King's landing
Ser Barristan pov
Barristan sat with prince Aegon as they both watched lady Arya and lady Sansa take water dancing lessons from master Syrio
It's only been a two moons but both girls have made great progress,even though they are learning the same style but their approach is completely different,lady Sansa's sword is gentle and graceful like a stream of water,slow and steady but never-ending,and Lady Arya's sword is like a torrent of water gushing out in every direction,it's violent,strong and swift but lacks stability
Water dancing is good style which provides someone like Master Syrio a lot more flexibility in combat than Barristan but combining water and sword makes Syrio's sword lack the sharpness of a real swordmaster
That's not to say that water dancing is weak,the sea dragon that Syrio made is strong as a scorpion bolt in short distances, but Barristan feels that after one point water dancing feels like water bending but with waving a sword around for better control and speed,it lacks the strength and sharpness of a real sword style
But water dancing is a good style to start with for the girls,especially for lady Sansa,and every sword style has weaknesses,and he is sure that a master like Syrio has learned other sword styles to compensate for this
As they were watching Ser Davos came to them,"your grace somethings came for you at the dock,Princess Rhaenys is already there and waiting for you"the onion knight quickly said
Prince Aegon said goodbye to his cousin before they started making their way to the royal docks
As they reached there lord Aurane was already waiting to greet the prince,his ship is docked right behind him
The prince entered the ship after saying a few words to lord Aurane,as Barristan got on the ship he noticed that the ship is heavily guarded by the Velaryon men,he even recognized some of them,these men are personal men of lord Aurane, Barristan has seen shipments of Dracarys wine and gold less guarded than this,whatever is inside the ship must be really important to the prince
Aurane led the prince into a room,the room is filled with some old books and tomes, princess Rhaenys is sitting there reading a thick black book,but from the look on the her face she is not making much progress,and at the corner a middle aged man is sitting in chains,as Barristan got a good look,the man is bald with thick beard covering his face,and has a Maester's chain hanging by his neck
The prince went directly to the books as soon as he entered,he glanced through their names and picked up one,"How did you get these here in just two moons,I would think that the vault in the citadel would be properly guarded"the prince asked
"I have people in the citadel,and after you gave me the name of the ArchMaester it was easy,my people found the key to the vaults on his person after they killed him,after that they went into the vault and stole every book that has to do with Valyrians and dragons,and they even found the legendary 'Death of the Dragons' that you are holding,I read it, it's not much just Maesters going on and on about how the dragons are an abomination and if the conclave of Maesters can't control such power then dragons are just evil beasts,then it goes on to how the maesters tried to poison the dragon eggs but that didn't work so after the dance they poisoned the hatchlings as soon they were hatched,as the poisons doesn't work on dragons after the hatchlings are just three moons old"the princess casually explained
Barristan just stood there shell shocked,he didn't know what was happening,if what the Princess said is true than the maester were plotting against the crown and House Targaryen for hundreds of years,he looked to Davos and saw that he too was shocked just like him,but the prince just nodded at what the Princess said like it was nothing
"Still moving all of this soo quickly, exactly how many people do you in the citadel?"the prince asked breaking Barristan out of his stupor
"I lost count,I would say more than hundred men,more than half are just Acolytes but I also have two Arch Maesters,and I payed these men well for their services,but that's not important,my men found the book we were looking for"the Princess said waving the thick black book she is holding,"it's has the records of all the achievements or crimes of the secret conclave depending how you look at it,it even have the names of all their secret members,but these old rats knew the danger if this book got out so they have written it in some code,see the words are made up of letters from three different languages and even if you know all three of these languages it still doesn't make sense"the princess said showing prince the book
"if it is written in a code then how do you know that this book has the names of all their members?" The prince asked as he looked into the book
"The first few pages are dedicated to the names of the members,since their secret order was formed three hundred years ago just after the conquest, suffice to say most of those pages are still empty as their secret order never have that many members,but while the names of the members are written in code but their rank is in comman tongue,see, Maester, Maester, acolyte,Arch Maesters etc"the princess answered while showing the pages
"So now we just have to get the code then we can destory their entire order with root and stem"the prince realized
The princess nodded,"and lucky for us and unlucky for this grey rat when my men went into the vault,this rat was writing in the book,so he knows the key to reading this code,but he tells me that the key in never written down only kept in one's mind and only passed from one member to another,and he won't tell us no matter what"the Princess said pointing to the maester in the corner
The prince went to the maester grabbed the maester's face,the maester has a black eye,bloodly lips and Barristan is sure that his is missing a few teeth
"Did you beat him up ?" The prince asked looking at the man's face
"No!,I am not a savage to beat a man in chains,the maester had the great idea to escape so my men had to teach him a lesson on the way,but enough of this,do your thing with the eyes and get the key from his head so I won't have to deal with this grey rat anymore"the princess replied
Then the prince placed his hand on the maester's bald head as his eyes turned blood red,for a while nothing happened but suddenly the maester's eyes lost focus and he kept staring head like a simpleton
The prince took his hand off the maester,"kill him,he was hiding the key very deep in his mind,I had to completely break it to get the key,kill him now before he even forgets how to breathe in a few hours"
The princess took out her dagger and slashed his throat open,even as the maester bleed out he stayed still and didn't even struggle