Chapter 8: Chapter Eight
A year since Harry Stark took command of the north, a year where the kingdom that was considered the weakest of all, worked quietly to strengthen itself, a year that no doubt was surprising for most of the lords who benefited from the loyalty they had to the Starks, even what in their minds happened to betray them threw that away in this 1 year.
Harry brought new things to the north, a naval force like no other, those who could see the ships made by the Glovers were amazed, they never saw such ships, and how could the Glovers build that, then there were the Ryswells who had horse breeding, which no doubt was very productive, as the northern horses could now be considered the most powerful horses in Westeros, they brought together various horses from different places, Yi Ti who had the best horses prepared for war, the Dorne horses who could run for days, and the northern horses, who withstood any weather, the perfect cavalry. The Tallharts also had their fair share, as they were in charge of providing the weapons and any instruments of war used in the north.
Every house was grateful for what was going on.
The Karstarks, owners of Skagos which were discovered to have gold mines, as big as the lions of the west had, Rickard Karstark did not know how to thank what was going on with his house. Under his custody was Skagos and the third naval port, as the second in trade with Essos, those businesses were the most hidden, that no one had to know, that's why they used the port of Karstark as a precaution, since the southerners were going to try to lay hands on those hidden ports, to get to that port had to go through several ships, and there was no way to be undetected, you were going to die if you just peeked at that place.
But that was not all, Harry had informed him to make an expedition with his miners through the cliffs that were in his lands, since he could find more mines of some mineral that could benefit incredibly, the only mineral that could not be negotiated was iron, since if more iron mines were found he had to send it to the Tallhart for the manufacture of armament, something that all agreed since it was important to have a solid armament.
The Manderly, the main port of the North, both as a port of war and trade, was the main port that traded with Essos, where the southerners as expected could know what the northerners traded with Essos. Of course, this was only a vile strategy, to get the attention of the Southerners with the ports they could see, but as the Manderlys were a house that knew what it was like to work the sea, they not only took care of those jobs but the fishing for new saucers.
Everything they caught could be traded to any place they wished, but when it was a northern house you had to be fair, for example, the Dustin's worked in food, in the north, all the northern lords needed a cook from house Dustin or several, but then they could trade with any southern house, informing of course lord of House Stark, as no one trusted the southerners, and they did not want the ruler of the north to be angry with them.
Then there was no way for them to complain, thanks to trade by sea, their house was quietly going to be filled with gold now that the Targaryens were no longer in power, there was free trade.
The Ryswells, perhaps the most benefited house of all, for being the one that distributed horses in the North, they had to breed horses unique to their breed and then reproduce it, they could combine three kinds of horses quietly to create a new breed unique in its style. Mixing Yi Ti horses with Dorne horses or just Northern horses with Dorne horses, there was an infinity of mix with incredible horses.
They could only trade with the northern houses, each horse cost 500 gold dragons, and every horse that is sold, and has breeding outside of house Ryswell had to be sent for breeding, which cost the houses 250 gold dragons per horse, a fair price knowing that their main trade was cavalry, but then came the best.
The mammoths, which they formerly called as savages, they did not have how to transport themselves so they used these huge animals, which they took care of with the help of what they now call Vikings, each Mammoth was worth 1000 gold dragons, for the houses that wanted a such animal for their cavalry, the Starks were the ones who bought that most for disposal of the Vikings who were for lands, and horses since one of the armies was the Mongol, who attacked on horseback and surely with elephants.
The Umber could be said that they were one of the richest houses in all the north, their lands were full of mines that brought Bronze, Gold, and Silver, in that order was the number of resources they had being the mineral that most had the Bronze, and it was the second material that could be used exclusively for cannons or other weapons.
Of course, this did generate profit, since the Tallharts did have to buy such material at a fair price so that both parties would be happy. All the lords understood that Harry did not want there to be a rift in the north, so they would always go for a fair price, and if they could not between the two lords, they would seek advice from Lord Stark, who was always predisposed.
