Brienne:
"Would you like some wine, my Lady?" Asked a black haired squire who looked frighteningly like a young Renly. As he even had the bright blue eyes and his brow would rise when he waited for responses or answers. But unlike Renly he had large ears that poked out from under his black hair, and she knew that it was Edric Storm.
"Yes, that would be fine." Brienne responded and Edric filled the silver goblet with a red vintage.
Edric seemed to be shy around her, as he frequently averted his gaze from her's and would stare at her hair or feet rather than her face. "Would you like some cheese?"
Brienne knew she was in the King's tent and that he had finally called on her to talk, but Aegon Targaryen was still missing. "Shouldn't we wait until your King gets here?"
The black haired boy shrugged his shoulders. "He's usually late, so I just thought you might be hungry, my Lady." Edric then placed the round wheel of cheese back on the serving table and waited.
Thankfully the men hadn't forced her into a dress, and she was still in her usual attire of man clothes as Ser Bryce Brune put it when he saw her. After her capture, she had heard that the harelipped man Branton wanted her head for what she and her companions did to him. She didn't know what happened with that, but she did know that she never saw him again. A maester had tended to her wounds and bandaged her up and soon after she was brought along with army camp. If her guards were to be believed then they had apparently broken through the Bloody Gate, but she doubted it.
"May I ask a question?" Edric asked as his hands fidgeted nervously.
"Go ahead." Brienne exclaimed in her most pleasant voice.
It took a few more moments to build his courage and when he did, he shook his head. "Forget it, it's rude."
"Is it the scar?" She knew that it attracted even more stares then she got before her maiming. "I got it during a battle, when a beast of a man bit me." Edric still didn't look up and she knew that it wasn't the scar. "Out with it, no need to be polite. I won't take any offence."
His blue eyes went over her body and he swallowed down his fear or manners. "Why do you dress like that?"
She then looked down at her own clothes, which were a simply pair of plain breeches with a leather jerkin pulled over a dark blue woolen tunic. "Because it's easier to fight in these clothes than a dress."
"Why are you fighting? You're a woman, shouldn't you be married and at your home?" Edric was blunt and Brienne wished she hadn't indulged him.
"Thats rude, Edric." A melodious voice came from the tent flap and a handsome silver haired man strode into the room. "Now apologize."
Edric without falter, bowed his head to Brienne. "I'm sorry, I forget my tongue. Please forgive me, my Lady."
"It's no trouble, I asked him to be honest." Brienne had known Edric was just voicing the thoughts most men had when they looked at her.
Aegon gently patted Edric on the head before he sat down. "I must apologize for my own manners, I asked you to join me for supper and I'm terribly late." He bowed his head and retrieved a peach from the basket of fruit on the table.
Brienne felt taken aback by his manners as for the last week she had been a prisoner. While she was afforded a tent and bed to sleep in, she was still guarded day and night. "It's no trouble, I was talking with your squire."
"He looks like Renly doesn't he?" Aegon exclaimed bluntly, as he bit into the juicy peach. "Do you mind excusing us, Edric? You can bring us our supper in a little while."
Edric didn't hesitate at Aegon's command as he turned and left the tent. After Brienne was sure Edric was out of earshot she responded. "He does."
Aegon placed the peach back down on a empty plate, and he wiped the juice from his chin. "Ears are different, but I suppose that is his Florent mother. He's rather self conscious of them from what I've seen, he likes to hide them with his hair." Brienne didn't know how to respond to him, so she took a sip of her wine. "It seems a natural thing for children to do, hide their most self hated features." His violet eyes met her own. Then as his lips curved in a smile, she felt her cheeks flare. "I remember an awkward and shy girl from my youth. She used to keep her bangs long to hide her freckles, and when she would speak she would cover her mouth with her hands. I remember some rather cruel boys teasing her for it, and subsequently I remember each and every boy running home bloody nosed and sometimes missing a tooth."
Brienne paled under his gaze as she remembered her childhood. "And I remember a dour boy who never played with other children."
His mouth opened as a chuckle poured out. "I don't think I've ever been described as dour before. But we're getting off of my subject." He brushed his silver hair back over his ears and raised a finger to his chin in thought. "I seem to remember Martyn Selmy exclaim to all that would listen, that he would take your maidenhead. I think the pot raised to ten stags that he would succeed."
"I'm sure you made your coin on that." Brienne remembered that poor memory. Martyn seemed so kind when she had met him, he even let her use his training sword. They had become fast friends and she had fallen for him soon after. Certain word reached her from the mouth of a servant, that he only meant to use her. So when he had invited her to the cove privately, she knew he would pay.
