The Sworn Sword

""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.