Another thing that the Umber could use such material was for statues, Harry showed them how to make statues and market them, they also hired craftsmen who wanted to work with that material for a better job, and the business was going well, their main merchants were in Essos, but that was secret, so they used the port of Karstark to not be discovered by the southerners, and that without counting what they could do with silver and gold, which made them a rich house.
The Cerwyn's what they thought they were only going to be able to have in their possession Bronze and Silver, was not so, they had found Gold, again with Harry's help, which made them more than happy, but unlike the Umber's, they did not wish to use Bronze, as it was the mineral they had the least of, since silver and gold, there were in large quantities, so the Cerwyn sold their Bronze to the Umber, it was not the only house that traded Bronze with the Umber, but being that this was their main trade material with Essos, the Umber had no problem paying a fair price.
Although it was not the only thing that the Cerwyn had, since they with the help of silver and some precious stones they found, began a trade of accessories such as earrings, chains, and rings, unique in their kind, no doubt it was a very large profit, which generated a good amount of money, and they were sure that with the disappearance of the Targaryen in the crown, they would be able to expand their business to the south, with total caution since it was not known what enemies could be found in those places, as warned by the one they named as king of the north.
The Hornwoods did exclusively internal business, which did not go badly, their Silver and Bronze mines generated a lot of profit, as did their work on clay and glass as a plus on Harry's part. That generated that, that Dustin had to buy the glass bottles to sell their drinks, the Umber bought from them their bronze, and the Cerwyn the silver for the jewelry, which generated a lot of money since their buyers bought in large quantities, and without a doubt, it was something very good for them. Nor should we leave aside that with the enlargement of their castle, they could enter many more people to withstand the cold of winter.
After that they had no problem, they also helped the Umber in the surveillance of the Boltons, also by Harry's orders, to have much more pressure on the red kings, for which they also had a payment, from the lord of House Stark, it was not much money, after all, Harry gave them many benefits to charge them would be an insult just to watch over one of the houses that were the one they all hated, but for Harry, he was paying for a service and he had to reward such service with 10.000 gold dragons to each House, a sum not so large, but not so small either, that served the houses for many things.
The Tallhart, the ones in charge of the northern armor force, all weapons and armor had to be manufactured by the Tallhart, it was forbidden to create a weapon and armor for another kingdom, they were exclusively for the north, for which they received a fair payment, as well as the donation of the irons, since the only house that could work with that element was the Tallhart, for that reason, it was not possible to do business with that material.
Harry asked for armor for everyone, for the soldiers, for the horses, and now for the Mammoths, each armor had its price. 100 gold dragons for a soldier's armor, 250 for a horse's armor, and 500 for a Mammoth's armor.
Currently, the north had a cavalry of about 5,000, but Harry wished to have a cavalry of about 15,000, where 5,000 of those would be from the Mongol army who would only be soldiers who rode horses and could use spears, swords, and bows on horses, so they needed incredible preparation for such a position, and they were willing to comply with the orders of their lord.
The Mormont, besides having the fourth largest naval port, and the second most powerful since they were in charge of the main pirate hunting, they worked more with the Vikings, because the pirates roamed more in those waters, exclusively for the ironborn.
They were practically like pirates but under the crown, but they worked with pirates, so they were not going to hesitate to attack, and the Mormont had to kill them, and no matter the state of the ships, they had to bring them so that their healthier parts would be used for the creation of new ships, and if the ship had no damage it could be used to modify them, of all the pirates they faced only one surrendered, and asked to be the captain of one of their ships, they were going to need someone who knew the sea.
Lady Mormont accepted his words, but she had to meet her lord, if the lord of House Stark, accepted, he was going to join the north, but if he refused, she was going to cut off his head in front of her lord, as an apology for wasting his time, then there was the gold mining, the bear island, was full of mines that had to be mined with care because it was much bigger than the mines that the lions had, and that was why it had to be mined with care, it was not good to draw the attention of the lions, since the north was growing.
