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Chapter 4 – Age 22
IV
Benjen stepped out into the Bravosi sun and let his smile turn feral. Bravosi were definitely good for business. They loved to spend their money on anything that gave them the satisfaction of flaunting their status. And the North Lamp, as it had taken to be called, was now a must have for any high-end ball as no lady would pass without her home being illuminated by dozens of them.
For two years he had traveled around Essos, divulging Northern products. The northern free cities of Bravos, Lorath and the Port of Ibben were still the ones where they did the most profit, but ships sailed from White Harbor all the way down to Pentos, Myr and Lys.
Fur lined clothing to Ibben and Lorath, wooden furniture to Pentos, paper to bravos, iron to Lys and Myr for their warring in the Disputed Lands. North Lamps to all of them.
Not to mention the trade with Dorne. The Dornish loved wood. They used it for spears, furniture, decoration and for their fireplaces. And since they didn't have any – for now, the new trees were still just babies – they bought a lot of it. And in return they gave the north enough sand that now every Keep had at least two or three glasshouses.
It had taken a long time, but in the end, the North's new glassmakers – a bunch of repurposed blacksmiths – could make sheets of glass of good enough quality for their purpose.
Benjen couldn't help but smirk. Life was good
Looking over at the sea, he was glad that he had been able to see all those places. While he still planned to join the Watch eventually, he would have never seen sights such as the Titan of Bravos if he had gone to the Wall right after the war.
He had gone from an assistant to Lord Dustin or Lord Manderly to commanding his own trading fleet, complete with vessels armed for protecting against pirates.
The Northern fleet had grown very rapidly. To a point where White Harbor could no longer support all the boats easily. When he had last left Winterfell Heddara had been in talks with several Lords on both the east and west coast of the Kingdom to start building more ports on the towns surrounding their holdfasts.
Hopefully they would be able to move some vessels east to patrol the waters there and to trade with the Westerlands.
The Ironborn had been quiet since the rebellion, and quiet Ironborn meant plotting Ironborn.
And no one wanted any of those around.
Feeling on top of the world, Benjen Stark whistled down the street accompanied by his guards.
Aaron Snow was glad to be back in Bravos.
The Company had been serving Lys on another bid for more land in its eternal quarrel with Myr, and while the coin had been good, it was always a hassle to fight amidst the arid and hot lands that separated the two rival cities.
Bravos weather was much more appealing with its fresh and cool breeze.
Maybe it was the blood of his ancestors that called him to it.
Whatever the reason, he enjoyed this city much more than any other, and was glad for the job that had brought the Company here.
A regal looking young man was coming on the opposite way over one of the bridges in the main canal, and Aaron observed him curiously.
He had never seen him before, and he had served many times in Bravos, so he probably wasn't the son of a local Lord. His dark hair contrasted with his pale face and grey eyes, making him stand out amongst the tanned Bravosi. The guards following him gave credit to his station, even though the man himself was dressed in clothes appropriate to fight in, if in better quality.
As they crossed paths, Aaron let his eyes follow the stranger, trying to figure out his purpose in the city and if he might cause problems in his current job in guarding a rich Lords warehouses until his expensive products could be shipped south.
He almost tumbled down the steps of the bridge as his eyes found the sigil proudly stitched to the back of the man's tunic.
Heddara dismounted her horse, and passed the reins to a page, as she admired the work of her people.
Where ruins had greeted her on her first journey south all those years before, now stood repaired towers and a full wall that almost reached her shoulders. Two more towers were being built and the progress made on them was astounding.
"My Queen! Welcome to Moat Cailin!" Jonah Snow said with a smile. "Consort! Lord Karstark! Welcome!"
Jonah Snow was visibly excited about his most important project. The Moat was a challenge due to its geographical location. It was surrounded by swamps that would swallow up the incautious, with only one way up from the south, and one way out towards the North.
The fortress was built on a hill, completely surrounded by the murky water, and that had made the job of carrying the stones difficult. Thankfully, it had been built to safeguard the North from the South, and so the Northern flank was much easier to reach than the southern one.
