The Eminence in GOT-Chapter 40: Bitterness

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***

283 A.D.

Kingsroad, lands between Heyford Castle and King's Landing, King's Landing.

«Ble-argh! Fucking imbecile! He should have his hands ripped off for sewing intestines so crookedly! - I cursed again, spitting another spurt of blood into the brown cloth. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com

«It was your own fault, my lord. - Torhen said, handing me another bottle of healing potion and adjusting my pillow, which had slipped again from too much shaking in the cart. The Kingsroad had been repaired under Aegon the Incredible, and it was a sad sight. - There was no reason to order that Maester from Darry to be slaughtered. Except for him and Lord Arryn's personal Maester, there was no one here who knew the healing arts.

«Uh-huh. It was the only way to block word of our betrayal. If Aerys found out, Elia and her children would be dead. - I hissed through gritted teeth, adjusting the shaking blanket once more. My muscles ached once more from that simple movement, giving me a dull ache throughout my body.

«Wouldn't the king know? - I was surprised to see that big northern brute acting as my nurse while I was bedridden and couldn't even stand up properly.

«From where? - My right eyebrow rose sarcastically. - The only place he could have gotten word of the battle was Darri, and the maester there had been slaughtered. You saw for yourself that the mercenaries are now dressed to match the Stormwolves, the Dolin and the Northmen. The rest of Westeros must think the Dornish army is completely wiped out.

«What about deserters and spies? You said yourself that the King's Master has his ears and hands on the whisperers wherever he can.

«By the time word of the defectors reaches him, Baratheon's army will be feasting in King's Landing. - I said, sipping the healing potion, wrinkling my nose. It's bitter. - Varys is human, like the rest of us. Somehow we missed Tywin Lannister's army, which arrived at the capital faster than we did.

"Not a victory, but a headache." - I stroked my bandaged side tiredly, soaked in green smelling ointment.

The battle at the Ruby ford, so beautifully named by the soldiers for the rubies sprinkled into it from Rhaegar's breastplate when Baratheon pierced his sternum, could safely be called Pyrrhic. At most ten thousand of the king's army survived, with five of those being the commoners and mercenaries from my army. That was the price of the encirclement and the ensuing massacre by the Martellian and Dolin heavy cavalry.

The rebel losses were also high - after all, the task of attacking a well-fortified ford is barely behind the assault on the castle in terms of complexity. So Robert and his allies lost almost fifteen thousand men killed and wounded.

Giant losses, clearly showing how harsh and bloody this battle was.

Robert, too, received a great scar across his chest and one severed horn on his helmet from Rhaegar, which fell to the bottom of the Trident like the prince himself.

I didn't manage to get away with it either.

Toward the end of mine and Tarly's battle, we both made a mistake that allowed us to bypass the other's defenses and strike. It cost him an arm and me a dangerous wound in my side that was nearly fatal. I would have been hollowed out if I hadn't put the shaft up in time.

Still, my axe, like the spear given to the Martells, was not entirely of Valyrian steel. Back in the days when I had bought four ingots of the precious metal from I-Ti, I still had two small ingots left. It was these, along with numerous pieces of Valyrian jewelry bought from collectors for fabulous sums of money, that had secretly traveled to Quokhor two years ago, where they had been forged into a new axe. There was only enough metal for the wings and the outer layer, so local craftsmen had to pour one of their experimental alloys, superior to many metals, but not up to full Valyrian steel. It was an exact copy of my old axe, with a slightly longer hilt to protect me from the attack.

Thanks to it, I only got away with a severed intestine, a severed appendix, and a few veins and arteries. If this were medieval Europe, I'd have ordered a coffin, but this is Westeros. One of the maesters accompanying Jon Arryn had two links of silver and was able to operate on me, removing my appendix, stitching together my intestines and blood vessels, damaging almost nothing. Almost.

«Ble-argh! - Once again I threw up, leaving the taste of fresh blood in my mouth.

Something this asshole had sewn wrong and because of that, a little bit of blood kept accumulating in my stomach, then expectorating in that lovely bloody cough. At my innocent question "How long will it last?", combined with my guards putting two swords to this surgeon's caddy, he swore that it wouldn't last long - until the wounds healed. But then he said it could happen again if I was too stressed. So now I could cough blood from shock, like the actors in the old Chinese movies back on Earth.

And after that fight, me, Tarly and Robert got new nicknames. And while Baratheon was now the Demon of the Trident, and Randyll was the Bloody Hunter from the Red Hunter, my nickname was so hurtful and stigmatizing.

Bloody Jackal.