The Glovers were not only in charge of the creation of ships and maintenance of these as of the ports, but also of the construction, and yes they had many workers, Harry practically made the Glovers have a lot of work, especially in Winterfell where they built 6 towers for the implementation of new weapons, but now that the dragons were no longer there, they had to work much more.
Since with all this, they could quietly enlarge already the castles of the whole kingdom, and besides that was the creation of ships, currently the north had 50 well-armed ships, exclusive for a war that could destroy any naval force that they conscientious, that had to be increased, since they had 4 ports that had to be distributed the ships, being the port of the Manderly the one with the most ships, then the Mormont, Karstark and Dustin in that order, so he had to not only make his workers work much more, thing that although it was going to generate more money was going to tire them over time, so Harry told him to wait until the king's landing with a reliable solution arrives.
The Dustin in charge of drinks and the food of the north, Harry had given him thousands of recipes that they never saw before, they were amazed by that, that all the houses of the north if they wished to eat delicacies had to have a Dustin cook, each cook was worth 250 gold dragons to go a week to the castle of the person who rents said cook since the sale was forbidden, But that price was only exclusive for the north, with Lord Dustin it was already negotiated that when the cooking skills of the said house became known, Essos would be their main trader and where they could take a great amount of money for the delicacies that would be prepared by them.
Another one of which the world was going to be envious was the new drinks that the North created, not only simple wines, drinks like vodka, Tequila, Mezcal, Whisky, and many others were being created, with the help of Harry who gave him the recipe.
Harry's rule in the north was wonderful for them, food recipes, drink recipes that without a doubt was the one that had the most impact in Essos, in one week of trade, they received two hundred thousand gold dragons only for 50 bottles of Vodka, and with that, the other drinks were sold like wine. And now they were waiting again for Harry's meeting to create recipes for new dishes and new drinks.
The two Flint branches of silver and bronze were not the only thing they had, they were practically the ones that had the most silver and bronze in the entire north, but they were also the family that was in charge of cutting trees, which were sold to the Glovers, of course for every tree they cut they had to plant 10 trees to replace it, thanks to the fertile soil of the north that had more than 8. 000 years without being exploited the trees grew at an extraordinary speed in two months the trees that were planted grew, and of course with a little help of magic but they did not know it, so they generated a good amount of money with wood, silver, and bronze.
Where they also had a profit since they sold the bronze to the Umber and the silver to the Cerwyn, the two Flint families had extremely good business. And all thanks to the mastermind that was Harry Stark, who arrived from the king's landing, with his companions, they were not going to deny it, they did not want their lord to go south because of all the dangers he would run, a nest of vipers and spiders was never good, no matter how strong you are.
The lords were grateful for all that Harry did in the north in only 1 year, now as he said before and in every monthly meeting they had, they were now going to work with more tranquility, but it was already going to be noticed by the southerners who in many cases were going to try to stop them, but they were not going to be able to, they were ahead.
Not only did they eliminate all the informants that the southerners had, but they were going to send false information to those lords, to have their enemies completely at their mercy, for that they made several people try to copy the way of writing of the informants, the more similar one, that was the one in charge of writing a note with completely false information to the southerners for a while, then they were not going to answer those letters so that they would look for their ace up their sleeve, the Boltons. They were the only house in the north that was never invited to the meetings, they didn't have any mines under their power, or any money-making work, that was going to set them up to sell information, and they were going to get hold of that information and modify it.
The only house that had ravens as messengers was the Boltons.
The other houses used owls or eagles, and the only house that still had ravens was the Starks, but to replace the ravens that were hunted by the eagles, Maester Marwyn trained those animals perfectly, to do their job well, no one in the north knew how he did it, but well they were not going to ask much knowing that it was known that he was a wizard, so asking was not of much interest.
