All seven of the boats had reached the shallow waters ahead of the King's party by now, and were now swaying in a straight line in front of them.
And each boat had two Northern sailors assigned to it, who were slowly escorting the contents of their vessels down onto the docks, with most of the luggage being wooden chests of various sizes, with the exception of two gifts, one of which was immediately distinguishable.
"Is that a... horse?" Robert asked with a strange look on his face as he stared at the black beast, which had been hidden under a large red tarp so far, being carefully guided onto the docks.
"Aye, your grace. And since you have already seen it, why don't we start with that one?" Jon said with a smile as he led the party towards the left, where the horse was standing and gestured for his sailors to place the rest of the gifts in a line towards the right.
"Forgive me for asking this," Baelish intervened just as they came to a stop before Jon could open his mouth to begin the introduction, "But how does this horse," he scoffed derisively, "Stand up to your promise of unique, priceless things, Snow. Because I do not know if you have forgotten during your voyages out of Westeros, but there has never been a scarcity of good horses in the Seven Kingdoms, even those from Essos."
Baelish knew that he was not acting like his usual calm, shrewd self, who would never have openly antagonised someone he was meeting for the first time, even if he disliked them for some reason.
After all, he was the kind to hide in the dark, thoroughly ruminate over his plans, find his enemy's weakness and then strike ruthlessly the moment a good opportunity presented itself.
But for some reason, the boy had rubbed him the wrong way from the instant he had opened his mouth.
Seeing his arrogant demeanour, the way he smirked, and the casual manner in which he spoke to the King as if he had never even imagined a scenario in which he could suffer badly for his impudence... it all reminded him of someone he had loathed with every fibre of his being, someone he thought he had completely forgotten about.
"But this is indeed a majestic breed," Robert commented with a smile as he tentatively moved his hands towards the horse, and to his delight, the beast that stood higher than his shoulder seemed to have taken an instant liking to him and readily let him run his hands through its shiny mane.
'I don't remember ever being this good with a new horse,' The King thought with a smirk. 'It seems I have still got it,' he preened, not knowing that there was someone around him who was very skilled in the art of making animals do his bidding,
"It is not just any horse, your grace," Jon said with a smile as he turned to Baelish, "Do you happen to know who the best horse breeders in the world are?"
"The Dothraki," Robb and the King answered simultaneously in a matter-of-fact tone, while the Master of Coin remained silent.
"Correct, the Dorthraki," Jon nodded, "And this horse, of course, comes straight from them. And not only that, it was the best one amongst a horde of five thousand, and belonged to an infamous khal named Tarokh, with more than three thousand screamers under him."
"You took on Dothraki horselords in Essos?" Robert asked with a raised eyebrow, hearing about this for the first time, as he knew that Dothraki were not the kind to simply trade away their horses, especially one belonging to their leader.
And even though he had never personally seen those wild barbarians, Robert had heard plenty of stories and legends about them, especially the ones about them, and their prowess on an open field, so he knew how difficult they were.
"Aye, they were jealous after seeing me do so well with my trading company and wanted me to pay them a tribute, and threatened trading my partners if I did not," Jon said with a shrug, "So I had to deal with them."
Jon wasn't simply bragging here, as there was indeed such an incident that happened a few months ago, and honestly for him, dealing with those Horselords had felt even easier than the Pirate King, as not only did they all eat around a single fire making it very easy to tamper with their food, they were also incredibly careless with their security and slept out in the open... so just a simple ambush, and about five hundred men, had dealt with all of them.
"Well... this is indeed unique then," Robert said with a satisfied expression on his face, "I don't think any other Lord in Westeros would have a Khal's personal horse, maybe not even—" mid-sentence, the King caught sight of someone in the crowd and his eyes immediately lit up, "Tyrion! What do you think? Does your Father have a Dothraki Khal's horse?"
"No, your grace," Tyrion answered with a twitch of his lips, having just arrived here with the Tyrells only to immediately get targeted, "Not as far as I am aware,"
"Haha, didn't think so, either," Robert said as he burst out laughing, feeling very pleased with this gift.
Jon scrutinised the Lannister dwarf he was seeing in person for the first time for a few moments, and sent a smile towards Olenna, who was standing nearby, before turning back to Robert, "Shall we move on to the next one then, your grace?" he asked after the king had had enough of the horse.
