The Sworn Sword

""Just how many husbands has she had, do you know?""

""Four"", said Egg, ""but no children. Whenever she gives birth, a demon comes by night to carry off the issue. Sam Stoops' wife says she sold her babes unborn to the Lord of the Seven Hells, so he'd teach her his black arts"".

""Highborn ladies don't meddle with the black arts. They dance and sing and do embroidery"".

""Maybe she dances with demons and embroiders evil spells"", Egg said with relish. ""And how would you know what highborn ladies do, ser? Lady Vaith is the only one you ever knew"".

That was insolent, but true. ""Might be I don't know any highborn ladies, but I know a boy who's asking for a good clout in the ear"". Dunk rubbed the back of his neck. A day in chainmail always left it hard as wood. ""You've known queens and princesses. Did they dance with demons and practice the black arts?""

""Lady Shiera does. Lord Bloodraven's paramour. She bathes in blood to keep her beauty. And once my sister Rhae put a love potion in my drink, so I'd marry her instead of my sister Daella"".

Egg spoke as if such incest was the most natural thing in the world. For him it is. The Targaryens had been marrying brother to sister for hundreds of years, to keep the blood of the dragon pure. Though the last actual dragon had died before Dunk was born, the dragonkings went on. Maybe the gods don't mind them marrying their sisters. ""Did the potion work?"" Dunk asked.

""It would have"", said Egg, ""but I spit it out.

""That's a noble thing, but when you're older you may find you'd sooner have a girl than a white cloak"". Dunk was thinking of Tanselle Too-Tall, and the way she'd smiled at him at Ashford. ""Ser Eustace said I was the sort of man he'd hoped to have his daughter wed. Her name was Alysanne"".

""She's dead, ser"".

""I know she's dead"", said Dunk, annoyed.

""His dead daughter. And the Osgreys might have been lords in the old days, but Ser Eustace is only a landed knight"".

""I know what he is. Do you want a clout in the ear?"""

"""Well"", said Egg, ""I'd sooner have a clout than a wife . Especially a dead wife, ser. The kettle's steaming"".