On our way back to the Rambis, we see a crowd gathered at the bow of our ship with raised voices, and Denys, Thomas and Darron with weapons in hand, keeping the angry men off the plank.
“What’s going on?” I shout to Denys.
“No idea!” he responds, as he kicks away a boat intruder.
I put my head down and try to squeeze through the men, arms full of goods from the market, and as I arrive at the gang plank, I outstretch my arm to Denys. “A hand sir?” Following a forceful bash to the nose the what appears to be the gang’s leader. Denys whips me around to the skinny plank, and Teddy and I tumble aboard. Jardon mysteriously climbs aboard the bow, but Dolins is nowhere to be seen. It is then that I hear music playing from beyond the bow.
Safely on board, I realize that someone must’ve handed over a valyrian coin when we paid our harbor dues, and these gatherers are hoping to collect on additional riches. Denys smashes the man in the head again, and backs up the plank until he’s in the ship, and I whip the gang plank away from the dock so no one can follow him.
When I arrive at the bow, Dolins is being pulled up and is sopping wet. some of our food got damaged from the water it got dragged through, but fortunately, we had purchased more than we needed, and left Volantis with an extra weeks worth of food for our journey home.
To my shock, amazement and joy, we arrive at castle Snownook only two weeks later, and after six months away, I am overcome with pride to kneel before Lord Ronnel and Lady Alys, with a safe Lord Teddy by our side.
After a lavish celebratory dinner, Teddy recounts the tale of our voyage, leaving out the assistance he received from his travelling companions. When it comes to the presentation of the dragon eggs, Teddy valiantly snaps his fingers…and nothing happens. Our brilliant lordling gave no orders to move them from their hiding place, so I rise from the table and offer to gather them from the Rambis. Outside the castle, I hop on my horse and gallop towards the docks in the dark to collect our treasures. Upon my return, we debate about what to do with the eggs, and decide to keep them in the vault until we can consult with the maester.
Lord Ronnel promptly dampens the mood by announcing the murder of Ser Perrin. The murderer remains unknown, but the house’s patriarch shares glumly that he was stabbed in the back within the walls of the castle following his return from a months long journey to far away lands for an unknown errand. He was found in his chambers in a pool of his own blood.
Alys shares that she believes Ser Perrin was travelling with a boy, perhaps a young squire, on this mysterious errand, and I volunteer to talk to the stable attendants to see if they know anything about the boy, and to my surprise, Teddy offers to accompany me. A grumbly Edrich insists he knows nothing, and brushes us off, but as we’re leaving, Teddy pulls me aside to share that he thinks he knows what happened.
The last time we were in Gulltown, pursuing a mission to return a “treasure” to Rusty, we found his son and ex companion, Terry. Dolins and I agreed to protect the two of them from the boy’s dangerous and temperamental father by finding a place for them to work in Castle Snownook, but without our knowledge, Teddy doublecrossed our plan and charged Perrin with returning the boy to Rusty for the cash reward he had offered. I stand before the lordling dumbfounded with his cruelty, and the insanity of his plan. Despite my bleak past, even I am horrified at the idea of tearing a young boy form the arms of his mother. "I will have to chew on this my lord, " I respond as I compose myself from the shock.
The next day, I trot around the kitchens and come across the head servant Gretta. Gretta shares that they are in the process of adjusting to being understaffed. When I inquire as to what she is referring it, the kindly woman confirms my suspicions – that Terry was there for only a few months after we introduced her to the staff, and then left quietly around the time of Ser Perrin’s murder. Whether she had something to do with his death, or merely left because of the house leadership’s betrayal of her trust, Terry is gone and we have no idea to where.
