385 THE CITADEL PART ONE

After all the rushing, and travelling, and natural breaks needed to maintain the carriage along the way, we still missed the meeting of the Council of Maesters by only two days. It was just as Maester Luwin predicted as he delivered his excuse that we did everything we could to arrive in time, especially when he included my idea to have a rotating driver schedule to not need to stop overnight.

We were forgiven for not making the meeting and most of the other maesters had already departed to return to their assigned places, so they couldn't have another meeting with me there. The only people available were the students studying to become maesters themselves, the few caretakers for the citadel, and several of the top maesters that never left the building.

I did have a meeting with the caretakers and the top members, of which only two of them were interested in my ability to easily translate Valerian texts and scrolls. I was only a curiosity to them and not a truly valuable resource like they had claimed. Things would have been different under a full council; but, we had missed it and Maester Luwin's emergency recall had been kind of pointless.

Still, we had only just arrived after an entire month of hard travelling and we weren't going to leave again right away. That was too much for everyone, especially the soldiers tasked with keeping us safe. They had to return to their lands and they took their payment and left.

Maester Luwin accepted living accommodations within the citadel, since they had rooms set aside for their members. What they didn't have were rooms for long-term guests like myself, especially since I had two hanger-ons with Dany and Arya with me.

That kind of left me in a pickle, assuming I was going to let them dictate where I stayed. I wasn't, even if I was there at their pleasure. It wasn't my fault they hadn't thought ahead about their request to send me there as soon as possible. They even had an entire month to prepare something, even in the local area, and they had been too preoccupied with their own members to consider my situation.

I was tempted to spend a bunch of money at one of the better inns in Oldtown, except I was a foreigner and was only in the area at the invitation of the maesters in the citadel. I had no official standing in the area and technically didn't have the ruler's permission to even be in their lands, unless I was on Citadel grounds and under their jurisdiction.

Instead of waiting for the caretakers to get off their asses and make the proper arrangements for myself and my two companions, I stored the carriage when I thought no one was looking and brought Dany and Arya to the local stable. I rented the three horses I needed, hired a stableboy to come along on the third horse, and asked one of the caretakers to send a raven to Highgarden to warn them I was coming.

So, my journey brought me back a small way from where I had been and I ended up in the ruling seat of The Reach and in the surprisingly spread out city. Since we didn't have to worry about taking care of the horses along the way or having to return them, since that was the stableboy's job, I ran them at a fast run for nearly the entire time and both Arya on my lap and Dany on her own horse, had a great time.

I bought a night in a very nice inn for all four of us and the stableboy looked shocked. He was speechless when I paid for the three horses to stay at a nearby stable and he was allowed to eat with us in the inn. The next morning, the boy thanked me for treating him so well and I handed him a handful of silver coins.

I left him speechless and walked with Arya and Dany holding my hands and I went towards the main part of the lands, the large mound where the main castle keep was built. It was quite far away and that was okay. We hadn't had a good walk in several weeks and it was a very nice day.

Arya talked almost constantly about the plants and crops we saw along the road as we approached the towering white walls of the castle. There were several people that gave us curious looks, probably because both Arya and I had long black hair and the girl with us had long blonde hair. We stood out from the locals as much as Dany would have in Winterfell.

The castle was huge and covered the entire mound and overlooked the largest and widest river in the seven kingdoms, the Mander. It also had three rings of high walls surrounding it and the closer we came to it, the more I saw that the first ring had an elaborate labyrinth of a hedge maze. The thought of it made me chuckle and Dany gave me a searching look.

“I'll tell you the secret as soon as we enter.” I whispered to her and smiled, making her blush.

Dany didn't ask me about that or commented about how nice everything was, unlike Arya, who kept asking the people we passed for a piece of fruit, a grape, a taste of juice, and what those big round things were. They were melons and one of the farmers offered to give her one if she could carry it.

I had to laugh as Arya shocked the man by easily picking up the heavy thing that was twice the size of her head. He had to let her take it, even if it was one of the bigger ones, and I discreetly handed him a silver coin for it. He smiled and pocketed it and enjoyed watching Arya hop around happily with her watermelon.

I handed over her burlap sack and she giggled, put the large watermelon into it, and she hung it on my back instead of her own. “Hey, I'm not a mule!”

Arya laughed and took my hand and led me over to the entrance of the castle. The two guards there had watched the whole thing and neither of them stopped us as we entered through the large doors. They assumed we would have fun trying to figure out how to get through the maze and didn't warn us about how difficult it was without a guide. They also didn't tell us about the servant's entrance used for deliveries.

