Chapter 16: No Rest
298 AC, King's Landing…
Lord Stark's simmering rage became apparent in his eyes as the words left Rody's mouth. His grip on the glass tightened and his eyes turned to Rody.
"Are you sure about these rumours' origins?" Lord Stark asked.
Rody coughed and said, "As I have said, they are only rumours my lord. However, the whole city talks about them and I did not hear any words about Lord Baelish refuting these claims."
"My apologies, my lord," Jory cut in, "But I spoke with a few friends from the Rebellion and what they told me matches with what Rody heard. That ponce is surely up to no good."
"Send a few men to trace the rumours," Lord said to Jory, "Let's see who is behind them."
"Now… I was planning to keep this a secret at least for a few days until my wife departed this wretched city, but from the looks of it Lord Baelish is one of the big players in this city." Lord Stark said as he calmed himself, "After the small council meeting, Lord Baelish took me to one of his brothels."
Rody's and Jory's eyebrows rose at Lord Stark's words but Lord Stark did not mind and continued his words.
"To my surprise, I met my wife there and learned of an assassination attempt on my son, Bran." Lord Stark pulled out a sheathed knife from his belt and put it on the table. "This knife was collected from the assassin's body."
"Was Brandon harmed, my lord?" Rody asked with worry in his eyes.
"Fortunately not," Lord Stark sighed. "Brandon's wolf and two of the Greyguards which Jon ordered to watch Brandon day and night prevented anything from happening."
Rody picked up the dagger while listening to Lord Stark and unsheathed it. He frowned as he noticed a strange glimmering on its sharp side. He slid his finger and blood flowed freely.
Seeing Rody wound himself, Lord Stark warned him, "Careful, that is not a normal steel but a Valyrian one."
"A Valyrian steel dagger in the hands of an assassin?" Jory raised an eyebrow, "Either the assassin earns very well, or his contractor is very rich…"
"Lord Baelish said that he owned this dagger before," Lord Stark said, "However, he lost the dagger to Tyrion Lannister…"
"Then…" Jory's eyes grew wide.
"My lord, I would advise you to take this information with a pinch of salt." Rody said frowning, "From what we have learned, there is a little reason for Lord Baelish to give this information to us freely."
"I'm convinced that Lord Baelish is not a person to be trusted but if there is one thing I learned, it is that every lie hides a truth." Lord Stark nodded his head thoughtfully, "Either someone tries to sow discord between us and Lannisters, or the claws of lions reach places they shouldn't…"
"Will you present the dagger to the king, my lord?" Rody asked.
"No, now is not the time. We still need to gather proof as we do not know who played his hand. I will play the ignorant for some time and let the snake come out to hunt." Lord Stark downed his glass. "Keep the dagger Rody, hide it well so no one learns of it."
"Yes, my lord." Rody nodded his head.
"Now, I've got some papers I need to handle before the dinner, the things talked about in this room will stay in this room…" Lord Stark's eyes wandered over Rody and Jory as they both bowed their heads in agreement and rose to their feet.
Rody picked up the dagger and put it on his belt while leaving the room. He trekked down the Hand's tower and reached the Small Hall. He saw several clansmen still hanging around and he saw that one of them was Crag, the giant man.
"Crag, come here!!" Rody yelled.
Crag looked at the entrance of the hall and cracked a smile seeing Rody. He uttered a few words to his clansmen and went beside Rody.
"You are a lucky man, Crag." Rody said smiling, "Lord Stark appointed you as his personal guard."
"Me?" Crag's eyebrows rose to his hairline as his mouth hung upon and he pointed to himself. His elders always talked about that serving magnar of their land was an honour in itself but serving the Magnar of the whole North was something else entirely.
"Aye, you." Rody laughed, "But first, we need to make you presentable as a guard. Lord Stark entrusted me with commissioning a new armour for you. Come, I will take you to the smith."
Seeing Rody turn around to leave the hall, Crag came to his senses and followed him. He was still dreaming about how it was going to be serving directly under Lord Stark.
They left the castle while the sun was still visible in the sky.
The stares and the whispers, while they were passing throughout the streets, was foreign to Rody as he was neither handsome nor richly dressed. However, the height of the man beside him was something that was engraved in every Kingslander's brain as a symbol of fear.
The whispers of the "Mountain" and the "Mountain That Rides" were insulting to Crag as far as Rody saw. He heard Crag murmuring to himself that if that was the Mountain then he was the Wall.
Rody was amused at Crag's words and wondered what kind of rumours would rise when Crag was seen in full plate armour.
It took them a bit of time to arrive at the Street of Steel and find the shop of Tobho Mott, the best smith in King's Landing.
The shop was the biggest one in the street and it was the place for lordlings and lords. Everything sold in the shop was shiny and durable enough for some real work.
Rody looked inside and saw a man and a young boy working on the smith. There was no one else around so he went inside and called out to the man. "Is Master Tobho Mott here?"
The man raised his head and looked at Rody. He wiped the sweat on his forehead with a cloth and told his apprentice to continue to work while he himself left his tools in his workshop and came to the front of the shop.
"I'm Tobho Mott, how may I help you my lord?" said the man.
"I was sent here by the Hand of the King, Lord Eddard Stark, to commission a full plate armour for this man," Rody said as he pointed to Crag.
Tobho Mott looked at Crag from head to toe and nodded his head, "I will require two times of payment considering his build, the material required will be much more."
"If you want normal steel, it will be 500 golden coins. However, I know some ways to strengthen the metal from my days in Qohor… It will not be as good as the Valyrian steel but it still will be better than the castle-forged steel. For that, I will be taking 2000 golden coins…" Tobho Mott said as he caressed his beard, "On the account of Lord Stark, I will take the payment only after the job is done."
