The Red Deer

I set aside the letter, which I had been anticipating for an exceedingly long time and, I must confess, had been apprehensive about receiving. Just as I was about to sit down for dinner, a messenger, somewhat out of breath, was brought to me and handed me a sealed tube containing the letter. Thus, a few moments ago, the four-month period of my anticipation came to an end. I have been waiting for this letter for four long months. For four months, I have been Renly Baratheon.

Cindy, who has become my personal attendant and almost my de facto mistress, oversaw the servants and laid the table for my meals. We maintain a rather amiable relationship for a nobleman and a mere commoner. She is an intelligent young woman, not meddlesome or inquisitive, and I in turn do not skimp on her upkeep.

Cindy is the daughter of a destitute merchant, whose sibling placed her in my service. Well, the rumour — no, rather the news — that the lord had taken a concubine from among the servants did not elicit any negative reactions even from her relatives, of course. Penrose, who had been acquainted with Renly since they were children, was well aware of his particular predilections, and such a development could not but delight him.

However, it was then that a figure emerged at my court, one who harboured jealousy towards my poor maidservant, but more of that later.

To my surprise, I managed to do a lot in four months. News of the creation of the Grandlord's guard of the Stormy Lands quickly spread around both the district and some remote places, after which knights and men-at-arms reached the Storm Limit. At first it looked like a barely living streamlet (at that time it was possible to hold a knife through the air and cut off a piece of skepticism from conservative-minded individuals), but in just a couple of weeks, before my eyes, it turned into a stable and quite strong stream reaching out to us both from Stormy Lands and from other regions. Of course, I gave preference to Stormtroopers. The main criterion for the initial selection is military equipment no worse than a certain standard, and ideally also a horse. Well, the second condition (it is also the most important), which was determined already in the process, is the strict execution of orders. Failure to follow orders "strictly" was punishable to the point that it was possible to cross out a potential career. In general, iron discipline was put at the forefront, followed by a carload of various little things. Naturally, this approach could not help but have its own difficulties. Many of the most noble and wealthy began to shake their rights and refused to serve side by side with sergeants or low-born nobles, which they eventually chased back. The rest were distributed among spears, depending on the uniforms they had, dozens and hundreds. The same horseless enlisted in infantry and crossbowmen.

 Not to say that the same Penrose was initially delighted with my ideas. He knew the foundation on which the army stood and was well aware of how much he would have to fork out for these events (especially at first), but he eventually appreciated the ideas. I see respect in his eyes and now I'm sure it's not my over-the-top optimism. As for Ser Courtney, he took up my projects with great enthusiasm and quickly selected captains and lieutenants into companies. And I myself, along with Maester Molis, took over the cooking and sanitary complexes.

 New personnel issues were also raised and resolved. The captain of the cavalry company, which was nicknamed the Storm Guard, at the request of Penrose, became Sir Henry Lonmouth (great-uncle of the current Lord Lonmouth), whose experience more than corresponded to the proposed position. After all, he is a man who has been fighting since the age of fourteen, and who has been carried wherever the winds of adventure and misadventure. A gray-bearded, one-eyed man who has almost outlived half a century... I must say that his appearance matches his biography. The captain of the combined infantry and crossbow company was Ser Michael Kensington, another "old-timer", or rather, the proud son of his time, who began serving as a page to my father, Steffon. He proved to be an excellent infantry commander during the Robert Baratheon Rebellion and the Greyjoy Rebellion. Ser Henry and Ser Michael are experienced and understanding men, they quickly figured out what was wanted of them, so when they arrived at Storm's End at Penrose's request, they swore an oath of allegiance and rushed to drill their subordinates with all due zeal, and it was worth expecting zeal. Both of them were not rich, had several pieces of land at the mercy of relatives and had no rights to titles or other lands of their house. And even at an age. Yes, and that the first, that the second has daughters who should be attached. So they took the call to serve their lord, and even for a decent amount of money, as an honor and an opportunity that they did not dare to miss.

In total, so far, we have managed to recruit a little more than a hundred gendarmes and distribute them into hundreds and dozens. To many of them, in order to give solidity to the unit, I gave elements of armor and uniforms with my generous hand. But there were also more "mundane" reasons for this. The high-born nobles, for the most part, ignored this idea, so they had to make up a company from what they had, and it was also good if the fighter arrived on horseback. Another nuance could become frankly dangerous and lead to consequences from which armor, weapons and even precious horses could not be saved. About half of the gendarmes are not knights. Hello, the nuances of inter-verbal relations that strive to get everywhere. Fortunately, Lonemouth quickly saw through this feature and did not allow open conflicts, rallying the company with continuous maneuvers and exercises. About five hundred squires, pages and mounted riflemen were also recruited to the hundred gendarmes. Not immediately, of course, but there were no special problems here.

It is worth saying that not everyone withstood the drill, strict discipline and subordination, so there was a certain staff turnover. But, three months later, it began to decline.

