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"Hello. Ser Alliser said I'm to be your new watch partner. I should warn you, I don't see all that well."
"Come stand by the fire. It's warmer."
"No, that's all right. I'm fine."
"You're not. You're freezing."
"I don't like high places."
"You can't fight. You can't see. You're afraid of heights and almost everything else probably. What are you doing here, Sam?"
Jaime had similar questions. Whether the watch was a place to be proud of, it was no place for the weak. The boy could have been a maester if he was so good at reading.
"On the morning of my 16th nameday, my father came to me. "You're almost a man now," he said, "but you're not worthy of my land and title. Tomorrow, you're going to take the black, forsake all claim to your inheritance and start north. If you do not," he said, "then we'll have a hunt and somewhere in these woods your horse will stumble and you'll be thrown from your saddle to die. Or so I'll tell your mother. Nothing would please me more."
"How could he... his son" Lyanna stammered, eyes wide in shock.
"Randyl Tarly respects only strength and nothing more" Margaery droned.
"Perhaps we could help him somehow?" Myrcella asked, taken aback by the cruelty of the man.
"This is a family matter, and we should not intervene" Robert said as gently as he could.
"And you're the King. What you say is law, isn't it?"
Robert stared at the girl and the girl stared back at him.
"I'm not asking you to order him to treat his son better, I'm asking you to find some way to help Sam."
"Something to think over" Jon Arryn interrupted with a smile. "A learned boy like him, he would be of much use to us."
Myrcella smiled at the older man.
"Why give the kid false hope, Jon?" Robert whispered.
"Who says I am?" Jon Arryn asked with a smile.
Robert shook his head.
[Scene changes to Ned and Petyr walking through the gardens of King's Landing.]
"Do you know Ser Hugh of the Vale?"
"My squire?" Jon frowned. What did he have to do with anything? And how did he get knighted in just two years? Jon knew the boy well and not even in two years could that boy earn himself a knighthood.
[Ned shook his head.]
"Not surprising. Until recently, he was only a squire... Jon Arryn's squire. He was knighted almost immediately after his master's untimely death."
"Not suspicious at all" muttered Tyrion.
"Knighted for what? Why are you telling me this?"
"Because Ser Hugh has something to do with Lord Arryn's death" Daenerys said, biting her tongue almost immediately. She had been having an inner monologue all this time, noting everything happening. She had gotten excited and said her monologue out loud this time on accident. "I'm sorry!" she added quickly.
"For what? Being right?" Renly shook his head. "We're all adding things so you might as well join us."
"And it's not like any of us disagree" Margaery added kindly, "It is suspicious that Lord Arryn's squire became a knight so soon after his death."
"Maybe he is the one who poisoned him" Daenerys suggested.
"What makes you think he was poisoned?" Elia questioned.
"Lord Arryn died of a fever that ate him quickly, there was no mention of a wound. If this is a murder, poison can be the only way."
"Very likely," Oberyn said with a smile.
Daenerys beamed at her guess not being thrown aside. Usually, her ideas and thoughts were not taken into consideration.
"I promised Cat that I'd help you."
"Where is Ser Hugh? I'll speak to him."
"A singularly bad idea. Do you see that boy there? One of Varys's little birds. The Spider has taken a great interest in your comings and goings. Now look there. That one belongs to the Queen."
"A pit of vipers" Ned spat in disgust.
"You need eyes and ears everywhere, Lord Stark. Else you will be played a fool and brought to ruin" Lady Olenna said with a sigh. These Norhterners...
"And do you see that Septa pretending to read her book?"
"Varys or the Queen?"
"No. She's one of mine. Is there someone in your service whom you trust completely?"
"Yes."
"The wiser answer was no, my Lord. Get a message to this paragon of yours... Discreetly. Send him to question Ser Hugh. After that, you might want him to visit a certain armourer in the city. He lives in a large house at the top of the street of Steel."
"Tobho?" Gendry perked up. He worked and lived there.
"Is he trying to send Lord Stark there to find out about the bastard?" Rhaegar whispered.
"Perhaps the man wishes for Lord Stark to find out about the boy, so he might connect the dots" Elia suggested.
"Why?"
"I have my observers, as I said, and it's possible that they saw Lord Arryn visit this armourer several times in the weeks before his death."
Jon Arryn narrowed his eyes. First, the lie about the dagger and now this, what kind of a picture was Baelish trying to paint? Was he pitting the Starks and Lannisters against each other? For what?
[Scene changes to Ned and Jory riding on horseback through King's Landing.]
"Ser Hugh says he'd be glad to talk to the Hand himself. He's a knight, you see."
"Arrogant toe rag" Lyanna muttered softly.
"Wonder how he'd hold up against someone who comes at him with the intent to kill" Oberyn muttered, eyes flashing from annoyance. He'd met many who thought they were big and mighty because of some title, none of them stood up long against him.
"A knight. They strut around like roosters down here. Even the ones who've never seen an arrow coming their way."
"You shouldn't be out here, my Lord. There's no telling who has eyes where."
"Let them look"
"Ned" Jon Arryn sighed, "it seems I have to brush you up on your politics if you've become this brazen in enemy territory."
"He's in my territory Jon, nothing will happen to him" Robert assured the man. But even he wasn't entirely sure about his own claim. Jon died under his rule, another person he cared about that he failed to protect.
"Exercising caution is important, Robert. Even by the King" Jon Arryn added with a side look.
[Tobho Mott walks out from the back room.]
"The former Hand did call on me, my Lord, several times. I regret to say he did not honour me with his patronage."
"What did Lord Arryn want?"
"He always came to see the boy."
"I'd like to see him as well."
"As you wish, my Lord. Gendry! Here he is. Strong for his age. He works hard. Show the Hand the helmet you made, lad."
"This is fine work."
"It's not for sale."
"Boy, this is the King's Hand! If his lordship wants the helmet..."
"I made it for me."
Ned couldn't help it, he broke out laughing. Robert snorted before he too was laughing. Jon Arryn joined in not long after.
"Robert was the same at his age" Ned explained to his inquiring wife.
"Hard-headed and stubborn" Jon Arryn shook his head.
"Forgive him, my Lord."
"There's nothing to forgive. When Lord Arryn came to visit you, what would you talk about?"
"He just asked me questions is all, my Lord."
"What kind of questions?"
"About my work at first, if I was being treated well and if I liked it here. But then he started asking me about my mother."
Gendry frowned. He'd not worked at Tobho's long, and so far the Hand had not come to visit him much. But from the sounds of it. He would do it often in the future. But why? Gendry could not think of a reason, especially because he was fuming internally when the Hand, the King and the Warden laughed at the him on the wall. There was nothing funny for them to laugh at.
"Your mother?"
"Who she was, what she looked like."
"What did you tell him?"
"She died when I was little. She had yellow hair. She'd sing to me sometimes."
"Odd choice of whore, brother. Your wife had golden hair" Renly pointed out.
"Probably chose her just to spite Cersei" Tyrion sniggered, earning a light smack on the back of his head from his mother.
"Look at me. Get back to work, lad."
[Gendry walked back in. Ned turns to Tobho.]
"If the day ever comes when that boy'd rather wield a sword than forge one, you send him to me."
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