Chapter 4: Drift Days
Alarra begged to stay a few days more on Driftmark.
"Father mislikes it when we delay," Lelouch said as she broke her fast on oat bread with bits of candied orange peel and apples. He much preferred his bread without frills and paired with smoked herring.
"Father mislikes it when you delay," Alarra said after swallowing. "I'm his prized jewel."
Lelouch poured his mother a goblet of Dornish red, and offered it to her with a look.
"It is fine, Lelouch," Mother said. "Alarra can stay. Your father will not mind much, I think. Besides, she has yet to finish packing."
Alarra nodded with vigor. "You should finish eating faster," she said.
"Why the rush?" Lelouch asked.
"I want to go to the beach and I can't go alone."
He scrunched his brows. "Don't you need to pack?"
"There'll be plenty of time for it later. Come on!" Alarra said, dragging him from the table.
They passed through the courtyard and immediately veered away from the gates. "Why are we headed to the stables?" Lelouch asked. "The beach is close enough to walk to."
"Don't be silly, Lelouch. The best sands are by High Tide," she said. Alarra dropped his hand and rushed over to rub her horse's back. "Did you miss me, Meraxes?"
Lelouch sighed and walked over to Seasmoke. He saddled up the silver-grey destrier and mounted it with some difficulty. "Ready to go?" Lelouch asked.
Alarra patted down the side pack on Meraxes, then leaned forward and raised her body slightly, putting pressure on Meraxes with her legs. The horse neighed and galloped out of the stables. "Race you to the ruins!"
The road from Driftmark Castle to High Tide was as well-paved as the kingsroad, though not quite as wide. It did not, however, cut straight through the island, but hugged the shores so that following it required them to circumnavigate nearly half of Driftmark. Over such distances, Alarra's horse tired quickly at a gallop, and her lead diminished in the face of Seasmoke's steady canter.
She didn't seem in quite a rush after Lelouch caught up, even slowing down to a trotting pace. It afforded them the luxury of scenery and conversation.
"To think, it's been years since we last rode together like this," Lelouch said, as the road curved into a southwesterly route. They could see the shores of barren, rocky Dragonstone just across the Prince's Strait.
"Not since we came back from Oldtown. You've been busy making Septa Kailsey gush," Alarra said. "Oh, your brother gives his coin to the poor and Lelouch visits the smallfolk. Half the time, it's all she talks about while Kiren and I work on our stitches."
"That must have been a pain," Lelouch said, the corner of his lips faintly tilting upwards.
"Unbearably so. I shall be glad to leave her behind when I leave for King's Landing." She nudged Meraxes off the road and into the gently sloping white sands. The morning sun shining overhead mixed with a sea breeze made for pleasant weather. "You though, I'll miss most of all."
"More than Mother?" Lelouch asked.
"Mother doesn't quite bow to my every whim like you do," Alarra said.
"I am but your most humble servant, my queen," Lelouch said, offering an imaginary wreath of flowers like a victor knight would.
She giggled and accepted. "Look, the ruins!"
High Tide may have been built to house the Sea Snake's wealth, but it's spot was chosen on its own merits. Situated near the northwestern tip of the island, the glassy elevated bedrock of half-melted stones was ideally placed to help protect the Prince's Strait and the Gullet both. On a clear day such as this, one could even see the outline of Sharp Point if aided with a far-eye, along the northern tip of Massey's Hook.
Alarra dismounted, handing Lelouch her reins as she skipped up the rocks with abandon. Lelouch hitched their horses to a wooden post Uncle Adamm had erected. The years exposed to salt and sun had not been kind to the oak, and it would need replacing soon.
He joined Alarra standing atop the "Dragon Roost", the highest stone mound near the center of the ruins. He followed her gaze west, where the paved road stretched downhill, through the lands of House Swyftfoot and all the way down to the ramshackle grouping of huts that still called itself Spicetown.
"This place really makes you think, doesn't it?" she said, back still turned.
"We might have called this place home, had it not been torched," Lelouch answered. "Seven willing, we might see it raised in our lifetimes."
She snorted. "And how would you rebuild it, if you could?"
"To begin with, I wouldn't use weirwood for most of the keep," Lelouch said, pointing to where he thought it might have been built. No records of its building survived save the stray passage from the Oakenfist's accounts in Hard as Oak and Bastard Born. Maester Banneth had helped him piece together what clues could be found, and Archmaester Metselen put the finishing touches on his mental picture of it.
"Did they really?" Alarra asked. "What on earth for?"
"As far as we know, yes. It was cheaper than stone at the time," Lelouch said, "and lasts twice as long against the elements. House Blackwood's Raventree Hall still claims to have structures of weirwood from whence it was first raised."
