Soon, I found myself on the third-floor of the Roaring Bear Inn, knocking in a particular three-one-two pattern on the door to the easternmost room. Nightfall had already come and the inn had started to get loud. I could hear music and laughter spilling from the common room beneath.
Yet another different pattern rapped on the wood, and Jack peeked out from the shadows. "M'lord." He nodded once he closed the door behind me. "We weren't expecting you until later."
I stepped further into the room and looked around the place. "Not bad lodgings, is it?"
"I've slept in worse," Jack said. I could almost hear the grin in his voice.
"Oh, I don't doubt it."
Jack and his brother Jace had been gutter rats in Dawnrest, Tarth's largest town sitting under the shadow of Evenfall Hall, before I got my hands on them. A spacious room in Lannisport's fishing district was a big improvement.
The Tarth household had their own campsite on the tourney grounds where most of our guardsmen were staying, but the whole point of what we were doing here was to act outside of noble politics. It wouldn't do to show any connection to House Tarth.
His twin, Jace, lounged on the corner bed, running a whetstone over his well-worn shortsword. He bowed his head when we met eyes. The last of the group, Grey, sat looming over a leather-covered book on the tiny desk by the shuttered windows. He only turned to look at me when Jack cleared his throat.
"Ah." He closed the book with a thud, rose, and bowed. "Lord Galladon. My apologies. I was…"
"Entranced in…" I squinted at the cover. "The Nine Voyages? I didn't know that's the book you wanted to bring. Why the sudden interest in Essos?"
Grey shook his head. "Not Essos, m'lord, just considering what we're doing here I thought some naval history seemed appropriate."
I nodded. "Well thought, Grey. Before we get to that, though, I spoke with the man you all mentioned. He showed me some of his pieces too. Rob does good work. How was it that you found him?"
"Going around the taverns in the trades' district, mostly," Jace spoke up. He had put down the whetstone and sheathed his sword to focus on me. "Said we were freeriders and asked around for a good smith for a small job. Nothing fancy or expensive. Got pointed toward the Three Hammers' apprentice soon enough. After that, we started bringing Rob's name up on the bars around the shop, all casual like, like you taught us. He's got a good reputation, as a smith and as a man. Treats his woman decent, we were told. Always a good sign."
"Not well acquainted with the bottle either," Jack put in. "And when we heard his master wasn't the generous type, had made it known once when he was drunk that he wasn't going to pass on the shop to his apprentices even when he died… Well, we knew he was the perfect mark. Went by the other day, just to check. Seemed like the friendly type, and not the pretend kind either. Just a good man doing good work."
I hummed, quite impressed. It seemed our practice runs doing similar work back at Tarth hadn't been for naught.
By now, I would bet we had more connections in Dawnrest than even my father, courtesy of the twins' knowledge of the town's underbelly and my own weight as the lord's son being occasionally thrown about.
Even in a well-run settlement like Dawnrest, smuggling and other such activities were unavoidable. You might as well get your share of the pie than try to stifle humanity's ever-hungry greed. Some of my coin, a small part, granted, came from that endeavour.
"Good job, then. I'm giving you all the go ahead on this."
Reaching into my pocket, I grabbed the coin purse and threw it onto the empty bed.
"There. Enough silver to convince a young apprentice blacksmith to take his family and try his fortunes on the other side of the continent. You can promise him enough coin to build a house and start his own shop when we get home, but don't mention the Tarth name quite yet. I'll let you figure out the broad strokes of this, but he should know to leave with the household when the time comes."
"It shall be done, m'lord," Jace simply said. His twin went over and pocketed the silver purse with a deep nod.
Poaching a skilled craftsman from another lord—and from the mighty Lord of Lannister himself—wasn't the brightest of ideas, I knew, but it wasn't about the act of getting a blacksmith that really mattered. I could find a decent one anywhere in Westeros that would serve my purpose.
I simply wanted these questions answered: could we run an operation outside our home island? Could we do everything right, from discovery, to surveillance, to arranging the logistics of getting the mark back to Tarth? So far, my lads were doing tremendously with very little input on my part.
Despite Jack's propensity for sweet talking and tavern-going, I knew it was Jace that really shone in this sort of work. Jack was the better hand at the yard, no doubt about it. I'd take him to have my back in a fight any day of the week; but his twin was built for subtlety.
Despite Jack's ferocity and Grey's smarts, it was Jace who had really taken to the lessons on manners and how the nobility operated. He could switch between the coarseness required in a run-down tavern by the docks and the elegance necessary during a lord's feast in a heartbeat. In another life he might have been an actor.
I clapped my hands. "Now, about that naval history, Grey." I turned back to him. "What do you have for me?"
"Right." He nodded earnestly.
Opening up a drawer on the desk, he pulled up a small stack of parchment that was tightly wrapped with a length of twine, untied the cord, and passed the stack to me.
"These are my observations so far, m'lord. I divided the total fleet—counting only ships flying the Lannister flag—between merchant and warship, then further still by class. There's their names there and their state of repair. I took special notice of the older ones still in good sailing condition, like you asked. Jace spoke with a few of the Long Sunfish and the Brown Bowen's sailors on shore leave, and even to the captain of a cog. You'll find his notes on the last two pieces."
I flicked through the bundle of parchment, my eyebrows rising as I registered the amount of details the report contained.
"Bloody hell, Grey," I said, impressed. "This is great stuff. I didn't know you were some kind of maritime scholar."
Grey flushed. "Ah, I'm really not, m'lord, just did some reading before we left Tarth. You said we were going to have a look at their fleet in dock so I wanted to be ready for that. Maester Rowen has a good collection on ships with drawings and sketches and the like."
Jack snorted on the side, and Grey shot him a glare. The seventeen-year-old held up his hands in surrender.
"Hey, no disrespect on my part, Grey," he said, smile turning apologetic. "I'm just glad I'm not the one that has to do all the reading between us."
"My lord," Jace interrupted. "If you don't mind me asking, what's the purpose of checking out the Lannister's navy to such a degree? I'm sure your lord father wouldn't have minded had you asked him to inspect House Tarth's own fleet."
"The purpose?" I asked, then shrugged. "I'm hoping to get away with some of his ships, what else?"
xxx
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