Chapter 6: Prince of the realm

It was hard to blend in as a commoner especially in a remote fishing village. He learned that when he decided to stay by the prince's side posing as a trader seeking to buy fish from the fishermen. He was Ser Addison Hill of the Kingsguard personally inducted by Queen Visenya into the order. No, he was Addison the Fishmonger as the Prince would like to call him.

He was immensely indebted to the Targaryen monarchs for offering him a position among the White Cloaks. After the end of the war, his prospects were not looking well and he was planning to join a few of his friends in seeking a job in Essos. The stigma associated with his bastardry would see him excluded in certain circles and he had no intention in serving under a moron with higher opinions of themselves simply because of their birth. Then the Queen impressed by his powers in the battlefield offered him a post that would give him glory and recognition.

Turns out it was a double-edged sword as he was now dressed up as a glorified merchant from Crownlands seeking a steady supply of fish. He had thought if anyone would be uncomfortable it would be Prince Rhaegar but no! The young prince was in his element completely immersing into the local village playing his part as Nemo the Taster. The Prince was supposed to be his nephew who could take one whiff of a fish and tell whether it will be tasty or not. He was still struggling to understand how that was supposed to keep them hidden.

But to his surprise, the smallfolk believed every lie the Prince made up in a short amount of time. The Prince or Nemo as the smallfolk called him was doing what he did best while he was forced to bear the shame of trading fish! There was no glory in trading fish, he thought with some scorn. His only relief was that he could escape this godforsaken place after two more days. By then the time allotted by the King would come to pass and he could finally be free of this shameful play. A few weeks later these last few days would look like a nightmare he had on a bad night.

But till those two days have passed he would endure for the sake of duty and his paths.

"Here lad. This salmon is rare only to the Mander. Hold this over a fire for a few moments and you'd never taste anything better." said a local fish trader as he handed over a large fleshy salmon to the prince who took a whiff of the fish. Then the Prince began to animatedly discuss the taste and supposed health the fish offered with the fisherman.

Frankly, Addison couldn't understand how the Prince could act as if he was an experienced fish trader. He had thought the Prince's story wouldn't hold up with these people but surprisingly it did. He didn't know whether he was going mad or the Smallfolk in these lands were just dumb. Either way, he was looking forward to getting out of this predicament as soon as possible.

"A long sturdy body and the right amount of flesh for keeping one's belly full. Just with a few pinches of salt and heat you get a fish that would fill your belly." The Prince gave his verdict after a lengthy inspection which made Addison stare incredulously at the second son of King Aegon.

In contrast the fisherman was bouncing on his legs excited that his catch was getting praised.

"We will take a barrel of these beauties Polts." said the Prince.

"Only a barrel?" asked Polts with palpable disappointment.

"Ah, first we must test the quality of your fish Polts. Then only can we decide whether we should buy in bulk. Our market is in King's Landing and we never know when the Royal Family takes an interest. So we always keep our merchandise in top quality."

Truly Addison was surprised at the ease with which the Prince was spilling lies. To him, it looked like the Prince was doing it as easy as breathing. Then again the Prince has always been a troublemaker who wormed his way out of trouble with his silver tongue.

"You have the Royal Family as your customers?" asked Polts excitedly.

"Oh yes. My uncle is a very famous Fishmonger you see. He has a few shops in the Capital City as well as in Duskandale. The Royal Dragons always seek out fresh meat be it fish or animal. You see they have gigantic dragons that prefer raw meat to sate their appetite." said the Prince

"I've heard of those Dragons. Are they as big as a castle?" a nearby fisherman asked who's name Addison forgot. Not that it was any special name as he was sure it would be something as ridiculous as Polts. The names these people have for themselves, he thought with a snort.

"For once my good man the rumours are true. There is Balerion the Black Dread, the largest of Dragons. Its roar would shake the bones of any sturdy knight. Vhagar has the hottest of flames. Then the dragons of the two princes sleek and fast. Of course, this means the dragons ought to be fed and we fishmongers make a fortune in the capital."

"Truly! The dragons prefer fish?" asked Polts excitedly and Addison could see the greed shining in the fisherman's eyes.

"Oh yes. The dragons love fish especially those that are fleshy." said the Prince and Addison rolled his eyes at another blatant lie.

Living in King's Landing he was more than familiar with the appetite of the dragons. Those flying monstrosities most certainly did not prefer some small fish. The dragons preferred hunting for whales and sharks in the sea. If that was not available they preferred pigs and cows. He wondered why the Prince lied about that though.

Later that day he was collecting some firewood for their nightly stay with the prince in tow. As the village was a fishing village there was a lack of proper lodging and that had forced them to make a camp on the outskirts of the village. For security reasons, everyone in their party has been ordered to keep a healthy distance from the shores. He didn't want any of his fighting men to be in the way of a surprise attack from the bandits. Just because he thought this was a waste of time didn't mean he was not cautious.

Taking in all the anger and frustration he felt at the ridiculous situation he found himself in he swung. The wood split cleanly in two courtesy of his axe and the Prince was there to push another piece of wood to his line of sight. The wood suffered the same fate as the previous one under his axe.

