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Salladhor Saan, once known as the Pirate Prince of Lys, was living very well these days.
Almost all of the ships he had lent to Stannis had burned on the Blackwater, yet because Jon had helped place Stannis on the Iron Throne, the new king had rewarded him handsomely. Stannis had given Salladhor near-total control over the crown's foreign trade.
Using power to plunder was far more efficient than using violence.
Salladhor worked both ends of every deal. To the Free Cities—Lys, Tyrosh, and Myr—he presented himself as the Iron Throne's representative and drove prices down. To the Crownlands, the Stormlands, and even distant White Harbor, merchants had no choice but to accept his terms. In barely a year his wealth had grown enormously. His fleet had not only been restored but expanded, and he had become one of the most famous names in the realm.
Now war was coming, and Stannis had summoned him.
"Salladhor," Stannis said from the Iron Throne, "the realm faces the ambition of a traitor. I require your loyalty."
"Your Grace," Salladhor replied, kneeling in his purple silks, "Salladhor Saan is ever your most faithful servant."
He already knew about Jon's silver-haired son and the public claim of Targaryen blood. Even in the upper circles of the Free Cities, the story had become common gossip. Most assumed Jon was simply an ambitious bastard using his child's appearance as an excuse to reach for the throne. Salladhor was not so sure. He suspected Jon's claim might actually be true.
It did not matter. Salladhor would still back Stannis.
The position of Master of Foreign Trade for the Iron Throne was far too profitable to lose. If Jon won, that position would vanish.
"The Iron Throne needs weapons, grain, and every kind of supply," Stannis continued. "I want you to go to the Free Cities and purchase them for me."
"It is my honor, Your Grace."
The larger the purchases, the more Salladhor could skim. He had already been thinking about how much profit Jon's conquest of the Iron Islands would cost him in lost trade. Stannis would surely treat this new, powerful enemy with the seriousness it deserved. The amount of goods required would be enormous.
Then Stannis said something that made Salladhor pause.
He wanted Salladhor to first borrow the money from the banks of the Free Cities in the name of the Iron Throne, then use those loans to buy the supplies.
Borrowing was never as clean as spending gold you already had, but since the loans would be taken in the crown's name, Salladhor accepted the task without complaint. Still, it forced him to reassess just how strong Stannis's position really was. If the king were truly desperate, Salladhor would have to be careful about putting all his eggs in one basket.
As Salladhor was leaving the Red Keep, intending to spend a day or two in his own house in the city before sailing, Davos appeared from a side corridor.
"Lord Salladhor."
"Ah, Ser Davos."
The two men greeted each other like old friends. Years ago, when Davos had still been a smuggler, Salladhor had been one of his main suppliers. After the Blackwater, Salladhor had wanted to kill him. Now that his own fortunes had recovered so handsomely, seeing Davos again was almost pleasant.
Davos got straight to the point. He wanted to know how the Three Daughters viewed the coming war and whether they would support Stannis.
Salladhor thought for a moment. "Jon Snow only announced he was a Targaryen a short while ago. News travels slowly across the Narrow Sea. But I believe the Three Daughters will favor Stannis."
His reasoning was simple. Jon now controlled the Iron Islands. The Sunset Sea was safe. Trade between the western lords would grow tighter and more frequent. More importantly, Jon's power base lay entirely on the western side of the continent. He would pour his strength into developing the west. That meant less trade moving through the eastern ports, and less business for the Free Cities.
The Three Daughters had no desire to see the western half of Westeros dominate the east. They might even send ships.
Davos felt a small measure of relief. Stannis's royal fleet was badly outnumbered. Without help from across the Narrow Sea, they could never hope to match Jon at sea.
Salladhor suddenly asked, "Has His Grace considered hiring the Faceless Men to remove Jon?"
Davos frowned. "The Faceless Men?"
"You know of them, surely?"
"I know of them." Davos did not like the idea of winning through paid assassination, but he did not say it was dishonorable. After all, Stannis had already used Melisandre's magic to kill his own brother.
Instead, Davos said the crown's treasury was empty. Hiring the Faceless Men would cost a fortune the Iron Throne could not pay.
Salladhor smiled. "If you cannot pay, then offer collateral."
"Collateral?"
Salladhor explained that Stannis could mortgage the future tax revenue of the Crownlands—ten, twenty, even thirty years of taxes—in exchange for enormous loans. With that kind of gold, the crown could buy everything it needed for war without delay.
Davos stared at him. "And how would the banks collect?"
"They would collect the taxes themselves," Salladhor said lightly. "Naturally, they would take a little more than the crown currently does."
When Davos pressed him on the numbers, Salladhor admitted the rate could easily be two or three times higher than current royal taxes—possibly more.
Davos made up his mind on the spot. He would never allow Stannis to mortgage the Crownlands' future. The smallfolk of the Crownlands were already suffering. He would not see them crushed under foreign tax collectors for the sake of a war.
He thought of something Jon had once said to him on the road to Riverrun, about how hard life was for common people. Jon was the only lord Davos had ever met who seemed to genuinely care.
Salladhor, watching Davos's face, understood perfectly that the Onion Knight would oppose the idea. That was fine. Salladhor would simply suggest it to Stannis himself.
He was a businessman. Profit was profit. He was not even from Westeros; the suffering of its smallfolk meant nothing to him. More importantly, he did not want Jon to win. The boy was only seventeen. If he took the throne, he could rule for another fifty years. A long, stable reign by someone who understood both war and administration would eventually crush the Free Cities economically.
War was good for business right now. A strong, unified Westeros under Jon would be very bad for business later.
Salladhor decided he would speak to Stannis about mortgaging the Crownlands as soon as possible.