He gently shook his head. "No, you figure me wrong, my Lady. I simply warned them that it would never work and that it was a cruel thing to do. Martyn was several years older than myself and quite a bit bigger then me too,"
"He wasn't bigger than me." Brienne murmured in disgust, as she remembered his smug face before she pummeled it in.
Aegon chuckle rose again. "Right you are. But he threatened to thrash me if I told anyone or you. I innocently reminded him that your father wouldn't be pleased to know that a third born son had sullied his only daughter. So Martyn cracked me in the face and split my lip, and warned me that bastards should know their place."
"I gave him much more then that when he tried to kiss me." Brienne promised him and then she recounted what happened. "After we met, he told me that he was in love with me. I told him that I knew about the wager, and he started crying and begged that I didn't tell my father." It brought a smile to her face as she remembered how it felt to punch him. "And I'm sure you remember what he looked like when he came back."
"Oh I do. Three missing teeth and a broken nose if memory serves." Aegon reached down and took another bite of his peach. "Do you remember his betrothed Shyra Estermont?"
That brought another smile to Brienne's face. "I do."
"Do you remember how he filled his pants during their first meeting at Storm's End?"
Brienne did, and it was one of her fondest memories as a child. It seemed like justice that a bully like him would be humiliated in such a manner, as when he first met his betrothed he gave a loud grunt and the foulest smell filled the small parlor they were in. "He was so embarrassed that he left the castle for home the next day."
Aegon nodded and exclaimed. "I had been spiking his drinks with greenroot all that morn, and as you might know it helps with constipation. So when he got down to one knee the pressure was far too severe for him to handle."
"Why did you do that?" Brienne asked as chuckle escaped her lips. She had thought it was the Seven answering her prayers that day.
He shrugged his shoulders and said. "My lip still hadn't healed and I wanted to make him pay."
It was an honest answer and rather simple reason, Brienne thought. But you've probably ruined their married life. At least his nose healed and his adult teeth grew in. She knew it did no good to chide him in that, so she asked what she wanted to since he had arrived. "Are you truly Aegon Targaryen?"
"What do you think?" She had known him distantly since they were both children, and she always remembered him as being dark and distant. But now he seemed confident and sure of himself in every movement, almost as if everything was planned and nothing was natural.
"I don't know." She had no other words for it. He had the silver hair she heard Rhaegar Targaryen had, and his eyes were distinct. "How could you still be alive?"
His smile grew as if he expected that question, which she was sure he had gotten a lot. "I was switched at birth."
"Why only you? You had an older sister too." Brienne's stomach had turned as she remembered the tale of how many times Rhaenys Targaryen had been stabbed.
"I'd asked the same question when I was younger. It was easier to find a babe of fair skin then it was of a dark skinned toddler." Aegon's lips tugged down and his eyes threatened to flutter. "But thats a sad tale and one I see no reason in dwelling on."
Silence had taken hold on the room, but to Brienne's relief Edric had found his way back in the pavilion with two covered platters shortly after. "Boar stew cooked with apples and onions." Edric explained as he removed the tops and a delicious smell wafted out.
"Thank you, Edric." Aegon exclaimed, and in response Edric bowed his head and left the pavilion again. They had both eaten in relative peace and quiet. Only the sounds of wind and other noises from the camp were heard. "So what were you doing all the way in the Riverlands?"
There it was, the one question she knew was coming, but Brienne didn't know an answer she could give him. "I was travelling."
"And?"
Brienne struggled to think of a good lie as his violet eyes bore through her. "I ... I was trying to collect a bounty."
Aegon's eyes shut and he smirked at Brienne while his head turned. "Really? I hope it wasn't Sansa Stark's bounty. Although I'm sure the bounty wasn't what was on your mind." She meant to speak back up, but he silenced her with his gaze as he continued. "Don't lie to me, you're no good at it. Now who were those others you traveled with?" His tone was now hard and lacked it's grace.
"I didn't know those men. We thought those soldiers were going to attack the inn so we were defending it." Brienne did her best to keep her gaze aligned with his, to try to prove her innocence.
As his head bent over and the candles created long shadows under his eyes, Brienne realized that this man was the old Maric who used to play his lute and sing to break maidens hearts. "Why did you have the Lannister blade?"
Brienne bit her lip hard, as she knew their was no way to explain herself. "It was given to me."
A dark and monotone snicker rang out. "Jaime Lannister gave you his sword ... why?"
"He swore to bring the Stark girls back to their mother. He charged me with his honor-"
His snicker raised in pitch to full on laughter. "His honor? Jaime Lannister has honor? My grandfather was mad and Jaime had every right to end his reign, but he forsook his duties as a member of the Kingsguard."