And blood hound, whoever wanted it. Not only did I unknowingly cut up a lot of people in the heat of battle, along with Tarly, but betrayal, even if it was completely at the command of a suzerain, was frowned upon by soldiers and knights. So until Jaime Lannister gets his famous nickname, "The Kingslayer," I will have to be the bearer of the most infamous and controversial nickname in all of the Seven Kingdoms.

Unfortunately, the bad news didn't end there. As soon as Baratheon's army had recovered from their wounds and rushed off toward King's Landing, leaving only a small band of guards and all the silent sisters at the Ruby ford to organize the funeral, the bad news came.

Tywin Lannister, having managed to deceive all observers, with a corps of twelve thousand had been spotted on the Golden Road near the Field of Flame and was moving swiftly toward the capital.

A great tumult arose. The entire rebel camp was on its ears - everyone was well aware of the old friendship between the King and the Old Lion (though I doubted that there was anything left of it), fearing that King's Harbor might get a garrison of 12,000 and the Western Kingdom would stab them in the back. And the fall of Storm's End and the entry of the Expanse into a serious war is not far off.

So the ten thousand Northmen, led by Eddard Stark, who had suffered the least in the battle, rushed at full speed towards the Westerners, and the rest of the army had to move at the speed of a slow wagon, thank the gods, not too far behind the Northmen.

"Fucking roads." - I thought tiredly at the next bump, where the cart I was on bounced a foot. - "It seems like a different world, but the expression about 'fools and roads' still holds true. Nothing... it's only an hour away and we'll finally be at the walls of the capital."

But as soon as I relaxed and wrapped myself tightly in my traveling cloak, which served as a blanket, Torhen jumped onto the wagon, and his expression did not bode well.

«My lord, the King's harbor is showing! It's on fire! - He shouted, opening a small gap in the front of the cart where thin streams of smoke could be seen against the sky. And if they could be seen ten miles from the town, I shuddered to imagine how much had burned there.

"God, let Thea, Elia, Rhaenys, and Aegon be okay." - A desperate thought slipped through my mind as I ordered the coachman to speed up and ride towards the city without sparing the horses.

Hopefully my worst fears were in vain.

***

The endless corridors of the Red Castle were not exactly a work of art, even in normal times-the taste of Meagor the Cruel, who had built the castle, was too ascetic, and the other Targaryens were either solving the problems of the Seven Kingdoms or spending all their money on drinking and drinking and not caring much about the corridors of their homes.

But now, when every second counted and I had to lean on a cane I couldn't find to walk properly, the torn muscles and sprained ligaments that still ached dully all over my body, preventing me from walking too fast, they made me grind my teeth even more irritatingly.

The royal harbor was on fire.

Blazing, to the cheerful shouts and groans of murder, pillage, and violence that the soldiers of the North and West had committed here.

Tywin Lannister had decided to side with the victors and betrayed the King.

As I was told by several Westerners who called out to me as I followed Baratheon into the city, once the Western army was in the city, they attacked the defenders instead of helping in the defense. The invasion turned into a massacre - the Merchant's Guild, the Alchemists Guild, and the Order of Silent Sisters were almost entirely slaughtered, and it's unclear how many survived. Many old men and children were killed, women were raped still. And Red Castle had fallen only a few hours ago and according to the soldiers they met, screams from there could be heard even in the city.

"Thea! Elia!" - My thoughts were desperately racing as I tore after Robert Baratheon and Jon Arryn ahead of me, ignoring the pain. Even Prince Leven, who had to be chained after waking because he wanted to strangle me, had forgotten about "family betrayal and broken honor." There was only one hope now, that Robin was up to the task and snuck them out of the castle before this nightmare began. - "Thank all the gods that the throne room is not that far away."

The throne room of the Red Castle was as magnificent as ever. Walking through the tall wooden doors upholstered with bronze engravings in the shape of dragons, one had a view of a truly gigantic and ornate room. The floor, made of expensive lunar marble, reflected the light falling from the stained glass windows going to the ceiling, painting the place ruby red. Together with the dragon skulls hanging from the pedestals, ranging from the smallest, the size of a dog's head, to giants such as the skull of the Black Terror Balerion himself, it created an ineffable atmosphere of power and authority that the former rulers of Ancient Valyria had wielded.

Now there was no trace of their power left.

The upper galleries and most of the hall were occupied by soldiers dressed in Lannister red and Stark gray, and the last Targaryen, except for baby Aegon, lay in a pool of his own blood, frightening those present with a mad grimace and long fingernails spread.

Aerys II Targaryen, also known as the Mad King, the Bold King, and the Ungrateful King, was dead, much to the delight of Baratheon, who entered and Tywin, who was standing beside the corpse, though his face remained as cold and emotionless as ever.

