-x-x-x- Chapter 4 -x-x-x-

Two days after I had formerly left the Kingsguard I was in my quarters packing my things, I would be heading back to Casterly Rock with the sunrise to take up my role as Heir Lannister. Accompanying me would be fifteen Wisdom's and a dozen of their apprentices, the Wisdom's having seen the wisdom of patronage from someone with royal favor after almost half their brothers had been packed off to the Wall the day before and two had lost their heads.

I figured I could turn one of the played out mines under the Rock into a decent, and most importantly, secure place for them to ply their trade. While I held a healthy dose of fear for what wildfire could do, it also had potential as an incredibly valuable weapon. One that I was not inclined to allow to slip through my fingers, besides the Alchemists might be capable of producing other useful substances. One could always hope at least.

I had just finished folding the last of my shirts when a knock came on the door. "Enter." I called out, turning to face the door even as my hand fell to the pommel of the long-sword sheathed at my waist - a product of my Kingsguard days and the training to consider everyone a threat until you knew differently.

It was one of my fathers page boys, Roger Lanswith. He was a second son of one of our lesser bannermen if I remembered correctly.

"My lord, Lord Tywin requests your presence in his chambers." he said after bowing slightly to me.

"Of course, you wouldn't happen to have any idea what this is concerning, would you Roger?" I asked as I headed towards the door and lead the way.

"Not really, My Lord. Although one of the Grand Maesters servants came by and spoke with him privately right before he sent me to get you." he replied while we walked through the halls of the Keep.

It was only a matter of a minute or two before I reached the chambers assigned to Tywin and was knocking on his door. At his "Come." I entered to find him staring out over the Bay as the sunset.

"You summoned Father?" I questioned.

"The King just received a raven from Stark, Lyanna was dead by the time he reached the Tower of Joy." he said flatly, turning to face me.

I glanced around the room before my eyes alighted on the bottle of Arbor Gold and glasses sitting on a side table. As I walked over and poured, raising the bottle interrogatively to Tywin and receiving a nod of agreement, I said "And so a Stag needs his Queen.". Tywin raised his glass in salute, a slight smile on his lips, "I always told your sister I would see a crown upon her brow."

My eyes widened at that "You didn't..., shall we say, have anything to do with encouraging Lyanna's passing?" I questioned.

He shook his head "No, while I'm glad she's out of the picture I'm not fool enough to even try and have a hand in arranging that. If even a hint of such an action had reached Robert or Ned then the Lion would have joined the Dragon in the graveyard."

I gave a firm nod "My sentiments exactly. So Cersei will have her crown then?"

Tywin spread both of his arms in question "Who else? There simply aren't all that many eligible maids of appropriate position for him to choose from and Arryn will be keen to see us wedded firmly to the Baratheon throne. I'll send her a raven tonight to set off for King's Landing tomorrow, or the day after at the latest."

"Hopefully the crown will make up for an unpleasant marriage in her mind." I mused, sipping the positively excellent wine.

"Unpleasant marriage? What do you mean?" Tywin questioned.

I shrugged "Robert tore down the dragons over his love for Lyanna. You know the grief of loosing the women you love, it isn't something that you just get over in a matter of days or weeks."

His eyes darkened with mixed pain, loss, and rage at the reference to my late mother but I moved to a somewhat less fraught topic as I continued "Then there is his whoring. Do you think he will stop dipping his wick in ever pretty maid who crosses his path just because the fairest maid of them all is his wife?"

I shook my head in negation and took another sip before continuing "No, he might have for love but not merely for duty. Now factor in his passion for hunting and battle. Robert is a highly active man who loves nothing more than to be on campaign, and now he is stuck on a throne where his daily battles are fought with words, not war-hammer's. How well do you think he will take to being King?

"No, I predict that he will drink and fuck his days away while wallowing in guilt over Lyanna and damning the gods for their acts. The man tore down the last of the Dragon Lords of old Valyria in less than a year and did it all for a women, only for the Stranger to snatch her away just as he finds success. The bards will make it a great tragic tale once Robert is suitable dead in a century or so.

"Cersei will hate it, but she'll love the crown. Let's just hope her love for the crown is enough to overcome any stupid ideas her hatred might suggest to her."

Tywin was silent, staring at his glass as he ruminated on his thoughts. Eventually he took a sip and started to speak "Perhaps you are right, you've always known Cersei the best and your time in the Kingsguard seems to have given you a much better insight into the hearts of men and the Game of Thrones. Still, I did promise her a crown and a Lannister Always Pays His Debts."

"And she would never forgive you if she didn't get the crown now that Lyanna has passed. Even if she would hate it, she has always been too shortsighted to see that far ahead." I answered, combining my knowledge of twenty years as Jaime with thirty more of life experience in the cut throat world of business and the possible future that a work of fiction had blessed me with.

