Chapter 2: Cerwyn and Stableboy?
[Castle Cerwyn 298]
Jae dismounted Winter and grabbed the reins as he walked through the gates of Castle Cerwyn, the horse huffing his fatigue; they had ridden hard down the Kingsroad, and Jae, despite being an accomplished rider among accomplished riders, was sore and tired from the long ride. Ghost could not enter the town with him, as talk of a white wolf would spread quickly, and if Jonelle happened to hear, then she would know that it was Jae who had come.
And he couldn't risk being found so soon. It might be Eddard had already sent out a party to search for him, and Robb would undoubtedly be among them, with Grey Wind sniffing out his silent brother. Jae sighed. He'd need to be off by dawn on the morrow, or they would have gained on him; he knew they would call the search off as soon as Grey Wind lost their scent, so Jae was going to ride through the shallows of the White Knife until he reached the fork, then he'd travel at a comfortable pace until arriving at Moat Cailin.
The warm yellow light he spied from the corner of his eye looked so inviting that he thought of spending one of his silvers on a room for that night, but Jae shook it off; Jae needed to be careful with the coin he had. The ground would serve.
A boy came running from behind the inn. "Are you stableboy?" The lad stopped sprinting and looked at him with big blue eyes. The boy looked to be no more than eight or nine, a fair-faced, skinny thing, his feet bare and caked in mud up to his ankle. The mark on his face was the queerest thing about him. A birthmark over his right eye in the likeness of a sword. "I want my horse rubbed down. And oats, fetch him some oats, and an apple, too. Can you tend to him?"
The boy looked at him mistrustfully. 'Good,' Jae thought. 'He's not stupid.' "I could. If I wanted."
Jae huffed. "I'll have none of that. Now see to my horse. You'll get a copper if you do well and a slap in the ear if you don't." He did not stay to see how the boy took that but turned around and walked off to the market.
When he was done buying some stores—fruits and vegetables to eat with the dried meat he and Ghost hunted—Jae returned to the stables and heard the laughing from inside, along with a whicker he knew all too well.
He swung the bag of greens over his shoulder, quickened his step, and pushed through the heavy doors. He found the stableboy mounted on a freshly brushed Winter wearing Jae's leather armour far too large for his small form. Jae stopped by the stall and laughed.
The boy looked up, flushed, and vaulted to the ground. "My Lord, I did not mean-"
"Thief," Jae said, putting on his best stern facade. The same one he had used to tease Arya and Bran when they did something and thought he would be upset at them. "Take off that armour, and be glad Winter is fond of fools. He's a warhorse, not a boy's pony."
The boy lifted the armour over his head and flung it to the straw. "I could ride him as well as you," he said boldly.
"I want none of your insolence," said Jae. "The dagger behind your back, give it to me. What did you think you were doing?" The boy clicked his tongue but handed him the dagger either way. "Pick up that cuirass, shake off the dirt, and return it to where you found it. Did you rub Winter down, as I told you? And feed him, too?"
"Yes," the boy said, shaking the straw from the cuirass. "You're going south, aren't you? Take me with you, My Lord."
Jae shook his head. "And what would your mother say to that?"
"My mother?" The boy frowned. "My mother's dead; she wouldn't say anything."
He was surprised. Perhaps he shouldn't have been; that might be why the boy was so skinny. He had no one to feed him. "Are you an orphan boy?"
"Are you?" the boy threw back, blue eyes narrowed.
"Aye," Jae nodded. No point in keeping it silent. It was the truth; his mother and father were both dead, and his uncle was dead to him, so yes, he was an orphan.
The boy stared at him for a beat of silence until he said, "If you took me, I could squire for you."
"I have no need of a squire," Jae said, shaking his head.
"Every lordling needs a squire," the boy said. "You look as though you need one more than most."
Jae raised a hand. "And you look like you need a clip round the ear, it seems. Run along, boy. I am exhausted and in no mood for this."
If the boy was threatened, he hid it better than Bran could ever. For a moment, he stood there defiant, his arms crossed, but just as Jae was about to give up on him, the lad turned and left the stall and stable, making something Jae couldn't hear.
