The Eminence in GOT-Chapter 23: I’ve been set up

500 gems = bonus Chapter

Advanced Chapters at:

patreon.com/posts/eminence-in-got-125798646

***

278 A.D.

Valley of the Solar Flame.

Just as Doran had said, everything went smoothly. While I'd been in Sunspear for three weeks, sending letters of assignment and orders to my men in the Free Cities and getting to know the rest of the Martells, rumors of a Valyrian steel spear and a new vassal to the rulers of Dorne had spread across the continent.

Almost everyone with the rudiments of analytical thinking put two plus two together and realized how the new Lord Felix Temper got his new title. And immediately laughed at my choice. The Red Valley, now renamed the Valley of the Sunflame because of my motto (which Doran liked very much because it was very Dornish and showed everyone to whom my house was loyal), like Dorne itself, was mostly barren wastelands, except for the river and mountain regions. You couldn't graze cattle or grow grain on them, unlike in the West where Tywin Lannister would gladly trade the same Tarbeck lands for a Valyrian blade.

But I didn't give a damn about their opinions from high above. If I had set my sights on richer and more fertile lands, I would have chosen the North or the Vale, with their vast and untapped natural resources. But what the hell do I need it - to live in a cold and damp land, where winters last for years... Please. For the same reason I didn't like the Stormlands and Riverlands, whose perpetual rains made me sad and apathetic.

And to live under the wing of Tywin Lannister or the Queen of Spikes... I became a lord in order to build myself and my descendants a large and safe home where I could rest my body and soul in my old age. And to live next to a bloodthirsty lion or a poisonous rose is not something one would wish on an enemy.

During my days at the ancestral residence, I spent the most time, aside from Oberyn, with Princess Elia. With her distinctive Martellian appearance-dark hair, black eyes, and olive skin-she was quite unlike her snake brothers in behavior and personality. Born prematurely, a month early, the princess had never been known for her good health, but she had received an excellent education and was very quiet and calm. It was pleasant to spend a few hours with her on the veranda, drinking mint concoction, and discussing the next book she had read.

Not even her ladies-in-waiting, who were always giggling away and never missed an opportunity to tease her mistress about being alone with an unmarried man for too long. But life experience and wisdom, thank the gods, are not to be forgotten," I said, and most of the young noblewomen ran out of the veranda with flaming cheeks.

So I left Sunspear with credentials to show to the headman of that small fishing village and the Martell garrison in the valley, and a promise to write to Oberyn and Elia more often, sending letters with the help of Volkan the eagle.

And now, looking at MY land, almost completely covered with yellow dry grass, standing on one of the many coastal rocks, under the bright and searing Dornish sun, I realized that all had not been in vain.

Especially pleasing to the eye was the flag that towered above a nearby tent, on which fluttered the crest of my house, commissioned and made by the masters of the Sunspear. The burning sun, on a red background, held within it a beautiful purple flame, which according to the legends of the Valyrians, Hiskarians, Itians, Andals and many other nations was considered the hottest and rarest in the whole world. True, I had screwed myself here by choosing colors whose dyes were quite expensive, and the flag alone cost me almost ten gold dragons. But you don't skimp on such things.

I knew all about my land. Even when Oberyn had first joined my team, I had already taken an interest in the place. I'd sent men to scout it out and tell them why such a strategically located place wasn't being used. I learned that the valley is shaped like a regular oval with six small appendages on each side and a "cutout" harbor to the east. He sent geologists and professional prospectors, who licked every inch of the local land and mapped the places with high iron content in the rock, or exploitable marble quarries that had appeared in these places after the earthquake. Even sent a few farmers who said with one voice that after one harvest, without water, the land wouldn't recover for another ten years.

«You have fulfilled your promise. - Joen, who had become my deputy and chief assistant in all matters over the years, spoke excitedly. - In just four years you became a lord and got a huge piece of land. 630,000 acres of land... It's unbelievable.