«Congratulations on your great victory, Your Grace. The throne is rightfully yours. - Said Lord Utesa Casterly and kneeling down, he pointed towards the Iron Throne. All the Red Cloaks, most of the Northerners and the rest of the people present followed their lord. Only I and the Dornish present, along with Prince Lieven, remained on our feet.

"Until he fulfills his part of the treaty, we will not call him king" - I thought, looking around and noticing among the kneelers one noticeable white cloak with golden hair. Meanwhile, Robert, elated with his triumph, was slowly walking up the steps of the dangerous and predatory structure of hundreds of sharp swords called the Iron Throne.

As soon as his seat rested on this figment of Aegon the Conqueror's mad thought, the Seven Kingdoms had a new king - Robert Baratheon first of his name, King of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, Protector of the Realm, grandson of Princess Reila Targaryen, great-grandson of King Aegon V and, unless history changes its course, the last true Baratheon to ascend the throne.

Applause broke out, everyone cheering the new king and rejoicing at the end of the rebellion as I caught a glimpse of two red cloth bundles being brought into the hall from an inconspicuous passageway, one of which looked very much like a man.

"Could it be...." - I inwardly chilled.

«Everyone here has proven their loyalty to you, my king, on the battlefield and their loyalty is unquestionable. - Tywin continued his speech, standing up and pointing toward the rolls being brought in. - So let me show my loyalty as well. I hope you will be satisfied with the death of your main enemy's family and the breaking of his line.

As soon as he had finished speaking, the two bundles, which turned out to be the cloaks of the Lannister home guard, were placed beside Aerys's cold corpse and the edge of the cloth was pulled back.

A tinkle...

The cane fell helplessly from my hands, hitting the marble of the floor with a thud. Staring back at me were the dead eyes of Elia, whose face was contorted in the utmost fear and despair, and beside her lay a small silver-haired head, brutally torn from her body along with a chunk of her spine.

"No," I thought shockingly as the grief, rage, sadness, and hatred that had overwhelmed me momentarily receded into the background, if not the third. Emotional burnout. The battle and the preparations for it a few days ago had already exhausted me too much, and now this... I just didn't have the strength to scream or sob. Only two lonely tears slowly slid down my cheeks, leaving two wet paths.

«Ble-argh! Kha-kha-kha-kha... - I once again vomited blood onto the handkerchief that had been placed just in time.

Unlike me, Lieven was much more emotional.

«NO-E-E-T!!! ELIA-I-I-I-I! BITCH!!! BAKLA SCUM! How dare you do that!!!? - The royal guard roared like a wounded beast as he was barely restrained by the three northerners who were a head taller than the prince. - Kill!!! I'll kill you!!! Bastards! I'll burn the whole bloodline to the ground! Jaime! How could you let this happen?! It was your duty! - He shouted at the Lannister, his head even lowered. - What the fuck were you doing?! We trusted you to protect the King and Rhaegar's family! What the fuck have you been doing as a Kingsguard?! Huh?!

While they tried to calm the rambunctious Prince of Dorne, I walked woodenly over to the bundles and took a closer look at the bodies lying there.

"It's definitely Elia" - My thoughts flowed quietly and sluggishly, slowly analyzing the incoming information while I, remembering the lessons of the Citadel, carefully examined the body. It was in a terrible state - the whole back was pocked with arrow fragments, and from the right collarbone to the groin there was a bloody cut that cut it in half. The body had been more or less cleaned up by hastily stuffing the scraps of internal organs inside, but it still looked very gruesome. - "Judging by the traces of blood, she was first shot in the shoulder and then chopped up with a sharpened two-handed sword. Of all Tywin's men, only..."

«That wasn't the deal. - My voice boomed through the throne room, drawing everyone's attention at once. Even Lieven, who was about to be gagged, calmed down a little and looked at me. - The deal was that we would get Princess Elia and her children, Princess Rhaenys and Prince Aegon, alive and well for Dorne's help in the battle. Your part of the bargain has not been fulfilled. They're dead. I demand an explanation, Baratheon.

My dry and cold voice made even a few nearby soldiers cringe, and the new king, who had been smiling contentedly as he sat on his throne, frowned and glared angrily in my direction.

«Tywin did not know of our arrangement. There was nothing to hide about you joining me. - Yeah, except then Elia and her children would have been burned in the Wildfire when the Spider found out. - It's the collateral damage of war. There's not much we can do about it. - Baratheon smiled contentedly, while Eddard Stark, standing next to him, had a growing change in his face, showing that he fundamentally disagreed with his friend's opinion.