Jae was relieved. He guessed the boy had a good life here, a better one than squiring for a crownless king, at the least. Taking him would be no kindness. Still, Jae could feel the boy's disappointment as he watched him turn the corner. Suddenly, Jae realised he had not given the boy the copper he owed. 'I'll give it to him on the morrow,' he thought as he clapped Winter on the neck, his horse whinnying at him.
Jae cleared a space in the corner of the stall with his boot before laying his cloak out on the ground. But as he lay down, he heard Winter whicker again and saw the boy leaning over the door and scratching the horse under the chin.
Sighing, Jae stood up and fished a copper from his coin pouch. Then, flicking it toward the boy, he said, "There's your coin. Now, leave me to my rest."
The boy made no move to catch the coin, only turning to stare at Jae with widened eyes. Jae knew that look. He shook his head. "I thought Lords had gold; why are you sleeping in the stables?"
"That is because I am no Lord," Jae sighed.
"A knight, then?" He asked.
"No."
"Do you know how to fight?"
"I do know how to fight. Will you please go away?" Jae ran a hand down his face; his fatigue from the ride finally caught up to him completely.
The boy didn't budge. In fact, he seemed more eager than before upon hearing Jae's response. "Have you ever needed to fight someone?"
Jae remembered the attack in the Wolfswood when he was ten and four. He was lucky to have made it out alive; Alyn had not been so fortunate. He frowned. "Once."
"Have you killed someone before?"
Jae heard the scream as he shoved his short sword into the wildling that had killed Alyn's chest. "Aye, a few times." Jae was too young to have seen the things he had on that day; the mother and daughter and the things the wildlings had done to them before Alyn, he, and the others had come across the camp.
Seeing that Jae's thoughts had trailed off, Emmon changed the subject. "Will you teach me?"
Shaking those thoughts from his mind, Jae looked at the boy no older than Arya and cocked a brow. "Killing or fighting?"
"Both!" The boy grinned, showing a display of healthy white teeth. He knew how to care for himself; that was something, at the least.
Jae sighed and lay down on his makeshift sleeping roll. "No."
However, the boy did not back down. "Just fighting?"
Jae was getting annoyed. "No."
"Why not?"
Growling under his breath, Jae glared at the boy from the floor as he leaned over the stall door. "Because I said so."
He looked confused. "Is that the only reason?"
Jae rubbed his face in frustration, staring up at the stable roof; he felt a headache brewing. "Do you need another one?"
"It's a shit reason," Jae could feel the boy's smirk.
Jae grumbled, thinking the boy was so much like Arya that they could have been twins. The thought of two Aryas running around and causing even more chaos than all of Westeros would know how to quell brought him both amusement and dread. He shook his head; better leave those thoughts to wilt away. "No means no."
He could feel the boy stare at him for a long while. And Jae turned his head, not bothering to get up. "I could be your squire."
"I said I have no need of a squire. Do you have worms in your ears, boy?"
"Please?" He dragged, pleading.
"What did I just tell you?" Jae snapped.
The boy's shoulders slumped, and he replied in a weak voice, "No means no..." Jae would have felt guilty for upsetting the boy, but right now, he was too tired to give aurochs' hide.
He turned on his side and closed his eyes. "Good. Now leave me be."
"But-"
"Others take you," Jae cursed. "NO." Winter gave a laugh-like neigh, and Jae opened a single eye to glare at the horse whose bright blue eyes shone with amusement. He closed his eye again as he heard the boy walk away, sullen and silent.
—————
[??? ???]
He was sitting atop a massive black warhorse bigger than even Winter, his vision impaired by a helm, he was sure, and Jae called out, "Easy, lad," but the voice was young and not his own. He heard laughing at the stable door and looked up. There, leaning on the door, was the tallest man Jae had ever seen, and Jae had met the GreatJon! He felt his cheeks grow hot, and he jumped off the horse. "Ser, I did not mean-"
"Thief," the giant called in a deep, bellowing voice. And Jae felt afraid, but it wasn't his fear. "Take off that armour, and be glad Thunder didn't kick you in that fool's head of yours. He's a warhorse, not a boy's pony."
'Didn't I say the same to the stableboy?' Jae thought, his head pounding.
