Oberyn II
Obella Sand's expression was halfway between a scowl and a pout. "Why do I have to stay here in the Water Gardens while Elia gets to come with you on an adventure father?"
Elia's look was one of unutterable smugness. "Because I am nearly a woman grown, and a great warrior already. You're just a baby, so you should stay out of trouble."
Obella scowled, and would have launched herself upon her sister with fists flying if Oberyn had not reached out one hand to hold her back.
"That's enough, both of you," Oberyn said firmly. "This world will give you enemies enough without fighting amongst yourselves. Protect one another, like as not you will be all you have when I am gone."
"But how can I protect anyone if you're leaving me here?" Obella demanded. "I'm only two years younger than Elia."
"Two years which can make quite a difference, Obella," Ellaria said, kneeling in front of her second daughter. Around them, life in the placid Water Gardens went on uninterrupted. The air was filled with the sounds of splashing and laughing children. Tyene stood a little way away, while Daemon Sand, Oberyn's squire, waited outside the gardens with the horses.
"This is no simple journey we are going on," Ellaria continued. "It will be long and dangerous, with Dorne at stake and an uncertain welcome at the end of the road. Elia is going to squire for your sister, Obara, but you are still too young for that; and someone must take care of Loreza and Dorea while we are away. Can you do that? Can you keep your sisters safe until we return?"
Obella's back straightened a little. "I'll guard them with my life. But you have to tell me all about it when you return."
Elia laughed. "I'll do better than that, Obella, I'll bring you back the spiked cap of an Unsullied."
It was Oberyn's turn to laugh. "If you ever find yourself facing an Unsullied, Lady Lance, you'll be fortunate to escape with your life, let alone with his spiked cap. You are coming along to squire for your sister, not to win glory for yourself, remember that."
"Yes father," Elia said with a nod. She glanced at Obella. "You see, it won't be that much fun."
"Liar," Obella said. Her voice quietened. "You...you will come back, won't you? All of you, and Obara and Lady Nym as well?"
Oberyn said nothing for a moment. The truth was that he was by no means certain of that. It was, as Ellaria had said, a perilous road that lay before them. He did not even know with any degree of certainty where Daenaerys was to be found, and once he found her, what would he find? A bitch as mad as her father, like to burn him and his daughters to death for no other reason than she could, or out of spite for Dorne's failure to declare for Viserys after her father died? A Dothraki's bed-warmer, used and beaten and good for nothing? Doran hoped that he would find a queen, with the strength to win the Iron Throne and the wisdom to rule it well, but that was the most optimistic of several possibilities.
And that they could find her at all was the most optimistic of several possibilities on that front, most of the other possible outcomes saw them all dead or lost somewhere. Essos was not like the Seven Kingdoms, there were no safe roads. There was great adventure to be found there, for a bold and restless spirit such as he had been in his younger days, but little safety. Suffice to say he was not leaving Obella behind to spite his daughter. Perhaps he should have left Elia behind as well, but she was already a better lance than he had been at her age, and they might have need of an extra spear upon the way.
For in spite of the danger, he could not turn away. He could not refuse this task. It was not that his brother had asked of him, although that did confer certain obligations upon him. It was for Elia, his sister, not his daughter. Elia, who had gone to King's Landing to be the bride of the Crown Prince of Dragonstone, and perished there at the hands of Tywin Lannister and his pet dogs. There had to be justice for that. There had to be a reckoning. Only when Elia was at peace could his soul, too, find rest. There would be an anger in him until the day when Gregor Clegane and Tywin Lannister alike were dead.
His love for Ellaria was as deep as the oceans, and he loved each of his daughters well, but Oberyn knew that he could not be truly happy until justice was served upon his sister's murderers. He suspected that Doran was the same way, although Oberyn liked to think he hid his melancholy better than his brother, who let it mingle with the pain of gout upon his face.
For Elia I will walk this road to the very end, no matter the perils on the way. For Elia I would walk into the darkness of Asshai itself.
But he could not, would not, say all of that to Obella. To her he simply smiled and said, "We shall return. With justice for Dorne and vengeance for our house."
Had Obara or Nym been there they might have made some remark about how it was not their house, but his own, that they were Sands and not Martells. Tyene was a little too far away to hear, however, and Elia and Obella were not so conscious of the name of Sand. His eldest daughters had had no one to guide them but him, a task which he had applied himself to perhaps less than he should have done, but the younger children had been born Sand Snakes, when that had already come to mean something.
An excellent mother had not hurt either.
"Tyene," Oberyn said loudly. "Take Elia back to the horses, and wait there for us. We will join you presently."
Tyene nodded her head, a deceptively sweet smile crossing her face. "As you wish, father. Come, El. Farewell, Obella."
"Wait," Obella said, jumping on Elia and wrapping her arms around her older sister's neck. "Come back."
Elia laughed. "When we return we'll trail clouds of glory, and your face will turn so green with envy you'll look more a frog than cousin Quent."
"Prince Quentyn here, in the presence of your princely uncle," Oberyn said.
"Yes father," Elia said as she broke free from Obella's hug, and followed Tyene out of the gardens to where Daemon waited with the horses.
Oberyn took Ellaria's arm, and led her under the shade of the blood orange trees. The air was cool here, with none of the dust and sand found elsewhere in Dorne. The fountains trickled happily, almost as happily as the playing children. Two of them, stark naked, careened past Oberyn and Ellaria in a frantic chase, laughing all the while.
"She will be happy here, when we are gone," Ellaria said.
"It is difficult not to be happy here," Oberyn said.
"And yet you do seem overjoyed," Ellaria said.
"Neither do you," Oberyn replied.
Ellaria smiled. "True enough. Perhaps Elia would be happy here as well."
"Not after she has been promised an adventure in the east," Oberyn said. "And besides, fourteen is not twelve. Fourteen is old enough."
"Old enough for what?" Ellaria asked. "Not death."
"No," Oberyn said. "But old enough to live a little. I will be with her, and Obara and Nym and Sarella too. Elia will be fine."
"Do you believe that?" Ellaria said.
"I believe that her older sisters will protect her to their last breath," Oberyn said. "I believe that just because I am Elia's father does not mean that I must swaddle her about with so much padding that she can neither live nor die."
"Do you believe that we will succeed?" Ellaria said.
Oberyn said nothing for a moment. "I wish you would stay here, with Obella, Loreza and Dorea."
"My place is with you, lover," Ellaria replied.
"It will be dangerous," Oberyn murmured. "You have neither spear nor bow nor knives."
"Nor does Tyene."
"Outside of battle, Tyene is more dangerous than Obara or Nym, certainly more than Sarella," Oberyn said. "You...you cannot protect yourself as my daughters can."
"Then you will have to protect me," Ellaria said, sounding amused by his concern. She tightened her grip on his arm. "I will not let you go alone. I cannot. I am yours, as you are mine. We have said no vows, no septon has blessed us, but we are one. Where you go, I go."
"Then let us go," Oberyn said. "And bring back dragons."