"Tell us about the progress that has been made, master Snow." Heddara asked, after they had been sat at one of the tents that were mounted inside the new walls.
"The three old towers have now been completely repaired and are being maned by the soldiers you appointed, your grace." The man said, a proud smile on his face.
Heddara nodded. That itself was exceptional. The three towers alone were already an incredible asset. Many believed they were more than enough to stop any attempt of invasion, but Heddara had no intention of stopping at that.
"As you can see, the wall is now being raised. We are giving the southern flank more attention, but a wall like this must be risen almost all at the same time, in order to be sturdy. The water was a bother at the beginning, we had to push it back and drain the immediate area so we could dig for the old foundations, and that took many moons. After that we worked fast to raise up the walls as to what you can see now."
"I see you are working on more towers." Rohar asked, looking over at a plan laid out on the table two workers had brought in.
Jonah nodded. "Yes. We needed to incorporate the tower walls into the outer wall itself, so we are slowly bringing them up. But the wall is our main focus for now."
Rohar nodded, pointing to two towers, one on the eastern side, and another on the western flank. "As per the plan that was made for the moat, we are trying to, not only bring the Moat to its original design, but also to make it a better fortress. The original design only took into account invaders from the south, and that was centuries ago. Currently, if the invaders were to take a boat during the night and silently make their way around, they could possibly catch the guards on the current towers by surprise. These extra towers are fundamental."
Heddara studied the plan, remembering all the details they had decided on two years before.
"What of the Keep?" She asked.
"For now, we are focusing on the defensive structures, as per the instructions given previously"
Heddara nodded at Jonah's words, showing that her intentions hadn't changed.
"The soldiers are good with staying in tents for now. I meant when the walls and towers are done. Are you having trouble with finding stone enough to build a stone Keep, or will we need to go for another wooden one for now?"
Jonah smiled at that. "Stone will not be a problem. We have reused as much stone as we could from the old towers and walls. Unlike other abandoned Keeps, the moat is isolated enough that no one has been around to steal the stones. Even with the passage of time, we could use most of them after giving them a good cleaning and fixing some edges." He clapped his hands and rubbed them together in excitement. "Since Lord Tallhart started running his quarry up on those stony mountains he has near Tohren's Square, he has been getting some good stone too. We can use some of those for the Keep and the rest of the towers and walls. I already ordered some, so we won't be sitting on our asses, waiting for it later."
Heddara nodded, pleased with the news.
One thing that had started to appear in good number around the North had been quarries. Mostly granite quarries that cut of stone from the ground, that was then shaped into rectangles the size of a big man's hand.
Another brainchild of Jonah Snow, the popularly called 'parallels' were used to pave every road of the Northern Kingdom, protecting the road from the rain, snow and ice that regularly fell, even during the summer, and keeping weeds and bushes from growing over the roads. They were named for the way they were set down – parallel to each other on each side of the road, meeting in a 'V' at the center.
But granite had other uses too. Specially in construction, and that came in handy now for the Moat.
And hopefully it would also come in handy for other construction projects Lord Karstark was to start very soon.
"I would like a full tour of the fortress." Heddara stated. "If everything is following schedule, I will have Mors Umber lead a new garrison to relieve the men currently here."
The man with the wolf sigil had gone into a manor house in a rich area of Bravos, with wolf banners proudly hanging from a mast nailed above the main door.
And not just any wolf banner. But a grey direwolf on a white background.
A Stark banner.
Over a big manor house in Bravos.
He had asked around. Over the years he had created a good rapport with most of the servants in the manor houses in the neighborhood and so had many contacts to draw on for information.
What he found had been astounding. And while it annoyed him to no end that it had taken almost three years for the information to reach him, it was not exactly surprising. The Company had been in the Disputed Lands for most of that time, and information did not travel fast in the continent of Essos. But they should have heard something in Lys before their departure at least!
"Are you absolutely certain?" His cousin asked, for the fiftieth time, as they observed the Stark embassy from the shadows of a tree at the end of the street.
