章 143: Maena 1
293AC
"Oh the wind sails high in the winter sky and the world is dark and low, and the waves are shy as they whistle by as I stand out here alone."
Maena sang as she scrubbed the wooden dishes with her brush, digging deep grooves in them trying to get soupy carrot stains out. The result of some particularly enthusiastic eating by Aeron, her youngest.
She had heard the thunder of course, though it didn't sound quite right. Probably meant that that Prince everyone was talking about had gotten here with his boats. It had been the talk of the tavern for weeks, cleared out most of the pirates as well. She couldn't say she was unhappy about that honestly, even if the morons occasionally tipped her in Gold.
At the very least it meant there were fewer people trying to grope her tits by a margin.
Of course, the fact that the town might be invaded was a bit more concern. She had ordered the children into the loft as a result. She would be up there hiding herself if she didn't think that would make it too obvious to any given looter.
The children were, of course, quite unhappy all being trapped in their bedroom.
'Blasted brats.' She chuckled to herself. 'Should never have had so many of them.'
There were eight in all, six boys and two girls by three different husbands, one abandoned and two dead. She wouldn't deny that she had terrible luck with men, though they had all seemed great at first.
But then, that was lid east it.
Her ears picked up at the sound of a yelp of pain and laughing from the loft above her head.
"I better not get up there to find you all fighting again."
A hush fell over the loft and she felt the urge to smirk. No doubt they were throwing each other around up there then.
And in good time too, as a man in armor came marching down the street, a cryer's bell ringing in his hand.
"All townspeople must come to the town square, Prince Arthur has a proclomation to make. Come to the town square and hear the Prince speak."
She chuckled. It seemed that those drunken bastards in the militia didn't do much to hinder the army after all. Who would have guessed? It wasn't like they did much to stop the slavers from Tyrosh either when they dragged men, women, and children off in the night.
And the useless shites expected to be paid?
'Hah'
Still, that was news, the Prince himself was here? The one the mummers spent all their time talking about when they weren't either buying or being whores?
That was something. She had never seen a prince before.
'I wonder if Prince's are different than other men.' She snorted to herself, still, what he had to say might well affect her family.
"I'm going out." She shouted upstairs. "Haraeld is in charge until I get back. You all stay up there at least until nightfall or I get back."
A chorus of disappointment came out of her younger children, but she knew her eldest was responsible enough to keep them all safe. He did most nights while she was out.
The walk through the streets was a bit muddy as usual, though it had been dry recently. It was simply the nature of the town's old and broken cobblestones.
She saw more of the soldiers as she walked, all yellow and black, and clutching what must have been those thunder spears that the mummers talked about. It seemed plenty of people were heading for the square like her, all under the watchful eyes of the soldiers.
It felt a bit odd, the soldiers stood out heavily from the normal folk, their uniforms almost universally pristine, along with polished armor. It wasn't that the people of Great Gallows were particularly unclean, but being that clean took serious effort.
A growing sense of anticipation filled her for the Prince's speech to come.
The town square when she finally arrived, was already fairly crowded with men and women from the city, perhaps a third of the population, with the ever-present soldiers staring down over the crowd from every corner. She quietly took her place towards the middle of the crowd, and waited for the speech to start.
She didn't have to wait long, as out of a group of heavily armored soldiers, she saw two people step up onto some tables, which she realized after a moment were from her tavern, the Red Sea.
'Damn, Vernus is going to have me cleaning the mud off of those for a week.' She silently swore though she was quickly distracted by the shorter of the two men taking his helmet off.
To reveal that he was in fact clearly a boy. The signs were there, puffy cheeks, a round face, and bigger eyes. He was probably younger than Haraeld, albeit a fair bit taller. It looked like he was just beggining puberty, with a tiny bit of barely visible stubble on his chin.
Still, he was obviously of a different cut than most of the men here. His armor was nice for one, and while the others hand only little stags on their badges, his entire tabard was one.
After a moment, he spoke up above the noise, and his voice was loud enough for her to hear even a bit back.
"Hail, people of Grey Gallows." He raised a fist into the air at a right angle to his side, a symbol of greeting obviously. "My name is Arthur Baratheon, Prince of Dragonstone, and henceforth I will be your ruler."
That rose a murmur from the crowd, and she almost laughed at the boy prince just coming out and saying it without pretense.
Perhaps princes were different creatures after all.
Whatever objections the crowd had were stopped by a glance at the soldiers however.
"I intend this to be the first incorporated settlement of my new Kingdom of the Narrow Sea, and to that end, my men will immediately begin the construction of a fortress overlooking the town, which will be permanently garrisoned. Several other changes will also follow to be determined at a later date, however, for the moment you may consider these men to be operating in the role of a police and defense force for the town. Which they will be until further notice." The Prince gestured to the rocky cliffs which overlooked the Town Bay, then towards his men. "A permanent garrison of at least forty men will be put in place to drive off both slavers and pirates. Which will not be tolerated under my rule."
