Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to the Ice and Fire Novels, Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon TV shows. However, I decided to have a little play around with the characters. I do not earn any money from writing these stories, it is for my entertainment and is something I like to share.

Brienne II

A week had passed since the wedding Sam left for Dragonstone. On the surface, life was the same, but Brienne could feel the winds of change. Gilly was teaching, but she and the babes were now living in the Red Keep and making a lot of noise about it. Bran was never seen, apparently the new Queen was helping him walk again. News of Sam was non-existent, nothing from the north. Arya was still missing and Bronn was still busy with the goldcloaks and his brothels. Even the Kingsguard were left with barely a role since the Silverwings had appeared. They were the ones who guarded the King and Queen, also Gilly and Meera. Although Brienne was fully aware they weren't being guarded for their own good, they were prisoners. She even suspected she herself was being watched. All in all, she was worried, suspicious, but mostly bored. Brienne now spent most of her days in her solar filling out rotas and planning training times instead of actually protecting the King. This was not what she expected the job of Kingsguard to be.

Brienne slammed the book of rotas shut and pulled over the book of the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. She could have filled her own pages full of her time prior to her becoming the Lord Commander, but truth be told, she hadn't done a single thing since taking on the role. Instead, she flipped through the pages to look at the achievements of her predecessor, Ser Jamie Lannister, which she had written for him. As she began to read what she had previously wrote, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in." she closed the book and looked up. Little Sam walked in with a smile on his face, which in turn cheered Brienne up considerably. "How can I help?" Brienne asked.

"Can we have a lesson tomorrow?" Sam asked. "We haven't had one since I came to live here."

"I'll have to run it past the King." Brienne told him. "I have asked before but he said no."

"Ser Rodden says it will be alright, he's even offered to help." Sam grinned.

Brienne frowned. "Ser Rodden?" she asked, not recognising the name.

"One of the Silverwings who protects mum." Sam grinned. "Ser Rodden!" he called out as a man entered the room. He was one of the Silverwings who had been at the wedding, but Brienne had taken no interest in any of them. To her they were a threat to the Kingsguard and possibly to her. She didn't trust them or like them, however she had to admit, the tall, handsome man in front of her had the friendliest smile and was as handsome as Ser Jamie Lannister himself. Brienne hated herself when her tummy did a little flip at the sight of him up close.

"Ser Rodden, we haven't had the pleasure." she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Ser or do you prefer Lady Brienne?" Ser Rodden asked.

"Ser Brienne will do." Brienne held her hand out to shake his.

"It seems little Sam here is driving his mother and the rest of us Silverwings crazy with his non-stop pestering to train. He tells us you have been training him to be a squire and were looking at him being assigned a minor squirehood at the age of nine." Ser Rodden smiled. "I have checked with the King and he thinks it would be a marvellous idea for us all to train together, do you not think? It shows a sense of unity to the rest of those in the Red Keep."

"If you must." Brienne raised an eyebrow. "But yes, I was thinking about him taking on a minor role at nine, but I have to run it past his parents first."

"Don't you think the King should be the one to have the final say?" Ser Rodden asked. "It's not like Grand Maester Samwell is here, and it could be months before he returns. Long after little Sam's ninth nameday. Should we keep him waiting that long?" he asked. Brienne could spot what the man was doing, he was playing on the wants of the child and appearing as the one who would be the person to give Little Sam what he wanted.

"If I feel Little Sam is ready by his ninth nameday, I will write to the Grand Maester and ask permission. Ravens don't take long to reach Dragonstone these days." she turned to Little Sam. "If the King has agreed, then we will train today. I would very much like to see what Ser Rodden can add to your training." she smiled, deciding it was time to show this Ser Rodden not to underestimate the fighting skills of a woman.

"Brilliant!" Sam grinned as Brienne got up and fastened her sword around her waist.

"We won't be needing Valyrian steel, unless you intend for him to train as a Maester instead.." Ser Rodden laughed.

"It was a gift and I never let it out of my sight." Brienne said tartly.

"From an admirer?" Ser Rodden quipped.

"Something like that." Brienne replied sarcastically as they set off to the training yard.