«The treaty must be honored. You promised three lives and gave none. Is the word of the Storm's End Lord worth so little?

«Oh, you! - Baratheon stood up from his throne, even blushing with rage.

«Where is Princess Rainis?" I interrupted him, realizing I couldn't get much more out of that deer.

All eyes crossed at once on Tywin, who, despite the news, hadn't even changed his face.

«Stolen by Targaryen servants. - The Old Lion said grudgingly, wrinkling his nose a little. - They left through the underground passages and sailed in a prearranged ship toward Dragonstone. She-" He nodded toward the maiden's corpse. - ... also tried to escape, but an arrow hit her shoulder, and the kidnappers, not wanting to leave a person of royal blood in the castle, killed her and the boy themselves.

Such an impudent lie almost made me choke on air. If the "kidnappers" had been on the side of an amassed man who could rip a baby's head off with his bare hands and cut a man in half with a simple sword, I doubt they would have backed down.

"Well, what to do with Clegane, and he's the only Westerner with that kind of power, and Doran will handle all this nonsense. I don't have the power to do much more than that. In the meantime, I need to find out what happened to Rainis." - I thought tiredly, signaling my men to take the bodies and prepare to leave. We must leave King's Landing soon. - We bid you adieu, your majesty. - Only a deaf man could hear the sneer in my words. - Good day to you.

No one stopped us - there were too many questions and misunderstandings, such as why and by whom the king was killed and not captured, or why the city was sacked. As I left the throne room, I could hear Eddard Stark shouting for Baratheon to punish the Lannisters, and Jon Arryn wailing about a new war.

But I didn't care about any of that. The only thing I cared about was seeing my rescued sister, who had served as the princess's nanny, and baby Rainis.

***

Already in the city, I was quietly joined by several inconspicuous figures who turned out to be the men I had left behind with Robin. One of them discreetly handed me a small slip of paper, with only three chopped phrases in Valyrian:

"We lost. Just the girl. Third source of the Pathfinder."

Those words immediately put my heart at ease - there was always the possibility that Rhaenys had indeed been snatched away by the Targaryens.

The plan to take Elia and her children away was originally very simple and designed for the poor architectural memory of the owners of the Red Castle. Back in the days of Maegor the Cruel, the cliff on which the castle was built was permeated with dozens of large and small grottos leading directly to the sea. He connected them with numerous tunnels and passages, giving himself and his descendants a chance to escape in case of danger. But when the cruel king died, he took the exact layout of the castle to the other world.

Later the maesters made a normal scheme of the upper part of the palace, and forgot about the catacombs, leaving their "study" to the castle servants and vagabonds from Flea's End.

Until the Blood and Cheese incident during the famous Dance of the Dragons.

Cheese had been a rat-catcher in Red Castle, so the secret doors and hidden passages of the castle built by Maegor were well known to him, as were the rats he hunted. He and Blood, the cruel butcher of Flea's End, had been found and hired by Misaria, master over whisperers and mistress of Damon Targaryen. Unseen by the guards, Cheese led Blood through a forgotten passageway into the heart of the castle, culminating in the death of Prince Jaehaerys right in front of his mother and younger brother. The Pied Piper and the butcher escaped with the prince's head, hiding among the alleys of King's Harbor. Though the Pied Piper was captured and tortured to death, no trace of the Cheese was found. In a rage, Aegon II ordered all the rat-catchers of King's Landing hanged. Ser Otto Hightower then had a hundred cats in Red Castle to replace them.

But the passages were never sealed and there are always people ready to use the ownerless goods. Like the guilds of thieves and assassins that plundered the capital. It was their leader, Leech, who received from me a weighty purse of gold and the task to lead Robin and his men to the Red Castle, and then take him to the sea, where a ship was waiting for them.

The plan was almost perfect, except for one thing - Rhaegar's family was being held in Maegor's Hardhold, where no secret passage led. So at some point they had to break through and go in for the assault.

"We'll have to find out at what point they ran into the Westerners." - I thought, heading to my cart for another batch of medicine.

We had to hurry.

***

283 A.D.

Mouth of the Guiding River, Royal Forest, Stormlands.

It took nearly two days to process Elia and Aegon's bodies, send them and Prince Lieven on one of the ships to Dorne, pay the money to the mercenaries, and send them on their way. After that, the remaining eight hundred Dornish followed me at a gallop toward the Stormlands.

