The Sworn Sword

""How much does Ser Eustace reckon Wolmer's cheek to be worth, pray?""

""One silver stag. And three for you, m'lady"".

""Ser Eustace sets a niggard's price upon my honor, though three silvers are better than three chickens, I grant you. He would do better to deliver Bennis up to me for chastisement"".

""Would this involve that sack you mentioned?""

""It might"". She coiled her braid around one hand. ""Osgrey can keep his silver. Only blood can pay for blood"".

""Well"", said Dunk, ""it may be as you say, m'lady, but why not send for that man that Bennis cut, and ask him if he'd sooner have a silver stag or Bennis in a sack?""

""Oh, he'd pick the silver, if he couldn't have both. I don't doubt that, ser. It is not his choice to make. This is about the lion and the spider now, not some peasant's cheek. It is Bennis I want, and Bennis I shall have. No one rides onto my lands, does harm to one of mine, and escapes to laugh about it""."

"""Your ladyship rode onto Standfast land, and did harm of one of Ser Eustace's"", Dunk said, before he stopped to think about it.

""Did I?"" She tugged her braid again. ""If you mean the sheep-stealer, the man was notorious. I had twice complained to Osgrey, yet he did nothing. I do not ask thrice. The king's law grants me the power of pit and gallows"".

It was Egg who answered her. ""On your own lands"", the boy insisted. ""The king's law gives lords the power of pit and gallows on their own lands"".

""Clever boy"", she said. ""If you know that much, you will also know that landed knights have no right to punish without their liege lord's leave. Ser Eustace holds Standfast of Lord Rowan. Bennis broke the king's peace when he drew blood, and must answer for it"". She looked to Dunk. ""If Ser Eustace will deliver Bennis to me, I'll slit his nose, and that will be the end of it. If I must come and take him, I make no such promise"".

Dunk had a sudden sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. ""I will tell him, but he won't give up Ser Bennis"". He hesitated. ""The dam was the cause of all the trouble. If your ladyship would consent to take it down-""

""Impossible"", declared the young maester by Lady Rohanne's side. ""Coldmoat supports twenty times as many smallfolk as does Standfast. Her ladyship has fields of wheat and corn and barley, all dying from the drought. She has half a dozen orchards, apples and apricots and three kinds of pears. She has cows about to calf, five hundred head of black-nosed sheep, and she breeds the finest horses in the Reach. We have a dozen mares about to foal"".

""Ser Eustace has sheep, too"", Dunk said. ""He has melons in the fields, beans and barleycorn, and.. "".

""You were taking water for the moat !"" Egg said loudly.

I was getting to the moat, Dunk thought.

""The moat is essential to Coldmoat's defenses"", the maester insisted. ""Do you suggest that Lady Rohanne leave herself open to attack, in such uncertain times as these?""

""Well"", Dunk said slowly, ""a dry moat is still a moat. And m'lady has strong walls, with ample men to defend them"".

""Ser Duncan"", Lady Rohanne said, ""I was ten years old when the black dragon rose. I begged my father not to put himself at risk, or at least to leave my husband. Who would protect me, if both my men were gone? So he took me up onto the ramparts, and pointed out Coldmoat's strong points. ‘Keep them strong,' he said, ‘and they will keep you safe. If you see to your defenses, no man may do you harm.' The first thing he pointed at was the moat"". She stroked her cheek with the tail of her braid. ""My first husband perished on the Redgrass Field. My father found me others, but the Stranger took them, too. I no longer trust in men, no matter how ample they may seem. I trust in stone and steel and water. I trust in moats, ser, and mine will not go dry"".

""What your father said, that's well and good"", said Dunk, ""but it doesn't give you the right to take Osgrey water"".

She tugged her braid. ""I suppose Ser Eustace told you that the stream was his"".

""For a thousand years"", said Dunk. ""It's named the Chequy Water. That's plain"".

""So it is"". She tugged again; once, twice, thrice. ""As the river is called the Mander, though the Manderlys were driven from its banks a thousand years ago. Highgarden is still Highgarden, though the last Gardener died on the Field of Fire. Casterly Rock teems with Lannisters, and nowhere a Casterly to be found. The world changes, ser. This Chequy Water rises in the Horseshoe Hills, which were wholly mine when last I looked. The water is mine as well. Maester Cerrick, show him"".

The maester descended from the dais. He could not have been much older than Dunk, but in his gray robes and chain collar he had an air of somber wisdom that belied his years. In his hands was an old parchment. ""See for yourself, ser"", he said as he unrolled it, and offered it to Dunk.

Dunk the lunk, thick as a castle wall. He felt his cheeks reddening again.