"I've got an idea." Ser Rodden grinned at Little Sam. "Would you like to watch me spar with Lady Brienne?" he asked.

"Ser Brienne." Little Sam corrected him.

"I think that is an excellent idea." Brienne nodded. "We could use training swords instead of the wooden ones, give him a good fight to watch." she suggested.

"Can I fight the winner?" Little Sam asked excitedly.

Brienne and Ser Rodden exchanged glances and seemingly agreed with the idea. "I think that would make for a very good training session. But I still need you to practice on your training dummy, both for fighting, dressing and arming." she said.

"Dressing?" Ser Rodden frowned,

"How many squires start out understanding how to put armour on?" Brienne asked. "It will save the knight he squires for a lot of time which can be dedicated to more important work." she said.

"Good point, I must admit, my squires never have a clue when it comes down to armour. You spend the first year teaching them how to put on armour and what weapons to give you." he agreed.

"I'm thinking of setting up a squiring school. Well to teach the dressing and arming of knights for children as the more people who can do it, the better it is if we need to go into battle." Brienne told him, deciding this was not a state secret. She'd mentioned it many a time to a few people in the Red Keep but hadn't put it forward to the King. She wanted to see how her lessons with Little Sam went first.

"I really think you should speak to the King." Ser Rodden grinned, and if Brienne wasn't mistaken, it looked genuine. "I think he would be very happy for you to set that up. He is after all, looking to get the children off the streets and doing something constructive."

"I would, but I can't get to see the King." Brienne frowned.

"Leave it with me. I've got the Queen's ear, you'll see him this afternoon." he said as they chose their training swords. "This one feels ok, for a training sword."

Brienne rolled her eyes. "I don't think any training sword feels good after Valyrian steel."

"True, but it is better than those crappy wooden ones." he pointed to the children's swords.

Brienne nodded then turned to Little Sam. "Sam, I want you to watch Ser Rodden and I parry, but I am going to ask you to hold a proper training sword." she told him as the boys eyes lit up.

"Am I going to be able to fight with one?" he asked.

Brienne shook her head. "I need you to learn how to hold one. They are heavy and you need to start being able to lift them. Go choose one." she told him as she took her cloak off. "Annoying thing." she grumbled, struggling.

"Here, let me." Ser Rodden offered. "Shouldn't your trainee squire be learning this?" he asked as he unclipped the cloak for her. His finger brushing her neck, which took all of her self control to not make her blush.

"Let me help you with yours." Brienne said as he threw her cloak onto the stool next to the parry swords. She unclipped the cloak and it joined his. Sam came back to them with a sword. "Now Sam, I want you to hold the sword out with your arm for as long as possible. See if you can hold it long enough for me to land this one on his arse." she smirked.

"Easy." Sam laughed.

"If I win, you have to swap arms and hold it for as long as I say." Ser Rodden told him.

Little Sam looked up at Brienne questioningly. "Looks like I'm going to have to win then." she shrugged, parting her legs to steady her brace and holding the sword ready to fight.

"Ladies first?" Ser Rodden suggested.

"I'm no Lady." Brienne scowled.

"Okay, don't say I didn't offer." Ser Rodden shrugged and clashed with her sword with a mighty force, initially surprising Brienne. She swung back with enough force to take him by surprise and they began to fight.

The attractive look of a man who clearly knew it annoyed Brienne, it gave her more momentum than she expected. Therefore it wasn't long before he was flat on his arse. "Yield, yield!" he cried as Brienne stopped and held out her hand to help him up.

"Thank the seven for that." Little Sam said as his sword cluttered to the ground. "My arm hurts. How am I supposed to fight you now?" he asked, rubbing his right arm.

"You've got two arms have you not?" Brienne asked. Little Sam nodded. "Then fight with your left."

"I can't." Little Sam complained. "Why do you want me to learn with this arm?"

"Because the previous Lord Commander learned how to fight with his right arm. He was rendered almost useless for years after his right hand was chopped off. He had to learn how to fight with his left hind instead. It is a good lesson to learn. Don't worry, I will be fighting with my left arm, which is not very good, so you might have a chance to beat me." she smiled. "But we will use wooden swords for this challenge. Even I would get tired with a proper training sword." she added with a small smile.

