CHAPTER 5
Five days later, Lyarra rode into White Harbor. She took her horse, Midnight, to the stables overnight and got a room at the best inn in town. She took a long hot bath in the bathhouse and scrubbed from head to toe. It felt good to be clean again after washing her clothes up in order to drip dry on her rope in her room. Lyarra slept.
The next day, she went out to the market and bought more food. She lived off of rabbits which stretched out the food supplies she had. Now she stocked up, locking it up in her room and ate at the inn for all three meals. She found a ship headed to Braavos with room for her horse and a small room for her leaving in the morning.
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The next morning, Lyarra was packed up and had just enough time to quickly break her fast. She got her horse, Midnight, and went to the ship. They took her horse down to the hold and showed her her room. She sat her baggage and horse's saddle and tack in the room. It was going to be three sennights to get to Braavos.
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It had almost been a full moons turn since the arrival at King's Landing. They were celebrating the Hand of the King's tourney. Petyr Baelish sat next to Sansa and sees her looking at Joffrey who hides his face from her as they are sitting in the stands.
Petyr Baelish said enquiring, "Lover's quarrel?"
Sansa turns and asks him, "I'm sorry. Do I...?"
Septa Mordane sitting next to her in the stands said, "Sansa dear, this is Lord Baelish. He's known…"
Baelish interrupts her quickly in case the septa reveals his brothels he owns in the city. He said, "An old friend of the family. I've known your mother for a long long time. Where is your oldest sister? I hear she is a great beauty rivaling your mother even."
Sansa said sadly, "My sister left on the way down to King's Landing. Nobody knows where she is." Cersei had him searching for Lyarra Stark to bring to King's Landing by any means necessary.
Arya blurted out, "Why do they call you Littlefinger?"
Sansa admonished her, "Arya!"
Septa Mordane said to Arya, "Don't be rude!"
Baelish said, waving his hand, "No, it's quite alright. When I was a child I was very small and I come from a little spit of land called The Fingers, so you see, it's an exceedingly clever nickname."
King Robert stood up drunk and roared, "I've been sitting here for days! Start the damn joust before I piss myself!"
The competitors step forward on their horses, Baelish introduces them to Sansa.
Sansa saw a huge man and said shocked, "Gods, who is that?"
Baelish smirked and said, "Ser Gregor Clegane. They call him the Mountain. The Hound's older brother."
Sansa asked, "And his opponent?"
Baelish said to her, "Ser Hugh of the Vale. He was Jon Arryn's squire. Look how far he's come." Ser High and Gregor kneel before the king.
King Robert growls out, "Yes, yes. Enough of the bloody pomp. Have at it!"
The joust begins. The first pass takes its course with no contact. On the second pass, the Mountain's joust strikes Ser Hugh in the neck, causing a massive splinter, and his blood gushing out. This occurs directly in front of where Sansa is sitting. She gasps loudly.
Baelish said looking at the shocked girl, "Not what you were expecting? Has anyone ever told you the story of the Mountain and the Hound? Lovely little tale of brotherly love. The Hound was just a pup, six years old maybe. Gregor is a few years older, already a big lad, already getting a bit of a reputation. Some lucky boys were just born with a talent for violence. One evening... Gregor found his little brother playing with a toy by the fire... Gregor's toy, a wooden knight. Gregor never said a word, he just grabbed his brother by the scruff of his neck and shoved his face into the burning coals. Held him there while the boy screamed, while his face melted. There aren't very many people who know that story."
Sansa said earnestly, "I won't tell anyone. I promise."
Baelish said toying with her, "No, please don't. If the Hound so much as heard you mention it, I'm afraid all the knights in King's Landing would not be able to save you."
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Inside the Red Keep in Ned's quarters in the Tower of the Hand, Cersei enters. Ned is sitting at the desk.
Jory announced to Ned, "My Lord, Her Grace the Queen."
Ned stood and bowed, "Your Grace."
Cersei said with a fake smile, "You're missing your tournament."
Ned said, sighing, "Putting my name on it doesn't make it mine."
Cersei said casually, "I thought we might put what happened on the Kingsroad behind us – the ugliness with the wolves. And forcing you to kill the beast was extreme. Though sometimes we go to extremes where our children are concerned. How is Sansa?"
Ned said dryly, "She likes it here."
Cersei said smugly, "The only Stark who does. Favors her mother, not much of the north in her like her other sisters."
Ned asked, "What are you doing here?"
Cersei said arrogantly, "I might ask the same of you. What is it you hope to accomplish?"
Ned said bluntly, "The King called on me to serve him and the realm, and that's what I'll do until he tells me otherwise."
Cersei said flippantly, "You can't change him. You can't help him. He'll do what he wants, which is all he's ever done. You'll try your best to pick up the pieces."
Ned said, "If that's my job, then so be it."
Cersei said, looking him up and down in distaste, "You're just a soldier, aren't you? You take your orders and you carry on. I suppose it makes sense. Your older brother was trained to lead and you were trained to follow."
Ned growled, "I was also trained to kill my enemies, Your Grace."
Cersei sneered, "As was I."
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Lyarra had arrived at Braavos and was taking her stallion to a stable near a decent looking inn. She boarded him for three days. She rented a room with its own water pump and tub with a drain in it. She locked up her belongings and went to the market. She bought fruit, cheese and bread to eat in her room with a couple bottles of wine.