"Yes Commander. I verified it with four different sources." He said – for the fiftieth time! – letting some of his exasperation show.
Brandon narrowed his eyes. "We will gather more information and discuss possibilities for the future before making any choices. Let's move out."
"Someone was studying the Manor from across the street, Prince Benjen" Roran, the leader of his royal guard told him as he had his lunch in the garden of the Northern Embassy to Bravos. "It looked like they were sellswords."
Due to the amount of business the North had been conducting in the free cities, Heddara had decided to create a permanent outpost in Essos to help support merchants and to house Northern Nobles on trade business to the other continent. The Iron Bank had promptly invited her to choose Bravos, by offering a Manor house at a pittance for their use.
To Benjen's understanding, it had been a successful move by the greedy Bankers to entice Heddara to use Bravos as her base in Essos, bringing the city more money as more ships used the city as a stocking point. It had worked, since many Essoci merchants now came to Bravos to inspect merchandising before having it shipped to other places. And new warehouses had been built to accommodate the new Northern products.
"They were?" He asked, humming in curiosity. "Make sure all guards are aware of a possible treat but do nothing further. They might have been looking at that new Sealord hopeful's manor. Another contender in the upcoming election might be thinking of eliminating his competition early in the game."
The guard nodded, leaving him to enjoy his meal.
Hopefully his peaceful and successful voyage wouldn't be interrupted by bloodshed.
One could only hope.
"How go the plans for the new ports, my Queen?" Jonah asked, curious.
Working for the royal court was the best decision he could have ever made. Once his loyalty had been proven, he had risen in the Queen's esteem and was now a very active member of Magnar Karstark entourage, with a salary provided by the Royal Treasury.
Never before had his life been so fulfilling. His work was challenging, and he had the recognition of his Queen, the nobility and the smallfolk, for all the works he had supervised.
Queen Heddara was a good Queen. She cared for the people, be they Noble or smallfolk, and she payed well. The smalfok contracted for the construction works, in the roads and now in the Moat were already singing her praises for helping them earn good and fair coin.
Not that the Starks had ever cheated their subjects of their coin, but never before had there been a King – or Warden for that matter – that had spent so much on workers.
On a council meeting he had attended, to explain the project for the Moat, one of the other Magnars had been worried that they were being too generous on the salary they payed the workers, and that lowering it would also lower the construction costs significantly. The Queen's answer had been swift and pragmatic, and left Jonah's head spinning in its simplicity.
"If they have more coin, they will spend it, and the merchants will make more profit, and in the end, all of us will collect more taxes. The economy of a country is never a straight line, but a circle." She had said. "Some coin will fall out of the circle, but most of it will Keep on spinning around."
Lady Tallhart had nodded appreciatively, and the Magnars had accepted the proposal – not that they could refuse the Queen, they were only there to advise. That's why they were a council.
In the end, the Queen had been right. Tax revenues had risen in every holdfast around the North. With the magnificent new and improved roads, goods could travel at a good time between every holdfast in the North, and everyone profited with it.
And no one made more profit than the Manderlys. With the biggest port town in the Kingdom, they made so much money on their port alone as most of the eastern holdfasts put together. And even though they were undoubtedly happy with their new riches, even they admitted that they were at full capacity, and were very close to sending ships away. The only way for them to create more space was to dismantle the shipyard and no one wanted to do that. The number of requests for more ships was never ending, and the Queen had plans to expand the ship making business.
While the Northern fleet had never been as big since the times of Brandon the Shipwright, his Queen would not be happy until that strength was present on both sides of their Kingdom.
It was imperative that the port at Widow's watch – his beloved hometown – was expanded, and that new and good-sized ports were built in other towns along the coast.
"Yes. The plans have been finalized. Ramsgate and Widow's Watch will have new ports. We have deep waters in both cases." The Queen answered with a nod. "Considering the obvious benefits of the port itself in future coin, the Lords will be tasked with contributing with the financing of the construction, while the crown will support it by exempting them from taxes for the next five years and giving out a loan to be payed in the next fifteen years."
