The Sworn Sword

She blinked. "The… dam, you say?"

A crowd was gathering about them. Dunk could feel unfriendly eyes upon him. "The stream", he said, "the Chequy Water. Your ladyship built a dam across it.. ".

"Oh, I am quite sure I haven't", she replied. "Why, I have been at my devotions all morning, ser".

Dunk heard Ser Lucas chuckle. "I did not mean to say that your ladyship built the dam herself, only that… without that water, all our crops will die… the smallfolk have beans and barley in the fields, and melons.. ".

"Truly? I am very fond of melons". Her small mouth made a happy bow. "What sort of melons are they?"

Dunk glanced uneasily at the ring of faces, and felt his own face growing hot. Something is amiss here. The Longinch is playing me for a fool. "M'lady, could we continue our discussion in some… more private place?"

"A silver says the great oaf means to bed her! " someone japed, and a roar of laughter went up all around him. The lady cringed away, half in terror, and raised both hands to shield her face. One of the septas moved quickly to her side and put a protective arm around her shoulders.

"And what is all this merriment?" The voice cut through the laughter, cool and firm. "Will no one share the jape? Ser knight, why are you troubling my good-sister?"

It was the girl he had seen earlier at the archery butts. She had a quiver of arrows on one hip, and held a longbow that was just as tall as she was, which wasn't very tall. If Dunk was shy an inch of seven feet, the archer was shy an inch of five. He could have spa

"Forgive us, Lady Roha

Dunk looked from one lady to the other. " You are the Red Widow?" he heard himself blurt out. "But you're too-"

"Young?" The girl tossed her longbow to the lanky lad he'd seen her shooting with. "I am five-and-twenty, as it happens. Or was it small you meant to say?"

"– pretty. It was pretty ". Dunk did not know where that came from, but he was glad it came. He liked her nose, and the strawberry-blond color of her hair, and the small but well-shaped breasts beneath her leather jerkin. "I thought that you'd be… I mean… they said you were four times a widow, so.. ".

"My first husband died when I was ten. He was twelve, my father's squire, ridden down upon the Redgrass Field. My husbands seldom linger long, I fear. The last died in the spring".

That was what they always said of those who had perished during the Great Spring Sickness two years past. He died in the spring. Many tens of thousands had died in the spring, among them a wise old king and two young princes full of promise. "I… I am sorry for all your losses, m'lady". A gallantry, you lunk, give her a gallantry. "I want to say… your gown.. ".

"Gown?" She glanced down at her boots and breeches, loose linen tunic, and leather jerkin. "I wear no gown".

"Your hair, I meant… it's soft and.. ".

"And how would you know that, ser? If you had ever touched my hair, I should think that I might remember".

"Not soft", Dunk said miserably. "Red, I meant to say. Your hair is very red".

" Very red, ser? Oh, not as red as your face, I hope". She laughed, and the onlookers laughed with her.

All but Ser Lucas Longinch. "My lady", he broke in, "this man is one of Standfast's sellswords. He was with Be

"He did, m'lady. I am called Ser Duncan, the Tall".

"Ser Duncan the Dim, more like", said a bearded knight who wore the threefold thunderbolt of Leygood. More guffaws sounded. Even Lady Helicent had recovered herself enough to give a chuckle.

"Did the courtesy of Coldmoat die with my lord father?" the girl asked. No, not a girl, a woman grown. "How did Ser Duncan come to make such an error, I wonder?"

Dunk gave Inchfield an evil look. "The fault was mine".

"Was it?" The Red Widow looked Dunk over from his heels up to his head, though her gaze lingered longest on his chest. "A tree and shooting star. I have never seen those arms before". She touched his tunic, tracing a limb of his elm tree with two fingers. "And painted, not sewn. The Dornish paint their silks, I've heard, but you look too big to be a Dornishman".

"Not all Dornishmen are small, m'lady". Dunk could feel her fingers through the silk. Her hand was freckled, too. I'll bet she's freckled all over. His mouth was oddly dry. "I spent a year in Dorne".

"Do all the oaks grow so tall there?" she said, as her fingers traced a tree limb around his heart.

"It's meant to be an elm, m'lady".

"I shall remember". She drew her hand back, solemn. "The ward is too hot and dusty for a conversation. Septon, show Ser Duncan to my audience chamber".

"It would be my great pleasure, good-sister".

"Our guest will have a thirst. You may send for a flagon of wine as well".

"Must I?" The fat man beamed. "Well, if it please you".

"I will join you as soon as I have changed". Unhooking her belt and quiver, she handed them to her companion. "I'll want Maester Cerrick as well. Ser Lucas, go ask him to attend me".

"I will bring him at once, my lady", said Lucas the Longinch.

The look she gave her castellan was cool. "No need. I know you have many duties to perform about the castle. It will suffice if you send Maester Cerrick to my chambers".

"M'lady", Dunk called after her. "My squire was made to wait by the gates. Might he join us as well?"

"Your squire?" When she smiled, she looked a girl of five-and-ten, not a woman five-and-twenty. A pretty girl full of mischief and laughter. "If it please you, certainly".

"Don't drink the wine, ser", Egg whispered to him as they waited with the septon in her audience chamber. The stone floors were covered with sweet-smelling rushes, the walls hung with tapestries of tourney scenes and battles.

Dunk snorted. "She has no need to poison me", he whispered back. "She thinks I'm some great lout with pease porridge between his ears, you mean".

"As it happens, my good-sister likes pease porridge", said Septon Sefton, as he reappeared with a flagon of wine, a flagon of water, and three cups. "Yes, yes, I heard. I'm fat, not deaf". He filled two cups with wine and one with water. The third he gave to Egg, who gave it a long dubious look and put it aside. The septon took no notice. "This is an Arbor vintage", he was telling Dunk. "Very fine, and the poison gives it a special piquance". He winked at Egg. "I seldom touch the grape myself, but I have heard". He handed Dunk a cup.

The wine was lush and sweet, but Dunk sipped it gingerly, and only after the septon had quaffed down half of his in three big, lip-smacking gulps. Egg crossed his arms and continued to ignore his water.

"She does like pease porridge", the septon said, "and you as well, ser. I know my own good-sister. When I first saw you in the yard, I half hoped you were some suitor, come from King's Landing to seek my lady's hand".

Dunk furrowed his brow. "How did you know I was from King's Landing, septon?"

"Kingslanders have a certain way of speaking". The septon took a gulp of wine, sloshed it about his mouth, swallowed, and sighed with pleasure. "I have served there many years, attending our High Septon in the Great Sept of Baelor". He sighed. "You would not know the city since the spring. The fires changed it. A quarter of the houses gone, and another quarter empty. The rats are gone as well. That is the queerest thing. I never thought to see a city without rats".