Sansa and Daenerys had barely had time to hurry back to their rooms to grab thick cloaks and gloves before they were hurried by their guards down to the courtyard, where carriages were waiting to take them down through the city. The announcement had come out of no where, King Joffrey commanded that he was going to inspect the army outside the city, and that the court would come with him.
"Why'd we all need to go?" Dany heard one guard mutter.
"Because he wants all the guards, so he needs to bring the court so they don't try something while he's gone," the other replied.
It was true. Unlike every other procession through the city, on horses waving to the people, this was a sheltered affair. Sansa and Daenerys were cramped into a carriage with Lady Stokeworth, her daughters, Lady Oakheart, her ladies and one of Margaery's cousins. Two soldiers rode ahead of the carriage, two behind and four on either side, a wall of steel between them and a potentially riotous crowd. Not that there was much of a crowd. She snuck a glance out the window. People moved out of their way and looked on in bewilderment. It seems the people hadn't been told that the king would be coming past them today.
She let the curtain fall back and took Sansa's hand, squeezing it softly. No one spoke in the wagon, and Dany wasn't about to break the silence. Not even to ask the obvious question. Why the rush? The inspection was to raise the morale of the men, or so the announcement said, but why not give them time to prepare, she'd seen every lady in the wagon look better than they did now. One of Lady Stokeworth's daughters wore a crumpled dress and one of Lady Oakheart's ladies was still trying to fix her mistresses' dress on the move.
When the carriage pulled to a halt, the door was wrenched open by a soldier who stood aside and simply gestured for the ladies to get out. They'd been taken to the plains outside the city, where the army was formed up in rigid squares in front of their camp, with officers and messengers moving between them. Lined up along the rush were dozens of dismantled siege engines, ready for embarkation.
They were guided down between the squares, stopping every time so that Joffrey and Tywin could praise the soldiers and thank them for their service. The soldiers stood up straighter when Joffrey spoke to them, but she noticed a few glancing around furtively. She couldn't make out exactly what Joffrey was saying, but he seemed to be speaking well.
Dany glanced at the soldiers. They were uplifted when Joffrey spoke to them, a sense of purpose was restored. Restored, that was the key. She saw the deadness in their eyes. Their strength had gone, their conviction sapped.
Something caught her eye. One of the men moving around and between the squares. "Sansa," she whispered, tugging on her sleeve. "That man there, the one with the eyepatch." She nodded in the man's direction. He was moving between the lines, thick stubble on his chin, his brow creased in a frown, looking up and down Joffrey's court.
"Yes? What about him?"
"Isn't that ser Gerold?"
Sansa stared at the man. Then her eyes widened. "Gods, I think it is."
"Do you have the letter?!" She asked, frantic.
Sansa shook her head. "No, it's still down the hole, I didn't have time to grab it." Damn it. They'd thought that down the trap door was the safest place to stash the letter in case there was a search of their rooms. The last thing they wanted to be found with was a letter in some foreign language. Sansa tugged on her arm. "Come on, we're moving."
"Why did they have to rush us so fast," she muttered.
"Isn't it obvious," Sansa said, "Joffrey didn't want to risk any of his court having time to pack provisions and try to make an escape. He needs us all here, around him."
"Fuck!" She whispered.
As they moved on she tried desperately to get ser Gerold's attention, as much as she could without making it obvious what she was doing. His one uncovered eye passed over her several times before she was able to make eye contact with him. He frowned, looking away but glancing back several times, unsure as to why she was staring at him so intently. When she finally had his gaze, she nodded subtly in the direction they were going, mouthing wordlessly, trying to indicate that she needed to talk to him. Finally, still looking confused, he nodded and headed off.
She hoped he understood and kept moving with the court, going up the squares.
At the end, Joffrey turned and started addressing the assembled soldiers. The court fanned out behind him. Dany pulled Sansa to the back and left, hoping to see Ser Gerold, but as she cast her eyes over the army, she couldn't see him.
"I'm behind you." A voice whispered from behind her. She started to turn, but a hand seized her shoulder and kept her looking forward. "When the King finishes, and we have an opening," Gerold said roughly.
Joffrey finished his speech with an announcement of a portion of wine for each soldier about to march, to be distributed by the King's court. As the court slipped forward, Dany held back until there was a sufficient gap between her and the rest of them. Sansa looked back, saw her with ser Gerold, and nodded, turning back to the court. She stayed far enough back to not be heard, but not so far that she stuck out. "I have a message for you," she told Gerold, not looking at him. "It's from Lord Loren."
Gerold paused for a moment. "I came hoping to see him, where is he? Is he still too ill to attend?"
"You heard that?"
"Yes, and I'm not surprised. What he put his body through on the march, he needed to rest, but still…" He paused, memories coming back over him. "No matter. You say you have a message for me, what is it?"
"I don't have it."
"What?"
"I don't have it, not here, it's in my rooms."
"What are you talking about?" Gerold demanded. "If you have a message for me, just tell me."
