Davos.
Standing surrounded by high lords who outranked him by birth and held positions of far greater importance, Davos felt out of place. Doubly so because of the chainmail he had put on for reasons he could not quite explain to himself. His shoulders and lower back ached from the unfamiliar weight, and he felt as clumsy as the last fool in a long line of them. He was old, a forr smuggler, and he did not understand why he needed to be here at all, but the king's orders were not for debating.
Right now Davos stood closer to His Grace than at any point since the coronation. Yes, he had used his smuggler's knowledge to slip a company of soldiers behind Royce's lines, and that had made it possible to open the city's gates. Grudgingly, the lords had acknowledged Davos's right to be present. The king had gone further still and placed him at his right hand, in the spot vacated by the departed Lord Stark. Davos considered the honor a burden and a liability to the king's cause, since such an affront to the loyal lords could only stir their resentnt. That was Davos's view, though it differed considerably from the king's thinking.
Throughout the council Davos had tried to speak as little as possible and to avoid offending the lords with poor ideas. The lords argued, proposed, and fud. No one present was happy with the situation they found themselves in. They had expected that taking Gulltown would bring them glory and riches, and instead they had received death and empty granaries.
"You chatter like magpies and have even less to say. All of you, out. I require silence." The king let his gaze settle on Davos. "Ser Davos, stay."
It did not escape Davos how the lords and knights looked at him as they filed out. They ca from ancient families, and their counsel was being set aside in favor of a forr smuggler's.
"Your Grace." Only now did he notice the dark circles beneath the king's eyes.
"Lord Stark has sailed?"
"Yes. He asked to tell you he will send aid with Manderly's ships."
"By the ti he reaches ho, assembles the fleet, and sails it back to us, we will have starved three tis over. If we are lucky, we might see so provisions from Ser Brynden in a fortnight, but that would only prolong the agony."
"Your Grace, I believe you should have let Lord Stark speak with Lord Arryn." Davos could not understand why Stannis had been so absolutely opposed to Stark's plan.
"Ser Arryn," the king corrected him. "He does not hold the Eyrie and has not sworn fealty to , which makes him a rebel. Stark is a fool if he thinks Axel Arryn will listen to him."
"Were they not friends who grew up together?"
"Arryn may once have been a model of knighthood, but his tantrum before the Old Falcon, his abandonnt of his duty, and years of selling his sword have killed whatever boy Stark rembered."
"In my humble opinion, the Falcon's Eye was not a bad Hand."
"Not bad? He was good, that is difficult to argue." Davos was taken aback, since the king rarely praised anyone. "Though he lost his honor in Essos, he served his duty well under Robert. That is why I did not protest. I have held to my duty since childhood and demanded the sa of others." For a mont the king smiled, though the smile was a sad one. "During the rebellion Robert ordered to hold Storm's End with five hundred n, and I held it. First we ate the horses, since we had nowhere to ride with the castle surrounded. Then the cats. I never liked cats. Then the dogs. I am fond of dogs, they are good animals, loyal, but we ate those too. Then the rats. Wretched creatures, more hair than at, but we had nothing else to choose from. And when we were ready to eat the corpses of our own n, you slipped through the siege on that black little boat of yours."
"With onions and salt beef, if I rember right," the forr smuggler added.
"You helped , my brother, and hundreds of loyal soldiers and servants survive that siege. Every last one of them would have kissed you for it."
"rcifully it never ca to that."
"Robert and Ned Stark were called heroes. Rebels who liberated one city after another from the grip of the mad king. And we were forgotten. Robert ordered to hold the castle, and I held it. Then he gave it to Renly, who had not fought a single day of the war. I did not argue that either, whether I was offended or not made no difference."
"Renly was only a boy," Davos offered, weakly.
"So why did he need the castle?" the king asked. "Robert never saw as a brother, though I did everything he commanded. And on the other side was Axel Arryn, who could not have cared less what anyone else thought, and nothing was ever held against him."
Only now did he grasp a simple truth: the king was jealous. After all these years Davos had forgotten that the middle Baratheon was an ordinary man with ordinary weaknesses. To him, King Stannis was a model of fairness, seriousness, and unbending resolve, a man with a powerful sense of duty and justice, for whom honor and pride ant everything.
He had probably found it unpleasant to watch his elder brother's bond with Arryn while being brushed aside himself. Davos had seen it. When the Falcon's Eye had put so life back into Robert, Stannis had tried to find common ground with his brother and received nothing but confusion and dismissal in return. He had not shown it, but he had nursed a grievance against everyone involved.
"Axel Arryn is an excellent commander and a shrewd counselor, and so in recognition of his past service I wished to draw him closer to , but he refused to present himself before and support his lawful king. That makes him a rebel, and I have little patience for those." Davos understood this was not the mont to hold back.
"Your Grace, permit to speak plainly."
"I expect nothing less from you."
"People do not understand the reason for the war against Arryn. Our enemies are the Lannisters, who have seized the throne, and your younger brother, who crowned himself. Yet we are not fighting them. We are fighting Arryn, the man who was the most faithful supporter your brother ever had." Davos saw he needed to approach the thought from another direction. "You, as the elder son of House Baratheon, fight for your rightful claim to the Iron Throne. Axel Arryn fights for control of the Vale, which is his lawful right. It is not for to say that Lysa Arryn's stories are nonsense and a pretext for rebellion. But how can n fight for your claim as the true king when you seek to help the younger Arryn take the place of his elder brother?"
"Careful, Ser Davos," the king cautioned him.
"The Vale is necessary to if I am to win the Iron Throne. Robert Arryn has sworn to , which makes him the legitimate ruler of the Vale."
"Your Grace, people followed you not because of scheming, but because of their faith in you. They know that Stannis Baratheon is the lawful heir who will be a just king. But how can one fight for the rights of inheritance while disregarding another man's?"
Having said everything on his mind, Davos waited for the king's decision.
The king paused. "Go. I need to think."
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