Blood of Dragons

Forty years ago, he had come heading armies, to find a desolate Red Keep, the banners of the golden dragon torn and furled, the Sea Snake and the Clubfoot waiting with a forlorn, orphaned prince whom he hailed as Aegon, Third of His Name.

In the one hundred and seventy-eighth year after the Conquest, however, Kermit Tully, Lord of Riverrun, and his kith and kin arrived in King’s Landing in amity and celebration, with an impressive retinue of riverlords, to prepare for the wedding of Lady Lysa Tully to Ser Jon Hightower. They received a welcome as splendid as the skies above were dour and leaden.

Before the bronze gates stood Prince Daeron, Princess Mariah, Princess Elaena, no few of the small council, and much of the court. Famed as the brave Lads of old though he and his brother Ser Oscar are, Lord Kermit still seemed to have a father’s heart: his first care was to embrace his daughter, Lady Jannia Buckwell. Then the public mantle was donned again, and greetings began in earnest.

The dragons formally received Lord Kermit, Lady Tinessa, their good-daughter Simona, and the young bride. Ser Oscar, ever more the soldier, held back at first and traded tales with the knights and squires around him, among them Ser Otho Royce and the Hand’s young nephew Raylan, vocal as any in the rolling cries of “Riverrun and Trident!”

Everywhere the eye turned there was blood of the Trident and no small pedigree: Ser Luthor Rivers, commander of the goldcloaks; Ser Jorin Darry, heir to his House and grandson of Lord Kermit; and Ser Clyve Bracken, also reared by the trouts. The Hand and Lady Halanna, Lord Ryger, the Caswells, Ser Jon Roxton, Ser Ryckon Westerling, and Lady Lenora Lannister all helped frame a gathering worthy of the occasion.

When the first courtesies had run their course, Prince Daeron led all into the yard for refreshment arranged by Princess Mariah and her household, while trunks, horses, servants, and lodgings received their due attention. Thus did the court receive the Riverlords: with laughter, tempered awe, and whispers of the bloody deeds of old. There would be time aplenty for conference while court and city prepared to exult in the grand union of Oldtown and Riverrun.