After they finished their lesson, Ser Rodden and Brienne walked Little Sam back to his chambers. This was the first time she'd been able to have access to Gilly since Sam left. She knew she wasn't going to be able to send a raven, so if she were to try to plan an escape for Gilly and the children, then she would have to do it without Sam. As there was a Silverwing guarding Gilly's quarters, Ser Rodden left them to go and organise an audience with the King. When Brienne entered the Maester chambers she saw Gilly, who looked thoroughly depressed.

"Are you okay?" Brienne asked.

Gilly rolled her eyes. "They're doin my head in. they want me to read them stories." she said. "But we didn't have time to pack anything other than Sam's books and I don't think the Theory of Herbology In Lys is what the children are wanting." she sighed.

"Tyrion's library is only along the corridor, why don't you go and look in there?" Brienne asked.

Gilly shook her head. "That is for small council only. I did ask. "

"I could get you something." Brienne suggested. "Do you want me to go and look?" she asked.

Gilly nodded. "Please, I don't know how much longer I can carry on." Brienne glanced over at the Silverwing who also looked at Brienne pleadingly. Clearly he'd also had enough of the children pestering Gilly.

"I'll go and see what I can find. I won't be a moment." she said as she left the room and walked down to Tyrion's library, just as Ser Rodden was on his way back.

"The King will see you in half an hour in the Small Council room, he is with Lord Bronn right now." Ser Rodden told her. "Where are you going?" he asked.

"Book hunting for children." Brienne replied. "Tyrion has plenty in his library."

"Then I'm afraid I must accompany you." Ser Rodden told her. "Nobody can go into the library without it being guarded by a Silverwing. The contents are the property of the King and Queen."

"I'm going to find a children's book. I doubt a copy of The Hedge Knight is going to bankrupt the realm." Brienne sighed.

"That may be. But I have a job to do." he shrugged.

"Fine, follow me." Brienne sighed. "But don't look over my shoulder, I hate people who read over peoples shoulders, it's rude!" she said as they arrived at Tyrion's library.

"I'll just stand here." Ser Rodden agreed as he guarded the door.

Brienne wanted one of the Dunk and Egg stories, she knew Tyrion had copies, so she chose to look for The Knight of the Seven Kingdoms as it was alphabetically first and his library ought to be in alphabetical order, so she began to browse through the letter T. as she scanned, she couldn't see what she was looking for and wondered if Tyrion had forgotten the word The and listed it under K. Brienne scoured the K section, but to no avail. She wondered if he'd taken it with him, so she decided to search for The Hedge Knight. She first looked under the letter T again, although she couldn't remember seeing it before, which as she discovered was because it wasn't there, so she searched the letter H, but again no book. Brienne scratched her head when an idea came to her, these were the tales of Dunk and Egg, maybe he'd clumped them all together. Brienne turned to the section which was a letter D and started to search.

"You're taking your time." Ser Rodden complained. "Do you have an problem reading?"

"Oh do shut up. I can read perfectly well. It just seems Lord Tyrion has an odd way of arranging his books, but I think I've worked it out." Brienne grumbled as she came across three books she was looking for, although there was another book in the middle which had clearly been stuffed there in haste called Drains and Sewers of the Old Red Keep With Secret Passageways Built by Maegor I. Brienne pulled the book out and was about to replace it when she decided to keep it. She remembered Sam had suggested they leave by the drains or sewers if they were to escape, and she wondered if he had placed it there intentionally so she would find it. Fortunately her breastplate wasn't tight, she quickly glanced over at Ser Rodden, who wasn't looking and pushed the book down the breastplate, just managing to hide it, thanking the Seven she had put her armour on that morning and not her squire, otherwise it would have fit too snug for her to hide the book.

"Found them." Brienne called out. "Can you believe he put the books under the letter D instead of where the name of the story would be?"

"Well they are the Dunk and Egg stories." Ser Rodden frowned. "That is how I would have organised them." he shrugged.

Brienne rolled her eyes. "Men." she whispered.

"I heard that." Ser Rodden told her.

"Good!" Brienne said and stormed off to Gilly's quarters before handing the books to Ser Rodden outside the door. "I need to freshen up before I go and see the King. I need to collect my plans. I don't want to be late." she added.