"Yes, yes, let us," Robert said as he moved his hands away from the horse, and immediately followed Jon towards the next chest lying, "This one looks big," he commented out loud, looking at the chest curiously, "What is in this one?" he asked eagerly, his appetite having been fully whetted after having seen the first one.
The box was shaped in the size of a cube whose height was much higher than a normal chest, and when Jon bent down to open the lid, it was to show another layer of white cloth, a pillow-like thing tightly covering the contents inside.
"Looks very carefully packaged,"
"Aye, it was necessary because the things inside are delicate enough that they could break at the slightest bump," Jon explained patiently as he slowly removed ropes tying down the heavy cover, "I have heard that you are a man of great taste, your grace. So I am sure you will appreciate this one more than anyone else,"
"Is this... wine?" Robert asked, unsurely as he finally saw the contents of the chest, which turned out to be almost a dozen glass bottles of various colours and designs placed carefully in well-made wooden columns that were once again separated by thick pads of cotton between them.
"Aye. These bottles here carry the finest alcohol that one can get in Essos, the kind that not even money can buy," Jon said with a mysterious smile, and turned a little to the side so the curious eyes around them could also get a clear view, "This one here comes straight from the private collection of the Sealord of Braavos," he said picking up a long black bottle from the box to show, "And this, is a bottle of firewine straight from the collection of the richest Magister in Pentos," he pointed towards the red one next to it, "And these two bottles of spiced liquor are from the cellars of the two Old oldest nobles families in Volantis, and so on, and so forth"
"Is this really all true?" Robert asked with a hint of wonder in his voice, as he gingerly picked up the red round-bottomed bottle from Pentos. It was the fanciest piece of wine container the man had seen in his life, and considering he was an alcoholic who was also a King on the side... that was saying something.
He could not even imagine what the contents in these precious bottles would taste like: "How would someone even go about achieving something like that?"
"Every city I dock my ships in, I make friends, and those friends know various ways of getting things from their own friends. It's all about friendships, your grace," Jon smiled and explained in his usual humble bragging, which immediately made Robb and Margaery, standing nearby, simultaneously roll their eyes.
'There is no chance that this lazy brat went to this much trouble for just alcohol,' Robb thought with certainty, knowing for sure that Jon was lying about getting these from his friends, 'he probably just sent Frost to steal them from their master's bedroom when they were not looking.'
And unknowingly, Robb's guess was very much on the line this time, and that this whole box was just the result of a day's work when Frost was bored, and Jon was not too busy.
"I can vouch for the one in your hands, your grace," Lord Manderly said as he examined at the red glass bottle in Robert's hand, "I have seen a simliar one in the personal dwelling of the Magister that Jon is talking about, and I can tell you this for sure, that man, who spends usually spends his gold as if it were water, was stingy enough with this that he did not even let me have more than a single glass of that," he said with an envious sigh, as if remembering some divine taste, "And that is despite having traded with my family more than a hundred times over the years... so I think it is bound to be good."
"Haha, Marvellous," Robert exclaimed with a delighted expression on his face.
And having been deprived of his morning drink, the King wanted nothing more at that moment than to just break open a few bottles and indulge in them with a friend in the crowd right then and there.
Unfortunately for him, Jon seemed to have read his mind and gently but firmly took the bottle back from his hand and placed it back inside the box before closing it.
"We should move to the next one, your grace," he said with a smile to the disappointed King. "After all, we do not want to keep them waiting," he said while jerking his head towards the excited crowd who were craning their necks and jumping on their feet to get a better look.
"...Did he say he brought that bottle from the Sealord? How is that even possible?" A merchant in the crowd exclaimed with blatant amazement in his voice.
"Who the hell is a Sealord?" asked a nearby man who had never left the city in his life, "Is he like the King or is he just a Lord?"
"You don't even know that? Let me tell you, he is the..."
A hundred different conversations were simultaneously occurring there at the moment, most of them regarding the gifts, and the anticipation for the next ones had already reached a fever pitch by now, with more men and women being added to the crowd with every passing second.
And seeing them like this, even Robert, with his usual bluntness, could not bring himself to ask the boy to forget the lot of them, and just give him the box of booze to enjoy, so he was left with no choice but to move on to the next.
"These next two ones are a set that would be more useful when put together," Jon began, his voice rising just a bit so that more can hear him.