"Do you think the tales are true?"
Lelouch tilted his head. "It is not beyond possibility, though with how many wars the Blackwoods and Brackens have waged on each other's lands, it stretches belief that there are parts wholly untouched by fire."
Alarra turned her gaze on him, locking him in place with her round, purple eyes. "Keep building and histories… you have strange hobbies, Brother." She smiled. "But a little strangeness is not unwelcome. It's what makes you you."
"Why is it you wanted to come out here?" Lelouch asked. "High Tide never held a special place in your heart, not like the Tall Fields or Evendim Ridge did."
"What can I say? It's grown on me." Alarra leaned against a stump of stone. "It's got… character to it?"
"Our trip to Oldtown changed you," Lelouch said.
"It opened my eyes to possibility. That we might make more of this place than as it stands," Alarra said.
Lelouch nodded. "A worthy seat for our house with a city to rival Oldtown in splendor, if not in people."
"Perhaps not that grand," Alarra said, and pointed. "Say, is that our keeping stone?"
Lelouch squinted his eyes. "I think it is." He walked over to it and toppled over the top stone, before reaching in to pull out a shortbow and some arrows. "Remember these?"
"How could I forget? You taught me how to shoot with that bow and Mr. Haystack."
He tested the wood and found it still quite springy in his hands. Some more investigating yielded string and a straw target. Lelouch frowned. "I don't remember this being here when we last left."
"It's been years. I'm surprised you remember much of anything about this place."
"Yes, but the make of this looks new," Lelouch said. "I can't imagine this target more than a few weeks old."
"You're just imagining things," Alarra said. "No one comes out here but us. Or maybe Uncle and Donnall brought it when they last came."
Lelouch gave her an incredulous look as he propped up the target some yards away. "Uncle and Donnall?"
"It could happen," Alarra said. "Now quit your chatter and hand it over. I'm going to beat you this time."
"You've never managed before. What makes you think it'll be any different now?"
She shot him a brilliant smile. "Because you'll go easy on me?"
Lelouch drove his first arrow straight into the bull's eye and handed her the bow. Alarra took it with a pout.
They went a few more rounds, and though Alarra could shoot well, she could not shoot perfectly when the winter winds picked up. "We should head back soon," Lelouch said. "Mother might send out an armed party after us if we don't."
"Let her," Alarra said. "We ought to stay a few more minutes."
"Is that really how you'd want to spend your last days here?" Lelouch asked.
"Don't be so dour. I'm leaving for King's Landing, not going on exile to Braavos."
"Father hopes to marry you off and you are of age for it," Lelouch said. "You'll be expected to stay by your husband's side or at his home."
"My future husband will let me visit," she said.
"How can you be certain?" Lelouch asked.
Alarra fluttered her lashes at him. "Because you're the most stubborn man I know, and I can make you do things."
Lelouch snorted.
"Do you suppose," Alarra asked, "Prince Aerys will treat me kindly, if we wed?"
"I cannot claim to know him well," Lelouch said, "but Father is a good judge of character, and has nothing but praise for Prince Aerys' wit and skill at arms. He may yet be the greatest king to sit on the Iron Throne." He held her hand and peered into her eyes. "Yet, all of it would be for naught if he hurts you. I would bring the world down to protect my family."
"You," Alarra said, a gust of wind fraying her hair, "are being very dramatic again. No wonder Father fears you might run off and join a mummer's troupe. What about Princess Rhaella? What have you heard of her?"
"I know less of her than Aerys," Lelouch admitted. "Father writes little of her, and his brief mentions are to praise her beauty. I think he hopes I might be smitten by his descriptions and seek her hand. She's lithe and has the look of old Valyria—a classic Targaryen beauty."
"Do you not want to marry the princess?" Alarra asked.
Lelouch shrugged. "What I want has little to do with who I wed in the end. Father schemes with little heed for my thoughts, like he always does."
They made their way back to their horses and Alarra pulled out a thing of silken weave from her side pack.
"What's this?" Lelouch asked as she handed it to him.
She unfurled it, revealing their family's seahorse stitched with care. "A banner I stitched with silks from YiTi," she said. "Something for you to remember me by on your next voyage."
"It's beautiful. Thank you," Lelouch said.
The ride back to Driftmark went by faster. As they neared, he recognized the sigils of Harrock, Bryne, Tallfield, and all their other vassals flying. "What's going on here?" Lelouch asked.
"You ought to get dressed quickly," Alarra said. "We have guests."
He narrowed his eyes at her. "You tricked me."