Qyburn on the other hand was the one who organized all the projects that the North had, he did it with such professionalism that no one could complain about it, and they were both extremely loyal to Harry, always working, always learning. That showed that the citadel all it was doing was mowing them down, making them think they already knew everything, but no, now they realized what they could do, with Harry, they were learning, and they could get their imaginations flowing, for the creation of all kinds of things.
And they all stood up, they were in the northern royal hall, only the northerners were going to enter this place, as they were building another meeting room where the southerners were going to be able to enter when they decided to visit, all to keep them away from this place.
Harry entered the room, followed by his mother and his sister who was in his arms, and again there was that hooded woman who caught everyone's attention but no one did anything but just watched the hooded woman, because it was obvious that she was a woman, was going to sit next to Ashara who was smiling and sitting on the left side of the northern throne.
Several soldiers entered the room and had several boxes, which also attracted the attention of the lords who were in the place.
Harry sat down on the northern throne, for all the lords to take seats, he saw each lord that was in that place, each one with a serious look, as it was a meeting it was forbidden to drink alcohol, the northerners knew that Harry was very strict when it came to those things and that made the North work this way for the moment, it was clear that they were going to get better, they had to, they had to be better than all the kingdoms, and they knew that with Harry ruling the north would be unstoppable, so they were watching him attentively, always leaving a moment of silence, no one in the room did anything, they just watched him until he began to speak, that showed the level of respect that the northerners had for their lord, and the power that he had.
- "Someone wants to say something" - Harry could see that Lady Mormont wanted to get something off her chest, those seconds of silence helped a lot to know if someone was uncomfortable, it was because they were hiding something or wanted to say something - "Something you want to tell me."
- "My lord, I want to know what you think about something" - Maege Mormont stood up before the attentive gaze of his lord, she was someone extremely strange, she was a woman of the Mormont family was prepared for war, also her character was straight, as a Mormont was loyal to the Stark house, they never did anything against that house, and every time they asked for her presence they were - "In your absence, we have captured 10 pirate ships, we killed almost all the men who were on board" - That last caught the attention of the lords who were in the place since she did not allow survivors, the Vikings who were under her command knew perfectly well - "Only one was left alive, begging me to allow him to be the captain of the pearl.... to his credit I can say that he was the hardest man to beat."
- "I am curious, bring the man who could survive the Pearl" - More than one laughed at the comment Harry gave, it was rare to hear that, and Lady Mormont came out so that in a minute she returns with two Vikings dragging a man until he was on his knees in front of the throne where Harry was - "What's his name?"
- "Barbossa, sir" - The subject knew that if that woman who spared him had great respect for this child, as did all the men in the place, he had to be careful, he was not an idiot, he knew perfectly well that if a child could control someone, it was because of something, perhaps fear.
- "Maybe you're right, with fear you can control someone" - Harry looked at the face of the man who was kneeling in front of his person, and was surprised, his mind was read or maybe his expression was too obvious - "20 of your men died, you were the only one who survived and gave a fight to the Vikings, you could kill some" - Lady Mormont shook her head, no Viking died after all the armor they wore was hard to break - "We could use someone of your character, sign this" - Harry handed him a paper without letters, it was empty, and with the paper a small knife, a signature with his blood, Barbossa made a small cut to stamp his signature - "From now on you are the captain of the Black Pearl, under your command are 50 Vikings....your job is to eliminate all the pirates and bring back the ships or what is left of them."
- "I swear, I will not fail you" - The man stood up before the attentive gaze of Harry who only smiled, it was obvious that he would not fail the contract he had signed, he was going to be loyal to him until the last day of his life, but it was better to act this way.
- "I know you will be, but as a precaution, Tormund if you see something that catches your attention you can smash his head" - The Viking nodded at Harry's words, who looked directly at Lady Mormont who was attentive to his lord - "You will work under Lady Mormont's command, while she takes care of other things, from now on you will no longer only be Barbossa.... but Hector Barbossa captain of the Black Pearl" - The man nodded but Harry was far from finished, it was his chance for Artemisia to learn - "You will be my sister's teacher, she wishes to be a captain... what better than a former pirate to teach her."