«This is just the beginning, my friend. - I said, smilingly clapping the one who had already become not only a comrade, but also a pillar for me to lean on in the future, on the shoulder. - We still have much to do - build castles, villages, plant gardens, invite artisans, train the army. There is much work to be done and it will take decades. But it all starts now. How long before the builders from Volantis and Myr arrive?

«Four to five days. - Joen answered as we walked down the path to a nearby tent, where there was a table littered with papers. - We've already sent the hired laborers to the quarries, so there won't be any problems with the materials.

«Remind me how much they charged for their work. We need to coordinate all this with our budget. - I said, leaning over the scrolls with the current projects I had done. First up were the aqueducts that would solve the water shortage problems of the local lands. It was a daunting project in itself, requiring the personal supervision of an architect of Archmaester Valefar's caliber, and a gigantic outlay of money that not every lord could afford. It was because of this that the Ironwoods and Fowlers didn't even try to develop these lands (although I'm more inclined to the option that they simply didn't know a word about the existence of aqueducts). The second most important project was the shipyards - there was only one winding and dangerous road leading from the valley through the mountains, and it was not possible to transport goods on it. Then came the projects for the future castle, manufactories, fortresses and villages.

«If we take into account all the direct and related costs, it would cost about twenty thousand dragons, if not more. - Joen's answer was a little muffled because he had his nose in the ledger again and was reading every figure thoughtfully. - About a thousand and a half of that would go to the docks, and the rest would go to aqueducts and quarrying. By the way, why build the piers out of stone? It was much faster and cheaper to use wood without the hassle of designing and laborers.

«Joan, I build for the ages. - I replied admonitively, making a few adjustments to the drawings of the docks due to the peculiarities of the harbor. - Wooden docks will rot quickly and have to be replaced. And that's a new expense. Plus these moorings often have "extensions" where trash and crap often accumulates. Need I remind you how King's Harbor or New Town Volantis stinks. - Seeing my friend's sour face, I just nodded. - That's right. I don't know about you, but I don't want to live in a dump. We're short on trees, and we'll only have a shortage of stone if we dig up all the mountains.

«All right, all right. I hear you, Felix. But we still have to hurry. If we follow your plans, we'll have to start digging sewers as soon as the docks are built. Hoare will be back from the Mena Coast in a month and a half, and we'll need a place to house all the new arrivals. - Joan muttered, jotting down something very quickly in his tiny notebook. - By the way, why did you choose to buy slaves on the Basilisk Islands and not elsewhere? And I always thought you didn't like slavery.

«What makes you think I decided to buy slaves? - At the redhead's incomprehensible look, I could only sigh. - Did you listen to me while you were looking at another woman?

Judging by the reddened ears, I was right on the mark.

«Oberyn's been a bad influence on you. There are two reasons why I sent Hoar and three ships there. The first is that new slaves don't last long on the Basilisk Islands. They're sold straight to either the Slaver's Bay or the Free Cities. That means there are very few people born slaves who've never seen anything but a servant's life. They're much easier to work with. The second is the recent Dothraki raids on Lhazosh and the slave traders on Aelyria. Those cities have always been famous for their artisans and now half of them are rotting in cages on the beaches of the Mena Coast. Now imagine what they would do for a man who not only bought them out of slavery, but offered them well-paying jobs and shelter?

«They would follow you. And they would gladly work your lands. - Joen said in mild shock, realizing the beauty of my idea. Though in fact the idea came to me because my granddaughter said that Daenerys became popular only because she freed the slaves. She didn't do anything else to them. Where and when she freed them, I don't know, but I memorized the phrase and wrote it down in this world so I wouldn't forget it. That's how it came in handy. - Genius, Felix. I mean, we won't need workers anymore if we can get the--

«Whoa, whoa, whoa. - I interrupted the redhead, who went in his fantasies completely wrong. - I told you that such a trick turned out only because of fortunate circumstances. You can't do it all the time - it's too expensive and creates unnecessary suspicion. Besides, Piper's coming in six months from Stromest and Lannisport with Rick and Dick. They've promised to bring about a thousand men. And don't forget about the Martells and Victarion's voyage to I-Ti. We'll have plenty of men.

