CaveLeather (9$)
Game of Thrones: Red Dragon
Game of Thrones: Griffin Keep
Game of Thrones: The Unearther Lord of Lonehill
Game of Thrones: Dragons Dance
Game of Thrones: Dwarf Become King
Game of Thrones: Nero King of Knight
Word outran the horses.
Lyonel had barely walked the men into the camp on the rim of Silverhill.
Bloom’s sketch was still damp.
Dust rose out on the flat — a line of grey flags.
The lord of Silverhill came himself.
A little past forty.
Thick through the chest.
A rusty sword on the saddle.
Twenty hard men behind him with miner’s picks — and knives at every belt.
“Who’s digging my ore.”
He came off the horse.
Boots in the camp ash.
Black puff.
Bloom took half a step back.
Bronn’s hand found the hilt.
Lyonel sat a crate and worked the last of the morning’s hard bread.
“Your ore.”
The lord came on with his brows flat and stopped five paces out.
Looked down.
A dwarf on a box, feet swinging, bread in his fist.
“Mine.
Both sides of that dry bed, a mile out.
Hunt ground.
My blood’s held it—”
[System]
Fiscal Mastery (Purple) × Trade Sense (Gold)
Claim check in progress.
Silverhill’s old hunt line dies eight hundred yards east of the bed.
The bed itself is not in it.
He is talking fat.
Lyonel put the last of the bread away, swallowed, and slapped the crumbs off his hands.
“Your blood’s hunt.
Where does the line sit.”
A hitch.
“…A mile.”
“Which way.”
“East and west.”
Lyonel turned his head.
“Bloom.
The map.”
Bloom drew a sheepskin — Dennis Prester’s gift, every western holding inked in red and blue to the inch.
Lyonel spread it on his knee and put a finger on a dashed line outside Silverhill.
“Old hunt.
West to Blackstone Creek.
East to eight hundred yards short of the bed.
Your grandsire’s ground does not reach the watercourse.”
The lord leaned in.
Color left him in three seconds.
“Where did you get that.”
“Dennis Prester.
Golden Tooth.”
“That old fox—”
“He keeps my books now.”
The lord’s mouth shut.
Lyonel folded the map, dropped off the crate, and stood in front of him.
Four feet.
Looking up.
The green-and-black did the work.
Cold went up the man’s back.
“Three swings of a pick found that vein.”
“I read the ground.”
“The map is clean.
That dirt is not yours.”
“So tell me.
Why is it ‘your ore.'”
The lord’s mouth opened twice.
The third time a sound came.
“…It’s in my writ.
Only my men dig—”
“Your men.”
Knives on miners.
“You brought them to dig.
Or to cut me.”
The miners looked at each other.
No one took it.
Sweat on the lord’s brow.
Lyonel dropped half a tone.
“Dennis tried to take my books.
He kneels and keeps them now.”
“You want the mine too.”
The lord’s knees dipped.
He did not go down.
He lost half a head of height anyway.
“…Lord Lyonel.
How do we count this.”
Five seconds.
Then the mouth bent.
“Three terms.”
“One.
The vein is mine.
Casterly Rock works it direct.”
“Two.
Your men are the crew.
Labor comes off the take.”
“Three—”
Palm up.
“Split the yield.
Half to the Rock.
Half to Silverhill.”
The man’s eyes went wide.
“Half.”
“Half.”
“You—you don’t take seven parts.”
Lyonel tipped his head.
“I take seven, what do you do.
Men ruin a shaft.
A cave-in every three days.
I spend the extra three parts on shoring.”
“Half.
You push.
The holes stay up.
The miners work like the coin is theirs.
I leave three parts on the table and buy their backs.”
“You can’t run that sum?”
The lord stood there.
Lips moved three times.
Then he stepped back and bent at the waist, deep.
“Merrell Hailstone, Lord of Silverhill.
At your word.”
Lyonel patted the shoulder.
“Don’t make a show of it.”
“Tell your crew: from tomorrow, one extra meal of meat a day.
Pay up two tenths.
A cut of what they pull, no cap.”
“From today their purses sit in your hand.”
“Your men are your life.”
Hailstone bent another three inches.
“…Yes.”
[System]
Man acquired: Merrell Hailstone — Lord of Silverhill.
Men under host: 6
Westerlands economic index +18%.
Opening the West — Stage One
Silverhill vein: found and registered.
Miner loyalty: not yet done.
Lyonel got up on the horse.
Two steps.
Looked back at the bent back.
“Merrell.”
“My lord.”
“The hunt story.
Yours, or did someone feed it to you.”
A hitch.
Something off in the face.
“…Mine.”
Lyonel let it lie.
The pane put up a thin line.
Note: a third hand may sit behind Silverhill.
Watch other marks in this ground.
He killed it and rode deeper into camp.
Bronn came up, voice down.
“My lord.
That face—”
“I saw it.”
“Someone stirring.”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe meaning what.”
Lyonel checked the horse and looked at him.
“Maybe a man.
Maybe he scared himself.
Leave it.
The mine first.”
“Until twenty thousand dragons are out of the ground, nothing else is a thing.”
Two seconds.
Bronn put a thumb up.
“Your call.”
The column took the bed toward Silverhill.
Lyonel looked back at the grey-white course.
Sun on it.
Nothing to see.
Nine feet down, silver and gold waiting on a pick.
Twenty thousand.
Half.
Ten thousand his.
He looked at his own hand.
Black dust in the seams from the morning.
“Bloom.”
“My lord.”
“A letter to the Rock.
Tell my father: rich silver with gold, ten miles off Silverhill.
Value twenty thousand dragons and up.
Registered.
Crews go in tomorrow.”
Bloom had the quill out.
“His words.”
“His words.”
“Write: Father.
I dug a mine.
Worth more than the Tooth.”
The point stopped.
Bloom looked up like he’d swallowed a live fly.
“My lord.
Lord Tywin will—”
“Will what.”
“Crumple it.”
“Let him crumple it.
He’ll know I found ore.”
Lyonel put the horse on.
Hooves on the dry stones.
Sharp.
The pane stayed lit low right.
[System]
Opening the West — Stage One
Golden Tooth: held.
Silverhill vein: registered.
Miner loyalty: in progress.
Next mark: Lannisport works.
He read it and the mouth ticked.
Silverhill’s crews would swing tomorrow.
Shay in the white house was on her second letter.
The under-road at the Tooth still sat empty.
Bronn had twenty thousand dragons in a saddlebag, calling it luck.
Lyonel looped the reins on the neck and looked at the sky.
No cloud.
Blue gone almost white.
He shut his eyes and took the wind.
Iron in it.
Fifteen.
Mines.
Men.
Coin.
Eleven wives still out there somewhere, if the joke held.
CaveLeather (9$) Game of Thrones: Red Dragon Game of Thrones: Griffin Keep Game of Thrones: The Unearther Lord of Lonehill Game of Thrones: Dragons Dance Game of Thrones: Dwarf Become King Game of Thrones: Nero King of Knight