'Well, there's some good.' She chuckled to herself. Though most of the money in the city came from the two.
"I am aware that this is a radical change for the people of Great Gallows and all of Grey Gallows beyond. Those who have previously claimed domain over these Islands have not seriously enforced their claims. Even the previous kingdoms of the stepstones were not in a serious position to actually control them. That changes today. You will likely lose to some extent the freedoms to which you are accustomed."
The prince pursed his lips, and she almost had to laugh, freedom to what? Get murdered in a gutter like poor Tom was?
Still, some of the crowd at least did seem to be upset, mostly the ones who made their money off of selling to and buying from pirates.
"However, I do not intend to rule unjustly, and thus I have written up a contract which will guarantee people of this new kingdom certain rights and privaleges in exchange for these freedoms." He gestured to the man beside him, who had thus far been silent, fairly rotund, and wearing heavy armor, he silently opened a peace of parchment, and then began to read from it in a booming and deep voice.
"Article One. Citizens of the Kingdom of the Narrow Sea are to elect representatives to local councils in order to oversee their towns. These elections shall be held once every five years and will be made up of no less than one member for each five-hundred individuals represented. Districts for these elections will be determined based on geographic and social boundaries. Furthermore, these councils will elect a chairman from amongst their number, who will lead meetings, but will still require majority support from the council to take action."
"Article 2. By order of the Prince, King, or other executive power, geographic regions of the kingdom will be empowered with the distinction of province, all areas within the kingdom must be part of one and only one province. The previously defined councils will each send one and only one member from their bodies to form part of a provincial council for every ten members in said council. These individuals will administrate the affairs of the province under the direction of a governor appointed by the executive."
"Article Three, Each province shall send one member of its provincial council, chosen by majority vote to represent that province in the general council, which will advise the executive. This should be possible within two years of the kingdom's foundation."
"Article Four, At the establishment of a new province, citizens will have a month in order to define a claim of land that they personally can make use of, such as a workshop, farm, or house. They must demonstrate their capability to utilize this land fully for a purpose deemed acceptable by the executive and by the local council. That land will be given to them as a claim, permanently transferred to their exclusive usage, and taxable only by the executive and provincial, and local governments. No Lord may make a claim of rulership over this territory from outside of the government. This property may be sold, in which case it retains these same properties under its new owner. All property not claimed in such a manner at the creation of a province will default to the Executive, who may grant further claims as appropriate."
"Article Five. On the creation of a court system. Prince Arthur Baratheon will, within eight months of the foundation of the Kingdom of the Narrow Sea, create a system of courts intended for the public use. This will include but not be limited to, the presence of a trial by jury system, in which the guilt or innocence of any individual shall be determined not by the arbitrating judge, but by a group of appropriately selected peers. In all further provinces created or annexed outside of this initial period, such a system should be introduced to the province within two months of its creation."
"The Executive retains the right to add, but not subract, articles from this list until the time at which a general council can be fully formed. Once a general council has been established, articles can be subtracted or altered at the executive's suggestion with a vote of at least two-thirds of the general council."
Maena stared at the man quizzically as he finished speaking. She didn't understand half of that, but the land bit she understood at least, the Prince was letting people claim what they used to work before nabbing the rest. Seemed a right good deal for him, but then she supposed he could have just nabbed it all to start with.
Either way, it was obviously a load of things she had no idea about. Words she couldn't hardly understand, but it was obvious the Prince was planning to change things in a big way, especially as he raised his hand again.
"Grey Gallows and it's surrounding small islands, such as the one in the bay, will be considered one province for the purposes of elections and the like. Riders will be dispatched to the other small towns and villages on the island to make the pronouncements there as well." The prince looked out over the crowd as if scanning their faces, before finally nodding. "If anyone has further questions about what these changes may mean for you, or would like to file a claim for land already in clear usage, I will be operating my administration in the short term out of the tavern just off of this square, largely to repay the owner for the damages received in the siege earlier today. It's the least I can do really, I am not here to kill your livelihoods." The prince chuckled, but what Maena felt was far from humor.
That was the Red Sea Tavern, that was where she worked.
Panic made her almost choke, even as the prince continued speaking, something about an execution for Captain Lan didn't matter to her much, bastard deserved it, but that was still…
Serving a prince directly?
What did that even mean?
What if she screwed up? What would happen to her children?
The prince looked a boy, but he had an army, he was a conqueror!
She shuddered. Avoiding powerful men was a survival habit that had served her well, but she couldn't imagine getting out of it now, she had spent almost all of her last pay, and there was no other job in the town for her bar becoming a whore.
She clutched at the sides of her apron. She had forgotten to take it off when she left the house.
'What am I going to do?'
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