Chapter 29: Chapter 29
The bowstring made a sound as the arrow was loosed and sailed through the air towards it's target. I watched the flight of the arrow and continued to do so as it buried itself into the centre of the target at the end of the range.
"Huh," I whistled, rather impressed. Without looking, I handed Harry another arrow. "Do that again."
My young squire shrugged and took the arrow of me and strung it up on his bow. It was a relatively new bow, a bow that wasn't seen all that much in Westeros. Black in coloring, with the limbs curving away from the archer.
In other words, it was a recurve bow. Something not at all that seen in Westeros apart from the occasional foreign sellsword.
It also happened to be made out of dragonbone. So it was already marginally better than every other bow out there.
Harry strung up the arrow and then proceeded to take aim down the range once more. He steadied his breathing before loosing the arrow with a swift whoosh and a twang of the bowstring as it travelled through the air, a blur to the eyes. Like the other before, it burrowed itself into the target.
I studied the target once more before giving him a good pat on the back. "It seems like you are about as good with the bow as you said you were."
Harry looked up at me. "You didn't believe me?"
"I might have been sceptical. Congratulations though, you proved me wrong." I looked over to my other squire. "Anything to add, Ryam?"
Ryam looked over to the target down the range then back to Harry, then his eyes trailed down to the bow made out of one of the rarest things in the world. He then promptly shrugged. "My grandmother could have made that shot. Without the needing of a bow like that."
I think we all rolled our eyes. His angsting was justified, but really, was he not taking to heart my words about him not having any friends apart from Harry? Because he really should.
"You think could do that from horse back?" I asked, turning my attention towards Harry instead of the other one that seemed to want to wallow in his own self misery.
Harry took on a thoughtful expression. "I-I don't know. Maybe, with some practice."
"It will be difficult." I agreed with a nod. "But I think if you put in enough hours in the yard, then you will be fine. Why don't you start off slow, with the horse whilst on a canter?"
"You are serious?"
I crossed my arms. "I'm more than serious. You probably won't be the only one running around the yard in the coming future. Probably you and couple hundred other guys if I can get it right."
Ryam pecked up his ears at that. "A couple hundred?" He asked.
"Probably. I want to aim for a hundred at the moment." I tussled Harry's hair much to his displeasure. "Around his age at the very least. Maybe younger. Got to start them young."
"Why?"
That was a good question, but unfortunately for him, I wasn't going to give him an answer. "One of the perks of being royalty is that I can do strange things and people won't question me about them." Unless I start burning people alive for no particular reason, but I don't think I was at that level just yet. I turned my attention back to Harry. "Better go get yourself a horse and get a move on. I'm expecting a lot of things you."
He nodded and then tried to hand me back the dragonbone bow. I shook my head and pushed it back into his chest. "No. Keep it. It's your now."
The beaming smile on his face was absolutely adorable and watching Harry scramble off towards the stables was rather amusing. Now that I had my first recruit to what was essentially going to be a long term project of mine, I now had to find someone who knew what they were doing when it came to horse archer tactics.
I don't think Westeros had any sort of hose archers, if mounted crossbowmen were not considered that part of the equation. Although I was of the mind that reloading a crossbow on horse-back sounded somewhat absurd.
I already had asked Ser Joffrey in regards of approaching the sons of hunters to come into my employ. Or hunters in general to teach some of the more able orphans that had been brought to my notice the use of the bow and horsemanship.
I could see it now, the 1st Royal Dragoons. With Harry as the commanding officer of course. I did promise his father some sort of position if he impressed and he impressed enough with his skill of the bow, although his skill with a sword left much to be desired.
But since he had training with how to use a sword, he was already markedly better than most of the population in Westeros. Don't know about Essos though, but I wasn't really planning on that particular unit to be involved in any form of close combat unless they can help it.
"Harry get's a dragonbone bow." Ryam noted with some bitterness in his voice. "So what gift do I receive? Or is my gift the knowledge that I will be able to live a little longer underneath your magnanimous care?"
I levelled a look in his direction. "Well, if that's going to be your attitude, then yes, that is going to be my gift to you. Gods kid, it's not that bad."
That was a horrible lie. For Ryam, it was that bad. Some could even say worse. Probably worse. Definitely worse.
And by the look he was giving me, he certainly knew the truth of that. I had to give it to him though, when he wasn't busy angsting and raging against the world, he took all that rage and anger and turned it into something productive in the training yard.