"He didn't tell me, he wrote it down, asked me to give it to you," Dany glanced around, the court was moving ahead. They had paused so that a barrel of wine could be opened for the first square. "It's written in some language I don't understand, some kind of language used by the Golden Company. He says his squire can read it."
"Why would he do that?"
"I don't know," she hissed, they couldn't keep this up much longer. "Look. Lord Loren treated me well, so I'm doing him this favour, but we haven't been able to speak much, he just gave me this letter and asked me to pass it on, but I wasn't able to collect it before we were dragged out here with no notice." She turned to him. "Do you know the sept of Lady Adrianne?"
"Should I?"
"It's not far from the Red Keep, meet me there tonight, and I'll give you the message."
"Are you quite serious?!"
"Do you want the message or not?"
He ground his teeth, his lips pressed into a tight line. "Fine. Lady Adrianne's sept. Tonight." She nodded to him. He gave her a slight push. "You should get back to the court. Until tonight." He hurried away and she sped up to catch up with Sansa.
"What's happening?" She asked, watching on as Lord Tywin, Joffrey and Margaery filled cups of wine and passed them out.
"I'm meeting him tonight," Dany whispered back, "I'll give him the letter then."
()()()
The battle was taking place on the seas. From the balconies on the eastern side of the Red Keep, they could look out into the bay and saw the ships clashing at the mouth of the bay. They couldn't make out any details, but the setting sun was glinting off weapons and fires were flickering like candles. "Can you tell who's winning?" Dany asked.
"Does it look like I can tell?" Sansa whispered back. None of them could tell, none of the knights and ladies crowding the balcony, looking across the bay to where the battle was taking place.
Dany glanced up at the fading light. She tugged on Sansa's arm and nodded.
Sansa nodded and the two of them slipped back through the crowd. A minor nobleman and his wife immediately took their place, whispering to each other as they stared out. When they were alone, Sansa asked. "Are you sure about this?"
"No," Dany said, "but you're right, we owe it to Lord Loren to at least try."
Sansa bit her lip and nodded. "Just be careful."
"I promise," she said, pulling Sansa into a hug. "I have to go if I'm going to find my way in time."
"Okay, I'll make excuses for you," Sansa kissed her forehead. "Good luck."
Dany smiled as Sansa returned to the balcony. She sucked a breath in between her teeth. It was time to return to the tunnels.
Dressed again in her black clothes, she descended the iron rungs into the tunnels. In she bent down and picked up the letter and the dagger. She didn't want to take the dagger, she wanted to leave it here, away from the blood that she still saw on the blade. But no. That boy may not be the only one who stalked these tunnels. So she tucked the dagger into her belt, slipped the letter inside her robes and headed into the dark.
Even after an absence, she knew these tunnels, she knew where she was going and which way to go. She had never found her way out into the city before, but she'd come close, she was sure if she just followed that path a little further, she would come out on the north-west side of the keep somewhere, not far from Lady Adrianne's sept.
So she walked, back bent and ears pricked, into the darkness, down slopes, through gaps and down hidden ladders. She would come across it soon, there was no getting around it. The body. It was the only way she knew down to her believed exit, and she didn't have time to waste looking for another. Her hands shook as she approached the stretch of hidden corridor where she would find the body. She took several deep breaths and turned the corner.
Nothing.
She risked opening her lantern a little further. Nothing. It had been here, right here, where she'd stabbed a boy, cut him to death. But nothing. Had she been wrong? No, she knew this was the place. That meant… "Someone took the body," she whispered to herself. In the stone quiet of the tunnel, it was deafening. She wasn't alone in the tunnel. She walked slowly down until she at the exact point she'd killed the boy. "I'm so sorry," she said. "No killing, not this time," she said, squeezing her eyes shut, pushing out the pain, before opening them and hurrying on. She had to make it to the sept, that was her purpose now.
She found the path she was looking for. The path changed here, from being smoothly hewn from the red stone that made up the hidden corridors in the keep, it emerged into a junction in a rough passage of dark stone. Judging by how far down she had gone she was beneath the main layer of the castle, about street level. The path angled down to the left, which by her measure went inside the keep, and up to the right, which should lead her towards the main city. So she took the path to the right and headed along it. Outside the pale glow of her lantern, everything was dark.
Her eyes were useless, her ears only told her her heartbeat and the pace of her footfalls, so she followed her nose. She followed first the whiff of dampness and then the smell of rot and decay, the kind that came after a feast. A midden. She followed her nose to a small opening and crouched down to look through it. The castle's midden was out on the east side, this couldn't be it, could it, or had she taken a wrong turn.
She hadn't, this midden was small, too small to accommodate the king's waste. This must be a midden for the city! She cast her lantern around, rats squeaked at the sudden light and scurried into hidey holes. She squeezed her way through the gap, her thin frame enough to pass through the gap and scrambled to her feet, her boots sliding on filth. The remains were piled most on the other side of the midden, so she glanced up. Sure enough, a slope led up the wall on the other side towards an opening five feet off the ground. Grimacing, she clambered up the filthy piles and was able to clamber out the gap, forcing the wooden covers off the side and out into the cold fresh air of the night.
