Chapter 9
As the waves of the Blackwater rush crashed against the sandy shores of Blackwater Bay Link contemplated his situation. He could head back through the secret passageway and run the risk of getting truly lost in the tunnels or he could run into the people that were in the passageways. The only other option would be to try and sneak through one of the many gates of King's Landing.
What would Navi do? Link thought, his heart longing for his fairy companion. He knew that if he were to try and sneak into the city that he would have to wait until curfew was over and the gates would be open, at daybreak. This was without even mentioning the dangers that King's Landing itself presented with Link being weaponless.
His torch was steadily waning as the hour of the nightingale came to an end, I do not have much time left, he thought as he paced along the enclosed bay. The servants would be at his rooms to wake him an hour after dawn had broke so he had about two hours until he would be found out.
With his torch dying on him, Link knew that he would have no hope of travelling through the winding passageways in complete darkness. So, with no other option, Link made his way to the Iron Gate.
As Link trudged through the wet, squelchy sand his thoughts wandered to King Robert and their first meeting with him as his cupbearer.
He walked through the great oak doors of the Royal apartments, Jaime letting him through with a grin and an encouraging nod. The room he was met with was richly furnished with myrish carpets and great tapestries from Qohor and Lys depicting great battles and greater beauties.
Above the hearth, rested the head of a great stag with eight and ten points on its antlers. Finally, Link's eyes rested on the King himself. Robert was seated in a great ironwood throne with a great silver goblet of arbor gold in hand.
As soon as King Robert's stormy blue eyes snapped to him, Link knelt and bowed his head. Robert let him kneel for a second as he guzzled down the dregs of his arbor gold, with a drop of it dribbling from his mouth into his great beard.
He slammed down the goblet onto the table with a content sigh, bidding Link to sit down in the admittedly smaller, but no less grand, ironwood chair across from him with a loud "Rise!" That echoed across the large chamber.
"So, you're the brother that Cersei keeps moaning about." The King said, his face stony.
"Yes, your grace, I am." Link said, without fear, looking into Robert's dark blue eyes.
Robert laughed in response, the sound bouncing off of the walls, nearly deafening Link in the process.
"Your brother tells me that you're a prodigy with the blade, Santagar tells me that you're the damned Warrior Reborn whilst your sister tells me that you're nothing but a sullen boy. So tell me, Lannister, what do you say?" The King asked once he had stopped laughing.
Link took a moment to think on his answer before replying. If you say that you're amazing at swordplay and that you beat all of the boys your age and above, Robert will think that you are nothing more than an arrogant child. A voice that sounded suspiciously like his father's whispered in his mind. But if you are too humble Robert will think you weak. Link shook his head to rid him of his thoughts and opened his mouth to speak the truth.
"I think, your grace, that I am good. Possibly better than my brother Jaime when he was my age, but something I have learned is that the sword is not everything."
Link paused as Zelda's horrified eyes flashed in his mind. He swallowed thickly and continued.
"My brother Tyrion always says that as people we all have our different abilities. Jaime and I, we have combat, whilst Tyrion has his intelligence. My point is your grace is that yes, I may be great at most things martial, but I struggle with things others find easy, like histories or house words."
Robert only looked at him dubiously as he stewed on his words, and then all the tension in the King's shoulders evaporated with another booming laugh.
"It has been a very long time since someone has been so honest with me about themselves, Lannister. You are nothing like your sister." Something dark passed over the King's face as he said this.
"Now! It's time you get me more wine boy, this goblet won't fill itself!" Robert shouted with another booming laugh.
As the sun bled across the waters of Blackwater Bay, Link made his way to the Rosby Road. One hour remains Link thought to himself, grimly. The Rosby Road was almost deserted except from two lone travellers on old horses that looked ready to drop dead from exhaustion.
As Link travelled closer to them, he realised that the two travellers were holy brothers in simple brown robes, a far cry from the silk that the High Septon reportedly covered himself in.
"What brings you to Rosby Road so early, young one?" The older holy brother asked, curious.
