11 Ned VI & Varys II (284 AC)

Ned VI

The Lord Commander of the Night's Watch slammed his fist down on his desk. "How can you approve of this?" Qorgyle demanded.

Ned kept his face impassive, as nearly as he could manage his father's mask of command.

After a long moment of silence, Qorgyle leant back into his chair. "We aren't subordinate to the Iron Throne. Jeor's son is said to be close to the King too. If we write to him and appeal the decision..."

"Queen Alysanne granted the New Gift to the Night's Watch to help fund their work in protecting Westeros from threats north of the wall. I rode through the New Gift and the Gift on the way here. It's hard to argue that they're being used for that purpose. Or at all."

"And I supose that granting your brother a lordly demesne has nothing to do with it?"

Jeor cleared his throat. "There are many lands Prince Stark could grant to his brother, even after his generosity to Lady Lyanna and to Lord Selmy."

"In truth, Lord Commander, King Robert is very concerned about the maintenance of the Wall and the defense of the northern border. He even asked me how severely the North would hate him if he disbanded the Night Watch and formed a replacement."

"I hope you told him to go to the netherhells!"

"I told the King that no one who hadn't visited the Wall should make that decision. So we invited Lord Umber."

"And?"

"He told Robert to go to the netherhells," Ned said coolly. "And then they got drunk and Robert got quite a list of better ideas out of Greatjon. This is one of them."

"Giving up the New Gift is hardly helping us!"

"You aren't doing anything with the New Gift. Even with the Targaryen loyalists who chose the Wall over bending their knees to Robert, you've barely a thousand men. Not even one farm in ten on the Old Gift is being worked. Robert's plan will bring hundreds of smallfolk north to farm the lands, food you can use to feed your men and concentrate more of them on the wall."

"Southerners won't last two months in the North, not even in summer much less in winter." Qorgyle shook his head. "And what then? We'll be weaker than ever."

"Losing something you don't use for the chance of something better is weaker?" asked Benjen, speaking for the first time. "I was considering joining the Night's Watch myself - it's a grand tradition for we Starks. But this is something better that I can do for you. You'll get all the taxes a lord would normally send to Winterfell, and first call on my banners if we're needed."

"You know that the Night's Watch stands their watch alone!"

Ned met the glare evenly. "My great-grandsire died at Long Lake because the Night's Watch failed in that charge. "

Qorgyle paled. "I am no Sleepy Jack!"

"Perhaps not, but you have only half the men he had."

Jeor shifted. "Lord Commander, it's said that the Wall is a world apart even from the rest of the North. Closing that gap could be of benefit to us, and perhaps get us some recruits of better quality."

The 996th Commander of the Night's Watch threw up his hands. "Don't blame me if Wildlings drive them all off and take your new bride as a spear-wife."

Who else would be to blame, it's your wall that should guard the lands? Ned chose to accept the victory, however grudging it was. "In addition, the King's established a force of men to handle the defenses of King's Landing. If you consent, he's offered to send a company north in a year or two to help clear out some of the other castles. We might not be able to put them back in service but at least they'll be in a better state for that if it becomes necessary."

"You can't think that they'll choose to stay here."

"I rather doubt it," said Benjen. "They'll be southerners after all, and you've told me what a warm welcome southerners get here."

"Once again, some help is more than you've had here in generations. Why not see how it goes?"

"I don't suppose I have much choice. Not with that veiled threat you made. Now you've been to the wall, you can tell Robert that you know all about us. The New Gift now, the Gift for one of your sons... And so ends a tradition that's lasted eighty centuries."

"When Robert asks - and he will - I'll tell him that the Night's Watch still stands for those traditions and that he can count on them to do so."

"Except for the tradition of our independence, it seems." Qorgyle slumped. "I suppose I must accomodate your King or find myself replaced."

"I don't think that that's very likely. But he might visit himself," Ned told him. "He'd probably prefer the wall to being King, given the choice."

Varys II

"You've put on weight."

Varys smiled at his old friend's gibe as he was escorted into Illyrio's receiving chamber, but didn't return the comment, although the former bravo was two or perhaps three times the man he had been in the youth - in weight at least. In wealth the difference was vastly greater. "There isn't much room for exercise aboard a sailing vessel, I fear."

"I'd imagine so. The new King threw you out then?"

"I was shocked."

"That he didn't trust you?"

Varys laughed. "No, it was quickly clear he wasn't so foolish as that. But sending me away with a handsome reward... now that was a surprise. He seems to know the edge of mercy."

"Ah, that's quite surprising. I had heard he was something of a brute."

"Oh he is more nuanced than that." Varys shook his head. "I wouldn't be entirely surprised if I didn't feature in his plans even now."

Illyrio shrugged his vast shoulders. "Well, be my guest and see what song your little birds sing."

On balance, Varys decided it wouldn't be prudent to admit that he hadn't managed to make contact with any of his sources before boarding the ship for Pentos. Not for want of trying, it must be said, but at least three had fallen into the hands of Lord Bolton and he had the distinct impression that the northerner would get information out of them somehow, which boded ill for his network.

"I will gladly accept your hospitality, my friend, but I have an idea or two to keep myself busy."

"Back to our old games? Alas, but I am not the one people come to any more, seeking the recovery of that which has been stolen from them."

Varys smiled broadly. "Oh a new game, Illyrio - or rather, a new spin upon an old one. Tell me, is it best to sell a hundred secrets for a hundred silvers or twenty thousand secrets for a silver apiece?"

"Why the latter, but once circulated such a secret would surely lose its currency long before you have whispered into twenty thousand ears."

"Well, King Robert may have rewarded me, but I am not certain he knows that I also walked away with something that may be more valuable."

"Wine for my friend and I!" called Illyrio, clapping his hands together. "Please, Varys, you know my curiosity is my greatest weakness."

Second only to your avarice, old friend. "Why I shall keep you on tenterhooks no longer then." He leant forwards. "I shall place all my resources into gathering the most timely and titillating of secrets and for the merest token of payment anyone at all will be enlightened to them."

"Anyone?"

"Anyone." Varys beamed. "For I shall place all this information on display in the marketplace, upon a single sheet of the cheapest parchment or paper, reprinted hundreds or thousands times. How much do the merchant houses spend to stay abreast of events, how much interest do the wives of even the humblest craftsmen have on the affairs and..." he chortled, "Affairs, of the wealthy and notable?"

"Truly I can see how you will tickle their fancy," confessed the merchant. "But to reproduce such sheets would cost a fortune unless..."

Varys winked. "And that is King Robert's unwitting gift to me, besides the - too be fair - quite handsome reward."

"My friend, you will be as rich as me if you can pull this off."

"Oh it isn't about the money."

Illyrio accepted a goblet from his servant and directed a wry smile over it to Varys.

The eunuch raised his own goblet in salute at the point. "Oh very well, it isn't entirely about the money." He paused. This couldn't be what Robert wanted me to do, could it? he thought. No, I will grant that he's an excellent improviser, but he couldn't imagine that I would take his little toy and make this out of it...

No, nonsense. Still, it'll be a terrible shame that I have to watch him from a distance. He really is a very remarkable young man...