Chapter 9: At Blueburn

When Rhaegar joined the procession he had high hopes for a grand adventure. A long journey that would take him to the most populous and vast region his family ruled was bound to be exciting. Not to mention this was an opportunity for increasing Targaryen soft power. Making new friends and brokering favourable trade deals from the nearby Reach lords for the benefit of King's Landing was also a nice plus.

For the most part, it was everything he imagined. He met a lot of people both nobility and commoners. The noble houses of the Reach were extremely accommodating. They were competing with each other to please his father Aegon.

There were two reasons why the Reach lords were trying their best to please Aegon. One, they sought Highgarden and refused the authority of Tyrells in ruling the Reach. Second, they want to shield House Targaryen from finding out the subtle hostility present among their population.

Rhaegar found nothing surprising in the ambition of Reach lords to displace the Tyrells. It is common knowledge that Tyrells are not held in great regard in the Reach. There was already factions formed within Reach aimed at claiming Highgarden. The only saving grace is that the lords of the Reach were discounted and they were all aiming for Highgarden.

The Hightowers had the support of Redwynes as Rosemera Redwyne is the wife of Manfred Hightower. The other strong contenders include Florents of Brightwater Keep, Fossoway of Cider Hall supported by Addam Oakheart. It didn't help Addam Oakheart held hostility to House Targaryen for refusing to punish the Dornish for raping his sister and selling her to slavers.

Many such intricate alliances were being weaved around in the Reach. The Tyrells were not falling behind in this field either. Theo Tyrell, the current lord of Highgarden married Lilian Costayne of the Three Towers. Not only that Theo Tyrell managed to secure his sister's hand to Lord Edric Bulwer of Blackcrown.

He had to admit Theo Tyrell is a shrewd man. The Lord of Highgarden managed to corner Oldtown by securing an alliance from House Bulwer and Costayne. Both of those houses bordered Oldtown and could pose a military threat to House Hightower.

As for the hostility to House Targaryen, he noticed a pattern. The people living close to Septs seems to look at him with barely disguised hostility and revulsion. In Tumbleton he encountered no such problem. But from Stonebridge onwards he noticed this hostility among the populace. He had an idea why this was happening but he was adamant to make sure his suspicions were true soon enough.

Now, Rhaegar learned all of this undercurrent of politics of the Reach from his companion Arthur Merryweather, the heir and only son of Lord Webett Merryweather. The heir of Longtable was of a similar age to Rhaegar and he was quick to strike up a tentative friendship with Arthur.

"So, who do you think should inherit Highgarden?" asked Rhaegar glancing sideways atop his horse. Arthur Merryweather was young but quite pudgy in his opinion. It looked like the heir of Longtable favoured feasts and songs rather than swordplay. He noticed Arthur rarely visited the training yards and if he did it was only because of Lord Webett's insistence.

The heir of Longtable was a few inches shorter than Rhaegar and had an unimpressive face. But at least Arthur Merryweather was a good company, unlike Robert Caswell of Stonebridge. He could barely tolerate Robert Caswell who is an avid womanizer and cruel. To be truthful the heir of Stonebridge was not cruel by the standards of Westeros but he couldn't tolerate women being demeaned in his presence.

"Father says the lords vying for Highgarden are morons. It is not as if King Aegon will accept the Tyrells being overthrown." said Arthur with a derisive snort.

Well, that was a good argument but Arthur didn't know that Aegon was not so fond of Theo Tyrell especially after the Lord of Highgarden dragged his foot in the Dornish war.

"So lord Webett is not taking any sides?" he asked tentatively keeping his thoughts to himself.

"Hah! My father could care less what all those southern fools are doing. We at the Longtable have long since taken no part in Highgarden's court even when the Gardners were kings."

"I see." He hummed and decided to prod the issue a bit more. "Why is that? Did the Gardners offend your family somehow?"

"Well, it all starts with an ancient rivalry. For a long time, House Merryweather helped move grain and other resources through the Mander and Blueburn across the Reach and even the Stormlands. We became wealthy because of our ability to safely ferry goods and armies in times of war across the two rivers. All that changed when House Gardner gave lands to a knight and raised them as lords."

Rhaegar looked at Arthur intrigued. "Which is this new House?"

