The clatter of horses' hooves striking the grass woke him. He had slept for a minute or two, or perhaps not at all. It wasn't easy to tell. He closed his eyes and waited.
His group of nearly fifty men was at his side, and the bandits were in similar numbers. Evenly matched in numbers, Jaehaerys' men would have wiped out common bandits, but at that moment, with fatigue working against them, it was hard to tell.
Jaehaerys spurred his horse forward, frowning. He wasn't used to fighting on horseback. His weapon required precise control so as not to hit himself with it, and on horseback, he would have to be careful not to hit his mount as well.
"Agh," he brought his palm to his face.
He dismounted in one swift movement and patted Coal, or Black Sapphire as Daenerys liked to call him, on the rear. The horse galloped toward the empty camp. Serena will have company.
Jaehaerys took a closer look at the attackers. They did not appear to be common bandits; they wore chain mail and carried steel weapons.
'Someone armed them,' he thought, assuming that his journey by land had not gone entirely unnoticed. He wondered who. The obvious answer was Tywin, but the obvious is not always the correct answer. Whether Tywin would be capable of launching an attack knowing Serena is at Jaehaerys's side was unknown to the prince.
The first man had blue eyes. He could not withstand more than one blow to the chest from Jaehaerys's three-section staff. The second had brown eyes, as did the third. The sixth had green eyes, and he even saw one with gray eyes.
Jaehaerys found it curious how, regardless of the color of their eyes, they all died with the same expression on their faces. Their pupils dilated, and their expressions surprised. Some cried, but they could not beg. A blow to the lungs ended up bursting them; there was one whose head he crushed.
Soon, the burden of men had passed to the prince, who stood up intact, only fatigue affecting him. He had to turn around to continue fighting, attacking the men who were facing his knights from behind.
Many might consider it unchivalrous to attack from behind. Jaehaerys didn't care; it wasn't as if they could withstand a blow from the front.
"Mercy, my lord, mercy!" In the end, there were little more than ten bandits left, begging for their lives.
Jaehaerys walked among the corpses of the attackers. He recognized two men, two knights from King's Landing who had accompanied him, the two who had been keeping watch and who had disappeared days ago.
"Traitors," he felt a slight heaviness. Even though he was not in danger, he couldn't help thinking how screwed up it was that his men had been overcome by panic. He looked at the Unsullied. They were the exception, they never faltered, when they were ordered to sleep, they slept, when they were ordered to keep watch, they did so without fear.
"Unsullied... good work. It's nice to have fearless men under my command," said the prince. The other men bowed their heads, ashamed, some with a little anger. "Everyone fought well today," he said at last, but the men felt no happiness. "According to your contribution, the Unsullied may take whatever they want from the corpses, then the rest of you," he told them.
There were only about fifteen Unsullied, who could have taken everything if they wanted to, but they did not. Until then, they had only been wearing spears and leather armor, so they took the opportunity to take chain mail.
The bandits had gold and silver on them, but the glitter of precious metals did not tempt the Unsullied; they only wanted better armor to protect their prince.
When they were done, the prince gave the go-ahead for the other men to take whatever they wanted.
When a man sees another man not taking advantage of his position, he feels the need to behave similarly. The men took the swords, although they were of lesser quality than the ones they already had; they could be helpful if they needed a spare. They looked at the gold and silver, but taking it would mean they were worse than a eunuch.
In the end, they collected the gold and silver for the prince.
"No one has taken more lives than you, Your Majesty," they said as they presented all the coins they had collected. Jaehaerys took it, knowing he would probably end up using them to pay for his men's food and lodging.
The men looked at the prince with shame and devotion.
Perhaps if the man who praised the Unsullied over the proud knights had been a fat lord who had never touched a sword in his life, they might have held a grudge. But each of them looked at the prince's ability. No one knew how many blows he had struck in battle, but they knew that the number was the same as the people he killed.
With a prince who fought alongside them and contributed the most during the fight, who would be so brazen as to say anything?
"Pri-Prince!" one of the bandits called out to him. Now they were tied up tightly, stripped of their armor and weapons. The prince's men were not kind; he could see the red marks where the ropes were tied so tightly that it must have been painful.
"Ah, yes... who sent you?" asked the prince.
"Nobo-ahhhhh!" the man screamed in horror as he ended up splattered with the brain matter of the man next to him. He felt the prince's steel graze his cheek; a little more, and he would have ended up disfigured.
"Need to ask again?" the prince swung his weapon.
"He was a merchant, a fat man," the man said, staring at the black steel stained red. The weapon swung back and forth like a pendulum, and the man was mesmerized.
Jaehaerys closed his eyes. The man didn't seem to be lying at all. The smell of shit and urine told him how scared he was.
"All the merchants I know are fat. Tell me something more specific," the prince ordered.
The man swallowed, forcing his brain to think, to remember. His eyes went to the left. Jaehaerys could almost see the synapses of his neurons. According to his previous life, when a man looked to the left while thinking of an answer to his question, it meant he was trying to remember, while looking to the right meant he was trying to make something up.
Jae didn't know if it was true or if it had any scientific basis, but the man's eyes almost popped out of their sockets as he looked to the left.
"He had a dragon pendant, his beard was braided, he, he," the man couldn't remember anymore.
"Looks like he shit himself," Brandon said, wiping his sword.
After Jaehaerys, there was no other man who killed more bandits than Brandon.
In tales of war, Brandon would undoubtedly have been a legend if Jaehaerys had not been present.
"And he fainted," Jaehaerys kicked the man's face a little, but he did not react.
'A dragon pendant,' he thought. His mind went straight to Pentos, but the chances of Illyrio Mopatis being the mastermind behind it were slim.
"Are you from Essos?" he asked the men in general.
The men shook their heads, and Jaehaerys could not detect the Essosi accent in which he had asked the question; the others seemed to have features similar to those of the smallfolk in Westeros.
"Do we kill them?" asked an Unsullied.
"No, count how many of our own we lost," the prince ordered. "And ask the men about the nearest castle. We need to leave the prisoners in a dungeon. They will go to the Night's Watch," he said.
"I refuse to freeze in the Nor-" one of the bandits complained, but he couldn't finish speaking before his jaw was torn from his body.
The prince looked at the others, silently asking for their consent.
They consent.
"We have lost three men, one of whom had a daughter in ArgentStone," the unsullied did not flinch at the violence he witnessed. He had lived through and done worse things to more innocent people.
"I see. Order that their bodies be preserved and sent to ArgentStone, with an escort of five men," the prince commanded.
"Are you sure you want to do without five men?" Brandon asked.
"I considered coming with only thirty. The others came because Daenerys asked me to," the prince confessed.
"I will carry out your orders, Prince Jaehaerys, Lord Brandon," said the Unsullied.
"I am not a lord, eunuch," said Brandon, shooing him away.
"Warrior Brandon," the Unsullied bowed and left.
"Now I feel bad for calling him a eunuch," said Brandon. Jaehaerys smiled a little.