"You let yourself be tricked," Alarra chided. "After all, you should have known. We have yet to throw a banquet after your first voyage."
-ZeroRequiem-
Crab pies and snail and salted haddock filled the tables, alongside rarer dishes of pork and beef.
"The blandissory is quite good, Lady Velaryon," said Ser Beren Bryne from down the high table.
Lelouch thought the mixture of beef broth and boiled wine with honey, blanched almonds, and chunks of capon too rich, but it seemed exactly the sort of thing the second son of Lord Bryne might like. Ser Bryne's dress of silk and silver Myrish lace must have cost more than all the food on all the tables put together, with coin enough to spare for a good sword.
"Have you given thought to your next voyage, my lord?" Ser Derrick Goodchair asked.
"I'm not sure what could ever compare after Oldtown, if I'm being truthful," Lelouch said, taking a sip of dry red. The Florent vintage was a lesser sweetness than Arbor gold, but then all wines were the same in that regard. "Mayhaps somewhere far off like the Jade Sea would be nice."
"You have a taste for exotic lands," Derrick said.
"Just so, Ser Goodchair. Just so."
"I am surprised," interjected Orin, the favorite nephew of Lord Swyftfoot, "that the Captain of Tides is not with us today. He played his part well on your trip I'm told."
"My uncle's many duties keep him busy," Lelouch said. "His patrols of the narrow can blow him off course for weeks at a time and sailing for Braavos has its hazards." They had needed coin for ships and wood, coin only the Iron Bank was willing to lend them.
Orin frowned. "With the new ships being built at Hull, I might have thought he'd spend more time here with such a task at hand. Speaking of which, have you an inkling who might be bestowed the honor of captaincy, my lord?"
"It remains a matter of great debate among my regents and I," Lelouch said. Ser Morren sought the command for his younger brother Manren, while Uncle was opposed to it. It would most likely fall to one of the other lords.
"Well, I'd hope to be kept in mind for such a post as well," Derrick Goodchair said.
"Rest assured," Lelouch said, spying Alarra laugh at something Bryne had said, "we are giving the matter due consideration, my lords."
-ZeroRequiem-
Lelouch and his uncle stood side by side, watching the Seafyre sail west to King's Landing. It was only fitting that the jewel of the Driftmark Fleet carried the darling of the Velaryons.
"In a fight," Lelouch said, "who would you bet on? The Seafyre or the Season of Tides?"
Uncle tilted his head. "If it were my crew and my man Moreo at the helm? The Season of Tides would trump the Seafyre easily. It may be faster, but it's men are still new. Plus, I've got some new additions for my ship to even any odds."
"Really?" Lelouch asked.
"See those ballistas there?" Uncle pointed to his moored ship.
"You've added two more on each side," Lelouch said.
Uncle grinned. "Moreo's been playing around with one for years. Finally figured out how to make it pivot and move around faster. We can even bring one ashore now."
"If you brought them to bare at one side, you could unleash ten bolts at a time," Lelouch said. "Your men would have to practice though, to make the most use of them in a fight. Once the ship is boarded, they won't be of much use."
"Aye, that's when the numbers will tell. Seafyre has three men per oar and twenty-five oars a side; that makes it one and a half times faster than my Season of Tides, but they've no space for ballista as a result. A well-aimed volley would destroy any crew's will to fight, even trained and tested men," Uncle said.
"So it would come down to the first few shots," Lelouch mused. "If they hit true, you might win without losing a man, but if they don't, your ship would be overrun."
Uncle nodded. "But you're forgetting something else. My ship is narrower, and built for ramming. It will win any contest of maneuver against the Seafyre."
"You'd sail circles around it, wear it down?" Lelouch asked.
"Now you're getting it. Battle at sea doesn't just boil down to speed and numbers-"
"-but weather and maneuver," Lelouch finished. "I remember your lessons well, Uncle."
"Ha! Good that you do. You may be the last of my kin to truly be a seaman," Uncle said. "Corwyn's head has been filled with Reach dreams and knighthood. He prefers horses to seahorses now, I think."
"Kiren likes to sail," Lelouch said.
"My daughter likes cruising," Uncle said. "Pleasure barges ambling down gentle rivers while servants feed her grapes. That's not what real seamanship is. And Donnall..." He frowned. "How is my son?"
"He trains with the sword at the crack of dawn each day," Lelouch said, "and does not rest until sundown, except to eat."
Uncle shook his head. "There's more to war than the sword. He does himself a disservice."
"Donnall dreams of taking on the white cloak," Lelouch said.
