Chapter Forty

Pleasure Craft. Outside of Kings Landing.

Soon I would meet with Lord Stark, the Hand of the King not the one up in Winterfell, and he wasn't the only person who wanted to see me this day. Currently I was in a meeting with a man called Jalabhar Xho who was the exiled Prince of the Red Flower Vale, who had been sent away from his home land for losing a highly ritualized war as per the tradition of the Summer Isles.

Following his exile, Jalabhar came to King's Landing here in the Seven Kingdoms to request gold and swords from King Robert I Baratheon to help him regain the Red Flower Vale. According to my sources King Robert always entertained the notion of conquering the Summer Isles, but he couldn't afforded such a war due to his wasteful spending.

While Jalabhar kept waiting for King Robert to get off his fat arse the exiled prince became a noted courtier at the Red Keep if only because he had no where else to. The sent away royal of the Red Flower Vale had to be one of the most colourful figures at court due to his habit of wearing a coat made up of the feathers of many birds and he wore clothing more suited to a tropical island than Westeros.

Now Jalabhar and I had just finished making a deal that would see him back in power and the Red Flower Vale, which is a river valley in eastern Jhala, one of the Summer Islands, joining the Imperium of Man. If taking over his former kingdom went well enough I'd consider conquering the entire island for him. Until then he would remain as my guest.

"An interesting man" said Prince Oberyan once Jalabhar had left to settle in another room "He just sold the freedom of his people for a throne you will control".

I knew that the Summer Islanders worship a whole score of deities, with the god and goddess of love, beauty, and fertility being the most favoured. The act of lovemaking is considered an important and even holy skill, with all islanders expected to serve for a time in temples of love. The most skilled and dedicated, those who would be can become respected priests and priestesses. Which was one reason to go take over the place.

"I'm far more interested in the gemstones than the people" I said.

Gemstones found in the Summer Isles include emeralds, rubies, and sapphires, as well as pearls they gather from the coast. The Ad-Mech were unlikely to have such use for the gems, but I might in the future and taking such a small kingdom would be simply for the army I commanded.

"When will you make a move on Jhala?" asked the Red Viper of Dorne.

Once I'd taken the Iron Islands I wanted to let the Seven Kingdoms fight it out for a little while before I stepped in so that would be a good time to play the role of conqueror somewhere else.

"Within the next couple of weeks" I said "Would you like to come along?".

I knew the prince to be somewhat of an explorer.

"If half the stories I've heard about the people of that land are true we could have a good time there my friend" said the Prince "But you have made promises before".

Now would be a good time to start delivering on them.

"Did my agents drop him off?" I asked one of my battle harem.

She nodded.

"Locke just arrived my lord" she told me "One of your agents found him in a whorehouse with a couple of very young whores, he was so drunk that it wasn't hard for us to convince him to come here".

Oberyan stood straight up upon hearing the name of my other new guest.

"You have Amory Lorch, here?" he asked.

The agents of my Master of Whispers hadn't needed long to locate him as he'd come to Kings Landing for the tourney and once his movements were known it had been a simple matter to have him brought here.

"Your gift should be secure and ready for your attention by now" I said "Or we can keep him locked up and transport him to Sunspear".

The Prince moved towards the door.

"I wish to speak with Ser Amory" he decided "If he dies I will explain it to my brother".

That would be fine with me.