Теории Занимательная конспирология (или это жу-жу неспроста)

[Daena]

Спойлер: Часть 5

Only then did the first knight step forward. “This bean shames us all,” he shouted. “Are there no true knights here? No leal men?” The speaker was Bernarr Brune, the squire who had slain Harren the Red and been knighted by King Aenys himself. His scorn drove others to offer their swords. The names of the four Maegor chose are writ large in the history of Westeros: Ser Bramm of Blackhull, a hedge knight; Ser Rayford Rosby; Ser Guy Lothston, called Guy the Glutton; and Ser Lucifer Massey, Lord of Stonedance.
The names of the seven Warrior’s Sons have likewise come down to us. They were: Ser Damon Morrigen, called Damon the Devout, Grand Captain of the Warrior’s Sons; Ser Lyle Bracken; Ser Harys Horpe, called Death’s Head Harry; Ser Aegon Ambrose; Ser Dickon Flowers, the Bastard of Beesbury; Ser Willam the Wanderer; and Ser Garibald of the Seven Stars, the septon knight. It is written that Damon the Devout led a prayer, beseeching the Warrior to grant strength to their arms.
Afterward the Queen Dowager gave the command to begin. And the issue was joined. Dick Bean died first, cut down by Lyle Bracken mere instants after the combat began. Thereafter accounts differ markedly. One chronicler says that when the hugely fat Ser Guy the Glutton was cut open, the remains of forty half-digested pies spilled out. Another claims Ser Garibald of the Seven Stars sang a paean as he fought. Several tell us that Lord Massey hacked off the arm of Harys Horpe. In one account, Death’s Head Harry tossed his battle-axe into his other hand and buried it between Lord Massey’s eyes. Other chroniclers suggest Ser Harys simply died. Some say the fight went on for hours, others that most of the combatants were down and dying in mere moments. All agree that great deeds were done and mighty blows exchanged, until the end found Maegor Targaryen standing alone against Damon the Devout and Willam the Wanderer. Both of the Warrior’s Sons were badly wounded, and His Grace had Blackfyre in his hand, but even so, it was a near thing, the singers and maesters are agreed. Even as he fell, Ser Willam dealt the king a terrible blow to the head that cracked his helm and left him insensate. Many thought Maegor dead as well, until his mother removed his broken helm. “The king breathes,” she proclaimed. “The king lives.” The victory was his.
Seven of the mightiest of the Warrior’s Sons were dead, including their commander, but more than seven hundred remained, armed and armored and gathered about the crown of the hill. Queen Visenya commanded her son to be taken to the maesters. As the litter bearers bore him down the hill, the Swords of the Faith dropped to their knees in submission. The Dowager Queen ordered them to return to their fortified sept atop the Hill of Rhaenys.
For twenty-seven days Maegor Targaryen lingered at the point of death, whilst maesters treated him with potions and poultices and septons prayed above his bed. In the Sept of Remembrance, the Warrior’s Sons prayed as well, and argued about their course. Some felt the order had no choice but to accept Maegor as king, since the gods had blessed him with victory; others insisted that they were bound by oath to obey the High Septon, and fight on.
The Kingsguard arrived from Dragonstone in the nonce. At the command of the Dowager Queen, they took command of the thousands of Targaryen loyalists in the city and surrounded the Hill of Rhaenys. On Driftmark, the widowed Queen Alyssa proclaimed her own son Aegon the true king. In the Citadel of Oldtown, the archmaesters met in Conclave to debate the succession and choose a new grand maester. Thousands of Poor Fellows streamed toward King’s Landing. Those from the west followed the hedge knight Ser Horys Hill, those from the south a gigantic axeman called Wat the Hewer. When the ragged bands encamped about castle Crakehall left to join their fellows on the march, Prince Aegon and Princess Rhaena were finally able to depart. Abandoning their royal progress, they made their way to Casterly Rock, where Lord Lyman Lannister offered them his protection. It was his wife, the Lady Jocasta, who first discerned that Princess Rhaena was with child.
On the twenty-eighth day after the Trial of Seven, a ship arrived from Pentos upon the evening tide, carrying two women and six hundred sellswords. Alys of House Harroway, Maegor Targaryen’s second wife, had returned to Westeros…but not alone. With her sailed another woman, a pale raven-haired beauty known only as Tyanna of the Tower. Some said the woman was Maegor's concuibine. Other named her Lady Alys's paramour. The natural aughter of Pentoshi magister, Tyanna was a tavern dancer who had risen to be a courtesan. She wass rumored to be a poisoner and sorceress as well. Many queer tales were told about her... yet soon as she arrived, Queen Visenya dismissed her son's maesters and gave Maegor over to Tyanna’s care.
The next morning, the king awoke, rising with the sun. When Maegor appeared on the walls of the Red Keep, standing between Alys Harroway and Tyanna of Pentos, the crowds cheered wildly, and the city erupted in celebration. But the revels died away when Maegor mounted Balerion and descended upon the Hill of Rhaenys, where seven hundred of the Warrior’s Sons were at their morning prayers in the fortified sept. As dragonfire set the building aflame, archers and spearmen waited outside for those who came bursting through the doors. It was said the screams of the burning men could be heard throughout the city, and a pall of smoke lingered over King’s Landing for days. Thus did the cream of the Warrior’s Sons meet their fiery end. Though other chapters remained in Oldtown, Lannisport, Gulltown, and Stoney Sept, the order would never again approach its former strength.
King Maegor’s war against the Faith Militant had just begun, however. It would continue for the remainder of his reign. The king’s first act upon resuming the Iron Throne was to command the Poor Fellows swarming toward the city to lay down their weapons, under penalty of proscription and death. When his decree had no effect, His Grace commanded “all leal lords” to take the field and disperse the Faith’s ragged hordes by force. In response, the High Septon in Oldtown called upon “true and pious children of the gods” to take up arms in defense of the Faith, and put an end to the reign of “dragons and monsters and abominations.”
Battle was joined first in the Reach, at the town of Stonebridge. There nine thousand Poor Fellows under Wat the Hewer found themselves caught between six lordly hosts as they attempted to cross the Mander. With half his men north of the river and half on the south, Wat’s army was cut to pieces. His untrained and undisciplined followers, clad in boiled leather, roughspun, and scraps of rusted steel, and armed largely with woodsmen’s axes, sharpened sticks, and farm implements, proved utterly unable to stand against the charge of armored knights on heavy horses. So grievous was the slaughter that the Mander ran red for twenty leagues, and thereafter the town and castle where the battle had been fought became known as Bitterbridge. Wat himself was taken alive, though not before slaying half a dozen knights, amongst them Loadows of Grassy Vale, commander of the king’s host. The giant was delivered to King’s Landing in chains.