He really went into it. He would challenge other squires to melees that would most likely end when someone had to step in to stop someone from getting killed. I had to stop him from doing that and assigning Ser Gwayne to be the guy in charge of his martial training.
At the very least, he wasn't going to be knocking Ser Gwayne into any kind of coma any time soon.
He had a talent for the sword, that was for sure, but Gwayne wasn't a Kingsguard knight for no reason. And the truth was, practicing with Gwayne might very well come in handy in the future when whatever protection he had as my squire ran out.
It was also nice that he had taken my advice of cooking his own food, although his first few tries had been horrendous to say the very least.
Still though, the kid had to be given some kind of apropos for taking everything as well as he did.
I turned and began to lead him away from the range. "Come on, I'm sure I can find someone for you to beat bloody senseless."
That seemed to be the only things that could cheer him up lately.
Joanna Lannister was beautiful.
She did things to the depths of my belly that I did not appreciate. She had long blonde hair that was almost gold, green eyes that could be mistaken for emeralds and a delicate, beautiful nature about her that made me want to do all sorts of things.
In other words, she was someone I really shouldn't be alone with, considering the fact that Aerys came out whenever she was within my presence. I had to control myself quite a lot to stop myself from making an idiot out of myself, especially now that I had a northern wife, who had her father and cousins in the castle. Who in turn, would beat the living shit out of me if I dishonoured her in any way or form.
In other words, she was my sort of kryptonite.
"Aerys." Her smile radiated like a lone star in the inky blackness of space when she greeted me. And when she curtsied, I may have taken a peak down the cleavage window on her dress.
I'm weak, leave me alone.
I smiled in return. "My lady, a pleasure to run into you on this fine afternoon."
She had an impish smile on her face as her eyes darted towards the window. "It's cloudy and grey, Aerys. Not as fine as you think."
I looked out the window and noticed, that yes, the sky was cloudy and grey. Fuck, she was even making it difficult for my brain to work. Dammit.
Wait, was Harry still outside practicing shooting from horse-back? Oh, I hope it didn't rain. I should probably send someone to get his ass inside the castle. Don't want someone to complain about him catching a chill.
"In my defence, it was sunny and bright earlier on." I said in defence of myself. I honestly thought that winter was slowly coming to an end and it couldn't have happened at a better time.
But I wasn't stupid enough to fall for the same trick twice. Weather in Westeros was weird. It snowed so much that snow could blanket everything around you in white for miles on end. Then, all of a sudden, you would wake up to one fine, bright and sunny day. And that pattern fo weather would happen for like a weak, melting everything in site.
Then the snow would come again.
I think it had been touched on before, but it was bloody weird.
"That it was." She replied with a good-hearted smirk. In her defence though, when she saw one of my two companions who was more than likely glaring at her inhumanly beautiful person, her good nature didn't at all drop. She was even nice enough to give him a slight nod of acknowledgement. "Lord Reyne."
Okay, maybe a slight mocking acknowledgement.
By now, it was common knowledge that Ryam was a lord of nothing, having all his families lands and incomes attainted. So he was just about as much as a lord that Davos was a knight back in canon. And to throw salt into the wound? His families lands were awarded to Tywin's brother Kevan.
Instead of the Reynes of Castamere. It was now the Lannisters of Castamere. The same could be said about Tarbeck Hall, that one, Tywin awarded to Tygett.
I shifted slightly to bar Ryam's path to Joanna. I didn't need him giving reason to Tywin to fuck him up even more than he was likely going to do when his apprenticeship underneath my tender care ended by doing something stupid to his betrothed that he actually and genuinely cared about.
So I guess you might get my surprise when he smiled pleasantly at Joanna and greeted her with a rather courtly bow at the waist. "Good tidings to you, my lady of Lannister."
I think that must have caught Joanna off, just by a bit as her eyes might have widened slightly. Didn't stop her from being completely genial though. "How are you faring today? Not too badly I hope considering the news that came in from the west."
Man, the passive-aggressiveness was strong in her. I don't think she appreciated it all that much her father being held hostage by Ryam's aunt.
"My family was rebellious scum. They deserved everything that was given to them." Ryam replied, speaking of his dead family as if he was talking about the weather. "Hopefully, I can eventually remove the stain on my family's name in service to Prince Aerys."
