Standing at the gates of the Red Keep, I waited for my uncle Lord Yohn Royce to ride in. Varys, the Master of Whisperers who had served under Mad Aerys and then continued under Robert Baratheon after the rebellion's victory, had agreed to send a servant the mont my uncle arrived in King's Landing. I could not understand why Robert had kept the Spider alive. Varys had served Aerys faithfully, and a great many people had died because of his information. But what was Varys to ? Let Robert and Father worry about him.
Uncle Yohn was in no particular hurry. I waited fifteen minutes, but all my impatience vanished the mont I spotted a cavalry column riding under the Royce banner with my uncle at its head. The war had changed him considerably. He had always been a capable fighter, but it had turned him into sothing genuinely dangerous.
When he pulled up in front of , the changes were visible at once. He had grown broader. I had to tilt my head back to look at him properly. His face had taken on harder lines, there was grey beginning to show in his hair, and the first wrinkles had appeared. But those sharp grey eyes looking down at with warmth were exactly as I rembered them. He swept up in those enormous hands of his, the kind that looked capable of snapping a young man like a twig, tossed up a couple of tis as though I weighed nothing, and then, while I was still laughing, pulled into a hug. I did not fight it. I had missed him too much for that. After a mont he set back down and bood:
"Axel! Gods, it is good to see you!" Uncle Yohn had always been a loud man, and war had done nothing to change that.
"I'm glad to see you too, Uncle!"
"Look at you! Co on then, show those muscles." I felt embarrassed and he could see it, so he put his hand against my arm as if testing its strength. "Well! There's real power there. You'll be putting knights on their backs before long."
"Already am! And soon I'll be running you ragged for showing no respect!" My tongue moved faster than my head.
"Ha! All right, nephew, if you want to 'run ragged,' we'll settle it at your training session tomorrow. But co now, we need to talk seriously," and just like that Lord Royce's manner shifted.
"Of course. We can use Father's chambers."
Four Royce household guards went with my uncle. With my five added to them, we made a decent fighting force. On the walk over we spoke about nothing in particular. Uncle Yohn conveyed without words that he would explain everything once we were inside. I did not see the necessity, but decided to trust him and kept the conversation going.
When we reached Father's chambers in the Tower of the Hand, I told the servants to prepare a al. Uncle Yohn called after them to bring Dornish wine. We sat down at the dining table straight away. Before that, Uncle Yohn poured himself sothing from a decanter, took a sip, and made a face. To the unspoken question he replied:
"ereenese sweet. Too sweet for my taste, but it will do for now. Right then, Axel. I am going to speak to you as one adult to another. The subject concerns your future. If anything is unclear, do not be shy about asking. Are we clear so far?" Yohn Royce rarely spoke in that quiet, serious voice, but when he did, it commanded attention.
"Yes." I was genuinely curious to know where this was going. Yohn Royce was one of the people I could trust with my life without a second thought.
"Good. Please don't interrupt. Questions at the end. After the victory at the Trident it beca clear to everyone that the rebellion had won. The bond that your father, Robert Baratheon, and Eddard Stark had ford was able to bring down a dynasty that had ruled Westeros for nearly three hundred years. A great many lords took note of how powerful such bonds could be and wanted one of their own. Then the Lannisters, who had not participated in the war, chose to join our side by killing a Targaryen infant and woman with revolting cruelty, throwing in the cowardly murder of the Mad King for good asure. In short, to prove their loyalty, they covered themselves in blood and began pouring enormous resources into restoring peace as quickly as possible. And all of it followed from a single conversation between Tywin Lannister and Jon Arryn."
"You're saying Father gave to Tywin Lannister as a ward in exchange for his help? Well... I always knew Father planned to send for fostering. The original plan was to live with Robert at Storm's End, but Casterly Rock is not a bad alternative, and if everything I have heard about Tywin Lannister is true, there is a great deal I could learn from him."
"You seem remarkably calm about all this. Are you genuinely comfortable with it?"
"Of course I'm not comfortable with it! Though I do understand it. Wars always leave people satisfied and people who are not, and to keep the dissatisfied from starting a new one you need an overwhelming advantage. The Lannisters are the best available option. I might find a good friend there. Perhaps we would beco sothing like Robert and Ned and form a bond that topples dynasties."
"You are reasoning like a petty trader or a rcenary! Pragmatism did not defeat the Targaryens: friendship and loyalty did! We would not have won without them. The rebellion would have ended at Ashford, when Randyll Tarly broke Robert Baratheon. Without friendship and loyalty, your father would have furled his banners, and without the Vale the rebellion was dood to fail. You will find none of that with the Lannisters. Did you know that Tywin Lannister and Aerys Targaryen were friends? And look at what that friendship ca to in the end: King's Landing sacked, Aerys's grandson butchered like a pig, his daughter-in-law violated and cut to pieces. And Jai Lannister, a knight of the Kingsguard, the mont the wind changed, turned his coat and put a blade in his own king's back. No, Axel. You will not find friendship or loyalty among the Lannisters."
Once again I was reminded that projecting the experience of my past life onto this one was not the wisest approach. These were different worlds, different people, different values. Looked at that way, my uncle was right. I needed to think.
"So what is to be done?" I said at last, after a mont's silence.
"I am proposing that you be fostered with at Runestone. I will teach you everything you need to know. You will co to know the people you will one day rule, and grow closer to the lords of the Vale."
"I doubt it will be that straightforward," I said. Everything about this was too clean and simple. If it were truly that easy, Uncle Yohn would not have bothered with this conversation.
"Correct. I will be honest with you: they will not leave you in the Vale. You will be sent to so important lord, and that is a certainty. So while your father is away, go through the king and seek to be fostered at Winterfell, Storm's End, or Riverrun. If you beco the ward of a Great House, Jon will not be able to undo it."
"Uncle, Riverrun is closed to . They would teach nothing there, and most likely kill ."
"Why would they? You are their kinsman now. They would not dare. And what would they gain from it?"
After I walked him through my reasoning, Uncle Yohn looked at and, unlike most people, acknowledged that it was possible. After the al, Uncle Yohn set the training session for eight the following morning and let go.
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