Jonah nodded. That was a good compromise. Ports were expensive to build, but the two towns had already been seeing an influx of coin through their currently very small and cramped ports. With an exemption from taxes and the loan, they could easily pay for the coin. It couldn't be expected that the crown would support all these construction projects, when the towns and the Lords would also be reaping the benefits.
"What about the projects on the west, my Queen. Will they be going forward?"
A few moons before he had been tasked with traveling to certain Keeps to the west in order to give a report on how to best fortify them against possible attacks, and on which ones had the necessary characteristics for building a deep-water port.
On the construction of a port the answer was easy. Almost all of them could receive one. Even Deepwood Mote, could have one, although the port would need to be built on a very specific location, and a few meters from the coast still.
The Northern coast was made of deep waters, and all the fishermen knew that one couldn't walk more than a few feet in the water before the ground disappeared from underneath them. It was what made Ironborn so troublesome. They could bring their longboats almost all the way to shore.
"Yes. We will fortify Deepwood Mote and Flint's Finger first, before we build ports there. Those will be the two bases for our naval force in the east." His Queen frowned. "The Ironborn have been too silent for my liking. I trust them not."
He nodded understanding the danger the pirate-oriented islanders presented to their people.
"And what other future plans should I take into account, my Queen?" He asked in good humor, wandering what other fantastical projects he would be given.
In his eyes, nothing would beat rebuilding a thousand-year-old mythical fortress.
"We will probably need to build a port in Skane. Those Skagosi have been ignoring my messages, and I don't like it. "The Queen frowned, and the Prince consort turned serious. "While they have always been given their autonomy, Skagos is part of the North. Ignoring their sovereign is treason and will eventually need to be addressed."
Well, maybe building a port in an island full of possible cannibals might be a more demanding job than the Moat.
It just might.
"My Prince" Jorron Cerwyn called, from the door to his office at the manor in Bravos. "There is a man requesting an audience with you at your convenience."
Jorron was Heddara's appointed secretary in Bravos. He technically belonged to the Order of trade and would fall under Lord Dustin's purview, but he had been specifically appointed by his sister for this position, as she saw the responsibility it carried. He was tasked with helping any northern merchant that sought his help – within reason, of course – with maintaining the Northern presence and good relations with Bravos, and specially the Sealord and the Iron Bank.
Heddara had never even considered to ask for a loan with the sharks of the Iron Bank, but that didn't mean that one should dismiss their obvious power over the city.
"Who is he?" He asked the man.
"He says he is the commander of the Company of the Rose."
Benjen froze, before bringing down his hand and dropping the quill on the desk.
"The Company of the Rose?" He asked, looking for clarification. Blinking as he came out of his stupor, he tried to consider the possible implications of this visit. "Give me ten minutes and then send him in. Tell Roran to come in also."
As Roran stepped into the room from his position outside the door, Benjen tried to give his desk a semblance of order as he attempted to make sense of his thoughts.
According to Old Nan's stories, when the King who knelt had… well, knelt, some northerners had not been happy, having preferred to die fighting for freedom instead. Those discontented men and woman decided then that they wouldn't bow down to the invaders and made their way across the sea and founded their own sellsword Company, using a rose as a symbol in a mockery of their old Kings.
As all of old Nan's stories, the tale ended dramatically with the old woman stating that those children of the North still waited for a time when their Kingdom was restored, and they could once again proudly call themselves Northern people.
For Benjen, like all other stories, this one had been just that – a story. An interesting one, with probably a big silver of truth, but in the end simply a story.
In his mind, even if almost three hundred years before, men and woman from the North had exiled themselves in Essos and formed a sellsword Company, there was no way they would be 'waiting' for anything. Too many generations had passed and there was no reason for them to want to come back to Westeros.
Right?
"Prince Benjen" Jorron called once more, preparing to announce his visitor. His face was contorted in a way that showed his discomfort and surprise. "Brandon Snow, Commander of the Company of the Rose."
Benjen had no qualms in letting his incredulity show on his face by raising both eyebrows. The man might as well know his skepticism in the truthfulness of his name.