"You look as if you are killing some hated enemy Ser Addison." Commented Rhaegar

"What gave you that idea my Prince?" asked Addison as he continued to split wood.

"You have a very disturbing smile on your face Ser. Isn't that right Ser Baelium?"

Addison glared at the Crownlander knight who was trying and failing in lighting up a fire. The knight looked up from his efforts of creating fire by rubbing sticks only to be on the receiving end of Addison's glare.

"Perhaps Ser Addison misses the opportunity to swing his sword and is compensating with the axe my prince. We knights tend to be at odds with ourselves when we can't train." said Ser Baelium diplomatically.

"Hmm…is that so?" the Prince raised a sceptical eyebrow. "Don't you worry Ser Addison. I am sure you will have your chance to bloody your sword soon enough."

"Really! How can you be so sure that these bandits will attack this village?" Addison asked as he took a break from cutting up firewood.

"Just look at the pattern they have kept up." said Rhaegar but Addison just stared at the prince unconvinced.

"They have targeted fishing villages so far and hardly left any tracks on the ground. That means they arrive through boats. The pattern of attacks that they follow is in order towards the east of the Mander so we know they are travelling along with the flow of the river. They are travellers or nomads striking at villages that they pass by. There is no sense of planning in their strikes except for killing every living thing they come across. And attacking fishing villages is not going to give them a mountain of wealth. This means they do this for pleasure, not for materialistic possessions. In short, these men are madmen extracting pleasure by inflicting pain, misery and death upon others." explained Rhaegar

"And you wonder why I object to your presence here in this ill-thought adventure. These men won't hesitate to kill you and you are willingly throwing yourself up against them for the sake of fun." growled Addison

"No. I am throwing myself at them so that they will stop exploiting the good people of these lands. I wouldn't have to do that if the local lords and knights of these lands actually did their jobs. But no! They are all busy gorging themselves up with food, wine and women. Why would they care about some dead smallfolk and burnt out fishing villages?"

Addison had no retort to that so he wisely kept his tongue on the matter.

"Doesn't mean you would have had to directly involve yourself, my prince. We are just worried about your safety." said Ser Baelium surprisingly siding with him on the matter but even then the Prince had a rebuttal.

"The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." said the Prince and that if nothing else silenced both Addison and Baelium.

Addison had nothing much to say after that as what the Prince said was a fundamental concept adhered in the oath sworn by a knight. While he wouldn't claim that he was a perfect knight he did try to live up to his oaths however conflicting he found them to be. It was for this reason he stopped all his complaints about the present scenario and decided to wait patiently for the last two days of their stay to pass.

That night Addison found Baelium keeping watch near the fire while the prince peacefully slept inside the tent.

"You may take your rest Ser Baelium. I will keep the watch." offered Addison as he took a seat near the fire.

"I can keep the watch, Ser Addison. You worked hard today and you would need the rest."

"Not as much as you need. I can see you are barely holding back sleep. Take some rest Ser…." He trailed off as the peaceful night sky was pierced by a scream.

"Did you hear that?" Addison asked but Baelium merely looked confused.

Then another scream followed and this time he knew that it was not his mind playing tricks on him. The scream came from the direction of the village and both of them looked at the fishing village peacefully slumbering under the veil of darkness. The night sky was cloudy and little moonlight was left for them to observe the village. Then a fire was lit in the village shocking them both. Addison realised that it was a wooden house that was burning and screams began to pick up the pace.

"Bandits?" asked Baelium

"Maybe or it could be a genuine fire." He mused

"What do we do?"

He took a moment to think and then the words of the prince came floating back into his mind. He quickly came to a decision and hoped that he was making the right choice.

"Alert the others and take a few men with you to the village. If there are bandits sound the horn." He ordered as he began to douse the fire lest the bandits notice their presence.

When Baelium left he moved into the tent and saw the prince was awake.

"What was that?" asked the prince

"A house is burning in the village, my prince." He reported as he took out the chainmail and weapons from their belongings and handed them to the prince.

"Bandits?"

"We don't know for sure but I intend to find out. Whatever happens, you will not leave my side. I know I won't be able to stop you from going into the village but you will stay by my side no matter what."

When the prince nodded he let out a sigh of relief and helped the prince to don the chainmail and fasten weapons on his person. After that, they slowly began to move towards the village joined by several other men in their party on the way. Just as they were about to near the village a horn blew.

"That was Ser Baelium. There are bandits in the village. We don't know how many so go in groups of two. Do not show any mercy. Kill them all." Addison ordered before he stuck close to the prince and moved to the village at the far back of their party.

Soon they were in the thick of the fighting. Addison barked out orders once he saw that the bandits were spread out unevenly throughout the village. Even in the chaos of the battle, he kept a firm hold on the prince afraid of what might happen. He was however forced to relinquish his hold when a bandit managed to reach near his charge. He parried the axe that was aimed at his ribs with his sword and punched the bandit with his left hand. He flipped his sword and gripped it in reverse hand and swiped the sharp edge through the bandit's neck drawing a sharp red line. Red hot blood sprayed from the bandit's neck and the bandit fell to his knees spitting out blood straight into the face of the prince. The man died clawing at his throat desperately trying to keep blood from pouring out.

