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Prince Maekar had been brooding (Shiera’s word) or sulking (Brynden’s word) at Summerhall ever since he was denied the position of Hand of the King, but his daughters still made the occasional visits to court, at the request of Queen Aelinor, who was very fond of her nieces by marriage.
The girls were Shiera’s great-nieces by blood. Brynden would grimace, whenever Shiera reminded him that Maekar was their nephew.
“Half-nephew. We are only his father’s half-brother and half-sister. He would be eager to remind us of that, no doubt.”
“No doubt. And yet, it is surprisingly considerate of Maekar, to honor Aelinor’s wishes regarding his daughters.”
Brynden snorted. “Considerate? Our prickly proud nephew, considerate of the finer feelings and sentiments of others? I would not count on it. He sends his daughters to court to act as his spies. Everything that transpires here will be reported to their princely father once they return to Summerhall. My deeds will be foremost on that list. The vices and iniquities of Bloodraven the Hand of the King Who Should Not Have Been. Maekar has a whole book written on that very subject, I’m sure.”
Shiera laughed. “Do you truly believe that our stern and unyielding nephew is so lax that he would rely on his daughters’ occasional visits to court, instead of employing the service of permanent spies? Isn’t that what you would do, my dear Brynden? Isn’t that what you have done at Summerhall?”
“He will not thank you for drawing that comparison,” Brynden said, huffily. The comparison clearly irked him, never mind what Maekar might think of it.
Shiera rolled her eyes. “Men are such fools at times. They refuse to see what is right in front of their eyes.”
“At the moment, what is right in front of my eyes is the continuing mystery of Maekar’s youngest son. Where is the boy? Where has Prince Aegon gone? He did not return to Summerhall after the tourney at Ashford. My spies at Summerhall reported that Maekar sent the boy to Lys, with his second son Aerion. And yet your spies in Lys claimed otherwise.”
“My spies are not mistaken. They are my mother’s own kinsmen and kinswomen, as you well know. I have never had any cause to doubt the intelligence they supply. Aerion does not have his younger brother with him. Your spies, on the other hand, could be the ones who are mistaken.”
“If they are mistaken, then it must be because Maekar deliberately sets out to deceive. Speak to his daughters. Find out where their brother is, the one they call Egg.”
“Why are you so intent on discovering what Maekar has done with his youngest son? Perhaps he sent the boy to squire for some lord or other. That is common enough. Why should it trouble us?”
“Which lord? Why have we learned nothing of it, with all our combined resources? Why is it being kept such a closely guarded secret? There is a reason for every secret, a reason that could bring calamity to the realm.”
“Surely Maekar would not rebel against his own brother, just because he was denied the position of the King’s Hand?”
“HIs grudge was not just that he was denied it, but that I was given it, in his place.”
“He would not be as wroth if Aerys had rejected him for someone other than yourself?”
“Do you doubt it, Shiera?”
“Maekar is not Aegor. Pray remember that, Brynden.”
“He is not Aegor, no. Yet he could be a danger in his own way. Will you speak to his daughters?”
“I will speak to them, yes. But I will not interrogate them about their brother, or their father.”
Brynden smiled. “You will not interrogate them, no. Your methods are subtler than that.”
Shiera sighed. “If you and Maekar are not so blunt with one another, then perhaps you would not be so at odds.”
Offended, Brynden declared, “I am the prince of subtlety.”
“Not in your dealings with Maekar.”
“That man does not understand subtlety. He would not recognize it even if it is kicking him on his backside.”
“If it is kicking him on his backside, then it cannot be subtlety,” Shiera pointed out.
Brynden laughed, his only truly joyful laughter that day.
The younger of Prince Maekar’s daughters sought out Lady Shiera first, as it turned out. “I thought perhaps you would like to give me tea and cakes,” Princess Rhae said. The girl did not seem certain what to do with her face. Her expression flitted from sheepish grin to determined show of bravado and back to sheepish grin again, in a matter of seconds.
Shiera raised her eyebrows. “Tea and cakes, my princess?”