"You already met them Prince Rhaegar. The Caswells of Stonebridge. The Caswells constructed a bridge across the Mander connecting the north and south banks of the Mander. They began to build roads connecting the bridge to either side and since then we lost our prominence. Rumour has it that the knight was a secret lover of Princess Veina Gardner. Since then we have removed ourselves from the court intrigues of Highgarden."

"Interesting." Frankly, he could care less about ancient rivalries but this sort of knowledge would certainly come useful in the future. "Are there any other houses that are refusing to take sides?"

"Well, the Marcher lords could care less who sits on Highgarden. Their eyes are always trained on Dorne for those thieving barbarians to crawl out of their deserts. But other than that most houses would silently support some claimants."

Before he could continue the conversation his attention shifted to a commotion on the road.

"What is happening over there Ser Baelium?" asked Rhaegar squinting his eyes into the distance.

"I don't know. It seems our scouts and a few Smallfolk are having a bonding moment." said Ser Baelium before urging his horse to pick up speed leaving Rhaegar and Arthur with a platoon of guards.

Rhaegar was quick to catch up with his sworn shield and came upon a cart with its wheel halfway submerged in the muddy road. Once again the bloody rain had turned the roads into muddy swamps. This just highlighted the need for concrete roads for Rhaegar. He was already working on it and if everything went according to plan then roads in Westeros would become far smoother.

"Take your cart and move away old man. Don't you see you are blocking lord Arthur's and the Prince's way?" a Merryweather household guard yelled that Rhaegar assumed to be a farmer.

"A thousand apologies m'lord. Mi Ox can't pull the cart from the mud." cried the old man all the while beating the Ox to pull the cart to no success.

"Then just pull the cart out of the mud yourself you dumb old man. Or do you want a lashing?" the guard fired off heatedly.

"I tried m'lord. I am just an old man."

"Then ask the other man in the cart to help you, dumb old man." The guard was now calming his sword handle quite ready to use force.

Rhaegar had not even noticed there was someone on the cart. He guided his horse forward and took a better look. Sure enough, someone was lying on the cart but he could see bloodstains on the cart from the angle he was looking at. He doubted the others were seeing it as the cart held a lot of Paddy sheaves.

"Why is that man bleeding?" he asked the old man on the cart.

"M'son is a woodcutter milord. A tree fell on his legs. I was on the way to see a healer." said the old man.

Rhaegar could see the old man had already given up on his son's survival. It was understandable as Westeros being a medieval society there was hardly any quality medical care available. A major injury like this was bound to kill the man but that doesn't mean he could not offer help especially when he has more than enough resources to spare.

"You are addressing the Prince of Seven Kingdoms old man. You will address him as my prince." The guard looked like he was about to pop a vein as he shouted that out.

Rhaegar dismounted his horse and moved towards the cart as the old man began to fire off a string of apologies. Despite living fourteen years in Westeros it still boggled him when those that are senior to him by decades would bow and scrape in his presence.

"My Prince?"

Rhaegar looked at Ser Baelium who was subtly shaking his head to dissuade him from what he was about to do. Ser Baelium should have known better. There was hardly anyone capable of dissuading him from helping another human in a time of need.

He untied the belt that secured his sword on his hip and handed it over to a nearby guard. He took hold of the cart from its side and began to push earnestly. His honest intention to help the poor man aside he was no Bulgarian weightlifter. So he made a face at his trusted sworn shield, one that screamed 'help me'.

"What are you all looking at? Help the Prince." Ser Baelium barked out before he dismounted his horse and joined in pushing the cart out of the muddy floor.

When all was said and done the cart was pushed out of the mud, the injured man got treated by a Maester and Rhaegar got to see Blueburn in great detail. It was his intention to take some time to appreciate the river that connected the Mander to Storm Lands but only after he completed the inspection of farmlands nearby. He was not disappointed by seeing the Blueburn. In fact, the river was very aptly named with its crystal blue waters and round pebbles a common find on the shores.

His stint with the cart had filled his boots with mud and a stop at the riverside became necessary.

At least I managed to get the man some much-needed medication, he thought happily.

Rhaegar's eyes found the injured man on the cart being treated by Maester Trepole.

"It was a good decision taking the Maester with us. Else the poor man may have suffered so needlessly." he said as he used more water on his legs and rubbed away the mud.

"I doubt that my prince. I have complete faith you would have somehow dragged the poor sod all the way down here to treat that man." Ser Baelium grumbled as he cleaned the mud off his boots.