"To get into King's Landing holy brother, will you help me?" Link asked impulsively.
"You will have to walk." The younger holy brother said as he spurred his old horse into a trot. Link scrambled to follow after the Holy men.
"What brings you to King's Landing?" Link asked the elder brother.
The man smiled at Link kindly as he said, "to help the poor and to see the Great Sept of Baelor. We wish to show our devotion to the Seven by traveling across the Seven Kingdoms, visiting septs and helping those in need."
Link nodded, his curiosity sated. As they reached the walls of King's Landing, the gold cloaks stopped them and asked them their purpose. The kind man told them what he had told Link, they were holy men to see the Sept of Baelor. The gold cloaks let them in with a nod and a suspicious glance.
When they entered King's Landing, the sun was surely above the waters of King's Landing and Link knew that he had less than an hour to make his way through the winding, cramped streets of Flea Bottom and King's Landing to get to the Red Keep. He hastily bid the Holy brothers goodbye and set off running through the stinking streets of Flea Bottom, if Link could even call them streets. They were unpaved side alleys, so tight and cramped that the buildings nearly touched.
Around every corner there seemed to be gaggles of men drinking cheap ale and eating bowls of brown, gambling and betting in the rat pits. Some would leer at Link, with danger in their eyes, analysing his dirty, but still highborn clothing. He needed to leave Flea Bottom, or he could end up in a pot of brown.
In every direction or street he went, a group of men followed. There were three men in total, the largest being nearly double his size. I'm being followed, Link thought with a hint of anxiety, I must hurry. He picked up his pace and started to run in the direction of Aegon's high hill, dodging butchers and half starved orphans as he went.
As he ran into another alley he came to a stop. "Oh Gods no." Link whispered, his way blocked by a tall rotting fence. He spun around to see the group of men, grinning with morbid delight.
"Well looky what we got here Gared, a little Lord." The tallest and no doubt the leader of the trio said with unrestrained malice. "Come with us milord and we promise that it'll be quick."
"Never!" Link shouted in defiance, eyeing a small rotting pole made from wood sticking out from the ground.
"So be it little Lord." The man said with a deranged grin. The smallest man lunged at him with long thin arms, contrasting his short legs, as Link reached for the pole and pulled it from the ground with a grunt of exertion. Link swung around, using the momentum from pulling the pole out of the ground and hit the man reaching at him, presumably Gared, across the jaw.
The force of the hit caused Gared's face to explode in a mess of gore, teeth and blood spraying from the man's mouth. The man let out a low moan and went down like a sack of bricks.
Link rushed the second man and bashed him in the knee with the pole turned club, causing the man to fall to one knee with a high pitched whine. He brought the pole up once more and quickly bashed it against the top of the bald man's scalp, and to Link's horror, the pole exploded in a shower of splinters and blood as soon as he did. The man went down with a thud.
Before he could blink, the final man was upon him, raising a large meaty fist to strike him. Link ducked and rolled away from the punch, kicking the man's legs and causing his knees to buckle as he went. Without pause, Link hit the man as hard as he could in the head, causing him to go down as well.
That was too close, Link thought as he wiped his dirty hands on his dirtier doublet. Before he could react, the leader of the trio launched himself from the ground and struck Link so hard in the stomach that he saw stars. The man grabbed Link off of the ground by his doublet and reared his hand back to strike him once more, but before he could the man's mud brown eyes widened and he dropped Link to the ground.
The leader gurgled and coughed on his own blood before collapsing, revealing a young girl, only a few years older than Link himself. The girl, Link realised, was beautiful and clean. She had silver blonde hair that shone like a shower of silver in the dim lighting, and lilac eyes. Paired with her unblemished porcelain skin, the girl looked like a Targaryen from one of Grand Maester Pycelle's history books.
In her hand, she wielded a bloody knife that she had no doubt used to stab the man who was terrorising him.
"What?" The girl asked shortly. Link blushed a deep crimson, realising he had been staring all that time.
