-Chapter 200-
-POV Aegon Targaryen-
"How long are we going to stay like this?" murmured Aemond in my ear, sitting with me for several hours already in his place without moving.
I shrugged without saying anything, contenting myself with carefully listening to all the conversations my mother exchanged with the various lords of the Stormlands, all of whom had come with their ladies and heirs to meet the future Lord of the Stormlands.
'It is impossible that Aemond will succeed his father-in-law while Aemon still lives,' I thought, already knowing our cousin's way of operating.
Despite that, I had never spoken this opinion aloud: first, because we needed the Stormlands as allies, and second, because I did not want to draw the interest of those around me toward my true knowledge of the kingdom's internal politics.
'It was not the time for me to strike.'
I still had far too few cards in hand.
Despite what everyone around us believed, the fact that Aemond had claimed the Cannibal did not put us in safety — on the contrary, it only drew us closer to an abyss.
'Aemon will not allow the future ruler to have enough power to contest him.'
I had learned much from my cousin's company and was only beginning to glimpse the full complexity of his plans as well as the difficulty of what he was putting into place.
"I don't know if you are aware, but I've heard that the shipwrights of the Vale's shipyards have been heavily solicited in recent moons. Perhaps the Prince is about to fall out with his pet in the Stepstones," said a man wearing a badge displaying a silver griffin and a red griffin on his doublet.
"It would seem that your reputation is not in vain. They say that your intelligence is matched only by your strength, but they are all mistaken: you are far more intelligent than the stories tell," said a lady, batting her eyes at the knight wearing the arms of House Connington.
'The brother of the new heir,' I noted, watching closely the one who had come to represent House Connington's goodwill toward us.
I restrained myself from rolling my eyes at the lady who, if I was not mistaken, came from a minor house.
I understood that she was trying to win the knight's favor and, if possible, climb into his bed that night, hoping he would own what happened once darkness fell upon the walls of the Red Keep.
Despite my prejudice toward this lady, I felt she was aware of something, so I listened closely, as did my mother, who looked surprised.
'She knows something?!' I wondered, confused.
I had the distinct impression that it wasn't the information itself, but rather the fact that a lowborn lady was aware of this 'something'.
"You seem to know something," said the knight, questioning the lady, and all eyes turned toward her.
The lady appeared flattered to become the center of such attention.
She arched herself a little more and spoke with her chin held high, trying to dazzle everyone with her 'grace,' before beginning to speak:
"I heard from one of my cousins, who in turn heard it from the wife of a merchant with whom he entertains a… let's say unique friendship, that the pirates who had been settled for some time in the fortresses built on the islands surrounding Bloodstone were beginning to withdraw toward Bloodstone itself."
"So they could be preparing a siege," realized a lord, a man with silver hair, purely Valyrian features yet nothing else in common with us, for he was, in all objectivity, ugly and rather plumper than what one would expect of an average knight.
'He is a lord, so it is not for him to fight in the first line — and fortunately. But such neglect is still troubling,' I commented to myself, even if deep down this lord was far from the only one in that case, nor even the worst of them.
'To think that if I had been sent as a ward to one of these bloated lords, I might have returned rolling like a ball, addicted to wine and every sort of vice.'
"So Prince Aemon has finally realized that leaving those islands to the pirates could never bring him peace," said the Lord of House Swann.
"We should have been solicited first," said the Lord of House Tarth, agreeing with the words of the great-uncle of Baelon's mother.
I narrowed my eyes upon hearing what the latter had just said, and he added, looking at Aemond's future father-in-law with newfound warmth, as if he had found a tree to support his words:
"It is an insult that he did not first offer you the governance and management of those islands, My Lord."
I frowned and was about to intervene, but my mother took care of it and said to him:
"The Hand governs and assigns the territories of this kingdom as he sees fit. This is the last time I will hear you speak ill of him."
'If you want to dig your grave for a vain question of misplaced pride, dig it alone and bury yourself with it as well,' I thought, watching with pleasure the discomfited look of Johanna Swann's uncle, who had lost all respect in her eyes, she who had, according to rumor, been abandoned and mistreated by him.
The lord in question sought support in the eyes of his liege, but upon seeing the flashes of anger sent his way, he bowed his head and shrank away.
Once this little episode had passed, I returned to the question of the Stepstones, unable to believe that Aemon could have made such a fatal miscalculation, one that would cost him many men and resources to repair.
'Judging someone with prejudice is the gravest mistake there is.'
Hearing Aemon's voice in my mind, reminding me never to judge someone with prejudice, I mentally stepped back.
'Even if the pirates never had noble education, may not know how to count, read, or write properly, doubting the intelligence of someone who managed to administer a territory and make this trade hub prosper is foolish.'
'It is idiotic.'
'Aemon is surely the one behind most of the reforms put in place in the Stepstones, but they were all applied correctly, which means the King of the Narrow Sea is either competent or well advised.'
'If the pirates were stockpiling supplies to withstand a siege, we would have noticed.'
'Aemon also considered a possible betrayal from his pawn and therefore placed several others in strategic posts to be able to disarm the "King" of the Narrow Sea if he ever betrayed him.'
'And besides, Aemon keeps the majority of the pirates' gold in his coffers,' I thought, remembering hearing that in passing during a conversation between my cousin and his wives.
'This is not a siege,' I told myself, reaching the conclusion that it was impossible for it to be one.
'But then one question remains: if we assume that the King of the Narrow Sea has always obeyed Aemon and is smart enough to know he has no chance should he betray him, why make all these movements?'
'What is he trying to accomplish?'
'What does this potential "war" conceal?'
"Tyrosh or perhaps Myr?" I murmured, deeply absorbed in my thoughts.
"What?" said my brother.
I realized I had spoken to myself and shook my head slightly, saying:
"Nothing, I was just thinking out loud."