"2000 dragons?" Rody's eyes grew wide when he heard the number. However, Lord Stark probably knew that as he was the one who told him to seek Master Tobho Mott but Rody was not going to go down without haggling. "I say 1000 is more than enough."
Master Tobho Mott grumbled and said, "The materials alone will cost near 1000, I can only make 1900 dragons."
"Let's make 1700 dragons and a big warhammer fit for this giant, what do you say?" Rody said.
Master Tobho Mott snorted, "1800 dragons, the warhammer and I will engrave a design you want on the armour."
"Deal," Rody agreed. He knew he was not good with coins but 200 dragons was a lot. He turned his head to Crag and said, "Do you have something on your mind?"
"How about a chained weirwood tree?" Crag asked.
"What about the colours?" The master smith asked.
"Black chains, red leaves and a white body but do not forget the face, it should be crying blood." Crag said in his thick accent.
"A difficult choice," Master Tobho Mott murmured to himself and after a few seconds, he raised his head, "I gave my word and it shall be done. Come here in two weeks, I need time to gather the materials."
"Then we will leave you to your work, Master Tobho Mott. May the Gods give strength to your arms!" Rody left the shop with a smile on his face.
By the time they left the shop, the sun was already setting so Rody took Crag to the castle as the whole household was going to gather for dinner in the Small Hall.
The cheery sounds were already on a swing when they arrived at the hall. Rody let Crag mingle with his clansmen while he himself went at the head of the table and sat beside the Stark family where a seat was reserved for him.
Lord Stark was talking with one of the clansmen with a smile on his face while Arya was eavesdropping on their talk. On the other hand, Sansa was sitting there and gaping at the boisterous clansmen with a growing horror on her face.
Rody noticed Septa Mordane sitting on the other side of the table with a rigid face and looking at the food before her frowningly. Apparently, mingling with common people was too much for a woman of her station.
Rody saw that Lord Stark's eyes caught his own so he told him that the armour was going to be crafted by Master Tobho Mott as he asked.
However, when Rody told about the price, Lord Stark's eyes grew wide and he nearly spurted out the wine in his mouth.
Probably, paying 2000 dragons for only armour was a bit extravagant even for Lord Stark. Nevertheless, Rody knew that Lord Stark was not someone who would cry over some amount of coins. Besides, from the reassuring smile on Lord Stark's face, Rody guessed that this was going to be no problem.
The dinner was a joyous affair as the guards of the Stark household mingled with the clansmen and even had a few wrestling matches. It was by midnight everyone retreated to their dwelling.
As a noble, Rody was granted a room just beside Lord Stark's own room. It was decorated richly, there were some weird paintings on the wall and a shelf of books was covering one side of the wall. The heart of the room was already warming the room. The bed was for two people and it looked fluffy enough for Rodrik to drown in it.
Rody stripped his clothes and only left his underwear. He sat on his bed and looked around. The paintings caught his eyes. One of them was describing a bowl of fruits while the other one was of a woman sitting on a chair.
However, Rody noticed that the woman's eyes were following him, no matter from which angle he looked at it. The eyes were literally following him. He thought it was very creepy so he rose to his feet and went before the painting.
He took it off the wall and turned it around to put it on the ground but he realized that there were some black markings on the painting. He frowned as he tried to scratch thinking that they were just some dirt.
However, after scratching them, he realized that they were not some dirt but holes. He frowned and looked at the wall the painting was hung on.
He, indeed, found several holes matching the ones he found on the painting. He went to the fire in the heart and picked up a burning wood. Just as he was trying to peer through one of the holes, the light of the fire on his hand passed through the hole and shone onto the other side.
It was at that moment, that his mind came to realize that the other side of the wall was opening into a tunnel. If even a side room just as this was leading to a tunnel, then the room of his lord was also privy to such a tunnel.
Rody quickly wore his breeches and shirt. He left the room without wearing his boots. He picked up a torch hanging on the wall and banged the door of his lord with all his might.
"My lord, my lord!" He yelled, "It is urgent, my lord!"
A shuffling voice came from the other side of the room and several seconds later the door opened and a tired-looking Lord Stark greeted Rody.
"What is it?" Lord Stark asked frowning, "Why did you wake me up in this ungodly hour?"
"My lord, if you allow me in I could show you better," Rody said with urgency.
Lord Stark looked at Rody for a few seconds while several guards came running hearing the ruckus. Lord Stark dismissed them and allowed Rody in.
Rody did not idle around and directly went around to take the paintings off in the room. He looked at the back of each painting to see whether there were any holes. Finally, he found several holes in one of the paintings so he turned to the wall that the painting was hanging on.
"What are you doing, Rody?" Lord Stark massaged his temples as he asked.
"Come look at this, my lord," Rody said as he looked at the wall to find a tunnel similar to one in his room.
Lord Stark came close to the wall and looked through the hole on the wall while frowning. "Is that a tunnel?"
"Yes, my lord. There is a similar one in my room too. I believe they are connecting every room in the castle." Rody said.
"I remember reading about these tunnels, it was the Targaryens that built them. If they are still actively used, it must be the Master of Whisperers who is using them…" Lord Stark frowned. "If the same tunnels are leading to the chambers of my girls, that could be a problem."
"Send the guards to fetch the girls, they will sleep in my room today. I will not have them in danger even for a night." Lord Stark said, "By tomorrow, I want you to break one of the walls and search every corner of the tunnels with the clansmen. If they catch someone, I want them to bring that person to me. Let us see who uses the tunnels."
"Right away, my lord." Rody bowed his head and left the room with different thoughts in his head. He was still wondering whether the eyes he saw were real or not.
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