"I am glad to know that you have such high expectations of me Ser Baelium."

"High expectation?" Ser Baelium asked incredulously. "This old man could have been a part of a bandit group and was paid to play a role to let our guard down. There could have been men waiting for ambushing us in the nearby trees."

"But there weren't." he pointed out.

"Thank the Seven that was not the case." Ser Baelium looks to the sky in gratitude. "My point is that you are impulsive and rarely apply caution before you involve yourself in matters frankly should not concern you." said Ser Baelium with a disapproving frown.

"I will not be someone who is afraid to do the dirty work Ser and what you call impulsive I call it courage." rebuked Rhaegar.

"Courage is good to have my prince. But one must temper that courage especially you. There is a time and place for courage. When you set out to wipe out the bandits near Tumbleton you showed courage but it was not courage when you took on the Black Septon."

"If I didn't intervene Ser Addison would have died." He argued.

"Then Ser Addison would have done his duty." Ser Baelium argued

"Well, because of my presence he lived."

"You can't save everyone, my prince. You can't right all the wrongs in this world."

"Do you think I don't know that?" he asked with a scoff. "I know it well Ser Baelium but that doesn't mean one should give up. I will continue to help others to the best of my abilities."

"There is no arguing with you is there? You are a Prince born to a prestigious family. You should focus on learning to rule the realm not righting all the wrongs in the world." said Ser Baelium.

"Is that why you tattled to father about my plans to humiliate Lord Eric Caswell?" he asked not so pleased that his plan to knock that prick down a peg went into the gutter.

"You were about to publicly humiliate the man in his own castle for a flimsy reason." Ser Baelium reminded.

"I will have you know that it was no flimsy reason. The man basically tried to whore his daughter out to me. Then you told my father what I planned to do which made him forbid me from riding Starfyre."

"And you can expect many lords to do that in the future. If you are intent on insulting every lord that tried to push their daughters into your lap you will have many enemies. This is why I say that you are too impulsive." Ser Baelium let out a tired sigh. "Do you truly want your family to incur feuds from Reach Houses? They are already hostile to House Targaryen as it is."

"So you noticed that too Ser Baelium. Curiously, the Smallfolk close to the Septs seems to hold most hostility towards me." Rhaegar mused out loud.

"Probably because House Targaryen is now the royal house instead of Gardners." Ser Baelium suggested although Rhaegar could discern the knight didn't believe that for a moment.

It was obvious that the Septons were hard at work in preaching the cursed existence of children of Aegon Targaryen. The Faith sees incest as a sin and he along with Aenys and Maegor are abominations in the eyes of the Faithful. For now, the hostility will be confined to local preachers and village squares. Soon this will change and he needs to be ready for the day when the Andal Kingdoms rise in rebellion.

Religion is the poison that would cloud the minds of people. But in this particular case, he would stand with the Faith. Incestuous relationships will destroy the future of his house. It was not just the genetic weakness he was afraid of but also the morale weakness inherent in such relationships. Siblings should love each other but that love must be tempered to never led astray. Love should not translate to lust and he will change this abhorrent practice. But that doesn't mean he will bow and scrape before the High Septon.

"My Prince."

He snapped out of his thoughts to Maester Trepole's call.

"Yes, Maester."

"The man's injuries are well treated as best as I could my prince. I am afraid I will need more supplies if the man is to be saved from the grasp of the Stranger." said Maester Trepole

"In that case, we shall take him with us to the castle and treat him there."

"But my prince what about the survey? Surely King Aegon will be disappointed if we did not complete the surveys of farmlands south of Blueburn." reminded Ser Baelium.

"You are right. Have the injured man and the old man sent to the castle." He ordered before turning to the maester and asked, "Maester Trepole will you accompany the man and treat his wounds?"

"I would be happy to do so my prince." said Maester Trepole.

Rhaegar nodded with a smile. He had always found Maester Trepole a likeable man for his commitment to help others. This man loved to heal people and found it his life's calling. This was why despite his reservations about the Citadel Rhaegar trusted Maester Trepole to an extend.

"Then take your leave and take the necessary men with you Maester. I'll complete the survey myself."

He watched on as a small group along with the injured man split off from his host. He hoped the man will live and prayed that the injury to his leg was mild enough to be healed.

"Well, onwards we go." said Rhaegar as he turned his horse towards the path further south and they traced the path along the shores of Blueburn.