I finished my wine before saying "Is there anything else you wanted to discuss, Father? I'm scheduled to leave with the dawn and it's been a long week, I could use one good nights rest before being in the saddle for a week."

He shook his hand in dismissal "No, you're free to go. I'll see you in the morning."

I gave a nod and headed back to my room to finish packing before laying down in bed and taking a quick nap. Awakening in the dead of night I quietly got out of bed and dressed in dark leathers before wrapping my hair and face in the torn up remnants of a black died silk tunic. My sword went around my waist, secured in a plain leather scabbard instead of the ornate work of gold damascened steel that it usually called home.

Fortunately I had yet to be moved from the White Sword Tower and so I could disappear through the passage in my chambers fireplace, the secret of those passages known only to the Kingsguard and King. It took me barely thirty minutes, carefully avoiding detection by the three little birds I passed along the way, to emerge in a manor that backed up to the Blackwater and had its own private dock. Officially it was a place to host ambassadors from other nations when, for whatever reason, housing them in the Red Keep was ill advised. In reality it sat empty most of the time. Still, its boat house had what I was after; a small rowboat.

Thankfully the moon was almost full so I could better see where I was going as I rowed out to the Golden Claw. "Hoe the ship!" I called out when along side.

One of the men on watch leaned over, a torch in hand, and said "Who goes there?"

Using a voice pitched to not carry all that far over the waves I said "Jaime Lannister, lower a rope so I can tie off and climb aboard."

"Wait one, need to ask the officer of the watch my lord." the man replied before walking off, returning barely a minute later and saying "Sorry about that my lord, the captain's been hard on for protocol this past week." as he tossed the rope down.

I quickly tied off the boat before carefully making my way up the rope ladder the man tossed down next.

"Good on your captain sailor, and good on you for keeping to protocol." I said after reaching the deck.

I was glad to see that two of the six men from my little looting squad were obeying my orders and standing guard outside the captains quarters.

"Ser Cyril in gentlemen?" I asked as I approached.

Both saluted and the one on the right said "Aye my lord, officer of the watch was just through to wake him." while the one on the left opened the door.

I gave a nod and said "Good, gather the four others from our little squad. You're done with ship duty after tonight." before walking into the cabin.

Cyril was in breaches and a loose tunic, if not really suited to meeting the heir of a Lord Paramount. But then I wasn't really properly attired for court either. "Ser Cyril, no problems so far I trust?"

With a shake of his head he said "No, my lord. Although if we have to sit out here for more than another week or so I will have to send a boat into shore to replenish the water stores. That will probably cause people to wonder why we don't just dock."

I gave a nod "Good thinking, but fortunately that won't be a problem. I'll be taking your visitors off with me tonight. Come the dawn tide you can dock and pick up a load of men and goods bound for Lannisport. There will be a reward awaiting you and your crew there, for their discretion."

"Aye, my lord?" he questioned, grinning broadly.

"Aye indeed. Of course, I trust that you will make it clear to your entire company that they aren't to breath a word about their guests, only myself and my father are authorized for that information and if either of us wants to talk about it, we will be the ones to bring it up. Clear?" I commanded.

"Crystal, My Lord." he said, giving a salute.

"Very good, I'll pass on the orders to the guards and we'll head back. Can't have anyone notice that I'm not in bed after all." I replied, giving him a nod.

"Yes, that would make all the secrecy somewhat harder to maintain, my lord." Cyril joked, causing me to chuckle as I exited the cabin.

Finding all six guards present I said "Gather the rest of your things and then move the chests to my dinghy. We need to be back before anyone notices my absence."

The six nodded, saluted, said "Aye Ser.", and got to work.

I gave my own nod, before waiting to supervise the process and make sure none of the chests went into the bay. Each one contained a kings ransom after all.

With six strong backs rowing the return trip was much quicker and in short order we were all in the secret passageway under the manor. Instead of heading back to the palace however, I brought us out in the dragon pit.

"Myers, Nash, head over to the palace stables. There should be a half full baggage cart and draft horses waiting for you. Tell them you are part of my escort and want to get the luggage to the main gate before the city streets get packed with the dawn." I ordered the two oldest men, tossing each of them an enameled pin with the Lannister coat of arms done in gold on it.

"Oh, and congratulations on your promotion." I casually added.

Both men caught the pins and looked at them with something approaching awe, after all those pins marked the bearer as being in the personal service of a Lannister of Casterly Rock and effectively came with officers rank in the Westerlands army.

"Thank you my lord." each said before saluting and pinning on their new marks of status.

They returned barely half an hour later with the cart and we quickly loaded the dragon bone chests into the wooden chests that supposedly contained my luggage, instead merely containing some rocks to provide the proper weight.

Once that was done I said "Make your way to the gate, I need to sneak back to bed so that the servants can wake me in an hour or so."

With that last order I headed back into the secret tunnels and made my way back to bed for a brief nap.

-x-x-x-