With that the new captain of the black pearl, left the room along with the Vikings and Artemisia since from now on she was going to be part of his group of sailors, perhaps it was a crazy decision on Harry's part. The other lords knew that, but all the decisions that at the time they thought were impossible, came out perfectly, at the time they questioned that Harry would send to bring all the people that were beyond the wall, but now live quietly with them, with time they realized that they were the same, so it was better not to say anything, if Harry saw a future in that subject they were going to trust him.
Eddard Stark was looking attentively at his nephew, he did not like that he trusted that pirate, but because of what was happening, he did not say anything because no other lord thought of doing anything, they only stayed watching, the only one who was in a strange position was Lady Mormont who was holding her sword, for any order to cut the pirate's head off, but it was not so, so she took her place again, while Harry went to the center where the map of Westeros was.
- "Very well gentlemen, if no one wants to say anything, we better move forward with the plans" - Harry removed two pieces of a wolf, one white and the other black, one put in Moat Cailin and the other in Dragon Point - "Create new vassal houses, one under the command of my uncle Benjen and his wife Dacey Mormont... His name will be BlackStark" - Marwyn walked to where Benjen was to give him a flag, it was the emblem of his new house, the flag was gray, but when he saw the wolf it was black.
- "Uncle Ned, you will take the surname of a former vassal house of the Starks, Greystark" - Qyburn went to Ned and handed him another black flag, but his wolf was white - "Moat Cailin is yours Uncle Ned, you will be the one in charge of all those who enter and leave the north, try to charge a fair price to take money from the Freys."
The Frey are one of the most powerful houses in the lands of the river, they took three generations to build a stone bridge, to which they later attached two towers, which give their name to the fortress of The Twins.
Since then the Lords of the Crossing have grown rich by charging for the passage of the river, becoming a rich and powerful house, albeit with limited prestige. But that was going to come to an end, the prices the Freys were putting up to cross their path were very high, and that's where his uncle Ned was, he was sure he was going to do a good job, besides that was going to keep him much closer to the south, as he knew perfectly well that his uncle was taught by Jon Arryn, and letting that fellow think that his uncle Ned was going to provide him with some kind of information was not something he can allow.
So he was going to send his uncle to the northern gates so that Jon would not even think of sending him a letter, as he was going to be away from Winterfell and not give him the information that he was going to long for, besides there was Robert, the closer Ned was to Robert the better it was going to be for the north.
- "Dragon Point is yours Uncle Benjen, I want you to make an expedition to see if under that castle there is no Gold or any material that can be used" - That was the only thing Harry had to tell his uncle Benjen, he was better familiar with the way he worked, and it was a way to get his uncle Ned away from a mine as by now he was very impressionable and that had to stop - "The Targaryens are no longer in charge...but we can bring them back from their near extinction, as you know my aunt Lyanna's son is a Targaryen" - They all nodded that, now being the adopted son of Eddard Greystark, he will have that surname - "We have in our possession the daughter of the former king..." - And the silence reigned, he knew that the only one who was going to speak at this moment was his uncle, but he was not going to let him - "We will raise her as a northerner."
- "My Lord, why do you wish that" - Lord Tallhart wished to know why raise a Targaryen as a northerner, he had no problem with Lyanna's son as he was a northerner by maternal blood, but now he was a bit confused about having the child, everyone knew that the queen was never found in her castle just as her newborn daughter and son disappeared - "What plans do you have for them."
- "The Targaryen could control Dragons, the same animals that forced us to kneel before them" - Harry went to where the ones they saw as boxes were, but that was far from reality, they were not boxes, when Harry removed the black robe that covered one they realized they were cages, and they all opened their eyes when they realized the creature that was enclosed there - "Now we will use it to make the South kneel to the North."
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