“The ladies at court are always wanting to give me tea and cakes. Will your father ever wed again? they always ask, when we are done with the cakes and are sipping the last of the tea. They dare not ask my sister, though.”
“Oh? Why is that?”
“Because Daella always looks so pained whenever the subject of a new bride for our father is mentioned.”
“The thought of your father marrying again does not bring you pain?”
A flash of cold steel suddenly glinted in Rhae’s merry eyes. “My pain is none of their concern,” she said, in a tone not unlike her father’s.
“Are you not afraid to have tea and cakes with me?” questioned Shiera. “What if I ask you the same question, regarding your father?”
“Oh, I know you would never ask me that, my lady. You don’t have any interest in my father.”
“I don’t?”
“You have no interest in him as a prospective bridegroom, I mean.”
They drank tea and ate cakes, in silence. Rhae seemed to be waiting for something, or else the girl was summoning her courage to introduce a certain subject. She opened her mouth a few times, only to close it again before speaking a single word.
Shiera took pity on the girl, and spoke first. “Where is your sister today? Why is she not with you?”
“Daella has gone to pray in the Great Sept, with Aunt Aelinor.”
“Why do you not accompany them? You are not so fond of praying?”
“I’m not so fond of Baelor the Blessed. Blessed, indeed! He was a curse to his sisters, not a blessing. Their shades must be howling with rage in the afterlife, seeing their brother remembered so fondly and reverently by so many.”
“And yet there were others to whom he was truly a blessing.”
:”Like who?”
“Your father, for one.”
Rhae stared at Shiera, suspicion blazing in her eyes. “My father? What about my father?”
“Your father would not have existed, if King Baelor had not arranged the marriage between your grandfather and your grandmother. And if you father does not exist …“
“Then I would not exist either. That is true. But it still doesn’t erase the way Baelor horribly mistreated his sisters.”
“It does not erase it, no. Brothers can be … cruel to their sisters, it is true.”
“And some brothers are cruel to their sisters and their brothers,” Rhae said, with feelings.
Shiera tested the waters, “You are perhaps … not so sad that your brother Aerion has gone to Lys?”
Rhae took a sip of her tea.
“Aerion is not your favorite brother, I would wager.”
Rhae took another sip of tea, her little finger slowly tapping the side of the teacup.
“You gave your brother Aegon a love potion to drink. Is he, then, your favorite brother?”
The teacup was reunited with its matching saucer with a noisy clatter. The dainty tea-drinking princess was now a picture of outrage. “Was Egg telling that story to all and sundry, while he was at court? Did he announce it to everyone in attendance? The gall! When he returns, I’ll – I’ll – I’ll teach him a lesson he’ll never forget.”
Shiera pounced, “When he returns? From where?”
Rhae was flustered, but only for a few moments. “When I return to Summerhall, I mean,” she said, breezily and calmly enough. But then she frowned and asked, “You did not hear that story from Egg, did you, my lady?”
“Not directly, no.”
“And you did not hear it from anyone he told at court either.”
“Say what you really mean, Princess.”
“You heard it from someone at Summerhall.”
“I hear many things, at Summerhall and other places.”
“But you don’t know everything,” said Rhae, with a trace of smugness in her voice.
“I don’t?”
Rhae giggled and said, “It wasn’t really a love potion, you know. I just made Egg believe that it was. He was going on and on about how if our father ever commands him to marry one of his sisters, he would rather marry Daella than me.”
“Oh? Why is that?”
“Because I talk too much, he said. Egg’s the one who is a chatterbox, not me. I’m the one who would find it annoying to be married to him, not the other way around. He didn’t have much to say after I told him I put a love potion in his drink. He was speechless, for once.”
“You told him it was a love potion, and he immediately believed you? Is your brother so credulous?”
“I didn’t really tell him. I whispered to Daella that it was a love potion I got from a wood’s witch, and that Egg would surely marry me after drinking it, because he would be so helplessly and heedlessly in love.“
“And your whisper was just loud enough so your brother could hear it, but not too loud that he would suspect that you meant for him to hear?”
Rhae nodded. “Yes, that was exactly how it was! Egg did not even question it for more than a second. He thought he had learned a secret he was not supposed to know, so he believed it quickly enough.”