Brienne made it back to her chambers and hid the book in the drawer containing her personal treasure, mainly from her family. She locked the drawer and picked up her plans for the squire school and made her way to the small council chambers. Surprisingly there was nobody guarding them, even though she could hear the voice of the King talking to Bronn. Realising she was early, she was about to return to the outer door, when she heard something which peaked her interest, and she had to listen in.

"He killed Yara." Bronn said. "Burned er there on the spot."

"Did any of the Ironborn survive?" Bran asked.

"Two." Bronn told him. "He burned all of the ships with that dragon of his."

"He's gone mad." Bran said. "He's practically wiped out an entire race of people."

"Well, they were planning to attack Winterfell." Bronn reminded the King, as Brienne realised they were discussing Jon.

"Even so, no excuse for burning people alive. We can't have any of that in Westeros. If word gets around, they'll start thinking he's Aegon the Conqueror, especially now he's with his two sisters, one of em bein is wife n'all." Brienne heard someone, who she presumed to be Bran slamming his fist on the table. "We need to get our plan moving more quickly. How many males have you got from the brothels?" he asked.

"Seven Your Grace. Two more were born in the last week." Bronn replied.

"We need more boys. I wonder if it will work with older boys." Bran mused. "Maybe we should rid the streets of the male pickpockets and urchins. I'm sure the Queen can resort to using only female starlings. The Silverwings won't be enough if Sam finds what I'm looking for and does what I ask."

"But won't that take years?" Bronn asked.

"The Queen has a plan. It should speed up the growing process. Within a few months, they'll be the size of Rhaegal and Viserion. If we've got enough to overrun Drogon, then we can take him down." Bran snarled. This was the voice of the Bran but she could tell it wasn't him talking. All of the things she'd heard were true, this man was not the King people thought he was.

Brienne had heard enough, she edged her way to the outer chamber door and waited, the voices were now so low, she couldn't make out a word they said. She stomped on the floor, making sure they knew she was in the vicinity and their voices quietened.

"Come in." Bran called out as Brienne entered the room and bowed her head.

"Your Grace." she smiled. "Lord Bronn." she put her ball in its dish.

"Ser Rodden tells me you have plans for a squire school." Bran frowned as Brienne noticed he was looking paler than usual.

"It would be for the basic training, dressing a Knight, understanding weapons, how to store them and how to saddle an armoured horse." she explained, handing over her papers she had prepared.

"How much will it cost?" Bronn asked.

Bran smiled. "Less if we take the urchins off the streets before we put them in prison and start them training young." he turned to Brienne. "I was considering starting a small army. Calling it the crown army. I would take the young and impoverished off the streets, get them into training and make soldiers of them. What do you think?" he asked.

"I think that is an excellent idea Your Grace." Brienne smiled, realising she might have misunderstood the nature of the conversation between Bran and Bronn, although she couldn't get the tone of Bran's voice out of her head.

"If we start them with a squire school, just like you suggest, then they would become far more adept at a younger age." Bran smiled. "I would have a much more disciplined army."

"Are we expecting war Your Grace?" Brienne frowned.

"A militarily unprepared King is an unworthy King." Bran stated. "Our budget is low, so we must use the best we can find at the lowest costs. Allocating money from our crime budget to our military budget. I'm sure you and the rest of the Kingsguard would be more than adept at running such a school Lord Commander?" he asked with an evil glint in his eye.

Brienne had wanted this to be for just a few children who she would take on, it didn't involve the rest of the Kingsguard. She knew there was no way her men were going to be happy about this, she wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't a mutiny. But she couldn't say no, she had no choice.

"Yes Your Grace." she smiled weakly.

"Bronn will help you with the costs." Bran told her. "Is there anything else I can help you with?" he asked.

"No Your Grace." Brienne shook her head.

"If you don't mind, I have a few more matters of a personal nature to discuss with Lord Bronn. He will join you in your solar to discuss the more intricate matters." Bran told her.

Brienne stood, knowing she had been dismissed. "Thank you Your Grace for your time. Lord Bronn." she bowed her head and left the room and rushed to her solar. She needed to make plans, but not the ones Bran had in mind.

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