"Then all the more crucial that he learns other things. The white cloaks are tasked to protect the king in peace, and provide sound counsel in war," Uncle said. "While much of it is decided by royal favor, having some skill at sail will greaten his chances." The Velaryons were the finest seamen on the narrow sea, and bested only by the ironborn in Westeros. No ironborn Lelouch knew of had ever been trusted to serve the king so closely.
"He sees it as a distraction," Lelouch said.
"You ought to talk some sense into him then," Uncle said. "Seven knows he listens to you more than his own father."
"All children hold a spark of rebellion at heart," Lelouch said, "even princes and princesses."
King Aegon's children had famously denied their father's wishes before Lelouch was born. Duncan wedded a peasant girl, Jahaerys and Shaera wedded each other, and Daeron had not wed at all. Only Princess Rhaelle, youngest of the dragons, had done her duty and married Lord Ormund Baratheon of Storm's End.
"You listen to your father," Uncle pointed out.
Lelouch shrugged. "Others have larger sparks?"
Uncle snorted. "Your father does not appreciate you enough. Were that any of my children half as clever as you, or loved the sea as I do. You know, Jaron used to be a great captain when your grandfather still ruled. Now? He prefers to play at court instead."
"I know he sailed to Braavos on his first voyage," Lelouch said as they walked back to their horses, "but I confess that I do not know of his other ventures."
"His third voyage is my favorite," Uncle said. They mounted up and allowed their horses a slow and pleasant gait. "He got it in his head to conquer the Stepstones with his lone ship, and be crowned a pirate king."
Lelouch frowned. "That doesn't sound like him."
"He was a very different man back then, much more willful and brash like me."
"Did he attempt to take Pryr?" Lelouch asked. The island was not one of the larger ones, and was closest to Tyrosh.
"No, Pryr was under the thumb of the Archon even then," Uncle said. "I'll give you a hint—it was one of the larger islands."
Not counting Tyrosh, there were fourteen major islands on the Stepstones and countless minor ones, most little more than small outcrops on the narrow sea. "Hmm… the Veil is closest to Dorne, but you said he sought to be a pirate king. Redwater is too far south that I don't think it a likely option."
"That leaves you with Highwatch, Scarwood, and Bloodstone."
"Highwatch would let one survey the Stepstones on a clear day, and Scarwood has fertile soil," Lelouch said.
"Aye, but Bloodstone is the biggest."
"It also has the most pirates," Lelouch said. The island was half abandoned outposts and burnt harbors, half pirate dens and smuggler havens. "Bloodstone is closest to Driftmark too, other than Pryr. How is he still alive if he tried to take it with but one ship?"
"By the grace of the old gods and new," Uncle said. "A storm blew him off course and wrecked his ship on Tarth's storm shore. Lord Highwood found his sorry ass and took pity on him, offered him shelter in his keep. It was fortuitous for Jaron that Alysanne and her father were there as well."
"Is that how they met? Mother never told me this story."
Uncle snorted. "To spare your father the embarrassment, I think. He looked quite the fool to her, arriving soaking wet and testing the narrow sea during the fall."
Autumn storms were frequent, but not as harsh as the rarer ones born in winter. "What did he think of my mother?" Lelouch asked.
"He was smitten instantly," Uncle said. "Jaron returned months later with a greater fleet to ask for her hand. You should have seen his face when she asked if they'd met before."
Lelouch smiled. "That must have stung his pride."
"Jaron wished at first that the Drowned God might have taken him rather than be dealt such a cruel blow. No wound bites deeper than a fair maiden's scorn," Uncle said. "But he was nothing if not persistent and would not leave 'til Lord Tarth agreed to a betrothal."
"That actually worked?"
"Do not forget your grandfather was the master of ships as well, and that the Targaryens greatly favored us. Your grandfather was the son of a Targaryen, and no other house can claim kinship like we do. In the days of old, even a Lord Paramount would be honored to join their daughters to our house."
"Those days are long past," Lelouch said.
Uncle raised a brow at him. "We are not so diminished, even now, that others might heap scorn on us freely."
They stopped at the base of a hill. "Are you going to see her again?" Lelouch asked, glancing at the Mouse House above them.
"I should. She wants to discuss names," Uncle said with a frown.
"Names are important, but I think it is of greater import to discuss what you will do with my cousin when he or she is born," Lelouch said.
"I'd raise the child at Driftmark Castle, where those of our blood belong," Uncle said.
"I would welcome another cousin," Lelouch said. "Driftmark has grown lonely as of late and I should need someone new to dote over. Still...you know Aunt Eunice would not approve."
"Your aunt and I have not been on good terms since before Kiren was born," Uncle said. "It would change nothing."
"If you are truly set on this, then I am with you," Lelouch said.