I say to the guard that my hierling Dolins is known to try and short change people and I apologize for his "error". I state I was very distracted thinking about our upcoming work! Donald, the main guard, takes the money and stands there. He argues with me that he cannot believe us that we get to leave. I retort that the king would not like to hear that Donald of the Dragon Gate Guard took his money without letting us through! He nods at this and lets us pass. I book it through the door while Dolins takes his sweet time. As I am outside, and he is to the threshold, we hear a man yelling at us to stop. I turn and see the man at the top of the gate. 4 guards close in on Dolins. I call to the guard and ask him his name. He states he is Ser Larys. I tell him our story and that we need to go. After some back and forth, we are allowed to pass. Whew! We narrowly escaped that one. But I must have a discussion with Dolins about his slow pace and overly accomidating nature….

As we walk north, we meet up with Teddy and Calaila. I am rather annoyed with them for ditching this, and I do not hide it well. I then turn to Dolins and insist he take 4 of my gold dragons. He refuses! What is with him! He keeps arguing with me and I finally relent. I then carry on pouting for a while… As any female maester must at times.

We discuss we are planning to head up towards the trident through the country. Calaila and Teddy have forged a letter to clear us for passage should we run into the same error at the gate again. We move north to look for horses to speed us up on our way!