confirmation of this rumour.
Lannisport of course had it's own Lannister's to deal with, but sometimes you need to prune a few branches to save the tree. Reginald Lannister had been one of the branches that Tyrion had expected to have to prune, yet the man had surprised him. Reginald was a distant cousin and Tyrion did not know him well, but he had the Lannister sense of self preservation. He was the Lord of Lannisport now, a reward for choosing the correct side.
Yet, as much as Tyrion had shown he could reward good behaviour he also had to punish bad. He could not let people think he was another Tytos. House Lorch had been a throne in Tyrion's side, when the last of them, Ser Amory Lorch, had been captured Tyrion had ordered him to be sent to Dorne to stand trial for his horrific murder of Princess Rhaenys many years ago. House Martell had been very thankful for the gift.
Tyrion sighed as the sky lightened and the pretty illusions that dawn cast faded away. If only his father could see him now, he had saved the House, saved the Lannister name. He had favour with the King, the beginnings of a friendship with Dorne, he was in charge of the re-build of Summerhall, he had Martyn and Willem building trust with the Stark girl and Prince Gendry. Now, if he could just get Tommen and Myrcella back…
"It's quite a view," A soft voice said from behind him, Varys, Tyrion hadn't even heard him approach. "Contemplating conquering it?"
Tyrion frowned. "Do I look like a conquer?" He asked.
"Looks can be deceiving, my dear friend." Varys replied. "I've always found actions far more interesting, now tell me, what's going on in that giant brain of yours?"
"Oh no," Tyrion chuckled. "If we're going to play, you're going to have to go first." He took a sip of wine.
Varys raised an eyebrow at the cup. "A little early for that, isn't it?"
"Early?" Tyrion scoffed. "I thought it was late."
"Ah, so you haven't slept." Varys replied. "Perhaps I should come back later?"
"You haven't slept either." Tyrion observed. "You wanted to play, let's play."
Varys seemed to consider him for a few moments then nodded. "As you wish, I know where Tommen is."
"Ah, of course you do." Tyrion replied, he took another sip of wine. "And what will that information cost me?"
Varys laughed. "My friend, you insult me. The information is always free, the cost is what you decide to do with it."
Tyrion smiled. "Ah, that's why I like you, my friend, you always challenge people to think."
Varys nodded. "Yes, well, it's always a pleasant surprise when some of them actually do. So, my friend, would you like to hear what my little birds have told me?"
Tyrion shrugged. "Why not, I'm a gambling man, but you already know that, let's play."
Varys smiled. "House Darry has him."
"And you have known this for a while I assume?" Tyrion asked.
"Well, yes." Varys replied. "But I didn't know you were going to win. I mean, I'm glad you did, but I myself am not a gambler."
"No, no, you're a spider, you spin your web in every direction." Tyrion replied.
"Well, that is what spiders do." Varys acknowledged.
Tyrion nodded, he drank more wine and considered this new information. House Darry, but how? It didn't make any sense, from the information that he had gathered, half of it through Varys, Tommen and Myrcella had disappeared from Winterfell almost directly after the events that led to Jamie, Cersei, and Joffrey's deaths. By all accounts Ser Jonothor Darry had still been there. True, Jonothor had not returned with the King, but then neither had Barristan… damn it.
Tyrion sighed and asked the obvious question. "Was Ser Jonothor with him when he arrived?"
Varys nodded. "Very good."
"And Ser Barristan." Tyrion stated.
"Ah, now there is the curious thing, Ser Barristan was not there, and nobody knows where Ser Barristan is."
Tyrion raised an eyebrow at that. "Nobody?"
"Well, the King might know, and possibly Lord Stark, but it hasn't reached my ears." Varys replied. "Even stranger, Ser Barristan's armour did return, as did Ser Jonothor's."
"You must find that very distressing." Tyrion observed. "The not knowing, I mean, not the news about the armour."
"Oh, you have no idea, my friend, no idea."
"So, Ser Jonothor snuck Tommen to House Darry all by himself." Tyrion swirled his wine. "No, you didn't say that, you just said that Ser Barristan wasn't with him. Who was?"
"Ah, now this is why I do enjoy playing with you, my friend. Ser Beric, his squire, and Myrcella were with them." Varys made a show of adjusting his robe then returned his hands to his sleeves.
Tyrion pinched the bridge of his nose, he needed sleep, maybe he should have agreed to play later? He ran over everything that Varys had, and hadn't said. He hadn't said the squire's name, did Tyrion know the Squire's name? Varys had said that Tommen was at House Darry, but he hadn't mentioned Myrcella until Tyrion had asked about companions. Suddenly the name came to him, Ned Dayne, not a particularly interesting boy. "And how is Myrcella enjoying Starfall?" He asked.
Varys smiled. "By all accounts Sally Sand is fitting in well as Lady Allyria's new cup bearer."
Tyrion nodded. "So they're safe then."
"For now." Varys agreed. "But safe is relative." He looked out over King's Landing. "You still haven't answered my question, are you contemplating conquering it?"
~~/~~