CHAPTER 17
Jorah took Lyra and Crystal into his study and showed her the books and collectables from his family's ancestry. Crystal flopped down in front of the fireplace. There were many interesting items on the shelves that Lyra was looking at.
Jorah said nervously, "I know Bear Island isn't as sophisticated as some other Lord's castles. We are not as wealthy as some and we have to work hard providing for ourselves in the environment living here." Lyra walked up behind him, wrapped her arms around his body from behind with her hands on his chest and had her face pressed to his back.
Lyra said softly, "I don't need fancy things, Jorah, and I have everything I need right here in my arms. I have several million dragons in the Iron Bank, Jorah. We will work together on helping ourselves and our people to be secure. I love you and with you, I will contribute to Bear Island with more frequent shipping of staple goods and supplies, so nobody starves here and we must be made safe. Think of me as coming with my own dowry." Jorah turned in her arms and kissed her. He couldn't believe she had that much money and wanted to help him, though he did remember her telling him she found a treasure room and mine before they met. She was such a kind, generous and practical woman, which only made him love her more because she cared.
He said emotionally looking into her eyes, "You are such a loving and caring woman. You have made me so happy being in my life. I am so glad you are now here by my side, Lyra, my love." He kissed her passionately. There came a knock on the door. Jorah said to enter and in came the Maester Dameron and his assistant.
Maester Dameron said with an air of superiority, "Young woman, we need to discuss your lineage and find verification of who you are."
Lyra sat on a chair and Jorah sat at his desk. Lyra said, "Ok, what do you want to know?" The maester sat at a table in the room pulling out his papers.
He sat an inkwell and quill on the table that the assistant had and said, "Who was your father?"
Lyra had planned ahead of time making a series of wishes to prepare her family tree before she reached Bear Island. She knew it would be needed if she was going to marry Jorah. She said seriously, "I will just provide you with everything I know. My father was Paxton Wylde of Rainhouse in the Stormlands, son of Ser Ormund Wylde. My mother was Lylian Blackwood of Raventree Hall in the Riverlands daughter of Lord Byrant Blackwood. They were denied marriage so they left together and were married in White Harbor under the surname of Wyldwood and left for Braavos then traveled throughout Essos. They both died at different times, my mother died during my childbirth and my father took me with him where he traveled as a merchant. He taught me weapons, fighting, survival and the merchant trade. I have never been to Raventree HalI or Rainhouse, nor have I ever met either side of my family. They basically denied my existence so I have no desire to go there. I do use the Wylde sigil though because it was my father's family sigil and is mine now. Is there anything else you want to know?" Maester Dameron was writing very quickly. He was hurrying to get the information down on paper.
When he was done, he asked, "I sent off a raven to Raventree Hall and they replied that they had no idea who you are."
Lyra shrugged and said , "They know nothing of my birth. My father never went back to the Stormlands or Riverlands and neither have I. So, of course they would answer your question with a no. Ask about my father and mother at least you'll know they existed and ran off together. I really could care less about any kind of inheritance or even recognition. Their marriage must be recorded in White Harbor as Wyldwood. You can look there too." Maester Dameron nodded.
Jorah said, "Maester Dameron, we are going to start a regular shipping schedule for staple items and supplies needed for the people and Mormont Keep. Lady Lyra will be in charge of the shipping schedules and shipment manifests."
Maester Dameron looked up from his parchment and asked warily, "You would have 'her' in charge of such an important task of our lands? How will we pay for it? We do not have great enough wealth to maintain continuous supply for her to spend us into debt."
Jorah got angry and said, "Let me tell you the strait of it, Maester Dameron, so there are no more questions about anything I do or my betrothed will do. You will not reference Lady Wyldwood as 'her' or 'she'. It is disrespectful. Lyra will be my wife regardless of the approval or blessing of you or my father, so get used to her. Lyra is conducting the shipping because she is an experienced merchant by profession with the connections and is paying for all guards, food, supplies or imports coming to this island herself. She will need help to know what we need from you. Do you understand?" The maester looked surprised and was looking back and forth between them.
Lyra said seriously, "You do not know me personally and I don't care if you like me or not, because of my lack of social status, or whether my lineage is connected to money or not. I have my own fortune from hard work and luck. I don't need you to tell me if I'm worthy or not to be with Lord Jorah because I am not going anywhere unless Jorah says so. I wish to use my money to help the people of this island and neither you nor anyone is going to stop me from contributing and helping in a proper way that a Lady of Wyldwood or Lady of Mormont should do. You can guarantee that Lynesse Hightower or her father would never contribute to the well-being of your society and would have destroyed your leadership and finances through greed. I am not like that at all."
The maester said, "If that is so, how do you plan on fulfilling and paying contracts as they come in?"
Lyra said, "I have millions of dragons in the Iron Bank and my vouchers are good in every major and some secondary ports. I figure with the location of Bear Island, I can get shipments sent from White Harbor. I have excellent standing with the merchants guild there and a good friend on the guild board and can hire a veritable army of men to insure delivery to Deepwood Motte. Then we can do pickups of the shipments at Deepwood Motte and do runs to Lannisport too during that time. My ship is fast and of good size to fill its hold. My crew is outstanding and very reliable."
The maester asked, "Lord Mormont, when do you plan on going to Castle Black then?"
Lyra turned to Jorah and said, "Jorah, I want to get a big supply run of wagons to drop off food and supplies to Castle Black on its way from White Harbor. They struggle up there because they are undermanned and supplied by the Crown. If we go, my ship can drop us off at the mouth of the river and travel with wagons up the left shore to cross over the river to this side of the Wall and travel from Shadow Tower along the Wall."
Jorah smiled and asked, "How will we cross the river because it is too deep and too wide."
