Chapter XXXI: The Settling of the Conquest

In the aftermath of the fall of Dorne, the kingdom beyond the Red Mountains was changed beyond measure, the old customs, laws and great houses thrown into the crevices of history.

To the Marcher lords were given the greatest of bounties. Three castles for the Stormlords: Wyll, Yronwood and Kingsgrave were given to lesser sons of Caron, of Dondarrion and Swann, all houses of the Marches, though lesser fiefs were carved of them to reward a knight of House Buckler and another of House Fell.

The Reachmen were given Kingsgrave and Blackmont, Starfall and High Hermitage, and Sandstone. The younger brother of Lord Tarly lords now over the former lands of House Blackmont, the black vulture replaced by the huntsman. Kingsgrave is now ruled by the second son of Lord Alan Beesbury, Starfall by a grandson of the late Sea Lion of House Costayne, High Hermitage went to kin of Lord Meryweather. Sandstone was given as blood price to the Tyrells, for the Qorgyle's treachery. Astute men would recognise that such honours followed the allegiances of decades ago, and those who do not wish to offend with their words, say only that that part of the Red Mountains blackened in spring, instead of blooming green.

These lands became part of the kingdoms of the Stormlands and of the Reach.

Hellholt upon Brimstone became seat to Ser Oscar Tully, who among his new honours counted that of Grandmaster of the Order of the Holy Hundred.

The rest of the former realm of the Martells remained under the direct authority of king Baelor. The great castles were given to loyal men, proven in battle, though some of their lands were carved up, parts becoming direct domains of the king, administered by his stewards. Scores of villages were granted to newly built motherhouses and septries, though their feudal rights and duties were held by proxy by neighbouring landed knights and lord, while the brothers and sisters of the Faith enjoyed but its incomes

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House Edgerton benefited most greatly of all from the king's war. For his many and valiant deeds in service to His Grace, Ser Jonos Edgerton, that knight of great renown, was given choice of remaining lands and castle. As a further example of his loyalty to his king, Ser Jonos choose the Tor, for its proximity to Ghaston Grey, vowing to keep an eye for escape attempts from its prisoners. Chief among these prisoners was the Wyl boy and his mother, and the young sons and the daughters of House Martell, who the king judged to dangerous to entrust to the Night's Watch or the Faith, and had instead send them to that dreary place to waste their days.

For the losses of his father and brother in the war, the king showed a great favour to his house, granting Ghost Hill and Spottswood to his brothers Damon and Criston.
Ser Herman Harte, who had not fought in the war, was also rewarded, becoming Lord of Godsgrace, the rest of the lands and castles being given as rewards to noble sons and knights of the Crownlands.

The lands that remained under the direct administration of the king were known now as the Greenblood, after that great river, or Chroy Ychor, as the king took to call it in the Rhoynish tongue.

Ser Herman Harte left his position as court for Sunspear, where he ruled as the King's Palatine of Sunspear, being entrusted with administration and justice over all of Chroy Ychor, with power as great as a Lord Paramount's, though the title remained the king's to give and take.

Lord Jonos Edgerton was named Warden of the Greenblood and given authority over its banners and the men that remained garrisoned in its many castles, the two hundred hobelars from Crackclaw Point that he had once led in battle in Pentos acting as his guard, each rewarded with a knight's fee.

Lord Edgerton was given also the office of Grand Inquisitor over these lands, with power to appoint and replace the Knights Inquisitor who would serve under him. His brother Criston was given the office of Lord Treasurer of Chroy Ychor, under the authority of Herman Harte.

His brother Damon, once a merchant and envoy to Braavos, served now as head of the House of Trade. The royal designation of Sunspear as a staple port for all spices and luxuries flowing from the Summer and the Jade Seas, diverting many merchants from Oldtown, served as the opportunity to found this new institution.

The House of Trade collected all trading taxes and duties, approved all voyages, licensed captains and administered the Law Merchant. Lord Damon was entrusted with the mission of building a fleet for it, one that would escort merchant ships in convoy in exchange for a third of the gold, and which would embark on expeditions of its own – mainly to the Summer Isles, to which the king reserved as his right to trade iron and tin.

Lord Damon also had in his charge the yet to be founded factories in these isles, which would serve as markets and warehouses, and gathering places of Westerosi merchants, and would trade on behalf of the king. Their settlement would have to wait until after the king's envoys had settled terms with their princes.

Lady Laena was named as Lady Admiral of the Summer Sea. She had stood a night in vigil in the sept before King Baelor had summoned her into his presence, and she had come in rich garments of silk. His Grace had put a ring upon her right hand, as a token of the honour conferred upon her, presented her with a sword, bestowing her authority, and had placed in her left hand a standard, emblazoned with his personal arms – the seven headed white dragon, the seahorse and the Crone's lantern.

She had promised that she would not shun death in defence of the realm, and in the aggrandizement of the rights and honour of her king, and the common benefits of his country; and that she would perform all her duties according to the best of her power.

The king had long praised her seamanship, lineage, valour and loyalty to those who had voiced their doubts. His Grace's praise of her gave rise to rumours among the flighty maidens and ladies at court, eager to hear of a romance, real or invented, that the king held more than fondness for his lady cousin. That he would have ten thousand swords leap from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult.

They spoke of blossoming love between the dragon and the seahorse, of the king offering to make her his queen. They spoke of her tears and her heart breaking, of the call of the sea louder than that of the heart. They spoke of the king overheard in private conversation, saying that he did not wish to shackle her to the binding of queenship, of preferring her free amid the waves, happy and carefree, not miserable in the Red Keep. They spoke of two realms dividing them apart – his of earth, hers of sea. They called her the sun and him the moon, who chase in vain after the other, and when at last they are together the moon would only eclipse the sun.

Who can find the lore of truth in such a tale? What is truth and what is rumour can never be found, for the king neither spoke, nor wrote of it, and neither the lady Laena. Such did not stop the bards and minstrels to sing of it, or noble maidens to sigh over the tale. I've heard tell that even in distant and misty Braavos the tale had spread, and it has been played upon the stage in their great mummer-houses to great acclaim.

One thing is certain – after being proclaimed admiral, Laena Velaryon set on the first of her journeys, to seek the island Elyssa Farman had once discovered, and the only thing that openly marred her joy was the fact that her father denied her desire to travel across the Sunset Sea while he still drew breath.