The height of the two chests was much lower than that of the other boxes, and they also came in very different sizes, with one being long and thin, and the other being short and wide.
Jon placed his hands on the lids of both of the wooden boxes and opened them simultaneously, and almost instantly, there was a gasp of awe from every warrior present, near the chest, whether they were a King, a Kingsguard, or even a normal guard
"This..." Robert looked very much entranced at that moment, as he bent down and picked up the long black handle of the majestic warhammer.
The hammer was a monstrous thing, taller than a boy of ten when set upright, its haft carved from a single length of dark weirwood, polished smooth yet left with faint ripples in the grain that caught the light like frozen water.
The head was a great double-faced block of dark, smoky metal, heavier than any common forge in Westeros could manage, its surface faintly shimmering like the night sky. One side was flat and brutal, meant to crush plate and bone alike, while the other side was tapered into a cruel, beaked spike, designed to punch through armour with a single blow.
From the moment he had held the weapon in his hands, Robert could feel its perfect craftsmanship simply from how balanced it felt in his hands.
Because even though the head was remarkably heavy, as it should be, the handle felt so snug in his hands that Robert thought that he could wield it for hours and hours on end without tiring too much, and that roused an urge in him to go smash some heads right then and there.
"This warhammer was personally commissioned from a famous Mastersmith in Qohor, who has a long list of clients, and usually takes no more than two orders in a year," Jon explained in a clear voice, "And I am sure you know that Qohor is one of the few places in the world where smiths still remember a few secrets of magic from before the doom of Valyria, and work that into the crafts."
"I don't even remember where Qohor is," Robert replied subconsiously as he lightly swung the weapon in the air, feeling reluctant to place it down.
"And this armour," Jon said moving on to the next one, while completely ignoring the King's comment, "Was also made from the same smith, and while it is not Valyrian steel, it is still much much lighter than the kind you could find commonly in Westeros," he said as two sailors pick up the sleek black armour with stag engravings and raised it in front of them so that everyone could see it, "And I had it made especially for your size, so you can easily..."
"Did he just say magic?" a woman in the crowd exclaimed in awe, and just a little bit of fear in her eyes, "A-Are those weapons and armour made by witches?"
"It is made with blood and spells of the smiths, not sorcerers," A short, sturdy man with the thick arms of a blacksmith standing nearby countered immediately, but not many heard him as they got lost in their own discussion of the dark magic.
"Is the boy telling the truth, Master Tohbo?" asked the young apprentice standing beside him, who had a face that looked remarkably similar to the King.
"Hm," The Master grunted in affirmation with a frown on his face, "Though I can't quite place the Master smith who has worked on those two, I can say for sure that the markings are from a craftsmanship method that one can only find in Qohor,"
"He must be very rich then, for him to be able to get all these items," Gendry said as he listened to the discussion of a nearby group of Merchants who were making a rough estimate of the price of the four gifts that had been unveiled until then, and according to them, the total worth of these gifts had already exceeded a hundred thousand gold dragon.
And Gendry, who was not even able to imagine how big a pile such an amount would make, could not wrap his head around the fact that the boy was also a bastard like him.
"Gold alone would never be able to get you even one of those things," Tohbo Mott muttered grimly, and a disguised Varys standing nearby nodded his head in agreement with him.
"If not gold, then what could he have paid with?" The boy with the body of a bull asked confusedly.
"That, I do not know, boy, as there are few things that the Master smith of Qohor lacks, and—"
"WHAT? A million dragons?!!"
A loud exclamation suddenly rang through the crowd, interrupting the two's conversation as they both hurriedly turned their heads back towards the centre.
It seems that while they were lost in their talks, the King and the boy Captain from North had already moved to the next gift, and this one turned out to be even more outlandish than all the ones before combined.
"Did I hear it right? Is it really a million gold dragons?!"
The crowd almost went wild as men and women hopped over each other to get a glimpse of wealth beyond their wildest dreams.
///
The Great Sun God Nika once said, "Are you an idiot, Vivi? If you are feeling hungry, you should eat. Everyone knows that!"
So if you are hungry for more, and have a little of that freedom-filled spirit in your veins that just wants to immediately get whatever it wants, without patiently waiting... then you are in luck, my friend, as you can immediately head to that mysterious place where all your wishes will come true.