GOT : Chapter 28

Cletus

Politics were boring.

Actually, no.

The Dalts were boring.

If he remembered correctly, this was the fifth time that the Dalts of Lemonwood had complained about trade disputes with Planky Town. And since Dorne's largest city was under Martell direct rule, it was up to Quentyn to deal with them. The first four times, he'd let them come to him, but the fifth was enough to bring him down to the south bank of the Greenblood.

Cletus had never been to Lemonwood, but he recognized that the place, unlike their proprietors, had its charm.

Located on the south side of the mouth of the Greenblood, Lemonwood was ideally placed to control trade up and down the river. If you could call the Greenblood a river, of course.

The Greenblood was, unlike other rivers in the Seven Kingdoms such as the Honeywine, the Mander or the Trident, relatively shallow, and murky, causing the waters to become green. 

Occasionally though, or so he was told, when the sun shone brightly above the water, the green would cede its place to a shade of gold, and sometimes these waters would become transparent.

The mouth of the Greenblood on the other hand, was another matter. Unlike the rest of the river, where the other side was clearly only a few steps away, the mouth was enormous. 

From Lemonwood, you could see the Planky Town in the distance, but you needed to take a half-an-hour-long boat journey to reach it. And on top of that, the mouth was scattered with little islands and inlets, some of which were home to the Orphans of the Greenblood, while others contained fish and shrimp farms.

It was a wonder how, with such a huge mouth, the Greenblood then shrunk to be as small as what the other kingdoms would consider to be a large stream or tributary, snaking its way up to Stinkwater, Shandystone and Godsgrace, where it then split into the Scourge, whose source was located on Yronwood lands, and the Vaith, which lost itself in the Red Dunes.

Lemonwood was located on the south side of the Greenblood's mouth. It was a small keep to be sure, not even a sixth of the size of Yronwood Castle, but the location it was built on made it a hard keep to storm.

Indeed, the keep wasn't built on the river itself, but rather a rocky promontory above it, watching the lands around it, and giving a bird's-eye view of the surrounding area, which included the small city of Lemonwood, a town which laid on the banks of the river, where fishing vessels and pole-boats would come and go.

Between the town and the castle was a small wooded area that comprised almost exclusively of lemon trees, which, as the main source of wealth of these lands, gave their name to the town. 

The woods, he was told, were burnt down during Aegon's invasion, and were never restored to their former glory, instead comprising of a few patches here and there, but nothing like the luxuriant vegetation that once surrounded the castle.

The castle itself was quite nice, although even smaller than the Drinkwaters' keep of Yoricksbank. There were only six or seven towers, and a large, central, main keep. 

Apparently, the old Lemonwood castle was larger, but Visenya Targaryen had reduced it to rubble using dragonfire. The keep was eventually rebuilt, but was much smaller than its predecessor, and had to yield its title as "protector of the Greenblood" to the Planky Town.

Not like this wasn't already the case for hundreds of years, lest Rhaenys Targaryen had burnt it down at the same time as the burnt the Planky Town in the opening act of the First Dornish War. 

But the Dalts had claimed kept this unofficial title since Visenya eventually burnt down Lemonwood. This, unlike the burning of the Planky Town, had nothing to do with strategical importance, but was revenge for a Dornish raid on Cape Wrath.

When Alyn Velaryon bypassed Lemonwood, burnt the Planky Town to the ground once more, and sailed his ships up the Greenblood, the Dalts were incapable of doing anything to stop it. 

This dealt an incredible blow to their pride, as Alyn Oakenfist was then free to terrorize the Greenblood, even going so far as to burn Lemonwood's town to the ground.

When Alyn came back a few years later, he did the exact same thing. Not wanting to be humiliated once more, Harmen Dalt, the Knight of Lemonwood at the time, decided to mount an attack on the Royal fleet with burning rafts. 

Unfortunately, the Greenblood wasn't a fast-flowing river, and the rafts that didn't come back to shore due to the winds just laid there in the middle of the river and were easily dispatched.

Harmen Dalt then tried to block the Greenblood further upstream, but was met with the same results. The Royal Fleet punched through his petty blockade, leaving Lemonwood humiliated again.

Technically, this meant Lemonwood escaped unscathed from the Second Dornish War, but it also meant that the Dalts had taken a massive blow to their pride. Combined with the fact that they were not a noble house, being landed knights in service to the Martells, and you find a perfect recipe for arrogant idiots wishing to be noticed for their deeds.

It's not surprising that many Dalts chose to serve in Essos, distinguishing themselves as sellswords, before claiming the title of Knight of Lemonwood. The current holder of the title, Deziel Dalt, had thus served three years as part of the Company of the Rose, in Essos.

Which brought Cletus back to the present conversation, where the Dalt brothers were starting to get on everyone's nerve, as he felt both Quentyn's and Arch's noses twitch every time the Knight of Lemonwood opened his mouth.

"Right, so to get this completely clear." Quentyn finally spoke as Deziel Dalt finished his own tirade. "You wish to have the Planky Town's trade redirected to you?"

"No, not exactly, my prince." Deziel Dalt responded, uneasily. "We are aware that the Planky Town has had a resurgence in trade recently, and that its docks are overloaded. I am just proposing that the excess trade go through Lemonwood instead of the Planky Town."

