“How magnanimous of you, Aegon,” Larys murmured softly beside me.
“The Aegon I knew in the Red Keep wouldn’t have even looked at two starving beggars in the dirt, let alone shared his last bite of food and put them on our horses.”
In the end, Aegon brought the girls with them: the sane one rode with Larys, and the insane one with Aegon.
The sane one flinched when she heard Larys and looked at Aegon with wide eyes, flustered and unsure what to do, jump from the horse and bow down?
In the end, she just bowed her head.
“Oh, Larys the callous,” I murmured, keeping my eyes on the muddy road while her crazed sister clung quietly to my waist.
“But we are no longer in the Red Keep, are we?”
Tyland turned slightly in his saddle.
“It is a noble heart that guides you, Aegon,” Tyland said quietly.
“A king who remembers his people is a king worth following. But Lord Larys is not entirely wrong about the road ahead. Our path will only grow more perilous from here. If we truly wish to see these girls unharmed, and keep our own destination secret, it would be wise to leave them under the protection of a sept or a proper town as soon as we reach Maidenpool. This is no road for commonfolk.”
I smirked.
“Of course. That is why I brought them, to find a proper town or sept for food and shelter.”
As our horses trotted along the path, we noticed an increasing number of fleeing commonfolk laden with whatever belongings they could salvage.
Some carried as little as a single piglet, maybe food, maybe a pet, while others hauled as much as they could carry in heavy sacks as they hurried past us.
“My good woman,” Tyland called out to a fleeing mother.
“What is it that you flee?”
“An army marches this way, some thousand strong!” she said hurriedly, her three daughters shrinking fearfully behind her skirts.
“Which army?” Tyland asked.
“My daughter said she saw a red fish on white,”.
“The Mootons,” Larys recognized the sigil.
“Maidenpool.”
“We must keep moving, turn back!” she said hurriedly.
“Turn back if you can!”
“Wait… my good lady,” I said as she prepared to rush off again.
I turned my head toward Larys.
“Give her four groats. Don’t argue with me.”
Larys sighed loudly before reaching into his purse, pulling out four coins, and placing them into the woman’s hand.
“Thank you,” the woman said, taking the copper.
“Thank you, good lords!”
“Be on your way,” Tyland said from his saddle.
“Safe travels.”
“Safe travels to you as well, good lords,” the woman bowed hastily with her daughters in tow.
“May the Seven guide your path.” With that, she gathered her girls and ran off down the road as fast as her legs could carry her.
Larys watched them go, adjusting his hold on the reins while the sane sister clutched his tunic behind him.
“I am starting to believe, Aegon, that you truly believe if you perform enough charity, the Seven might strike down Rhaenyra and her bastard litter on your behalf,” Larys commented from the side.
“It is not entirely impossible, I suppose, the gods are notoriously fickle. But I suspect she will remain quite comfortably seated in the Red Keep regardless of how many groats we hand to peasants along the road. Salvation is rarely bought four copper coins at a time.”
“Would it kill you to part with a few coins?” Aegon asked, looking back over his shoulder as they rode ahead.
“Before Rook’s Rest, I had never even heard of a groat, let alone touched one, and I wager you’ve never carried anything less than dragons in your own purse either. So would it really kill you to give a few coppers to a poor woman and her daughters, Larys the callous?”
“Larys the callous?” Tyland asked, looking over at Larys with a faint smile.
“Oh, Tyland, the things I’ve seen from this man… terrible things,” Aegon said with a smirk, taking obvious pleasure in picking on Larys.
“The Seven did the living a great favor by making him a second son and giving him a bad foot.”
“If you are done jesting, then I hasten to remind you that the Mootons have sworn to Rhaenyra, and their army is marching down this very road,” Larys finally spoke, his words cutting through the brief moment of levity.
“They couldn’t have heard about me… could they?” Aegon asked as they rode ahead, seeing hundreds, if not thousands, of fleeing people blocking the main road.
“The road is lost to us,” Tyland said, his brow furrowing as he looked over the fleeing refugees.
“We must go back toward Rook’s Rest.”
“We can’t go back there. We may have been discovered,” Larys said from the side.
“We are not going back to Rook’s Rest,” Aegon said, ending the discussion.
“Let’s leave the main path and head for the forest.”
With that, they turned their horses off the main road and into the forest, where they found dozens of refugees who had the same idea, and one familiar face.
“Tom Tangletongue,” Larys called to the boy.
“What news?”
“Lord Mooton of Maidenpool dispatched an army,” he said, without a stutter.
“They are marching in haste.”
“Where are they marching?” Tyland asked.
“They were c-commanded here to Rook’s Rest,” he answered.
“But it seems they are going village to village, l-looking for your friend Lannister.” He pointed at Tyland.
“S-something about the Queen’s gold. They will be here before you know it, so best be on the move.”