Hello dear, readers I'm back!
First of all, I'd like to announce a change in the pace of the publications. Long story short: I'll now have more responsibilities in my job so I won't be able to publish twice a week. I'll still publish weekly, I don't know if it will be on Fridays or Syndays yet.
Now for today's chapter, I particularly enjoyed writing the dream. I hope you'll like it too.
Thank you to the readers who followed, favourited and reviewed this month!
Enjoy!
Chapter LXV: A candle in the dark
Daeron came back from the sept of Casterly Rock with his head a little clearer. The Faith of the Seven was not so different from the religion of the Old Gods in its teaching. Except that instead of 'protect the weaker ones in time of winter' it was 'help the poor'. The most notable difference though was the endless list of rites and decorum. He could not possibly learn everything overnight.
He told his wife of his frustration when he came back to their chambers. They were sharing a meal of lamb with pear and wine, not what either of them usually enjoyed eating but it was very well done. "Your ignorance of the Faith might be a problem indeed, but you do not have to do this alone, Daeron." She commented. "I was raised in the Faith of the Seven. I know the words, the songs, the prayers. You can accompany me to the sept, say a blessing outside and leave the rest to me."
"What do you mean, leaving the rest to you?" He frowned. He was grateful for her help, but he did not see how she could make the smallfolk see him has a faithful man by herself.
She chuckled. "I often forget that you were not raised in the South. I don't know any lord who give to the poor themselves. Or spend too much time in a sept. And very few give blessings. This is all the work of their lady wives. A highborn woman is expected to do these things for her family." She explained. "Coming from Norvos, my mother struggled with this task when she arrived in Dorne. The smallfolks were wary of her for the first years. They called her a foreign witch. My birth and her learning of the Faith endeared her to the people."
Daeron nodded. "Thank you, if you think it can work, I would really appreciate your help." He took the tips of her fingers in his hand and brought them to his face to put a kiss on her knuckles.
She was smiling when he lifted his gaze to look at her. "I think it would do you good if I brought your aunt with me as well. She is a Targaryen, more so than me. And one of their arguments, no doubt, is that Targaryens are monsters born of incest. If they see her as a faithful woman, it can only help you and our cause."
"We should ask her." Daeron agreed. He was certain Daenerys would accept. She was eager to prove herself and help him. He knew she felt like a failure after the disaster in Meereen. Spending time with Arianne might be beneficial so that they could get used to one another as well.
Indeed, she was easy to convince and so the three of them took the direction of the sept in Lannisport. It was a short ride, the city really sat in the shadow of the Rock. Compared to King's Landing, it felt much more civilized. The streets were not perfectly clean, but they were not near as dirty as the capital. The streets were well organized and straight. Also, there was no stench. The air was pure and fresh, it smelled a little of the salt from the sea. It was agreeable to walk in those streets.
The sept in itself was well maintained. The hand of the Lannister could be seen in the design of the building. The floor was marble of different colours and the statues had some gold leaves on them. It did not look as rich as Casterly Rock itself, but it was clear someone wanted to remind the people who their lords were.
There were not many commoners in the sept, Daeron was a little disappointed, his whole purpose was to be seen. But Arianne had a little smile on her lips, she did not seem worried at all, so he shrugged of the feeling. They were greeted by the septon, exchanged a few words and then he blessed them. Arianne indicated to him the statue of the Warrior, he could have recognized it on his own, he held a sword in his stone hands. They had thought of who to pray to. Daeron would kneel before the Warrior first, then the Father and finally the Smith. Arianne would go to the Mother, the Crone and the Father while Daenerys would pray to the Maiden, the Mother and the Smith. Daeron knelt beside a man who had already been there when they entered. He looked like a trader, or the owner of a shop maybe. He became red and bowed deeply when he noticed the King. Daeron gave him a nod and an encouraging smile before turning to the statue. He had never prayed to the seven gods before, but he guessed it was not so different from the Old Gods. Only it was not a tree but a statue and there was no cool breeze since they were inside. When he got up, he almost forgot the candle, but just in time he remembered and lit one for the Warrior before moving on.
There were a few more people inside when they left, but it was outside that the change was the starkest. In front of the sept, smallfolks had massed. Arianne's smile was now huge. He understood now what she had been counting on. The fact that they were going to the sept, the order in which they prayed, all of this would be known by everyone in town by the morning. The onlookers around the sept called their names. "Seven blessings to you." Daeron repeated the words he had been taught by his wife. People held their hands out in hope of touching him. Arianne and Daenerys were equally popular, a lot of people asked for blessings. She touched more babies' foreheads than he could count. There would be an army of Daerons, Ariannes and Daeneryses in the coming years in Lannisport. He too gave his blessings to a few persons mostly sick loved ones. "I'll light a candle for your mother, goodman." "Your daughter will be in my prayers." "Seven blessings to your cousin." It took them half an hour to cross the place to get to their horses.