“That was quite clever of you,” Shiera complimented her great-niece.
“I took your advice,” said Rhae, solemnly this time. The mischievous girl who had played a prank on her brother receded into the background. This girl was ready to speak, ready to reveal what had brought her to Lady Shiera’s apartments in the first place.
“You took my advice?”
“You once told me that there is power in letting people believe what they want to believe about us.”
“I said there is power of a certain kind, in letting their imagination do the work for us. But it is also the sort of weapon that could easily turn on its wielder.”
“And yet you never try overmuch to counter the rumors about yourself, my lady.”
“Which rumor? There are so many. I have lost count. The rumor that I bathe in the blood of maidens?”
“That, for one.”
“The kind of people who would believe such a thing, do you think they are likely to believe any denial I make?”
“No, not very likely. But my sister said it is better to be loved than to be feared.”
“To be loved … ah, yes, that is certainly a very precious thing. Sadly, it is not a path available to everyone.”
“Cousin Brynden loves you. And Cousin Aegor too.”
Cousin. Prince Maekar’s children had been taught by their father to address their grandfather’s half-brothers in that manner. They never called her “Cousin Shiera”, though. She was always “Lady Shiera” or “my lady” to them.
“Are you as credulous as your brother, Princess? I bewitch them both, is that not the story? I bewitch them both with my black arts.”
“You bewitch them with your great and unnatural beauty, some say. But then some men believe a woman’s beauty is a type of black arts too.”
“They do, indeed. Some women believe it too, sadly. No woman’s husband is safe from the likes of her, they will tell you, neatly dividing the world into good women against the bad ones.”
“Is it all a lie? Everything people say about you?”
“All? Well, I have never bathed in the blood of maidens to keep my beauty, if that is what you are asking.”
“But you have other … powers?”
“Powers, no, but I do have certain … gifts, inherited from my lady mother. They are gifts, Princess, not powers. They are always wielded with a great deal of cost to the person wielding it. Those gifts are not for harming others, only to protect myself, and to protect the people I love.”
“To protect the people I love,” Rhae echoed Shiera’s words. “When my mother was ill, and all the maesters my father summoned to Summerhall gave her up for dead, I really wished I knew some spells or potions that could save her life. I don’t want to learn how to make a love potion. I want to learn how to make a life potion, so mothers would not die before their time, before their children are grown.”
“Surely not just for mothers? They are not the only ones who deserve to live a full life.”
“For everyone, then.”
“A splendid goal.”
“Can you teach me?”
“If I know how to make this life potion, then I would have used it to save the lives of so many.”
“Teach me what you do know. Teach me the art of protecting the people we love.”
“Some things cannot be taught, Princess. They are inherited, from mother to daughter.”
“But there are other things you can teach me. Things you have learned and studied, not inherited.”
“Perhaps. But your father would not be pleased, I’m sure.”
“My father does not need to know everything.”
Rhae waited for Shiera’s reply. It took a long time coming.
“Well? Do you want something in return, is that it? You want me to tell you where Egg is. Egg is in Lys. He is in Lys, with Aerion. Daella and I are both very angry with our father, for sending Egg away. We told him what a cruel and unfeeling father he is. Daella even cried. Your … source … at Summerhall must have told you about that. He must have told you how we begged and pleaded with our father to let Egg come home, and how our father ignored our pleas.”
“Your brother Aegon is not in Lys, Princess. I do commend the show you and your sister put on. It was good enough for a mummer’s troupe.”
“I won’t do it! I won’t betray Egg so I could learn from you.”
“If you had, I would not have agreed to teach you.”
Rhae frowned, trying to decipher the reply. “Then was that a test?” she asked. “You don’t want to know where Egg is?”
“I already know where your brother is.”
“You do? Then why doesn’t Cousin Brynden know? He’s been hinting and insinuating since the first day we arrived. He never came right out and asked, but Daella said it’s very clear what he wanted to know. What he still wants to know.”
“Like your father, Brynden does not need to know everything. That is your first lesson, Rhae. There are times when we have to protect the people we love from their own folly.”