The Sworn Sword

What do you call that, if not sulking?""

""I call it being wroth"", Egg declared loftily. ""His Grace should have made my father Hand. He's his brother, and the finest battle commander in the realm since Uncle Baelor died. Lord Bloodraven's not even a real lord, that's just some stupid courtesy . He's a sorcerer, and baseborn besides"".

""Bastard born, not baseborn"". Bloodraven might not be a real lord, but he was noble on both sides. His mother had been one of the many mistresses of King Aegon the Unworthy.

Aegon's bastards had been the bane of the Seven Kingdoms ever since the old king died. He had legitimized the lot upon his deathbed; not only the Great Bastards like Bloodraven, Bittersteel, and Daemon Blackfyre, whose mothers had been ladies, but even the lesser ones he'd fathered on whores and tavern wenches, merchant's daughters, mummer's maidens, and every pretty peasant girl who chanced to catch his eye. Fire and Blood were the words of House Targaryen, but Dunk once heard Ser Arlan say that Aegon's should have been Wash Her and Bring Her to My Bed.

""King Aegon washed Bloodraven clean of bastardy"", he reminded Egg, ""the same as he did the rest of them""."

"""The old High Septon told my father that king's laws are one thing, and the laws of the gods another"", the boy said stubbornly. ""Trueborn children are made in a marriage bed and blessed by the Father and the Mother, but bastards are born of lust and weakness, he said. King Aegon decreed that his bastards were not bastards, but he could not change their nature.

The High Septon said all bastards are born to betrayal… Daemon Blackfyre, Bittersteel, even Bloodraven. Lord Rivers was more cunning than the other two, he said, but in the end he would prove himself a traitor, too. The High Septon counseled my father never to put any trust in him, nor in any other bastards, great or small"".

Born to betrayal, Dunk thought. Born of lust and weakness. Never to be trusted, great or small.

""Egg"", he said, ""didn't you ever think that I might be a bastard?""

""You, ser?"" That took the boy aback. ""You are not"".

""I might be. I never knew my mother, or what became of her. Maybe I was born too big and killed her. Most like she was some whore or tavern girl. You don't find highborn ladies down in Flea Bottom. And if she ever wed my father… well, what became of him, then?"" Dunk did not like to be reminded of his life before Ser Arlan found him.