From there, Daeron had to go back to the Rock, there was still a war to win. But Arianne and Daenerys moved to an orphanage where they would give food and toys to the children. Arianne had told him not to expect them before sundown. He would have liked to go with her he realized. Having a child of his own had made him love the young ones even more and he could not bare the thought of children without their parents. He wanted to comfort them. Though, the war cared not for his small feelings.
Surely enough, his wife told him how her day went once they were tugged in bed at night. "There was this little boy. I gave him a wooden knight. He said his dad should have been a knight because he always defended the good people and fought the bad. He was a soldier apparently, a widower pulled from his children by Tywin. It truly is heart breaking, all these children. I wonder what happens to them once they are of age… I never asked myself that. I should have asked." Daeron did not know if she was still talking to him or to herself.
"When we get King's Landing back and the threat to the North is dealt with, we should put something in place for the orphans of the war." He suggested.
"My idea exactly." She replied with a big genuine smile.
The following day, a patrol Daeron had sent in Lannisport finally captured some sparrows who were seen breaking the King's peace. They were beating a young boy apparently. Daeron and his Queen left the Rock to deal with them personally. By the time they arrived, the boy, who could not have been older than four-and-ten had died of his injuries. Yet, the sparrows still shouted at him. According to them, the boy was guilty of fornication, but they brought no proof of their accusation, only the word of another boy. Said boy, when he realized what had happened to the other retched and confessed, he had invented everything to get back at the dead boy. All of this for a petty quarrel between children.
Daeron immediately had ropes pulled up for the four sparrows. Four men of the King brought the Sparrows forth, made them climb on barrels and the nooses around their necks. He addressed the crowd that had formed. "May this disastrous event be a reminder to us all, only the Seven know the truth, only the Father may judge us completely. These Sparrows are just men, they do not speak for the Gods and we do not bow to them. I, King Daeron of House Targaryen, King of the Andals, the Rhoynars and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm, sentence them to die in the name of all that is holy and faithful in the world." He moved to the man closest to him. "Any last words?"
"To the Seven Hells the heretics." The Sparrow screamed. Jon kicked the barrel and did not even look at the man as he stopped moving and died. The three others were not more inspired in their last sentences.
...
Long after Arianne had gone to sleep, Daeron laid awake in their bed. He did not move for she had her head resting on his shoulder and he did not want to wake her up. Robb had not approved of what happened that day. It was not that he had sentenced the men to die, of course he agreed with that. But he did not like the means Daeron had used. In the North, the man who passed the sentence should swing the sword and Robb, like his father before him, applied these words rigorously. He would have had the men beheaded. "I don't understand how you can pretend to be a man of the Faith if you don't uphold your own beliefs." He had argued.
"I did apply my beliefs. I pushed the barrels away, I was the one to kill them. Common murderers of low birth are not beheaded in the South." He had countered trying not to get annoyed with his cousin. "I have to respect the customs of the place."
But now, he did not feel confident with himself anymore. He worried about what Robb had said, because somehow it was true, he felt like he was 'pretending' to be someone he was not. Pretending to be a King, pretending to be a faithful man, pretending to be a warrior. The list went on and on.
"Uneasy is the head that wears the crown." One of his ancestors no doubt said to him. Daeron had not realised he had fallen asleep. "The day you are fully confident in your heart that you are the King, is the day you cease to be a good one. You have to question yourself and your actions, always." The King before him had a well-kept beard, a red doublet, a black sash, and black breeches. He looked wise, his words sounded wise as well. "Silly me." The man chuckled. "I forgot to tell you who I am. Jaehaerys I." He introduced himself and Daeron saw where the wisdom was coming from.
He bowed. "Your Grace. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Likewise." There was something reassuring in his smile. "You did well hanging those fanatics. I would have done the same. Had to do the same in fact. But I guess the execution of a few 'holy men' went unnoticed in history. My uncle did most of the slaughter of the Faith. I arrived and all I had to do was compromise with them, no side wanted to fight anymore."
"I did not even know you had to execute any." Daeron confirmed.
"There were still a few who questioned my reign since I married my sister, and I was Maegor's nephew. They armed themselves and tried to attack me, which was against the rules I had just agreed to with the High Septon. I had to execute them." Jaehaerys explained. "Just like you had to execute yours. They were murderers, even if the boy had fornicated, it was not their place to deliver justice."
"I know." Daeron nodded, after all, he had executed them for the crime in the end.
"I know that you know, but sometimes it feels better once you hear it from someone else." The Old King offered.
"It does feel slightly better." Daeron confirmed.
