The Witch-King of the Vale [GoT x LotR] Chapter 40 37

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Because of the falling out with the lion's house, I had no intention of waiting for the feast to end. I left for King's Landing without delay. I had offended the lords of the castle, which was considered deeply improper, bedded and refused to marry the daughter of a noble house, and beaten the favorite son of Lord Tywin and it did not matter what the Kingslayer thought of that last part. The Old Lion would make it so regardless.

Seen from the outside without any context, it had the look of one of Oberyn's adventures. Hah. There would be sothing to tell him over a bottle of wine.

My hurry back to the capital of the Seven Kingdoms was because of my father. He was a weak-willed man, easily swayed, and the Lannisters had flooded the capital. I had no idea what they were whispering in his ear. I would have liked to get through this stretch and spend a couple of years at the Citadel. My plan there was to find precise definitions of the laws of this world. Arda and Planetos were very similar, but not without their small differences, and tracking those differences down by hand was a slow business. Riding at an easy pace with my retinue along the Gold Road, I did not stop longer than a single night at any castle along the way. There was little point in lingering. Most of the lords were in Lannisport now, and only the elderly or children too young to travel had stayed behind.

Twenty days of riding later I caught the familiar stench of the capital. Five hours after that I was sitting with my father.

...

I don't know why he insists on subjecting to Lysa Tully's company. Perhaps he is trying to make us into a family. It turns my stomach. I cannot stand the trout, and she feels the sa about . If she had at least been pleasant to look at once, she was now a bloated, rotten fish. I needed to arrange an "accident" for her as soon as possible.

"So then, Axel, what kind of disgrace did you cause at the Lannisters'?" my father began, once the al was finished and the servants had been sent away.

"Nothing that warrants the attention of the Hand of the King," I said. His tone set my teeth on edge.

"Insulting a Great House, dishonoring a lady, beating a mber of the Kingsguard?" Did he seriously think any of that was going to embarrass ?

"Ah, yes. Poor, poor Kingslayer, treacherously beaten in a completely unfair fight by a boy of fifteen." My interpretation gave my father a mont's pause.

"You need to be taught manners!" For so reason Tully saw fit to open her mouth. "You disgrace your house and your father!"

"You're hardly the one to speak of houses and disgracing fathers."

"AXEL! Show respect to my lady wife!" The old man had worked himself up.

"I simply cannot stand hypocrisy, or people who have no business cutting into a conversation," I said. Clearly she had grown drunk on going unchallenged.

She shoved back from the table so hard her chair scraped, and her unpleasant face went red with fury. Tully tried to say sothing, but the words wouldn't co, and she looked every bit the illustration of her house's sigil, a fish flung up on dry land. After about ten seconds, having found no worthy answer, she stord out of the chambers at a run. The old man only let out a tired sigh.

"Why did you have to say that?" ca the rhetorical question. "We had an agreent. This is not how I raised you."

"Raised ? Is that what we're calling being sent away as a hostage now?" His last words had stoked sothing hot in .

"I understand your anger," my father said, catching himself and moving quickly to correct his phrasing. "But everything I did was for the good of the realm."

"WE won. The rebellion was crushed. And YOU, you follow the lead of the defeated and hand them your heir. That is weakness. Do not speak to about the good of the realm."

"Pff, Axel. It may look that way to you, but I truly acted for the good of all," he said, treating as though I were a child who did not yet understand the world, which grated on . "And I will do it again if it is necessary." His iron gaze was not one I cared for.

"No. You will not dare." I could see exactly where the wind was blowing.

"Yes, I will. You will return to Lannisport and marry Lady Cerenna Lannister. This match will strengthen your position and..."

"That will never happen."

"IT WILL HAPPEN! I AM YOUR LORD AND FATHER, AND I COMMAND IT!"

"Command soone else. You lost that right when you gave away to Dorne."

"GET OUT!"

I was almost through the door when his words reached .

"If you dare defy , I will strip you of your place as heir and of the Bloodbeak!" He turned his gaze to the sworn knights and said, "Ser Desmond, arrange round-the-clock protection for my son."

...

The following morning.

One of the Arryn household guards burst into the Hand's chambers without knocking. It was Ser Simon, who had served House Arryn for more than fourteen years. That length of service had earned him certain privileges, entering unannounced among them. The Hand had been at his affairs of state from the mont he woke, pausing only for a light al.

"Lord Arryn! Ser Axel is gone!" That pulled him away from his docunts at once.

"Gone! Where is the guard?" The fear that seized the father was genuine.

"They were found in your son's chambers. Sothing had put them down, so kind of poison, and they are still asleep. The room is undisturbed. No sign of struggle." Understanding that there had been no abduction, Jon steadied himself and began to think quickly.

"Put a pair of n on every gate and have them watch for him. Order the Gold Cloaks to comb the city. The wretch couldn't have gotten far."

"At once." The guard ran to carry out his lord's orders.

"Axel. What kind of childish tantrum is this? You'll drive to an early grave."

...

At that sa hour, aboard the Fox's Whore, a handso young man of seventeen sat comfortably in a private cabin. He had sand-colored hair, a pale blue eye, and an aquiline nose. The only thing that gave one pause about his appearance was the eye patch he wore and the black, swollen veins spreading from beneath it near his left eye.

He was reading a book with a smile on his face. It was a useful book, though the material was presented so poorly that most of the pleasure was drained right out of it. He read on all the sa, and the smile never left his face.