He took off the helm and flung it to the straw. "I could ride him as well as you," he said boldly.
'What... What is happening? Aegon?' But he received no answer.
Close your mouth. I want none of your insolence. The hauberk, too, take it off. What did you think you were doing?"
"How can I tell you if my mouth is closed?" Jae squirmed out of the chain mail and let it fall harshly. He didn't know what was happening, but it felt like the visions Aegon had shown him the night before.
Suddenly, he turned a fish over a fire as he sat on the ground beneath a great elm tree. "What are those doing there?"
"I washed them," Jae said with a different voice. "I groomed the horses, made the fire, and caught this fish. I would have raised your pavilion but couldn't find one."
"There's my pavilion," the giant swept a hand above his head, and Jae looked up at the branches of the tall elm that loomed above them.
"That's a tree," he said, unimpressed.
The giant looked baffled that Jae would say such a thing. "It's all the pavilion a true knight needs. I would sooner sleep under the stars than in some smokey tent."
Jae raised a brow. "What if it rains?"
"The tree will shelter me," the giant crossed his arms, annoyed.
"Trees leak," Jae threw back.
The giant laughed. "So they do. Well, if truth be told, I lack the coin for a pavilion. And you'd best turn that fish, or it will be burned on the bottom and raw on the top. You'd never make a kitchen boy."
Jae turned the fish, feeling bold, and said, "I would if I wanted."
"What happened to your hair?" The giant asked of him, and Jae panicked. What was wrong with his hair? Why couldn't he feel it?! 'Gods, please, not my hair!'
"The maesters shaved it off." Jae pulled up the hood of the dark brown cloak, covering his head. He felt the fuzzy scalp as his hand brushed his head and wanted to cry at his baldness.
"Are you ill?"
"No," said Jae before changing the topic. "What's your name?"
"Dunk," the giant said. 'Dunk... how cruel.' Jae laughed out loud, feeling guilty when the giant frowned.
"Dunk?" he asked. "Ser Dunk? That's no name for a knight. Is it short for Duncan?"
Dunk looked as if he was pondering the question deeply. Jae was doing much the same. Where had he heard that name before? "Duncan, yes," the giant said. "Ser Duncan of..." Jae felt his mind throbbing, and if he could control his body, he would jump around excitedly. "Ser Duncan the Tall."
So excited was he that he didn't hear the rest of the conversation. This giant was a legend among legends, a hero of Jae's since he was a boy no older than Rickon!
"-Do you have a name, thief?"
Jae was broken from his amazement forcibly, and he cursed whoever took his joy from him at that moment, replacing it with hesitancy. "Egg."
'Dunk... and... Egg? Aegon? I am seeing through Aegon the Unlikely's eyes!' What was the magic behind this? warging? The Old Gods? Who was showing him this? He wanted to know if it would happen more with others in his line, but he somehow knew he would have to wait for answers. These things cannot be forced, Aegon had told him.
[Castle Cerwyn 298 AC]
Jae woke with a start, reaching under his cloak and pulling out one of his daggers at the sound of someone whispering. He blinked when he saw Winter staring at him from the corner of the stable, and then he saw the boy there beside the horse, staring with the same look.
"..." Jae looked between the horse and boy, and the boy and horse looked between each other as if silently debating which one of them would be explaining what Jae had just woken up to.
It seemed as if the boy had lost the argument when he turned his head to face Jae, and with a sheepish smile, he said, "I-I saddled Winter for you."
Jae looked and saw that his horse was, in fact, saddled. However, it seemed not only was Winter ready to be off, but so was the boy, the saddle bag and one extra rucksack cinched on its side.
Jae looked at the boy, not bothering to get up from the floor, and reflected on what he'd seen in his dream. The boy looked right back at him, a bright sheen in his big blue eyes. "Ugh, Gods be good, fetch me some ale, oh, and a leg of lamb. Take the silver in the sack. Yes, that one. Lose my coin, or eat my food, and I'll beat you bloody."
The boy was beaming as he ran out of the stables, off to fetch what Jae had ordered him to. Winter gave him that smile, and Jae fell back and rubbed his forehead, hoping he would not regret this.
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