Hugh Hammer (ASOIF/SI)

 "How, how sure can you be of this?" he asked of Lord Ormund

 Hightower, the piece of paper clutched in his hand, his heart racing

 despite his attempts to quench its speeding.

 "As certain as we can be…."

 "This, this complicates matters, does it not?"

 Lord Ormund gave a harsh, chopped short bark of a laugh in

 response "complicates matters Cole? I truly love your ability to

 understate the absolute disaster this is…."

 "Its, its not all that bad, Daemon did not carry out the late Queen's

 executions now did he?"

 "No, he did not, but that is more because he still thinks he has use of

 them, it's not because of any mercy in that black heated soul of his!"

 The note in his hand told of the death of Queen Rhaenyra, first of her

 name, ostensibly peacefully and in her sleep a good week ago now.

 And if you believed that the Queen's passing was anything but

 murder then there was no hope for you, as far as Cole was

 concerned.

 "I assume that this was by Daemon's hand, the murder of the

 Queen?"

 "Yes, of course. Lord Strong suspects that it was the Queen's order

 to put Visery's family by Alicent, Queen Alicent herself and Lord Otto

 Hightower to death that was the trigger for Prince Daemon's

 actions."

"But why?" asked Cole "the Rouge Prince had no love for any of

 them, least of all Lord Otto?"

 "Ah, but there is where things get fascinating my dear Cole, it was

 not just the royal family that Rhaenyra wished to kill, her much

 beloved husband Prince Daemon was also on the bill of execution,

 or so Lord Strong's spies tell us…."

 "What did he do this time, got caught with his pillar still wet from

 some whore?" he laughed.

 "Lord Strong believes that he was just that little bit too incautious in

 his plotting against the Queen and she feared for her life from his

 machinations. So she decided to strike first, only Daemon beat her to

 the punch it seems."

 "But why the sudden decision to murder the royal family in her

 custody, what prompted this?" asked Cole, genuinely perplexed, until

 he realized that parts of the Royal family were central to come of

 what they were trying to achieve, namely Princess Jaehaera.

 "Lord Strong believes it may have been a diversion, or even a trap to

 force Prince Daemon to act against her, if this was the case it

 appears the usurping bitch was outmaneuvered by her husband."

 "Do, do we know if Daemon, if he suspects anything?"

 "Unfortunately, no, but Lord Corlys is still alive, make of that what

 you will."

 "That's not really much comfort, Prince Daemon could be keeping

 him alive for other reasons" he asserted.

 "Like the fact that the Iron Throne is up to its neck in debt to House

 Velaryon for a start, that Daemon is now much more reliant on the

 Sea Snake for support, there is also news that the Vale being less

 than pleased with the death of Queen Rhaenyra, in fact Lady Arryn

 has started to pull some of her forces out of the Crownlands and

Kings Landing. Lady Arryn has claimed renewed raids by the

 Mountain Clans and more severe than expected winter weather as

 reasons for withdrawing her forces. Lord Strong has indicated that

 Lady Arryn does not believe the story of the Queen passing and is

 unwilling to provide any more support with Daemon in charge of

 things. Of course Lady Arryn has not said this in so many words….."

 "Of course not, you don't say things like that to Daemon Targaryen."

 "No you don't Ser Cole, no you don't. Oh, and one more interesting

 morsel of information, Princess Rhaena is to leave the Eyrie soon

 and return to Kings Landing, before the conditions make it

 impossible to leave the Vale."

 After a few seconds of silence, he added "well at least with

 Rhaenyra dead that is another dragon that the Blacks are down…."

 "There is that I suppose" replied Lord Ormund "or they might be able

 to find another of those dammed 'dragonseeds' to ride Syrax, or

 even Silverwing."

 Cole had forgotten about those, but before he could say anything

 further Lord Ormund continued "The later has apparently returned to

 Dragonstone of her own accord, becoming unmanageable in the

 Dragonpit after Ulf was killed by Daemon."

 "Another plan of ours skippered by that fucking cunt!" hissed Cole.

 "Aye, Lord Strong is not yet fully sure how Ulf was betrayed but

 apparently the other dragonrider, that Hugh fellow, gutted Ulf with a

 Valyrian steel knife that Prince Daemon gifted him. Slit Ulf's belly

 open to let his guts fall out, in front of Daemon and the bastard

 Addam Velaryon, who puked his own guts up at the sight

 apparently."

 "So the Sea Snakes bastard is not made of the same stuff as his sire

 then!" he japed, before returning to more serious matters. "We are

unlikely to be able to take Tumbleton, the switch in tactics by the

 dragons has been, severe enough to force a rethink."

 "I know, we tried getting the boats moving by night but that did not

 work, too many of them ran aground or their crews refused to travel

 in the dark. Even hanging a goodly number of them seemed to have

 no effect on the rest. And despite being very careful to mix our forces

 so as to prevent desertions, it's a mounting problem. Winter does not

 help either to be honest, nor does living under canvas."

 "Cregan Stark and his northmen have been diverted away from

 Kings Landing apparently and they will be crossing over the

 Blackwater Rush within the next moon at the latest. We will have to

 pull back our forces and concentrate to meet Lord Stark's forces, or

 we risk being defeated in detail."

 "And thus leave us vulnerable to attack by the dragons" replied Lord

 Oremund somewhat dolefully.

 "We have no choice, we must pull our forces back, they will either

 slowly starve or be overrun by those northern savages. The only

 thing we can hope for is that the weather stays foul and restricts the

 dragons!"

 "An interesting fact that, dragons dislike low cloud and dreary, damp

 weather, who would have known!" said Lord Oremund with

 something of levity, before his depressing tone returned "our dragon

 is equally put out by the weather also, as is our dear Prince, her

 rider."

 "What is he complaining about now?" Cole reply giving vent in its

 tone to his usual frustrations with Prince Aemond.

 "His wound is apparently not yet healed, something about the nature

 of dragonfire is preventing it from fully repairing the damage done.

 The Prince thus does not have full use of his arm and complains of

 constant pain in the limb. His dragon's wounds are also taking longer

to heal than they should, according to the Maester assigned to look

 after the beast, he blames the weather."

 "This weather" and here he gestured to the sodden downpour

 outside the tent they were in, safely camped inside a forest "does not

 help our scorpions nor the thousands of crossbows we have bought

 from Essos. The damp is weakening the mechanisms of both, and if

 they get wet it's almost impossible to dry them out fully. Never mind

 that we are starting to see sickness strike down more and more of

 our men."

 "I get the feeling that this war will not be decided on any other

 battlefield than that of the negotiation table."

 "Fuck it, so long as I keep my head I don't care" snapped Cole in

 reply "has Lord Corlys made any reply to our missives?"

 "Yes, and no…." came the rather frustrating reply.

 "How do you mean?"

 "Let us just say that the nature of the approach made would in and of

 itself indicate if Lord Corlys was interested or not."

 "I don't understand?"

 "Nor do you, suffice it to say that Lord Corlys has received our

 message but has yet to say a definitive 'no' to what we propose."

 "Ahh, I see" replied Cole, though he did not see at all.