Capítulo 60: Chapter 60: Toasts!
After that previous hour ended, Gregor left Dacey and Rickard alone so they could rest. He left his wife and their child in the trusted care of Vera and Maester Kennick.
Gregor then went out, gathered his people, and announced the arrival of his son. The proclamation was met with much delight and enthusiastic cheers.
For the remainder of the day, the residents of Moat Cailin â€" Legionnaires, servants, and villagers alike â€" celebrated the birth of their lord's heir.
Toasts were raised, congratulations were given, and good luck was bidden.
As excited and anxious as he was about the future, Gregor still had work aplenty to do.
Mainly, there were a number of people who had to be informed of his son's birth. So in the early afternoon, he made his way to the rookery and set his mind to composing seven letters.
Two of them were rather casual in nature. They were meant for his family and Dacey's. After they were finished, they were dispatched by raven to Clegane's Keep and Bear Island. No doubt they would be received with great zeal.
The other five letters were composed in a much more formal rhetoric.
Each of those messages contained the exact same words as the other four, but Gregor predicted that each of the recipients would react very differently to reading them.
He was quite correct.
~~~~~
Whenever a child was born into a house, it was customary for the liege lord of that respective house to be notified very soon after.
Especially if that child was the house's intended heir. As such, the first message was sent to Winterfell.
The raven reached the fortress in the early evening. At the time, Lord Eddard Stark had just supped with his family.
He was making his way to the godswood to say an evening prayer when Maester Luwin intercepted him outside.
After he was given the piece of parchment, Ned Stark continued on to the godswood. There he sat against the trunk of the heart tree, opened the letter, and read it.
Dacey's pregnancy had been common knowledge throughout the North for the past several months.
Naturally, the news of her delivery came as no surprise to Lord Eddard; he had already expected to hear of it sometime that month.
Even so, he was pleased that the birth had been performed successfully and without any complications.
He was also intrigued by how Gregor Clegane had given his son the name of Rickard. Not only was it a Northern name; it was the name of Eddard's late lord father.
He supposed he should be flattered by the Mountain's decision. Lord Karstark would certainly be.
Although it was not required of him, Ned planned to send a follow-up raven to congratulate Lord Gregor on the birth of his heir.
He did this routine with all of his bannermen, but it was more than just obligation that motivated him to write the lord of Moat Cailin.
For a number of personal reasons, he wished to maintain a level of regular correspondence with Gregor Clegane.
Secretly, the Mountain fascinated him. He was generally very difficult to fascinate.
Years ago, when Eddard had merely been the second son of a great lord, he had heard tales of the Mountain That Rides.
Ned had been fostered in the Eyrie, so he had been as far away from Gregor as possible during the years of the latter's rise to prominence in the Westerlands.
Back then, Eddard found it remarkable how the son of the youngest and probably most insignificant house in the Westerlands had become one of the most beloved warriors in his region.
With his size and his strength, he could have done whatever he wished and gotten away with it.
Eddard knew that just because one had an opportunity to gain at the expense of others, one would not necessarily go through with it, even if one was very selfish.
However, even in the North and the Vale, it was no secret that Tywin Lannister cared less for civilian loss of life than the other Lords Paramount of Westeros.
With that in mind, Gregor would have had freedom to do as he liked, so long as his actions did not displease Lord Tywin.
Instead, he had gone out of his way to protect the innocent and uphold the law at the same time.
Eddard felt there was an interesting contrast to Gregor.
To the guilty, he was harsh, callous, pitiless, and even somewhat terrifying. To the innocent, he was gentle, empathetic, compassionate, and understanding.
During Robert's Rebellion, Gregor had demonstrated those qualities outside of his homeland.
Firstly, he had minimized the casualties during the Sacking of King's Landing, and he had severely punished those who had done deliberate harm to the smallfolk of the city.
He himself had personally slain his own ally, Ser Amory Lorch, for the (supposed) murder of Rhaegar's children.
Then there were the events that had transpired in Dorne.
Eddard would never forget Dorne.
He had ridden to the Red Mountains, planning to find his sister and bring her home or die in the attempt.
When he and his six companions encountered the Kingsguard at the Tower of Joy, he had expected a fight to the death.
But there was no skirmish. Neither he nor his friends nor the Kingsguard had perished that day. His sister had lived, as well. Thus, a great deal of loss had been averted.
Lord Willam Dustin was now a father. A year earlier, his wife, Lady Barbrey of House Ryswell, had birthed a hale baby girl, whom they had named Klara. Recently, Eddard had heard that Lady Barbrey was with child again.
Had Willam died at the Tower of Joy, his house would have faded into oblivion. Now, due largely to Gregor Clegane's intercession, House Dustin would endure.
For that same reason, Martyn Cassel now served as Winterfell's master-at-arms, and he had been around to watch as his son Jory finished growing up.
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