"Sorry my Lady-"
"I'm no Lady!" The girl interrupted.
"Oh er, sorry for staring. Thank you for the help with him." Link said awkwardly as he nodded at the fallen man, blushing deeper than he thought possible.
"No problem, I never liked him anyway." The smallfolk girl said, unbothered by her actions. "Who are you then?"
"My name is Link my La-" the girl's glare disabused him of his next words. "My name is Link."
"Link what?" The girl asked rudely. "I know your highborn, so there's no use lying to me."
Link racked his brain for an answer, he didn't want to actually tell the girl his name. Even with his actions on the day of the tourney, he didn't think this girl would appreciate him being a Lannister. Triston's face flashed before his eyes and he had an answer.
"Link Massey is my name, what's yours if you don't mind me asking?" He asked with trepidation.
"The names Val, short for Valonqar." Val answered.
"Valonqur?" Link asked. Valonquar was High Valyrian for something, he knew that much from old Pycelle. Little something, oh what was it? Link wondered.
"Yes Valonqar, it means little sister in High Valyrian, people call me that cause I'm like their little sister you see." Val said smugly.
That was it, little brother! Link thought, kicking himself.
"I thought it meant little brother?" Link asked carefully.
"No! The septa said it means little sister and that's that!" Val exclaimed angrily.
Link only nodded, to tired for an argument and Val, taking his nod as an agreement smiled a dazzling smile full of pearly white teeth.
"I'll bring you to the septa if you want Link! Then we can go out and have an adventure!" Val said excitedly, grabbing his hand and pulling him along.
"I can't, I need to get back to the Red Keep, but I'll visit you soon." Link swore to her, full of sympathy.
Val's put out frown turned into a brilliant smile once more. "I live in the orphanage, with the other kids. I'll see you soon!" Before Link could do so much as blink, Val was gone with a wave, going through a small hole in the rotting fence.
"Bye Val." Link whispered with a smile. The Red Keep! I don't have much time left! Link thought, berating himself for spending so much time talking with Val as he ran out of the narrow unpathed streets of Flea Bottom, towards the great square of King's Landing at the foot of Visenya's Hill.
Not far from the square, there was an entrance to the tunnels below the Red Keep. The tunnel, whilst dark, was not nearly as dark and difficult to map out as the one that saw him outside of King's Landing in the first place.
Link ran as fast as his legs could take him, he ran until his lungs and already tired muscles screamed for reprieve until he finally reached the bustling Square. Merchants sold many goods from the brightest Tyroshi dies to the finest Dornish Red's. Link ignored them all, continuing until he found the dank entrance to the tunnels.
Link grinned at the sight of the entrance and made sure to breathe through his mouth as he ran through the passageway, rancid sewer water splashing all over his boots and breaches. I should burn these clothes when I get back to the Keep, Link thought with disgust.
He ran through the tunnels for what felt like hours, panic creeping up his spine. Cersei can't find out, I need to get back. When he finally saw the rays of light at the end of the tunnel, he could have wept with relief.
He almost killed the maids from fright when he came running out of an unused storage cupboard, he grinned and shrugged apologetically in response, before quickly speeding through the halls of the Red Keep and entering Maegor's holdfast through the drawbridge, the guards giving him bewildered and disgusted glances as he passed.
When he finally reached his gaudy chambers, Link saw that a fire was roaring in the hearth, just how he left it. Worryingly, he noticed that the fire hadn't died out since he left but once he saw that the decoy of pillows he had put in place was untouched all his worries and anxieties left him.
Link quickly stripped out of all his clothing and happily threw them in the hearth and watched them burn with great satisfaction. He asked, never ordered, the maids to draw him a bath and sank into it with relief.
Crisis averted, thank Farore. Link thought as he watched the sun rise higher in the sky, the start of a new day.
Thanks for reading! I hope you all liked this chapter and please review, I love talking to you all and hearing your opinions. This might be my last update for a little while because I have some really important exams coming up. Thank you!