The first rays of daylight hit his face. His unconscious hand searched the bed, finding no one there.
His wife was already awake, sitting at his desk. Her beautiful face was furrowed in concentration, and Jaehaerys wondered if she was squinting to see better or if it was just a simple gesture.
If she had vision problems, it would be a good idea to get her some glasses, although that would be complicated. He had a pair himself, but he hardly ever wore them.
That reminded him that he needed a quartz source to make glass. His glassmakers were waiting for the raw material. But he also needed strength to protect himself from the Myrians.
"Six hundred feet," she murmured, seeming to be rereading the same part.
"The lighthouse in Oldtown is eight hundred feet high. Or so they say," said the prince as he stood up. He was wearing only black pants.
"I didn't mean to snoop," said the girl, seeming to have reverted to the submissive child he had met during their first dance.
"You don't have to lie," he rang a bell. Two maids appeared immediately. "Prepare the bath, please," he asked them. Without saying a word, they both nodded. The room where they were staying indefinitely was large, like everything else in Harrenhal; giants could live there. Jaehaerys thought that in his new castle, perhaps even a dragon could.
There was room for the bed, the desk, and a tub in the back. There were no large windows; instead, a small hole near the ceiling allowed sunlight to enter the bed. It was probably Balerion's doing, or the architect of that tower was a miser.
Dany looked like a scolded child. She stood completely still, as if waiting for him to do something to her.
"What do you think?" he asked, picking up a jug of wine.
"It's too early for that," the girl rebuked him, drawing fire from somewhere.
"Five towers in a pentagon and two towers inside," he said, emptying the wine into his stomach in one gulp. He wasn't going to argue about his alcoholism.
"Too big," the girl muttered.
"The wall is a hundred feet higher than the tallest tower will be," he wasn't sure if the lighthouse of Oldtown was as big as they said, but the wall was. He had looked at it once when he visited Maester Aemon.
"Harrenhal is already huge. I remember Sir Barristan saying that the castle was expensive to maintain. It was an excellent point during the wars, but in times of peace, it was almost impossible to maintain. How much will it all cost?" she asked. Her brother had offered a dowry of two hundred thousand gold dragons.
"Around two million, maybe half a million more," he heard her sigh deeply.
"We can't—"
"I can," the fortune he had obtained from the Lannisters, plus the dowry and his earnings in Essos, amounted to nearly a million, not counting the projects that could bring them money. "We have a million, we won't spend it all at once. As time goes by, gold will flow into our coffers; you don't need to worry about that," he said.
"If you say so, brother," said the girl naturally.
Jae felt a little uncomfortable being called brother. It wasn't that he was unaware of their kinship. Or that he intensely disliked it; they were Targaryens. Dragon blood. But being called that directly still rubbed him the wrong way. He imagined Arya and Robb the same way he imagined himself and Dany, and he felt disgust.
Incest was acceptable for dragons, but the rest of the creatures would have to find mates outside their nest.
"After your bath, we'll break the fast and you'll go with Qyburn to study. Serena will join you. Be kind to her." Daenerys nodded. "You can choose whatever discipline you like. Qyburn is good at everything, although he's best at alchemy and medicine." He was a fanatic about the human body. Jaehaerys had no qualms about giving him the worst of the worst to study.
The maids brought hot water, and Daenerys dismissed them, not wanting their help in the bath. The tub was large enough for both of them to fit comfortably. They helped each other wash and get dirty. Then they went their separate ways after breaking their fast together.
"Brandon," he nodded to the man who said goodbye to follow his wife. "Torrhen" was another of his men, one who followed him.
"Your Highness," the man called out, sincere and blunt, but polite nonetheless.
"You may call me Jaehaerys. How long has it been since I found you in Wintertown?" he asked.
Brandon and Torrhen were his two strongest men. They were lethal with the sword and the axe. Both were brothers, actually Snow's, the bastard twins of a northern nobleman. They had grown up in Wintertown, where he had met them. He invited them to the castle to serve in the guard, although he always made it clear to Eddard that he intended them to be his sworn swords. The man let him be.
Lord Stark was a complicated man, constantly torn between duty and his hatred of dragons. Time had made him less irritable. But in the snow and cold, there is a saying: The North remembers.
"More than eight, my prince. Although I have had little opportunity to defend you," he said in the same manner. His voice was hoarse, as if he had just woken up.
"How far is the village?" There was a small village near Harrenhal, on the banks of the Gods Eye. There were several, but they were far apart. "How many people live there?"
"The largest village is a short ride away, you can see it from the walls of Harrenhal. It has about eight thousand inhabitants. The other villages have around two thousand," said the man. "I don't know about the rest of your land," he bowed apologetically.
The two left, a small entourage behind them. It was made up of men from the north and other knights who had sworn allegiance to him in King's Landing.
The village was small. He could see ordinary people walking around with buckets full of fish. The people used to fish near the lake. The fish there were larger than usual, not enough to shout "magic," but they did attract attention. There was livestock, but it was scarce, and only a few families raised it, something he intended to change.
His procession attracted curious glances from the inhabitants. They opened up, allowing them to pass. The houses were mainly made of wood, although he noticed a few stone ones, likely belonging to a blacksmith. He decided to take a look later.
He looked around the village at the surrounding land. There were crops, but not as many as he would have liked. Some of the workers he had brought from the capital would have to work those fields, although he would give them better tools, of course.
For better tools, he had to increase iron production, but he couldn't just waste gold, or his coffers would be empty in a month.
He came to the village to survey it, as he mainly needed to draw up plans for its expansion. During his reign, it would grow in size. Harrenhal was an excellent location for land-based trade, which had not flourished because the previous rulers were too preoccupied with maintaining the massive fort to spend gold on developing trade.
He also wanted to use the lake to transport goods to King's Landing. A small river flowed from the Gods Eye and connected to the Blackwater. He needed to find a good spot on the lake shore, and if it didn't exist, he would create it.
The village had a leader, not officially recognized by the nobles, but by the people. Jaehaerys spoke with him.
He was one of those who lived in a stone house. He was a nasty little man, utterly oblivious to his own identity. He treated the prince like just another villager, and not in a good way.
The leader ended up hanging from a makeshift gallows. Jaehaerys left one of his men from the north in charge of the village. A few knights helped him. The prince asked him to obtain the professions of the villagers.
Then the prince visited the blacksmith. He was good, not the best at his trade, but he did it well. There were other blacksmiths in Harrenhal, and Jaime would send for more.
He spent the rest of the day visiting other small villages, mainly fishing villages.
When the sun began to set, he decided to return to the castle. In the gates of the castle, he found a trembling Daenerys who was about to go out looking for him.
"We have to leave Harrenhal," she said, frightened. Jae looked at the man behind her.
"Lady Whent started telling ghost stories," said the northern man, not at all frightened. "And a man died today. She says they saw a shadow knock him down on a rock. He was just a drunk man. There's no need to pay any attention to it," the man said indifferently.
"I looked at the shadows moving, Jae, I know I saw them," the girl said fearfully, her voice a trembling whisper.
"Let's go back inside, Dany. Let's talk inside," he said, cupping her cheeks, forcing her to look him in the eyes. The girl seemed to calm down a little before nodding.
'The fucking curse. Was it real?'