“We're inside.” Dany prompted me and I secretly cast silence around the three of us.

“The secret to getting through any maze is to hold your right hand out and keep it touching the wall.” I told her and she looked skeptical. “Trust me. It always works. Just don't let the wall go and we'll make it through.”

Dany didn't quite believe me and put her hand out. Her hand rubbed across the smooth hedges and she gave me a look. I grinned at her and she blushed, just like she always did.

“Arya, you're leading us.” I said and she squealed, picked up her pace, and skipped, jumped, and daced around as we went through the maze.

Nothing about the scenery changed for the next half an hour and then we were suddenly standing in front of a similar set of large doors to the ones that we entered the first wall though. The guards looked surprised to see us and Dany gave me a very pointed look and didn't take her hand from the hedge until we were about to step through the doors.

Inside the doors was full of houses, businesses, and people. Lots and lots of people. Both Arya and Dany pulled on my hands to keep themselves as close to me as possible among the press of people and we worked our way through the initial rush and out the other side, only to discover why there were so many people around just after the midday meal.

It was their marketplace full of stalls and sellers, calling out their wares to those nearby. They were selling everything, from fresh berries, to jewellery, to bags of oats, to clothing. I would have avoided the whole thing and opened my mouth to say so to the two girls clinging to me, then I made the worst mistake I could have ever made. I looked down and saw Arya's puppy-dog eyes.

OH, GOD! Not the eyes! Noooooooo! I thought with dismay as she unleashed them upon me. I still wanted to avoid the entire place and opened my mouth again to say so, then my brain betrayed me and said the words I should have never, ever said to two young and impressionable girls. “I have money.”

The next few hours passed by in a blur of stalls, haggling, buying, selling, exchanging money, and making two girls the happiest they had ever been. By the end of it, we had a pull cart full of everything that I couldn't sneakily store. It would have been funny if we didn't have a tentative appointment with the rulers of The Reach. I was just glad we didn't have a set time.

At the least we had a couple nice chairs and both Arya and Dany sat on them within the pile of things in the cart and I pulled the thing. It gained us a lot of attention and both girls shared giggles, waved to a few people, and loved the fact they were getting the royal treatment, even if it had been an entire accident. I had only suggested Arya sit and rest for a while and now here we were with me acting like a horse.

We eventually made it to the main part of the castle where the Tyrells lived and the two guards at the doors couldn't stop their laughs as I dragged the large heavy cart to a stop off to the side slightly. Arya and Dany looked inordinately pleased as I held a hand out for them to walk down the piles of things and onto the ground, just as if they were disembarking from a fancy carriage.

That really had the guards cracking up and one had to turn his head away to not laugh right into our faces. After a moment or two, he managed to compose himself and turned back to look at us and his partner kept chuckling.

“Ahem. Yes.” He said and gave us a professional look. “What can we do for you, young man?”

I stood with my back straight and gained their full attention. “My name is Jon Snow. I sent a raven this morning to prepare for my arrival and to offer a business proposition.”

The other guard laughed and the serious one chuckled, which meant they didn't believe me.

I narrowed my eyes at the man and didn't call him out on not treating a visitor properly. “Contact the Highgarden Maester if you do not believe me, good ser. Or better yet, Lord Mace Tyrell himself. I'm sure he has been waiting anxiously for me to arrive and you are delaying our meeting.”

The laughing one stopped and put his hand on his sword hilt as he stepped forward. “Be careful of insulting our honour, bastard.”

I didn't even look at him, letting him know what I thought of his threat, and decided to actually call them out on their treatment of me. “Is this how you treat visitors to your lands, good ser? Insults and threats of bodily harm when merely asked to confirm my claim?”

The serious one reached out and carefully took the other soldier's arm and pulled him back away from me. The soldier resisted for only a moment and stepped back to resume his post. With their focus solely on myself, I stored the cart and everything in it.

“What will your lord say about this encounter when he hears of it?” I asked, quite pointedly, when neither man moved to check if I really had sent a raven. “Shall we find out now or when I return on the morrow after another raven is sent, only with a maester's official seal on a letter of censure instead of a notice like today's?”

Both of them frowned at the threat and the aggressive one clicked his sword in its sheath.

“I've heard enough.” An older woman's voice said from the other side of the doors. “You are both relieved from duty.”

Both men's faces paled when they heard that. The doors opened, thanks to another soldier, and an older woman that looked about fifty years old stood there and she was slightly hunched over. Beside her was a tall brown-haired girl of about ten years old and she gave us very curious looks.