It was there, in one of the tributaries, that a small fishing boat was found, carrying Robin and a dozen survivors, Thea and little Reynice. They looked pretty bad - wounds from arrows, swords, axes, cuts and bruises. Even my youngest was clutching a broken arm to her body. But it was Rainis who looked the worst - she had a large hematoma on her head and, according to her sister, she hadn't regained consciousness since her escape from King's Harbor.

The escape itself had gone downhill from the start - first, Robin had to postpone it because the dungeons were packed with people from the Alchemists' Guild, constantly carrying crates and equipment. They wanted to escape from the sinking ship. When all this was over and the tunnels were free, the Lannister army arrived at the walls. Maegor's stronghold was taken thanks to bribed servants and a few assassins sent by Leech, but on the way back they encountered a detachment of Grigor Clegane. Elia and Aegon were killed in the beginning, and Thea, who was carrying Reynis in her arms, was saved by one of the Northmen who covered her with his body. Even so, they did not get out unharmed - Thea broke her arm, and Rhaenys hit her head against the wall. They only managed to get out by leaving most of the men in the tunnels, where a maneuver like Clegane couldn't disperse at full strength.

"If Reynis doesn't wake up, it's going to be a disaster." - I thought tiredly then, glad that I had thoughtfully left the Martell Guards and the Dein Knights a few hours away. Until the girl woke up and Doran's reaction was known, it would be dangerous to talk about Reynis.

So the only thing left for me to do was to send the girl with a small detachment to Osgiliath, and myself to ride to Sunspear, to face Doran's judgment and hope for his discretion.

"I have a bad feeling about this."

***

284 A.D.

Ark of the Sands, Sunspear, Dorne.

If someone asked me which of the two Martell brothers I feared the most, I wouldn't hesitate to point to Doran. And it's not because he's a Grandlord with great power and Oberyn is an old friend of mine. No...

It was about rage. The cold and controlled rage that the Lord of Dorne possessed.

And while Oberyn, after my detailed account, where I omitted only the moment with Rhaenys, saying that the rescuers were outnumbered by Lannisters, started crying, swearing, cursing the lion's house and dry-humping wine, wanting to get drunk, Doran...

"What a horror." - I thought, when for a moment, instead of a middle-aged man sitting in a soft wicker chair, I saw a venomous and furious snake about to lunge at me.

«It's not your fault. - Said Martell in his usual voice. - Felix, you were on the road, so you don't know - the entire Targaryen fleet was destroyed by the storm and the royal fleet, led by Stannis Baratheon, took Dragonstone. Queen Rhaela died giving birth to a daughter who, along with Prince Viserys, was taken to the Free Cities. It's quite possible that Rhaenys is with them. No one knows where they are now, and the new king... - At this point he did show emotion, clutching the armrest of his chair to his white knuckles. - ... promised a reward of full gold for every surviving Targaryen.

"Oh, Robert, oh idiot." - I thought doomfully, realizing that the crown had once again made enemies of a very angry and resentful Dorne.

«As for you... - Doran continued his speech. - I will not blame you Felix. No one could have foreseen such a move on Lannister's part. But failure is failure. For a mistake that cost my sister her life, you will owe the Martell family for the rest of your life. And only your death can atone for it. Do you understand me?

«Yes, My Lord. - I answered, realizing I'd gotten off more or less lightly. If Doran had been less practical and hadn't realized the money I was bringing to the Martells, I might have walked out of here without some of my body parts. But now I can't even think of touching the interests of House Sunspear, and I'll have to support them in all their endeavors.

I was only in Sunspear for a couple days, sorting out minor issues and catching up on the latest news. Some were completely canon, like Robert's marriage to Cersei Lannister or Jon Arryn's appointment as Hand. But some were different, causing much surprise. For example, Eddard Stark had previously had a terrible falling out with Robert and, after liberating Storm's End, moved south to look for his sister Lyanna. He found her in the Tower of Joy, a small and abandoned fort in the Manwoody lands, where the last three Kingsguard - Erthur Dane, Herold Hightower and Oswell Went - were stationed. A terrible massacre took place, where only two Northerners survived - Eddard himself and Howland Reed. In the tower itself they found the body of Lyanna, rumored to have been raped more than once.

So the keeper of the North returned to Winterfell with his sister's body and two bastards, Elsa and Jon Snow. I was, of course, surprised that there were more bastards than in the series, but I didn't pay much attention. There were bigger problems.

Rainis still hadn't woken up.

The hematoma was gone, but the girl didn't show even a hint of waking up. The medication and the medical help didn't work. So there was only one way out.

«Torchen, get the ship ready! - I shouted, preparing to leave. - We're sailing for Meereen!

If the usual remedies don't work, we'll have to turn to magic.

***

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