"This what the real battlefield is Prince Rhaegar. There is no glory, there is no right or wrong in it. This is just one man killing the other pure and simple." He said to the prince as he ducked a swing from another bandit while driving his sword through his opponent's belly.

He looked into the shocked eyes of the Prince and dragged his sword out of the bandit's belly spilling blood and guts into the floor. Many more wooden structures were now burning increasing the visibility but at the same time covering the entire area with smoke. It was getting difficult to breathe but the battle was raging on around them all the same. He could see the Prince looked quite sick at the blood and gore that was spilling around him.

He felt a little sorry for the young lad to see this but he hoped this would temper the recklessness of the Prince. Seeking out battlefields on a misplaced sense of self-esteem and morals tend to end badly in most cases. Before he could shake up the prince a figure barged out of the smoke aiming to skewer the prince with an axe. His eyes widened and shouted at the prince in a warning. Thankfully the prince had the presence of mind to throw himself to the side effectively escaping a gruesome death.

And just like that Addison was once again facing a bandit and this one was wearing armour, unlike the others. His enemy was wielding two axes which made it difficult for Addison to manoeuvre. Not to mention the aggressive attacks from the bandit was quite effective in keeping him solely on the defensive. There was a moment in the fight that he thought he was going to lose and then a sword pierced straight through the left knee of his enemy. To his surprise he found his saviour to be Prince Rhaegar who quickly drew back his sword and beheaded the bandit. The prince's legs wobbled and he watched as Rhaegar fell to his knees throwing up on the spot. He rushed in and dragged the prince to his feet all the while keeping an eye out for any more enemies.

"This is not the time and place to get sick my prince." he admonished as he slapped Rhaegar's back two times. Thankfully that seemed to bring a semblance of alertness to the prince.

"I know. I know…. It's just not easy." The prince heaved and huffed but managed to breathe out evenly and steady himself.

"It is never easy. So are you ready? We got to move from here. The smoke is getting thicker and it is getting harder to breathe."

"Lead the way Ser."

Addison led the Prince away from the burning wreckage of several small huts. He would have preferred to get back and leave the village but something told him that the prince would oppose strongly. Instead, he and the prince concentrated on helping people out of the village and thankfully the prince was fine with that.

In helping the people escape they came across a small wooden cabin where a woman was screaming. He kicked in the door and saw that it was a man raping a woman. Before he could so much as blink the prince took matters into his own hands and swung his sword. The surprised bandit didn't even get to see anything before his head was rolling on the ground. This time Addison noticed that the prince was keeping his balance. He was quick to help the woman out of the cabin and the prince gave the woman a blanket to cover her modesty.

They went from cabin after cabin and hut after hut liberating women and children from the bandits. Until finally they walked in on a scene where some of their men were cut down by a group of bandits. Among them, he saw a figure with a red helmet.

"Are you the Black Septon?" he asked as he saw many of their men had also caught up to the bandits. Now that he knew that he had men at his back he could end this fight favourable to his side. Ser Baelium was also present and thankfully pulled the prince to the back of the group.

"Do you wish to meet the Stranger?" asked the one with the red helmet.

"No but just tell him that I send my regards." said Addison before he charged at the bandits followed by his men. He was confident in leaving the prince behind as Baelium would no doubt guard the prince.

Addison found himself facing the Black Septon while the others took on the bandits. He had to be extra careful in how he fought as he was not wearing any armour and to make matters worse it was starting to rain all of a sudden. The Black Septon was wearing armour and was a good swordsman. Addison actually was beginning to enjoy himself fighting the bandit leader to his own horror. But that came to an end when another bandit tried to intervene in the fight. While he did slit the throat of the bandit the Black Septon managed to disarm him.

Addison fell back as the Black Seton kicked him down to the ground. His life up to this point flashed through his eyes as the Black Septon raised his sword to end his life. But then a small figure jumped in and engaged the Black Septon in single combat. The haze surrounding his vision cleared and to his horror, he realised that it was Prince Rhaegar who was fighting the bandit leader. He struggled to find his sword in the mud and the rain was starting to set in making it hard for him to find his weapon.

He felt the prince being kicked into the mud and he hauled himself to protect the prince with his body if necessary. Then the unthinkable happened. He watched as Rhaegar drew his arms back and threw something from the ground. He watched with an open mouth as the bandit leader fell to his knees with a thin knife lodged in his throat. The Prince who was lying in the mud climbed to his feet and swung the sword. The rain washed away the blood and the night hid the act from many but Addison saw it all clear and true. When his eyes found the purple eyes of the prince it held no weakness but only strength. At that moment he saw a dragon, a dragon taking birth out of a roaring inferno with the head of Black Septon in one arm while the other held steel.