"But you don't-"
"I wasn't finished, he had a duty to my mother to protect her children. And what did he do instead of protecting us from Gregor Clegane and Amory Lorch? He sat on the throne while my mother was raped and my sister butchered. So don't tell me about his honor, for he has none." Aegon's voice was steel, and before it Brienne felt like wet parchment as no response came to mind. "And there's only one Stark girl left anymore, Sansa herself confided in me that her sister was never in King's Landing. And the Gods have seen it amusing to let Sansa slip through my fingers again."
"What do you mean by, slip through your fingers?" Brienne had been searching for Sansa for nearly three months and she hadn't come close to finding her.
"Petyr Baelish had kidnapped her after Joffrey's wedding. He had hidden her away in the Vale and I planned to take her back, but now she's gone missing." He pushed his bowl of boar stew aside and locked eyes with Brienne. "Now tell me who you were with, for I know they have Sansa now."
You did it Jaime. Brienne almost couldn't believe they had done it. "Why do you want her?" Brienne had to know regardless of the fact that she wouldn't tell him what he wanted.
"Her bastard brother was legitimized and that means Stannis Baratheon has a Stark. I will be King and I can only be that if all Seven Kingdoms come back together, and I need the North to make that happen and they won't support me unless I find a Stark with a better claim." His voice held no pause or stutter and she knew he was being honest with her.
"I wish I knew who kidnapped her, for I would set out and find them myself. I made an oath to Jaime that I would find the girls and bring them to safety, and Gods willing I will honor it." Brienne exclaimed and she felt no fear from Aegon's coming backlash.
"And where did you plan to bring them if you found them?" Aegon sounded amused and furious at the same time, and she noted that his hands were shaking as he gripped the edge of the table.
"To their brother in the North." Brienne lied and she felt that it was her most convincing lie yet.
Aegon stood from the table and began pacing back in forth. "I'll tell you one thing now. I won't let Stannis take another Stark from me." As Aegon finished his sentence, he stopped dead in his tracks and looked at her. "Where are the Brotherhood without Banners?"
Tell him, he won't hurt her and he can save Pod and Ser Hunt for you. It was her father's voice that advised her, and it seemed odd as she hadn't thought of his voice in a long time. But it did fill her with a warmth she hadn't felt in a long time. "I don't know."
"Yes you do, now tell me." Aegon's voice was hurried and he seemed distracted. "Jaime went missing from his army, and is still missing to this day. You met up with him in the Riverlands didn't you?"
Just tell him, my daughter. He can be trusted. Her father's voice kept exclaiming and it hurt her head to think. "I didn't, I ... I only went east to go look for Sansa."
"With Jaime and the Brotherhood. Don't lie to me, now tell me where the Brotherhood is and I will let you go on your way!" His voice was nearly high enough to be a scream.
Brienne couldn't answer him as she was mesmerized by a line of red blood that dripped out of his right nostril. "You're bleeding."
Soon after he seemed to regain his composure as he wiped the blood away with a piece of cloth. "Isn't that odd?" He murmured as he stared down at the red splotch. Without another word he sat back down across from Brienne and pulled his bowl of stew back to himself. "I'm sorry. But I need to know where Sansa is ... it could be a matter of life and death for her."
"I'm sorry, but I don't know where they're taking her." Brienne knew exactly where, but for Sansa's sake she knew that she needed to find her mother again. "What do you plan to do with me?"
His eyes seemed ragged and his eyelids fluttered as if he struggled to keep conscious, but still his voice was strong and clear. "We are setting back out for the Riverlands tomorrow morn. I'll send word to your father and see what he wants me to do with you. He was always kind to me, even when he had no reason to be. So for his sake and for the history we share, I won't hold you for ransom, and if he wishes for me to let you go on your own way then I will."
"What of Jaime's sword?" Brienne knew that she had to bring it back to Jaime.
A tired smile crept to Aegon's lips as he stared into the stew. "That is no longer yours. When I find Sansa, I'll return it to her and hopefully it's second half when I recover it as well."
"How do you know that the sword is made from the Stark's sword?" Brienne asked, as Jaime Lannister himself had only confided that horrifying truth to her.
"My Hand, Tyrion Lannister told me. He may not have said it in so many words, but he wants his wife back." Aegon planted both hands on the table and pushed himself up to his feet. "Guards! Bring Lady Brienne back to her quarters and serve her whatever food or drink she wants." In short order, two men wearing the sigils of house Swann and House Targaryen crossed entered the pavilion. "And bring me the maester after he finishes with my unruly Lord. My head hurts something fierce, and send Edric in here for I need him to write a letter for me."