“Your families will be informed of your abysmal behavior greeting guests and I doubt you will keep your positions and titles.” The older woman said and both men bowed and stepped back. Her eyes went to me and her stern gaze softened slightly when she saw Arya and Dany on either side of me. “How fortunate that I and my granddaughter Magaery happened to be walking by this very gate at this very moment, hmm?”

I nodded and knelt on one knee, showing the most respect I could. “It is an honor to meet you, Lady Olenna Tyrell of Highgarden, the Queen of Thorns.”

Arya curtsied as soon as she heard the title and Dany quickly followed her. Their fancy dresses made them look like ladies as they did so, too. Both Olenna and Margaery noticed and Olenna nodded and Margaery curtsied back.

“Please rise.” Olenna said and waved for me to do so. “Erryk, take over the gate until their replacements arrive.”

Erryk gave her a disbelieving look and the older woman scoffed.

“Your brother Arryk can handle bringing us back to my personal garden by himself.” Olenna said and a man that looked similar to the other man stepped into view and nodded.

Erryk nodded as well and stepped out through the opened doors and stood guard.

“Well? Come along.” Olenna said to me and turned to walk back into the castle. “Don't dawdle.”

Margaery gave me a smile and followed her grandmother.

I held my hands out for Arya and Dany, which they took nearly instantly. I nodded at Erryk and the three of us walked through the open doors and easily caught up to the slowly walking older woman.

*

Olenna Tyrell sipped her tea as she openly watched the boy that had the balls to call her the Queen of Thorns to her face. No one in her life had ever said the title with respect like he had, and that gained her attention like nothing else could have. The name was almost always spat at her as people ranted at her during an argument or when a deal screwed them over instead of screwing her over like they intended.

She did so love it when her plans came together successfully.

Her granddaughter Margaery had taken to both the female bastard almost immediately, despite her being a couple of years older than the blonde. They talked like old friends, which was rare these days, and the youngest named Arya played with her wooden training sword against Arryk and surprised the man a few times with how well she did, even at only four years old.

“What are your plans, young man?” Olenna asked. She considered trying to draw him out with conversation, then discarded the idea. He was much too blunt to fall for her little tricks. Straight out asking him was a much better way to gauge the boy's personality.

“I was hoping to buy some lands from you to build a house. I wouldn't mind farming if there's enough lands for it; but, I could easily get by if I can build a few glasshouses.” Jon said and her eyes widened. He smiled at her reaction. “Yes, it's redundant to make a glasshouse for growing in the lands used for farming. However, the inside conditions can me adjusted to grow everything.”

Olenna nodded. She had seen some of the glasshouses herself and they would be necessary when the winters were harsher than usual. “And if my son doesn't have any lands to spare?”

“My lady, we both know you are the one that runs everything. Lord Mace is a good ruler and the people love him; but, he does not have the head needed for running the realm.” Jon said and chuckled. “You would be better off putting Willas in charge and he only had his fourteenth nameday recently.”

Olenna started to smile and then frowned. “I cannot put a recently injured young man in charge of running The Reach.”

“The tournament already happened?” Jon asked and she nodded. “Damn, I missed it.”

“Be careful of your language around a lady.” Olenna said, sternly.

“My apologies, Lady Olenna. I'm just disappointed that I wasn't there to stop Willas.”

Olenna lost the stern look and sighed as she sat back in her chair. “As am I.”

“Where is he?” Jon asked and stood up. “Perhaps I can cheer him up with a song or two.”

Olenna shook her head. “Despite the things I've heard about you, I doubt a happy song will do more than our maester and midwifes can.”

Jon gave her a warm smile and held a hand across the small table for her. “It won't hurt to try, will it, my lady?”

Olenna gave him a pointed look as she wondered if he knew something about crushing wounds that a maester that studied for years didn't know. But, she really couldn't take the chance that if she refused now, her grandson and heir to Highgarden would be forever confined to a chair and could no longer move around without severe pain.

In the end, she couldn't deny that he intrigued her far more than anyone else she had ever met. Olenna reached out her slightly wrinkled hand and grasped his offered one. She felt her face flush slightly red when his smile grew and gave her a look that someone twice his age shouldn't give to a woman as old as her.

Jon helped her to her feet as if she weighed nothing. “You won't regret this, my lady.” He said as he turned and tucked her hand into the crook of his arm. “Arya, Dany, I'm going for a walk to see Margaery's sick brother and will be back in a little while.”

“Bye, Jon!” Arya said and twirled around like a ballerina and the tip of her wooden sword clipped Arryk's hand and he jerked and dropped his own sword. “I WIN AGAIN!”

Both Margaery and Dany let out laughs as the guard fake glared at Arya while she celebrated.