Kensington was also doing well. He gathered five hundred fighters without any problems, two of them crossbowmen, where veterans of feudal wars and the garrison of Storm's End acted as the backbone. Ser Michael could have collected more, much more, but during the conversation with him we agreed not to rush too much. His main task is not to recruit a crowd of meat, but to create the backbone of the future infantry army and develop effective methods of drill and training. Well, there, every three or four months, Ser Michael will recruit new people, gradually increasing the staff.

Ser Michael armed the fighters of the first line (knights and sergeants are richer) with long pikes, two-handed swords, halberds and polacks, in general, everything that needs to be held with two hands, and provided the rest with one-handed swords, light spears and other means of killing. The crossbowmen were armed with heavy crossbows with steel arcs... however, so far only three dozen such devices have been identified, but over time all the needs of the growing army will be met. Things are better with Paveses, a hundred have already been made. Kensington also liked the idea of the Wagenburgs, and as soon as he received the first dozen carts, he took his company into the fields to practice maneuvers. Over time, infected with such enthusiasm, Longmouth joined Kensington, and now these two are chasing each other all over my fiefdom, and I don't mind, because such maneuvers will only increase the level of interaction between the troops.

 In addition to all this, we also managed to hire a hundred hunters, who will soon become the field intelligence of my army.

Meister Molis and I have also achieved good success. Two months of experiments, several dozen food poisoning and voila! The first stew in Westeros was born, and even with powdered soup. In this regard, it was decided to lay a stew and pottery factory near the walls of the Storm Limit, and with them the necessary storage facilities. To tell the truth, there are small problems with salt, which has to be transported all the way from River lands, but in peacetime this is not critical, and before the war we will have time to make supplies.

All of the above measures and decisions led to an unexpected result for me, namely the appearance of a small town near the walls of the Storm Limit. Additional stables, barracks and forges were built. The population of the Limit increased greatly, which attracted the increased attention of merchants and all those eager to earn money — all kinds of shops, brothels and taverns began to open. I only contributed to all this, because it will result in my income, and the topic of income became more and more relevant to me, but more on that later. The dynamics of the expansion of the spontaneous settlement at the Storm Limit pushed me to the idea of building an additional ring of walls. Well, not exactly rings, because the Limit is on the cliff. To be precise, the idea was to build an additional wall that would cover the new settlement and even with a significant margin. Ser Courtney has already begun preliminary calculations and preparations for this project. Right now, I just hope that it fits into the budget. After all, what's the point of walls if there's no money left for their defenders? They rightfully claim their own. The gendarmes have their legal fifteen dragons per month, the rest of the soldiers of the ordinance company have seven dragons, infantrymen and crossbowmen — four each. Plus, the supply of provisions and food was at my expense.

Gold. Damn gold. The problem of income and expenses stood in front of me in full growth and, it seems, will soon begin to break into dreams. Recruitment of troops, innovation, construction, all this requires money and, of course, not small. How much "big money" are we talking about? Well, my income has already been reduced by two thirds. Although we managed to save a lot of money, and let's take the same salary of my fighters as an example. They spent it in "mine", taverns and brothels, ordered new armor and weapons from my forges. All this gave a certain return, but in comparison with other profitable items, it is not so noticeable.

I've been thinking for a long time about how to increase the flow of gold into my purse. I thought and thought and still came up with it, and Cindy, or rather her father, helped me in this.

Cindy's father, a merchant named Trevor, was badly burned out, as his ship sank somewhere in the Narrow Sea. But the merchant did not roll down, but bit the bit and started everything from the very beginning, having achieved some success even in this field (at least he had already bought back his house).

 My idea was simple—to ride all the trade in the Stormy Lands. The fact is that land trade is not particularly profitable, so everyone mainly trades either by sea or by rivers. The reason for this is the feudal lords, who have the right to demand a fee at their discretion for the passage of any cart through their territory, which destroys all trade at the root. So, if the fief is not located on the coast or at a distance from navigable rivers, then only small barter trade flourishes in it.

I had only to tell Cindy that I would like to talk to her father about the case, when Trevor came to me the very next day in his best clothes. The conversation was long, and the middle-aged merchant quickly saw what was going on.

 As I said before, my idea is to take control of a significant portion of the trade traffic from the Stormy Lands. In this regard, I began to expand and strengthen one of the coastal settlements located a kilometer from the Limit. Grey Harbor. An ideal place where there is already a shipyard and some marine infrastructure. At the same time, I decided to issue and then sell trade patents to merchants. The meaning of the patent is that it exempts the merchant from paying duties to the feudal lords and any other fees, and the only one to whom the merchant owes is me. But the point of all this is not even to make money on the patents themselves. After all, the volume of trade in the natural economy is small and you can't earn a lot of money on them, especially since the feudal lords themselves will not be delighted with this. According to my estimates, I will give away no more than fifteen such patents. The main mission of these merchants will be to buy up all the surpluses and deliver them to the Gray Harbor. In this way, I want to create something like a trading hub, which will allow me to take control of most of the foreign trade of the Stormy Lands and, in turn, dictate prices for certain types of raw materials and goods. There are plans to create a trade guild or a full-fledged bank, like those that exist in free cities.