She gulped several joyous gulps of air and looked around. She shut her lantern a half moon was out tonight, she would use that light to guide her. She was in a short alleyway between what smelled like a tanner's store and an inn. She hurried to the end and peered out. She saw the outline of the keep and smiled, she knew where she was going.
She made her way to the sept. Glancing around frequently, making sure she wasn't being followed. There was no one outside the sept, had Ser Gerold not arrived yet, or was he waiting for her inside? She made her way over to the door and pressed her ear against it. Nothing. She knocked gently. Nothing. Taking a breath, she tried the door's handle. It turned, unlocked. She opened the door.
She'd barely taken a step inside before someone seized her arm, pulled her inside, covered her mouth and slammed her back against the door. "Shut it," the man hissed. Was he going to kill her, what was happening? She tried to look at the man, but he was hidden beneath a cloak. Beneath it, she heard the chink of mail.
Another hooded man closed the door leaving them only in candle light. "Check her."
The man who had shut the door, also hooded, reached under her hood and pulled out a lock of her silver hair. "It's her, weapons." He patted her down and found her knife, he slid it out of her belt. "We'll be taking that lady. It's her, Gerold."
"Thank you Mannfred."
Daenerys glanced over Mannfred's shoulder. Gerold stood in the middle of the sept, surrounded by five more men, knights all by the look of them, each wearing a heavy cloak that bulged around swords and armour. "You must forgive my caution, Lady Daenerys," he said.
"Caution?" She rubbed her wrist where the man called Mannfred had held her.
"Yes, caution, if someone asks me to meet them in a sept under the shadow of the Red Keep to pass on a secret message from my lord, I'll be damned if I follow it blindly." He gestured for her to join him in the middle. "Mannfred, Allion, keep by the door, and listen well." Gerold fixed her with his eye. "And I want to see this message from Lord Loren. Now."
Daenerys reached into her cloak. Immediately, two of the men by Gerold's side had their swords out and pointed at her. "Slowly," one of them warned.
So she slowly pulled the letter out, holding it between her thumb and index finger. She held it out and Gerold took it from her. "Tyland," he beckoned and Loren's squire came out from behind one of the altars, another knight at his side. Tyland took the letter and stepped into candlelight to read it with a frown.
"It is Golden Company Cant, Lord Loren's hand as well."
"Definitely?"
Tyland nodded, "definitely."
"Tell me what it says, Allion, Ondrew, watch her." Gerold drew back with Tyland to read the message while the two she took to be Allion and Ondrew stepped forward, hands on their sword hilts.
The silence seemed thick, the only sounds were the mutterings coming from Tyland and Gerold as they worked to translate the message.
A sudden crash from outside made her heart jump in her chest. Ondrew and Allion drew their swords, one of them grabbed her, she wasn't sure which, and held his blade to her throat. "Who's coming?" He demanded.
"What?" She gasped.
"That was our lookout, who's coming!"
"Allion, not now," Gerold commanded, moving past, his own sword in hand. "Mannfred, anything?" The knights by the door had cracked it open and were peering outside.
"I'll have to go out," Mannfred replied, looking back. Gerold nodded and Mannfred slipped from the sept.
"What's going on?" She said, louder this time.
"That crashing sound, that was one of my lookouts." Gerold glanced down at her. "Like I said, I don't trust meetings like this."
They waited in a tense silence until there were two taps on the door. Mannfred came back, shaking his head. "Just a gold cloak patrol, nothing else."
"Fine, back to the letter." The knights returned to their positions, hands tight on sword hilts, faces drawn in tight expressions. Allion released her, but stood well within range to take her head at the slightest nod or whispered command.
It felt like hours, but couldn't have been more than minutes, before Gerold returned, a thunderous expression on his face. He seized the front of her clothes. "You tell me right now, is this letter true, or have you faked it?"
"I haven't faked anything," she replied, forcing down her nerves and keeping calm. "That is the letter I got from Lord Loren, that he asked me to pass on. Whatever it says, I don't know. Please, I promise I'm not lying."
He stared at her for a few moments before nodding. "Very well. I suggest you get going, you can return to the castle?"
She nodded. "I know the way."
"Wait, ser Gerold." Another of the knights stepped up and whispered in Gerold's ear, at this distance she made out the words 'Lord Loren', 'follow' and 'tonight.'
"No, too risky. The keep is one thing, but not the holdfast. No, we do this my way, are you with me."
"Yes, of course, I was just suggesting."
"And it was a good one, but we go, now." He turned to Daenerys. "If and when you see Lord Loren, tell him, very carefully that I got his message. Other than that, you do not mention it to anyone. Do you understand?" She nodded. "Good. Go back to the castle. I hope we'll see each other again. Let's go," his call echoed around the sept.
The remaining knights emerged from the shadows, at least a dozen of them, not including the lookouts outside, and filed out of the sept. Dany slipped out after them, watching them leave into the shadows, before she started retracing her steps back to the midden and the path into the castle. Even more than before, she wondered just what Loren had written in that letter. What had she just helped set in motion.