"No offence meant, Ser Dalt." Quentyn frowned. "But Lemonwood hardly has a port. It can barely sustain fishing craft. How do you think it can accommodate larger vessels?"

"I heard that House Santagar has taken some of the burden of the Planky Town's trade." The Dalt knight continued. "Their facilities are not as good as the Planky Town's, and yet they have seen an increase in trade, while ours have seen no such rise."

"I have already explained to you, four times, that House Santagar's monopoly is a private matter and that it has no ill effect on Lemonwood's own trade. Did you make me come here to explain it to you a fifth time?"

"No, my prince." Dalt shifted, uneasy at the prince's words. "I merely suggested to relieve some of your burden, as I heard the Planky Town is congested. We have good relations with the Orphans of the Greenblood, for example, and we could arrange the distribution of medicine to them in exchange for trading rights for…"

The prince held a hand up in the air.

"I thank you for your offer, but it is not needed. The Planky Town might be congested, but the completion of three new docks in Sunspear by the end of this moon will ease out the congestion there. 

Furthermore, this does not solve the issue of your port facilities here, which are incapable of holding vessels larger than pole-ships. I have already given you leave to expand the farming of fish, shrimp and crabs with the new designs, this is compensation enough." Quentyn said, sternly.

"Finally, the Orphans of the Greenblood have been an issue, that much is true, considering they move around quite a lot. 

But I have met some of their groups, and thanks to my sister we have been able to get medicine flowing through the Planky Town and Turtle's Rest. Now the…"

"Liar!" the other Dalt knight, Andrey, sprung up from his seat. "Princess Arianne would never help a traitor like you, even if you are her brother. You come here, with your pair of Yronwood traitor brothers…"

Calm down, Cletus. If you kill that idiot right then and there, it will cause more problems that it will solve.

Thankfully, Quentyn stopped him dead in the middle of his tirade.

"Sit down, Ser Andrey." He ordered. "Firstly, you may adress me as my prince, or Prince Quentyn. Secondly, you do not get to insult my friends, and your dornish brethren, like this. Thirdly, consider your next words very carefully, or you might very well regret them later."

The Dalt moron finally realized what he was doing and sat back down.

"While we are on hard truths, Ser Andrey." Quentyn growled. "I do not know what honeyed words my sister showered you with, but know this. You will never have her for yourself. Never. You are the fifth lord I see who seemed to be certain to have her hand in marriage. 

My sister uses men like you, who bow to her, to then use them in her schemes, like she did with Ser Daemon. And we know how that ended. I was merciful once, and I am not in the mood to be again. Am I clear?"

"Very, my prince." Ser Andrey nodded.

"Then we have nothing left to discuss." Quentyn said as he rose from the table.

Ser Deziel accompanied the group to the castle's courtyard, leaving Ser Andrey behind. While doing so, the knight caught up to Quentyn, and started apologizing.

"I am sorry for my brother's attitude." Ser Deziel stammered. "He was always quite close with Princess Arianne. Closer than I. 

He never believed that she'd asked Ser Daemon to harm you until the word of her disinheritance came in, and even then, he believed that she had good reason to see you harm. I tried calming him down, but…Dalts are temperamental."

"I see." Quentyn frowned as they reached the courtyard and the heavy gate leading out of the castle. "Keep your brother in check, Ser Deziel. If you manage him, there might be something we can arrange to enhance the value of these lemons your house is so proud of. Good day."

The Dalt knight nodded and left them, hurrying back to the inner keep.

"Well, I for one am glad this meeting is over." Cletus sighed.

"Good self-control in there." Quentyn pointed out. "I thought you'd gut him the second he called you a traitor."

"I've heard it half-a-hundred times. One more wasn't going to hurt." Cletus shrugged. "But thank you for bringing me out here. At least we get to see some more of Dorne."

"This isn't the greatest place Dorne has to offer." Quentyn scoffed. "I swear I've been bitten by mosquitoes here so often I am surprised I still have a drop of blood in my body to offer."

"Same here." Arch cut in. "These bastards have been on a rampage ever since we left the Planky Town."

Cletus looked at his arms, noticing that he had been bitten quite a few times as well.

"I guess I'm not that sensitive." He shrugged.

Before any of them could answer, or could step out of the castle, a servant came running, bearing a raven scroll.

"Prince Quentyn!" the boy cried out. "A message, from your father."

Quentyn nodded in thanks as the boy went away, and started reading the message.

"Shit…" he whispered.

"What's the matter?" Cletus asked, worried.

"There have been developments." Quentyn frowned. "The situation in the capital has grown extremely unstable. Lady Stark has taken Tyrion Lannister hostage and disappeared into the wilderness. The Lannisters retaliated by attacking and crippling the lord Hand."

"The king?" Arch cut in.

"Gone for a hunt." Quentyn scoffed, crumpling the paper and stuffing it in his pocket. "The situation has grown tense. No doubt that there will be developments soon. We need to rush back to Sunspear."

The two Yronwoods nodded at that, and headed straight towards the castle's gate. They were, however, stopped once again.

A boy came up, holding another scroll.

"Prince Quentyn!" he cried out, handing him a scroll while keeping the other in his pockets.

"What is it?" Quentyn asked.

"I'm so sorry."

And then everything went to the seven hells.