Lyra said, "Magic." He chuckled and smiled at her. The maester was confused.
Jorah said, "We will leave in two weeks so Lyra can get the supply runs to Castle Black and here set up and proceed on schedule. Maester Dameron, I expect a list of supplies to be ordered and food to start filling the cellar storehouses and granaries. When we return you can set up your Lannisport runs, Lyra." She smiled and nodded.
The maester stood up and said, "I will get on the inventory and start listing supplies." He bustled out of the room with his assistant.
Lyra got up and pulled a chair to the opposite side of the desk and said to Jorah, "You're so attractive when you get to issue orders. Give me a piece of parchment, my love, and a quill, please." He chuckled at her, reached out, taking her hand and kissing it. Lyra blushed. He slid over a piece of parchment and a quill.
Jorah said softly, "You are attractive all the time, my beautiful Lyra. Thank you for what you're doing."
Lyra said softly, "It's because I love you." He smiled and started writing out correspondences.
Lyra was writing to her friend in White Harbor to see if he could fill orders for her at a profit, purchase fifty wagons, purchase goods and hire several sellswords for two runs of fifty wagons, twenty to Castle Black and thirty to Deepwood Motte. She told him if they made it to Deepwood Motte with all of the merchandise in four weeks, she would double the sellswords commission and have them return to White Harbor for the next run. She was clear that she would do the run of wagons to Castle Black from time to time. After she was done, she had Maester Dameron send the raven to Malek Whitehill, Merchants Guild of White Harbor. He read the message and sent it out on a raven to White Harbor.
—--
A week later, Lyra got her response from Malek Whitehill. He said that he will help her set up regular shipments and the one run of twenty wagons to Castle Black without a problem. He was glad to hear from her and was glad she was doing well. He said her vouchers will be accepted happily by himself and appreciates her thinking to do business with him.
Lyra had a composed list of goods to put on order that she and Maester Dameron went over for immediate repeat. He also helped her to compose a list for Castle Black. They sent the ravens out immediately.
Maester Dameron had become more cooperative after finding out the record of her parents marriage, the existence of both her parents leaving their families was confirmed. She was legitimate and the last of the Wyldwoods as she said. He had sent ahead a raven to tell Jeor Mormont that the young Lady Lyra Wyldwood was a legitimate Wylde and Blackwood that comes with her own accumulated fortune from her merchant business dealings.
—--
Before Jorah, Lyra and Crystal left for Castle Black, she had confirmation that the shipments were on the way from White Harbor and she sent out payments to Malek Whitehill for both runs and the next run. She set up her own ship to retrieve the shipment from Deepwood Motte if they didn't get back in time.
Jorah, Lyra and Crystal went on her ship to the mouth of the river and were ferried to the shore on a flat bottom boat and a rowboat for the horses, wagons, people and goods. It took several trips to get them all on shore, then loaded up. Lyra brought her most faithful guards and Jorah brought his most faithful guards too. It would take eight days of travel with the horses and wagons of goods. Every night they would camp, set up their tents, make a fire and Lyra would cook and feed Crystal. The completely empty pots were cleaned out, cleaned up and stored away by morning.
After the first three days, Lyra needed to get them across the river the next morning. That night she told Jorah's men to not be afraid of her because she was going to use magic to make an ice bridge. They promised not to get scared. She smiled and sang songs by the fire of old Irish and Celtic songs along with Jenny Of Oldstones. Everyone went to sleep and Lyra made a wish for all their safety and snuggled up to Jorah and Crystal in their big palet of furs and blankets.
She had her trunk with her always with the locked box with the lamp inside that was unmovable, impenetrable and unlockable only for her. She had to keep the locked up lamp with her in her possession at all times, whether on the ship, in the keep or on her wagon inside her personal trunk. She did this with Tywin in Casterly Rock, as in Mormont Keep and now when she journeyed like before the ship.
—--
That morning after they all had breakfast and packed up everything, she walked up to the edge of the water where the clearest spot was on the other side and said quietly, so not to be heard, with her arms out, "I wish for a safe wide ice bridge that can support all of us, our horses and wagons to the other side of this river."
The water came up out of the river in funnels and started freezing into ice above the river forming a wide sturdy bridge. Lyra turned around to see a bunch of astonished men.
Lyra put her hands on her hips and said, "I told you I could do it but you didn't believe me until now, didn't ya?" Jorah smiled and nodded, admittingly agreeing because he never believed it until this moment. He realized that he would never doubt her word again. He walked up to her and kissed her laughing. The other men talked among themselves. Lyra got in her wagon with Crystal all covered up and warm next to her. She petted her as they went.
She heard one of Jorah's men say things like, "Lord Jorah is smitten by this beautiful woman. She has magic and I never would have thought it."
Her one guard said, "Our Lady is a very capable woman like no other anywhere. She is trained and we have all spared her with many different weapons. Our Lady and her lioness hunted for venison when we went from White Harbor to Winterfell. We would laugh as they both were dragging a stag into camp both trips each dragging by a back leg. We are all treated very well with respect, paid very well, supplied and are completely loyal to her. She is a fine person to work for." Lyra was proud that it was the consensus of her men, all fifty of them she had on payroll.
One of Jorah's men said, "She's not a witch is she?"
Her guard chuckled and said, "No, more like a White Maegi. People in the Essos ports called her 'Magi Sinha Temar' which means 'Magical Lion Tamer'. She doesn't use her magic everyday only when necessary for good reasons of safety or protection. She is a very good woman." Lyra smiled to herself.
After five days of travel they saw Castle Black up ahead and as they got closer she saw just how rundown the castle was. She thought it said that after so long the purpose of safety was taken for granted when she knew what was to come in the Great War.