A pickpocket tried bumping her. She grabbed his hand on her and simultaneously pulled the other one to his throat. It was an extremely fast maneuver. She swept downward and sliced off a piece of his finger as the man screamed and she let go to let him run away. She went back to her business at the market. She spun her dagger in her hand and sheathed it.
Lyarra bought a large stack of 100 bags and ties. She took it all to her room, dropping them off. She went down and got an evening meal for herself and her direwolf. Once she got to her room, she took a cool bath and scrubbed up from being on the ship. It felt good. She spent the next couple days counting coins out in bags of gold dragons and silver moons from the box until all that was left inside was gemstones and nuggets. She filled 312.5 bags to make 250,000 dragons to deposit. She wanted to convert the silver moons to dragons once she got to the bank with it. She filled 148.5 bags of silver and were converted to gold dragons. She had some small amount of change she put in her change purse and put a total of 56,090 gold dragon in there. Her problem was moving it. She needed to go to the bank and see if they had a way of getting the money there if she rented wagons.
She went into the bank and talked to them about assisting her to get it to the bank. They had men in the bank call carriers. They asked how much she needed to deposit and convert. She rented three wagons and got all of the money to the bank with six carriers. Once the counters counted all of it in a hand cranking large disk mechanism that rotated and filled tubes that were emptied in increments to keep track of the counting.
When she walked out of the Iron Bank, she had her vouchers and an account signet ring for stamping. It required a thumb print, stamp from the bank signet ring and a signature to fill out a voucher properly.
She went back to her room at the inn and started to fill ten bags of gemstones and nuggets. It took her over a sennight to sell all of the nuggets of silver and gold to the smelter. The gemstones amounted to 167 bags and 102 silver nuggets and 207 gold nuggets. She hired sellswords to make it easier to do it by a wagon load a day. She didn't realize just how much was already inside the pendant that the skeleton had around his neck when he died in that cave. Lyarra decided to go to Pentos next. She learned that King's Landing had had the Hand of the King's tourney.
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Varys enters the Throne Room, where Baelish is standing, looking at the throne.
Varys said smugly, "The first to arrive and the last to leave. I admire your industry."
Baelish said flatly, "You do move quietly."
Varys said, with his masked smile, "We all have our qualities."
Baelish said sneering, "You look a bit lonely today. You should pay a visit to my brothel this evening. First boy is on the house."
Varys said casually, "I think you're mistaking business with pleasure."
Baelish said smirking, "Am I? All those birds that whisper in your ear, such pretty little things. Trust me, we accommodate all inclinations."
Varys said smoothly, "Oh, I'm sure. Lord Redwyne likes his boys very young, I hear."
Baelish said slyly, "I'm a purveyor of beauty and discretion, both equally important."
Varys said curiously, "Though I suppose beauty is a subjective quality, no? Is it true that Ser Marlon of Tumblestone prefers amputees?"
Baelish said, lifting his brow with a sigh, "All desires are valid to a man with a full purse."
Varys said sarcastically, "And I heard the most awful rumor about a certain lord with a taste for fresh cadavers. Must be enormously difficult to accommodate that inclination. The logistics alone... to find beautiful corpses before they rot."
Baelish said slyly, "Strictly speaking, such a thing would not be in accordance with the King's laws."
Varys nodded and muttered, "Strictly speaking."
Baelish asked, smirking, "Tell me. Does someone, somewhere, keep your balls in a little box? I've often wondered." They kept their game of posturing going.
Varys frowned and answered, "Do you know, I have no idea where they are? And we had been so close. But enough about me. How have you been since we last saw each other?"
Baelish inquired, "Since you last saw me or since I last saw you?"
Varys said, "Now the last time I saw you, you were talking to the Hand of the King."
Baelish said questioningly, "Saw me with your own eyes?"
Varys said, spreading his hands, "Eyes I own."
Baelish said deflecting, "Council business. We all have so much to discuss with Ned Stark."
Varys said smoothly, "Everyone's well aware of your enduring fondness for Lord Stark's wife. I assume you are diligently searching for the eldest Stark girl, Lyarra, I believe? I hear she's even more beautiful than her mother at twenty name days old. I heard she left before they got to The Neck. Smart girl, because I'll bet she even knew if she got below it her chances of getting away decrease by half. She could be half a world away by now."
Baelish said smirking, "One shudders at the thought."
Varys said smiling, "Oh."
Baelish said while playing their game, "But do you know something? I do believe that I have seen you even more recently than you have seen me."
Varys asked curiously, "Have you?"
Baelish said smugly, "Yes. Earlier today, I distinctly recall seeing you talking to Lord Stark in his chambers."
Varys asked, teasing, "Was that you under the bed?"
Baelish said with his brow raised, "And not long after that when I saw you escorting a certain foreign dignitary... Council business? Of course you would have friends from across The Narrow Sea. You're from there yourself, after all. We're friends, aren't we, Lord Varys? I'd like to think we are. So you can imagine my burden, wondering if the King might question my friend's sympathies… To stand at a crossroads where turning left means loyalty to a friend, turning right, loyalty to the realm."
Varys said poo-pooing him, "Oh, please."
Baelish said, trying to intimidate Varys, "To find myself in a position where a simple word to the King…"
Renly enters from a different doorway and cuts both men off. Renly said to them both, "What are you two conspiring about? Well, whatever it is, you'd best hurry up. My brother is coming."
Baelish asked shocked, "To a small council meeting?"
Varys said looking at him, "Disturbing news from far away. Haven't you heard?"