The King looked at the burnt carcasses of the City Guards and Ser Gaunt with a calm but sad face. Ten golden cloaked men and this one Kingsguard perished in the green fire that turned the Tower of Hand into a burned out, still slightly smoldering ruin.
Behind his sad facade, his mind was already planning again though. The damn fire had burned for nearly a day and then it had been nearly two more days till all the inner rubble was cleared away, hot as it all still was and then and just only then he had the guarantee the damned Lion was not there, burned beyond anything. No, there was nothing of him there and nothing of the maester too.
Ser Barristan had dared to suggest that both had burned to ashes and thus be the reason for no remains to be found but the King knew it better.
Kingsguards should not think after all, they seldom could offer any useful thoughts.
...
The next couple of days after the flight from King's Landing were spent by Lord Tywin and Maester Hother on the Braavosi ship 'Seawife' in ever repeating woundcare and light eating and walking exercise and sleeping. A few times they both heard the warning shouting when other ships tried to come near the 'Seawife' but no ship was as fast as Degarros one and so no other ship could come even close enough to make them stop.
When the 'Seawife' reached the mouth of the Blackwater and took course to the northeast though, Tywin Lannister bitingly asked the Maester to be brought to the Captain Degarro. Hother did so, he was tired and not up for long discussions.
"Why are you not taking the course south? Why is this ship sailing northeast?"
The Lion's voice was calm even though he was so angry with the situation that he found himself in, that he would like to roar like his sigil animal.
Tywin Lannister prided himself with his self-restraint though, for once of course because showing too much emotion meant showing weakness, the other reason for his self-restraint was of course that his jaw was only able to handle normal talking, for shouting or roaring, his jawbones had too much instability due to Gerold Hightower's fist.
Even only thinking about what he would do to the White Bull helped the Lion Lord to endure the pain he was in most of the time nearly as good as Maester Hother's medicine did.
The thoughts of his revenge did nothing to help him now though, when he now was standing in front of the Captain of this ship that brought him away from the Capitol and was currently sailing out of the Blackwater Bay but with the wrong course.
The damned Captain just smirked at his passenger though and then looked to the third man in the Cabin.
"Hother my friend, as you know, I am always happy and honored to be in such a splendid company but I have to chastise you for I fear that you have not cared enough for the most honored Lord Lannister's head injury.
The most honorable Lord seems to be confused about where I will bring him to safety. Did you not talked to him during the last couple of days and nights that you both had the pleasure to spend on my beautiful girl?"
The Maester looked away from Captain Degarro's smirking face and turned to Tywin Lannister's furious gaze. Hother grumbled something about annoyingly loudmouthed Braavosi Captains and then he looked directly into the Lion's hazelcolored angrily glowing eyes.
"The Captain wants to bring you to Braavos first and only after you have paid him and the three others, only then he will set sail to the Westerlands."
Tywin Lannisters eyes widened slightly at the words of Maester Hother but then he turned his eyes away from the man and fixated his gaze instead on the still smirking Captain. The Lion lifted the healthy side of his mouth to nearly a smile, lopsided and barely there but still a little gesture that was a smile and then he told the Braavosi Captain, that if he wanted to be paid, then he needed to sail them all to the Westerlands, where the gold for the payment was.
Captain Omaro Degarro's smirk turned to a full blown laughter and tears of mirth escaped his eyes. He laughed and laughed, all the while Lord Lannisters lopsided smile turned to a grimace and Maester Hother sighed in forbearance. He finally decided to be the one that would explain his patient the reason for the northeastern course since it seemed as if Omaro just wouldn't stop laughing at all and Lord Lannisters grimace of a face turned ever more frozen.
"Omaro told me that he will bring you to the Iron Bank Mylord, he knows that you have quite a bit of gold in the Bank and he wants it transferred into his own vaults there. And I hope for you that you have enough gold there to pay him and the other three too."
Tywin Lannisters mien looked like it was carved out of Stone and Hother could only hope that the Lion had enough self control to not crunch his teeth together in anger, it would be bad for the Jaw after all.
The Warden of the West turned once more to the still laughing Captain and asked with pure hate in his Voice clearly to hear what would happen if there wasn't enough gold in the Lannister Vault in the Iron Bank.
The Captain stopped his loud laughter and gave his answer with a wide predatory smile.
"Why, I sell you back to your King of course. I might not get quite as much from him for your precious person Mylord but I am sure I would still be satisfied by it."
Lord Lannisters whole body froze while he heard the sure deaththreat. His eyes then narrowed and he looked to the maester near him.