They stood side by side in silence. They were looking at the sea from the top of a cliff. Daeron could not tell where they were, there was no building or landmark to give them an indication on their location.
"Your reign will be a time for change." Jaehaerys broke the silence. "Once you defeat the Army of the Dead, you will be able to change many things for the better. Not every King has this opportunity."
"If I defeat the Army of the Dead." Daeron corrected.
"You will." His ancestor replied confidently. "You were born for this. The Prince that was Promised shall be born of the line of Aerys and Rhaella. Jenny from Oldstone predicted as much. She was not wrong. Only some interpreted it in twisted ways."
"I did not think you would be one for prophecies." Daeron commented. He vaguely knew of this prophecy and it had been hinted to him before that his father married his mother to fulfil the prophecy.
"I believe in them, I just don't let them guide my decisions. It is fate, what can we do about fate? We are not the Crone." His ancestor insisted but it sounded a little like a jape so Daeron laughed.
...
When he woke up in the morning, Daeron wished he could have brought back his ancestor from the dream. He could have need of a counsellor with such wisdom.
He could have had need of a counsellor like the man who presented himself at the castle the next morning too. If only he had not been on the other side of the current conflict. The man understood very well how to play the rich and powerful lords of Westeros, Daeron could see that in an instant. He had gotten arrested by a Lannister cousin and brought to the Rock, exactly like he wanted to. He was paraded by the guards and mistreated in public, as he had wished. But the part where he was in the wrong was that Daeron was not a rich and powerful lord of Westeros. Well, he was now, but he had not been born to it. Being born a bastard had at least taught him one thing, humility was a virtue. So, the High Sparrow, as the guards who brought him introduced him, could not use the typical noble lack of humility against him.
"They say you are the High Sparrow, the leader of the new brothers in the streets, is that true?" Daeron asked.
"Names are given by others, often by one's enemy. I have been called the High Sparrow, no doubt a way to belittle me." The old man who wore beige rags and no shoes replied. "And the brothers are all led by the Seven, not me."
"So, they know the will of the gods?" Daeron raised and eyebrow. "I would have wished to have such gift maybe this way it would be easier for me to rule." On his left, Arianne and Tyrion Lannister laughed, not even bothering to hide it.
"No one knows the will of the gods, we can simply do the best we can in interpreting it." The man did not seem amused, neither was he destabilized though.
"Then, how do the brother coordinate their interpretations? There must be a leader. Or at the very least a group of leaders." He doubted it, fanatics could only be led by one charismatic leader, if there was a group, it was a mummer's farce. "You were singled out in the streets of Lannisport for being the head of the group. Why?"
"Men do strange things sometimes." The old man shrugged. "If my brothers want to follow my interpretations over other's, it is their wills, and the will of the gods."
"Then it is your 'interpretations' that caused a young boy's death yesterday in Lannisport." He used the man's own vocabulary to give more impact to his words. "Your brothers beat him to death, a boy of four-and-ten, what was godly in that?" Daeron asked a little more vehemently.
"The boy was accused of fornication." The High Sparrow replied. He stopped there, but Daeron was not about to speak with such mere explanation. The silence was long and painful, yet, thankfully, the man broke eventually. "According to the Seven-pointed Star, fornicators should die."
"The Faith's justice has been outlawed since the time of King Jaehaerys I, nearly three hundred years ago. Justice cannot be conducted in the name of religion alone." Daeron reminded him, grinning because the man had just given him a legal reason to arrest him on a silver platter.
"This is a law of men, not the Gods." Whether he had not realised that he was contradicting himself or not, Daeron could not tell.
"How do you know the laws of the Gods? Since you do not know their will?" Daeron did not give him any time to answer. "In any case, the Father judges us all when the time comes, only he can determine with certitude if someone is guilty or not. Though, our lowly man-made investigation showed that the boy who was killed was not even guilty of fornication…" He slowed at the end to give it more effect.
"Lying is a great offence to the Gods." The High Sparrow started. "The Seven-pointed Star recommends…"
Daeron interrupted him. "It will not bring the dead boy back!" He shouted. "Nor will it give his family his income back! Punishing another boy for a petty game of children will bring nothing but more despair! They are children! Your brothers on the other hand are grown men, grown men who should know better than to harass the subjects of the Westerlands like common thugs. And since they listen to you, that makes you their leader. You are hereby arrested for the offences of armed religious activities and illegal exercise of justice. Your trial shall be conducted as soon as the Lord of Casterly Rock is available." Tyrion snorted behind him.
Before the High Sparrow could answer and no doubt protest, a Lannister soldier entered the room shouting. "Your Grace! My Lords! There is a mob of peasants in Lannisport, they are armed with forks and pikes, they kill every Sparrow they see."