Trevor, of course, accepted my offer, and with him a couple of other merchants who found themselves in similar conditions. They have been plowing the expanses of the Stormy Lands for a couple of months now. The result is already slowly being felt — additional marinas and warehouses have been built in the Gray Harbor so that everything does not lag behind the turnover, which has increased significantly, as well as my income. However, the latter is more modest. These measures could not but cause discontent among the feudal lords, but generous gifts and some concessions in the collection of taxes and taxes smoothed the situation.

In addition to purely economic profit, merchants began to bring me something else — information. Yes, this information only concerns the Stormy Lands, but you have to start somewhere, don't you?

***

I saw no point in postponing the trip to King's Landing. Ser Courtney was an excellent manager, and all my, or rather our, ideas were carried out very quickly. So, I was calm for both the economic and military branches of my patrimony. It is worth saying that over these months I have managed to gain some credibility. I was no longer just the king's brother, but a very smiling and dashing, but just lord who knows how to rule his lands and rule well, who generously gives loyal servants and hangs infidels... still, sometimes I have to execute people who steal. But, back to the road... yes, we need to go, and soon. And King's Landing is not so far from the Storm Limit, just a week of leisurely driving.

So, all I have to do is give out a few instructions and give the order to prepare a retinue of a hundred people. There is only one thing to grieve about — Cindy, poor thing, will remain at the Limit without my company.

***

—My Lord," Cindy interrupted me from the report on trade fees in Gray Harbor, "Lady Tarth has an audience with you.

— Let them.

Brienne of Tarth. Personally, I had no doubt that as soon as the news of the creation of the personal guard of the supreme Lord of the Stormy Lands reached the island of Tarth, Brienne should be expected to visit. Growing up, Renly traveled all his vassals, including Tarts, where he met Brienne and, as a real man should, treated her like a lady, no matter what, which apparently won her ... loyalty. Arriving at Storm's End, packed in good and expensive armor, she asked to be accepted into the company, but Ser Henry, despite the fact that he is on good terms with her father, responded very ... rudely to this idea. He made a condition for her that only if she defeated five of his best knights, he would accept her into the squad. Is it worth saying how it went? Lonemouth fulfilled his promise and knighted her at the same time. Of course, there were several unpleasant incidents, among which there was a dispute about who would get Brienne into bed first, in which they put quite decent money, but once either Lonmouth or Brienne found out about such stories, the company was missing fighters. Gradually, they got used to Tart, and then they respected it. Lonemouth also appreciated Brienne's skills, putting her at the top of the top ten.

— My Lord, — the girl stood straight, legs wide apart. At the entrance, she cast a displeased glance in the direction of Cindy, clearly they were fighting verbally again. Jealousy, you know. Tall, taller than me, broad-shouldered, with a flat freckled face and a wide mouth. The nose was clearly broken more than once. Short straw-colored hair. The look is direct. His voice matched his appearance —brittle and rough.

"Lady Brienne," I motioned for her to sit down, "wine?"

"Thank you, my lord," Brienne carefully sat down on a chair, "but I will decline."

— What brings you to me?

— Let me go with you to King's Landing. — As expected, the very straightforwardness and not a drop of doubt in his eyes.

"The Storm Guard is staying here.

"Yes, but I'm ready to leave her and join your retinue."

— Oh, Brienne, — I silently poured wine into her cup, and pushed it towards her, — I would love to. I am very pleased with your company, I appreciate our good relationship, and therefore I will be honest with you. I'm going to King's Landing, where I'm going to have to do the dirtiest thing in this world—politics.

"I'm not sure what you're talking about." "Oh, Brienne... sometimes you look like a child.

— For example, I will need you to guard my chambers while I caress some noble married lady, just to find out some information or to encourage her to poison her husband. Or I'll need you to kill someone.

— Mmilord…

"Yes, Brienne, it is most dishonorable and never a chivalrous thing. But I'm not just a knight, I'm a lord. The High Lord of the Stormy Lands and the brother of the King. The fate of thousands and thousands of people depends on me, and on top of that, I have a legion of enemies in absentia, obvious and not so obvious, waiting for me in King's Landing. I don't want it to be like this, but if I refuse to play by their rules, then I will simply be killed or even my name will be defamed and killed, which is not part of my plans at all. If you still want it, then I'll take you with me. But be prepared for the fact that one day you will have to carry out an order incompatible with knightly honor, as well as to ridicule and provocations from the local chivalry and the sidelong glances and whispers of the court ladies.

Brienne drained the goblet in silence and set it down on the table with a loud thud. She has no words, mine are coming to an end too. Frankly, I feel very sorry for her right now.

— I'm leaving in three days. If you decide, then welcome to my entourage.