«Not for long. - Joan has snapped at me. - Your projects require a lot of dumb labor. And all the new arrivals, you said they'd be artisans. You can't send them to dig holes. We need at least two thousand simple peasants, and we have no place to get them and no way to get them here.

His words made me think for a long time. Joan wasn't quite right-there was a way, but I didn't like it one bit. Too often I'd turned to that fat man for help, and he'd probably be asking me to pay him back soon.

And the worst part was, there was no way to pay him off with money. But there's no way out.

«I'll have to sail to Volantis. - I said, throwing a light cloak over my body and leaving the tent, outside of which a drizzle, very rare for these places, had already begun. - Can you manage without me?

«Sure. - The redhead replied with a slight smile, fixing a strand of hair that had fallen on his forehead. - Just don't take too long and come back quickly. It'll be boring here without you.

«Of course, of course. As if you wouldn't find some adventure on your ass without me. - With those words, I headed for the makeshift dock where, in addition to the Beast King, there was a small, fast brig that could take me to Volantis in five days.

***

278 A.D.

Atraxes Belroy's house. Black walls. Volantis.

«P-p-repeat, another r-r-r-r-r-r-" My teeth barely hit each other and my hands were shaking like the most hopeless drunkard. The words I'd said a few seconds ago were too much of a shock.

«This is my eighth daughter, Eilis. - Said the fat pig, mistakenly called Atraxes Belroy, pointing to the girl who had shared my bed more than once and the bundle in her arms. - And your son, born a couple months ago.

«Hee-oo-k. - The last words severed the short thread that connected me to reality, causing my eyes to blur and I leaned back against the nearest chair.

"Here we go," I thought, trying to look anywhere but at the people here. - "And it started out so well..."

***

4 hours ago. The wharf of Volantis

I arrived in Volantis after only a week of comfortable travel on a light brig purchased in the Sunspear. All thanks to Volkan, already long versed in steering a ship, determining wind direction, and where a pirate ambush awaited us better than some captains.

The Heir of Valyria greeted me with the familiar hum and smell of the port, where goods from all over the world were being unloaded or loaded every second. Here and there slaves were running around, tattooing their status on their cheeks and foreheads, free citizens were walking around with a "I'm D'Artonian, you p*oras" look, and newcomers, who could be distinguished from native Volantians by the intensity of their tan, were scurrying about their business.

In the bustle of the port city, which had long since become familiar, I made my way to the home of the newly minted Triarach Belroy.

Nearly six months ago, the entire Levak family, some of the most generous and respected aristocrats of Volantis (and at the same time "suzerains" of the Belroy clan), had burned down their residence. Almost all the blame was put on the fanatics of R'Glor, who decided that the Levaks were not pleasing to the god of light and it was time to send them to heaven. Then a terrible religious scandal erupted, almost turning into a stabbing between R'Glor's followers and the rest of the aristocracy.

But remembering how quickly Atraxes seized and took all the assets of his patron, one suspects that it was he who provoked those fanatics, while he himself remained in the shadows. A local gray cardinal.

So it's not surprising that the next year he was elected as the triarch of the elephant party and is now one of the most influential people in the city (if not the most influential). And he had to move from his brothel to a normal house inside the Black Walls. Triarch status is a nice thing, but it also dictates its own terms.

Half an hour's journey, through tangled and crooked streets, accompanied by a boy guide, quickly brought me to these very walls.

Updat𝓮d fr𝙤m ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com.

The Black Wall itself had been built by the Valyrians when Volantis had been their colony and fortress, guarding the borders of the Empire. Over time, as the city grew beyond the Wall, the space it enclosed became a dwelling place for the old nobility, where foreigners and freedmen could enter only at the invitation of the inhabitants. So I had to wait for almost two hours in a designated reception area until I was taken under the supervision of the Black Guard, the Volantian equivalent of the Unsullied, composed entirely of eunuchs with Valyrian blood, to one of the many mansions that were the main residence of the Belroy clan.