Daeron frowned, he turned to look at his wife and noticed she had a wide smirk on her face. She had been keeping something from him because she did not look as if it was news to her. "Take the prisoner away, I shall deal with this matter immediately." Other guards obeyed his order, the messenger stayed. "Who are these mobs? Do they have a leader?" As great a boon as this was that the smallfolks were doing his work for him, for the sakes of appearances he had to look into it and try to deliver justice.
"It looks like every peasant, shop owner, trader, fisherman, innkeeper and others took arms. By all accounts, a man wearing a mask of the Father told them to gather and slaughter the Sparrows. There has been no trace of the man." The soldier explained.
"I want this man with a mask found. He shall be tried for enticing murder. Varys!" He called the Spider. "You will make sure he is found." It was all for show and he hoped the eunuch knew that. He had no intention of bringing anyone to justice, but, since he was King, it was expected of him and his enemies would use it against him if he did not. "Lord Tyrion, send a few men to Lannisport to disperse the crowds, we cannot try every last smallfolk in the Westerlands because they were oppressed by fanatics." Nobody challenged his words.
"I shall do it your Grace, though it may take time." Tyrion Lannister replied cheekily. Daeron had to exercise some self-control to avoid laughing.
"Take as much time as you need." He managed to say seriously.
It would take a lot of time indeed, since, when they left days later for war against Tywin Lannister, they still found bodies of Sparrows on the sides of the roads. The angry mobs spread all through the Westerlands, everywhere the Sparrows went, they followed. There would probably be some rumours about Daeron when he arrived in the capital, Tywin Lannister would use these mobs to show the Targaryen King in a bad light. Yet, Daeron did not care, he imagined, 'King' Joffrey had his fair share of rumours as well.
When he passed by his wife, he whispered in her ear. "Did you know this would happen? What did you do?"
"I used the power of whispers, my dear, one day I might teach you." She replied with a satisfied tone.
...
"I should go to the Vale." Daenerys announced after another war council.
During the council, they had once again argued over the best course of action. The Northerners wanted to move against Tywin immediately so that they could go back North and prepare for the White Walkers and the dead quicker. The others argued that King's Landing would hold longer in a siege and that Tywin would come out eventually. Then, one of the Stormlanders talked about the Vale and the Riverlands and all hells broke loose. The fight between those who believed the threat and those who did not was tiring enough, but amongst those who believe there were some divides as well. Lord Glover kept repeating that they needed to go back and would not need the knights of the Vale nor the Riverlanders to defeat the Army of the Dead, that they only had to hurry. Against him, Aurane objected that they needed every able-bodied man in the Seven Kingdoms, including the knights of the Vale and the Riverlanders. It was endless.
And it led to Daenerys suggesting in private – thank the Gods – that she should go and take the Vale for Daeron. The Riverlands was out of the question because they were under siege by some of Tywin Lannister's armies. It would be too risky for her to try and conquer it back on her own. But the Vale… It was governed by Lord Baelish, Littlefinger, as Regent of Robin Arryn, and he was the only reason why they had remained neutral. The prominent lords of the Vale wanted to join Daeron's side of the war, at least that was what Varys said. The only thing preventing them from taking action was their honour which commanded them to obey their liege lord.
"Queen Rhaenys did it on dragonsback, the situation is not much different than during the Conquest." Arianne commented. "Daenerys would only have to take Littlefinger out of the equation and the Vale is yours, my love."
"Only?" Daeron repeated. "If you are to only take Littlefinger out, you have to kill him, you realize that?" He addressed his aunt.
"I do and I am prepared to do it. Drogon will burn him." Daenerys replied.
"You cannot burn him, not in the Eyrie, you would damage the castle and harm the people around him. They would not join us then." Daeron hypothesised.
"I can go with her." Arya intervened from behind where Daeron was seated. "Littlefinger is on my list I want to kill him anyway. Drogon can take someone else on his back, can he not?" Daenerys nodded.
"Arya, no." Daeron said. "I cannot let you go, I'm not even sure I can let Daenerys go."
"Why not?" Arya fired back.
"Because it will be dangerous and if something was to happen to you, I would not forgive myself." Daeron replied.
"If it was Robb asking, would you let him go?" Arya challenged. Yes, he would. She interpreted his silence. "See? I am a warrior too, not just a little girl. I can go."
"I'll make sure nothing happens to her." Daenerys added. "We will come back immediately if it is not safe anymore."
Daeron looked at Robb who shrugged. The King sighed. "Fine, but you have to promise to be careful, both of you." He looked at the two girls.
"We promise." They said in unison.
Any thoughts?
What do you think will happen in the Vale?
Next week: Armies join in preparation of the battle and bad news.
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