If I could, I would have taken a side step just to have a good view of what exactly was going on here. Apparently, Ryam had just gotten over his family's death just like that. Which was bullshit considering he had been emo-ing just a few minutes ago.
So he was obviously putting on a strong front in front of someone that he probably thought of as an enemy.
Joanna's eyes drifted away from the young squire to me. "Yes, I suppose that's all one can hope for in service to royalty." She curtsied once more. "Good day to you, Prince Aerys, Lord Reyne, Ser Gwayne." She finished before walking past us.
I watched her go, more accurately, her rear. Once again, I'm a weak human being, or more likely, Aerys was weak for Joanna. I needed to find a way to have Rhaella pack her off to the westerlands because I really don't think it was at all healthy for me to keep her around.
But first.
"Ryam?"
"Hm?"
"You suck."
Little shit knew I was neutral or at the very least, trying to be neutral in his ongoing one-sided, feud with the Lannisters and he just went and dropped my name like it was nothing. And in the way that he did? Yeah, the little shit sucked.
The Quicksilver had attracted quite the attention when it had sailed down the Rush and into the bay. Why wouldn't it? No-one had seen such a ship like that before. It was bound to attract all sorts of gawkers and on-lookers.
Then it was no surprise that it had attracted more on-lookers when it made it's way back into port.
"Two days!" Caeleb Celtigar bellowed as he walked down the gang plank, making a bee-line straight for me. "It took us two days to reach Pentos and then just over a day to return!" He shook his head when he stopped in front of me. He turned his head back to face the Quicksilver, in all of it's glory. "I've never heard of a ship that can move so fast. We recorded thirteen knots on the journey to Pentos, then fifteen back! Amazing! This must be the fastest ship in the known world."
Then he got a hold of himself before bowing at my presence. "Pardon my rudeness, your grace."
I raised him up with a hand. "No it's nothing. I'm just glad that you seem to be raving about her. She's a fine one, isn't she?"
"More than fine your grace." Caeleb said, twisting at the braided thing he called a beard. "This ship moves faster than any other ship that I know off. I don't even think that the swan ships of the Summer Islanders can even match her."
Better than the swan ships of the Summer Islanders? That was good to know. They probably rivalled against Braavos when it came to having the best ships and against the Braavos and the ironborn when it comes to being excellent sailors. Now I just had to think of some way to use these ships to make a hearty profit for me and the crown.
Now how would I do that?
I could remember something about the clipper being used to make runs to China for something. I think it was tea and...opium? Not that I was particularly interested in going into the drug business, it was probably something to look into. The tea, not the opium. I'm not that horrible.
Wait, where did our tea come from? Maybe I could use the clippers to ferry tea at a faster rate than anybody else can.
Actually, maybe something like a mail service? I know the nobility used ravens, what about the rich folk who wanted to sent mail to other people on the other side of the continent or across the sea. How did they sent their mail?
"Huh, I think it's about time a Royal Mail was created." I muttered to myself aloud.
Caeleb looked at me in confusion. "Your grace?" He asked.
I smiled disarmingly. "Oh it's nothing. I think I just found a way to make ships of her class a rather profitable venture for us. Speaking of which, how did it go with your other task?"
Caeleb's countenance took on a more serious aura about it. "I asked some questions and I learned much. Dragonbone is certainly a valued material, many willing to pay a chest full of gold's ransom to have such a thing in their own position. Anything ranging from a comb, to a brooch to a necklace."
I think the grin that was threatening to come across my face would have been completely and utterly shit eating in nature. I had a shit tonne of dragonbone, sure, I was reserving some for more important use, but that still left me with a bunch of dragonbone that needed to be used in one way or another.
So why not profit for House Targaryen?
"So brooches and the likes are valued?" I asked.
The Celtigar scion nodded his head. "Aye, but the most valued of them all would be a bow made of dragonbone. Such bows even outrange the bows made of goldenheart."
Goldenheart bows that originate from the Summer Islands. If I remember correctly, no-one apart from Summer Islanders actually owned such things. They never sold them to any foreigners and they were highly coveted because they were pretty powerful things, able to outrange pretty much everything.
Everything except for dragonbone bows.
And said dragonbone bows were highly sought after and valued.
This was nice to know. So very nice to know.
I smiled and hooked an arm around Caeleb Celtigar as I began to lead him towards the horses. "I think I might have another task for you, my lord..."
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