(p.a reminder italics are any dialect of Valyrian, bold is Dothraki)

«My dear friend! - Atraxes hadn't changed a bit over the years - still the same ball of fat with a misplaced beautiful Valyrian face that always put his interlocutors in a slight stupor. Only a few wrinkles in the corners of his ever-smiling but cold eyes, and a change in the style of his clothes to a more closed one, showed that this man was already well over forty. And his venerable age for both worlds didn't stop him from getting drunk every day and, at the same time, keeping his sixteen sons and the snake's nest that is any Free City in check. After waiting for me to approach him and shake his soft and buttery palm, he led me deep into his manor. - I welcome you to my beautiful city.

«I am honored, Master Atraxes, that the Triarch himself has come out to greet me. - I switched to the standard local communication style of flattering and pandering to my neighbor to the best of my ability.

«It's not hard for me. - Sometimes it seemed to me that Belroy had lived so long with this mask of a smiling and kind aristocrat that it had become a second face, inseparable from the first and true personality - a bastard, selfish and unscrupulous businessman, ready to do anything for the sake of his goal. - My friend, you've come just in time. I was just about to dine and was looking for someone to keep me company. And the Gods of Valyria have had mercy on me. Come, my friend. You must try that Pentoscira cheese. In Pentos, they dry it in peppers in the sun. In other towns it's precious, and there they barely put it in wine.

In this way, talking on all sorts of subjects, beginning with the weather and ending with a discussion of why melons should be eaten with a slice of ham instead of horse meat, we reached the main dining-room of the house, already prepared for a dinner for two.

"What a lunch, though," I thought to myself. - "There's food for five people, no less."

Atraxes ate for four and drank the same amount, but he was still sober. And the sharp cheese he praised so much turned out to be really sharp - I felt a little short of breathing fire. Burning stuff.

We could get down to business only when they brought digestif, in the form of Balerion's I liked for a long time, and sat down on two opposite sofas.

-Why did you, the newly minted Lord of Dorne, need me, just a humble triarch? - Atraxes asked in a glossy voice, sitting back and enjoying the cool breeze created by two slave girls with scalps whose clothes left no room for fantasy.

«I need a little help, Mr. Atraxes. - I said, getting comfortable and realizing that this was going to be a long conversation.

«What kind of help?

«The land I got when I became lord has not been developed yet. It's a long time to invest in it.

«And you want me to help you? - Belkroy looked at me in surprise, even stopping his hand with a grape right in front of his mouth. - 'You, Bastard of Fortune, the second Sea Serpent, one of the most successful and wealthy young merchants in Essos, who has 480,000 gold dragons in his accounts in various banks?

"Now that's something you weren't supposed to know." - Tensing up, I thought. - "But I guess he doesn't know about the secret caches. That's good."

«No, of course not. - I waved my hands in the negative. - It's not the money that's the problem, it's the people.

«People?

«Yes. For the planned construction, I have enough funds, specialists and materials. But not enough laborers, for the simplest things. - I told the truth, knowing full well there's no point in not telling the truth. Anyway, in the future he will know the truth and it will not reflect well on me.

«How many men will you need?

«I'd estimate at least 2,000. Three would be better. On a permanent basis, with all their families relocated and made my subjects. - After clearing my parched throat, I continued. - Mr. Atraxes, there are thousands of freedmen around Volantis, Volon Teris, Valisar, and Selris who want to escape poverty and try their luck elsewhere. But there is one problem. It would take at least two hundred ships to transport that many people.

«And the only one who owns that many ships among your acquaintances? - From the look on Atraxes' face, he's going to charge me as much as he can.

«That's you. - I finished, keeping an unblinking gaze on my interlocutor, trying to notice any emotions or thoughts on his face that could help me in the negotiations. But as it happened, a friendly and impenetrable smile was frozen on Belroy's face like a porcelain mask.

