The Sworn Sword

Dunk kept his tunic on, and sweltered.

Ser Be

"We had to go all the way to Dosk to find some wine", Dunk told him. "The krakens raided Little Dosk. They carried off the wealth and women and burned half of what they did not take".

"That Dagon Greyjoy wants for hanging", Be

"They told us he was dead. The ironmen killed him when he tried to stop them taking off his daughter".

"Seven bloody hells". Be

"We were lucky to find two", said Dunk. "The drought reached the Arbor, too. We heard the grapes are turning into raisins on the vines, and the ironmen have been pirating-"

"Ser?" Egg broke in. "The water's gone".

Dunk had been so intent on Be

Be

Dunk was dismayed. Well, I won't be soaking now. He swung down to the ground. What's going to happen to the crops? Half the wells in the Reach had gone dry, and all the rivers were ru

"Nasty stuff, water", Be

"Not for oats. Not for barleycorn. Not for carrots, onions, cabbages. Even grapes need water". Dunk shook his head. "How could it go dry so quick? We've only been six days".

"Wasn't much water in there to start with, Dunk. Time was, I could piss me bigger streams than this one".

"Not Dunk ", said Dunk. "I told you that". He wondered why he bothered. Be

"By who? Your bald pup?" He looked at Egg and laughed his chicken laugh. "You're taller than when you did for Pe

Dunk rubbed the back of his neck and stared down at the rocks. "What should we do?"

"Fetch home the wines, and tell Ser Useless his stream's gone dry. The Standfast well still draws, he won't go thirsty".

"Don't call him Useless". Dunk was fond of the old knight. "You sleep beneath his roof, give him some respect".

"You respect him for the both o' us, Dunk", said Be

The silvery gray planks creaked heavily as Dunk walked out onto the bridge, to frown down at the sand and stones below. A few small brown pools glistened amongst the rocks, he saw, none larger than his hand. "Dead fish, there and there, see?" The smell of them reminded him of the dead men at the crossroads.

"I see them, ser", said Egg.

Dunk hopped down to the streambed, squatted on his heels, and turned over a stone. Dry and warm on top, moist and muddy underneath. "The water can't have been gone long". Standing, he flicked the stone sidearm at the bank, where it crashed through a crumbling overhang in a puff of dry brown earth. "The soil's cracked along the banks, but soft and muddy in the middle. Those fish were alive yesterday".

"Dunk the lunk, Pe

Dunk the lunk, thick as a castle wall. From Ser Arlan the words had been affectionate. He had been a kindly man, even in his scolding. In the mouth of Ser Be

He went back to Thunder and mounted up again. "Egg, get on back to Standfast with the wine. I'm going to see what's happened to the water".

"Streams dry up all the time", said Be

"I just want to have a look-"

"Like how you looked under that rock? Shouldn't go turning over rocks, Lunk. Never know what might crawl out. We got us nice straw pallets back at Standfast. There's eggs more days than not, and not much to do but listen to Ser Useless go on about how great he used to be. Leave it be, I say. The stream went dry, that's all".

Dunk was nothing if not stubborn. "Ser Eustace is waiting on his wine", he told Egg. "Tell him where I went".

"I will, ser". Egg gave a tug on Maester's lead. The mule twitched his ears, but started off again at once. He wants to get those wine casks off his back. Dunk could not blame him.

The stream flowed north and east when it was flowing, so he turned Thunder south and west. He had not ridden a dozen yards before Be

"I'll stay on our side". Dunk wanted no trouble with the Lady of the Coldmoat. At Standfast you heard ill things of her. The Red Widow, she was called, for the husbands she had put into the ground. Old Sam Stoops said she was a witch, a poisoner, and worse. Two years ago she had sent her knights across the stream to seize an Osgrey man for stealing sheep. "When m'lord rode to Coldmoat to demand him back, he was told to look for him at the bottom of the moat", Sam had said. "She'd sewn poor Dake in a bag o' rocks and sunk him. 'Twas after that Ser Eustace took Ser Be

Thunder kept a slow, steady pace beneath the broiling sun. The sky was blue and hard, with no hint of cloud anywhere to be seen. The course of the stream meandered around rocky knolls and forlorn willows, through bare brown hills and fields of dead and dying grain. An hour upstream from the bridge, they found themselves riding on the edge of the small Osgrey forest called Wat's Wood. The greenery looked inviting from afar, and filled Dunk's head with thoughts of shady glens and chuckling brooks, but when they reached the trees they found them thin and scraggly, with drooping limbs. Some of the great oaks were shedding leaves, and half the pines had turned as brown as Ser Be