Hother though looked to his old friend and asked with a raspy voice about his own future.
"What would you do with me then Omaro, also sell me to the King?"
"Oh no, Hother you are dear to me and much more worth than to be killed by a Kingsguard. No, the little sleeping drug that I had gained through you and your other little creation that Lord Lannister surely also holds dear, the extremely fast working painkiller potion, these two alone already made sure that there are many more options for what to do with you. Especially since I know that you have some more little surprises left and that I always needed you to gain replenishment makes you only more dear to me. I have no plans whatsoever to let your talents going to waste."
"Did you just told me that I am your prisoner now Omaro? "
"You, my friend are my most honored guest, long after Lord Lannister will have left my helpful and friendly ship, whether he does so after he paid me or whether he does so because I have brought him back to his King. You will stay."
The predatory smile on the lips of the Captain grew only wider with his words though his eyes glittered dangerously while he spoke. Hother huffed in annoyance and Lord Lannister expanded his mental list of persons that would die a gruesome death.
...
A young and goldenhaired man laid in half dying and half still living agony on the Stone bed in his Underground room on the Island of Dragonstone.
Just a few days ago the Red priests had arrived on this cursed Island and Gerion who had spent the days since he arrived on the Silver Kings private Island in a little Cell, was then tugged down to the lowest level of the Dragonstone basis and his already torn clothing was tugged of off him and then the Red priests bound him down on the Stone bed and cut open his Belly.
They did not care that he screamed himself hoarse because of the horrible pain, instead they seemed to enjoy his screams. They placed a huge stone egg into his cut open Belly and then one of them cauterized Gerions bleeding wound edges with a white hot glowing knife. The young Lion had prayed for a quick death then.
Now, after sheer endless time of never ending agony, after he had screamed his voicecords to bloody ribbons, he had long stopped praying and only waited helplessly to finally and hopefully die. The only other feeling besides the neverending pain that he still could feel was hate and it burned so hot in his still beating heart as the knife that had burned the edges of his opened Belly wound.
The Stone egg that was laying in his entrails, had started to pulsate some time ago.
Gerion hoped that whatever that meant, it would just kill him and end this horror and the hateful parts in his mind hoped that it would kill the ones that did this to him too.
.. ...
The Maester brought the Lion Lord back into their shared Cabin. On their way back they encountered the grinning Alyn and his nephew who did look away from them. Alyn though helped Hother to get the Lion Lord back to their Quarter and even wished them a good night with an ever more impertinent grin while he closed the cabin door from the outside.
The two recently escaped men then listened the noise that gave evidence to the fact that the door was then barred from the outside.
In the small place, Hother was more careful in his handling of the Lannister now that they were alone and he looked into Lord Tywins stony face and saw that even the short walk up and down the stairs had brought the Lion nearly to the end of his still meagre strength.
Though some part of the Lannisters exhaustion surely came from the knowledge of their Captains ruthlessness.
The Maester carefully helped Tywin Lannister to settle down on the lone bed and only then the Lion Lord seemed to take a real breath again. Hother dragged the only chair close to where his patient sat on the bed and settled himself on it.
Both men kept their silence for a while longer. Finally the Maester decided to ask the Lion the most important question.
"Is there enough Gold in the Lannister Vault in the Iron Bank Mylord? Enough to pay Degarro and the other three?"
The Warden of the West said nothing, he only closed his eyes and took a deep breath. And another one and a third one.
Hother waited patiently.
Finally, after many more deep breaths, the Lion Lord opened his eyes again, gazed into the ones of the Maester and nodded once.
The Lannister's lips were pressed into a thin line, though Hother could see that even though his patient was angry beyond words, he still was careful to not put pressure on his weakened jaw but only on the lips themselves.
The Maester snorted in slight amusement.
"Then you should be thankful for that Mylord and if there is more in your Vault, you might be even able to haggle out a deal with the Iron Bank itself, they might be more trustworthy than my sadly disappointing former friend.
I fear Omaro had become addicted to some of my potions. He changed, he changed too much and this kind of mirth and laughter is untypical for him. Just too unusual and uncontrolled in his gestures for it to be normal in a way. How he now behaved was how others in the Capitol did, who took too much of milk-of-the-poppy and added alcohol to it."
The Warden of the West looked to the Maester with a sharp interest in his glittering eyes.
"Can you use it against him? Can you control him then through it?"
The Maester sighed.
"Let me work on it, i am angry enough now for it and sometimes an old friendship must be ended."