«You puzzle me, Felax. - The Volantian said thoughtfully at last, as usual not noticing that he had twisted my name to his own liking. - If you think about it, it's quite possible. Yes, the cost will be high, but not too much. I agree.

«Thank you. - I was already happy, but quickly remembered that now comes the most unpleasant part - the price.

«But on one condition.

"Here we go." - A thought quickly flashed through my mind.

«What's that?

«You marry my daughter. - Said words completely threw off my mood, making me fall into a slight stupor.

«I beg your pardon?

«You're marrying my daughter. - Atraxes repeated his words like a retarded man, staring at me with his piercing purple eyes.

«Mr. Atraxes, you don't mean that, do you? - But when I didn't see the slightest bit of humor on his face, I realized that he was completely serious. - Why me? The Belroi are a pure-blooded Volanthian race, very protective of the purity of Valyrian blood. Why didn't you marry her to one of the many aristocrats living within the walls? You're a Triarch now. Many clans now wish to breed with you....

My monologue was interrupted by a raised hand and became serious triarch, who stopped playing the role of a fat cretin and became himself - one of the rulers of the Free City of Volantis.

«Shut up and listen. - He said, sitting down normally on the couch and folding his arms. - There are several reasons why I am giving my daughter for you. First, she is only the eighth daughter born to a concubine, albeit a pure-blooded one. That cuts off the possibility of her marrying within the Black Walls. Secondly, it's you. A star of the trading world who, in four years, has managed, almost without my interference, to make a fortune only six times smaller than mine. And that's worth a lot. By giving her to you, I'm ensuring the blood of my kind will be preserved in the event of its destruction.

«Destroyed? - I asked incredulously. His clan was on the Olympus of political life in Volantis now, and its position was stronger than ever.

«You're forgiven for not knowing that, because it's all in the inner kitchen of the city. - Atraxes sighed tiredly, making it clear how tired he was of all this, and with a sign of his hand he threw the two slave girls out of the hall. - In recent years, the positions of the Tiger Party and the clergy of R'Glor have been growing stronger and stronger. The former are increasing their influence due to our failures in the trade war with Braavos. The northern slavers are putting increasing pressure on our merchants in northern Essos, preventing normal trade with Ibben and Sarnor. And negotiations with the new Sea Lord are not helping. The latter are taking advantage of the discontent of small landowners and slaves to increase their influence and drive other religions out of the city. Including the native Valyrian faith. This will go on for a long time - maybe ten, maybe twenty, maybe thirty years. But when the whole assembled bubble of problems bursts, there will be times worse than the worst crises of the Bloody Age, and I'm not sure my family will be able to survive it. Your marriage to my daughter is one of the safety nets.

When he finished his monologue, Belroy only touched his cup, so deep in his thoughts that he seemed to have forgotten about me.

«And the third? - Finally, after a couple minutes, I broke the silence.

«What? - My question finally brought the triarch back to earth and forced him to return to the interrupted conversation. - Oh, right. The third reason is simple: she likes you. And you liked her, too.

«Excuse me? - I was a little taken aback. - But I've never met any of your kids. How could I have seen her?

«Oh, so you haven't guessed yet. - Atraxes' nasty smirk made me quickly start looking for a catch and remembering all the Valyrian-looking characters I'd met. Could it really be... - Eilis, dear, you can come in now.

Literally a couple seconds later, she entered through one of the many entrances, making my eyes almost equal in size to saucers.

«P-p-repeat, one more r-r-r-r-r-r-r- - From the surrealism of the picture, I even forgot about politeness and addressed Atraxes as "you".

«This is my eighth daughter, Eilis. - Said the fat pig, mistakenly called Atraxes Belroy, pointing to the girl who had shared my bed and the bundle in her arms. - And your son, born a couple months ago.

"Fuck."

***

Don't forget to gift stones

And subscribe at:

patreon.com/FanFictionPremium