"Welcome Brandon Snow." He said, gesturing for the man to take a seat, as Jorron left the room and Roran leaned against the wall in false relaxation.
The commander of the Company of the Rose was the picture of the perfect warrior. Dark haired, clear eyed and filled with muscle, his long face betrayed a possible relation to several Northern houses.
Now whether the man was born in Westeros before making his way to Essos or was a descendent of a long line of Northerners in exile, was another question.
He waited patiently for the man to speak, observing him as he took in his surroundings.
"You know, when one of my men told me that there was a Stark in Bravos I didn't believe him. When he told me there was a Stark embassy in the city and that the Kings of Winter ruled once more, I pondered the possibility of the disputed Lands sun having addled his brains."
Benjen huffed, in amusement. If they had been in the Disputed Lands for the past few years that might explain why they hadn't heard the news sooner.
"And what is your verdict now?" He asked, giving the other man a smirk.
"Apparently all it took was a female Stark to finally get the North to what it was supposed to have always been. Your Queen has more balls then all your ancestors put together."
Benjen's smirk widened. "I have no doubt."
The man huffed at his candor, crossing his arms.
"Why don't you tell me what you want to do now that you have undoubtedly done your own information gathering and are on par with what has happened in Westeros in the last few years?"
The man narrowed his eyes, considering Benjen's words.
"Our ancestors plans always included returning to Westeros if the situation there changed. But too many generations have passed. All the Company knows is war. Even if not all of us are warriors, all our skills involve the art of war in one way or another." His serious face turned even harder. "Even though most of us would like to finally end our exile and have a permanent home, we have no intention of spending the rest of our lives farming away some Lordlings land. Specially, when some of us might even have more right to the land itself than that Lord."
Benjen rubbed his chin with his hand, considering the man's words.
The Company of the Rose was a midsized sellswords Company with a good reputation. Its warriors consisted of both men and woman and they were known for their efficiency and cunningness in battle. Giving them work anywhere but the army would be a waste, and both Heddara and Rohar hated wastefulness.
On the other hand, they were unknown, and giving them access to the army could be a dangerous move – and probably why Snow was worried he would be dumped on a farm if he tried to return to the home of his ancestors.
"Tell me more about the Company of the Rose." Benjen said, leaning back on his chair. "I want to know the real story of how you came to be, and all your current numbers of active and non-active members, and all skills possessed by your people."
"Mamma, look! We kill Dragon!" Rodrik said, as he and Jon stood victoriously over a very 'dead' dragon Rohar.
"Um. Are you sure?" She asked, playful. "Did you check, he might just be injured, and injured dragons can be very dangerous"
Following his cue, Rohar let out a roar and brought up his arms to coil around each child, bringing them down on the rug and tickling them mercilessly.
The boys shrieked in laugher, trying to wrestle their way out.
"Mamma! Help!" Jon cried between his laughs, making her chuckle.
"Tickling war! Men, attack the dragon!" She mock ordered, joining the fray in trying to tickle her husband.
She was glad that she could give Jon a good childhood. Having him see her and Rohar as his parents was something she had always cultivated, while at the same time making sure that he knew that they were not truly so. She realized that he didn't yet understand the situation fully, but for now he knew that a mother and a father were someone that raised and loved a child, and so they were his mamma and papa, but since he hadn't been born of their blood, he couldn't be the next King like Rodrick was.
It was good enough, for now.
Once the Moat was finished, and the eastern shore secured, she would make him an official Stark and declare him her sister's son, confirming the suspicions of most of her bannerman, and securing his position and his future by giving him the title of Prince.
Minutes later, when they were all laying on the rug after their tickle war ended in the surrender of the great dragon, Heddara turned to her boys and asked.
"How would the two of you like to become big brothers?"
She chuckled once again at the two reactions, as Rohar put his arms around her and pressed his smile to her neck.
The Company of the Rose is here! What do you think? Should Heddara allow them back into the North?
What other measures can she take to help fortify her kingdom against the South, in case of an attack by Baratheon or Ironborn?