 

[Daena]

Спойлер: Часть 6

By then Ser Horys Hill had reached the Great Fork of the Blackwater with an even larger host; close on thirteen thousand Poor Fellows, their ranks stiffened by the addition of two hundred mounted Warrior’s Sons from Stoney Sept, and the household knights and feudal levies of a dozen rebel lords from the westerlands and riverlands. Lord Rupert Falwell, famed as the Fighting Fool, led the ranks of the pious who had answered the High Septon’s call; with him rode Ser Lyonel Lorch, Ser Alyn Terrick, Lord Tristifer Wayn, Lord Jon Lychester, and many other puissant knights. The army of the Faithful numbered twenty thousand men.
King Maegor’s army was of like size, however, and His Grace had almost twice as much armored horse, as well as a large contingent of longbowmen, and the king himself riding Balerion. Even so, the battle proved a savage struggle. The Fighting Fool slew two knights of the Kingsguard before he himself was cut down by the Lord of Maidenpool. Big Jon Hogg, fighting for the king, was blinded by a sword slash early in the battle, yet rallied his men and led a charge that broke through the lines of the Faithful and put the Poor Fellows to flight. A rainstorm dampened Balerion’s fires but could not quench them entirely, and amidst smoke and screams King Maegor descended again and again to serve his foes with flame. By nightfall victory was his, as the remaining Poor Fellows threw down their axes and streamed away in all directions.
Triumphant, Maegor returned to King’s Landing to seat himself once more upon the Iron Throne. When Wat the Hewer was delivered to him, chained yet still defiant, Maegor took off his limbs with the giant’s own axe, but commanded his maesters to keep the man alive “so he might attend my wedding.” Then His Grace announced his intent to take Tyanna of Pentos as his third wife. Though it was whispered that his mother the Queen Dowager had no love for the Pentoshi sorceress, only Grand Maester Myres dared speak against her openly. “Your one true wife awaits you in the Hightower,” Myres said. The king heard him out in silence, then descended from the throne, drew Blackfyre, and slew him where he stood.
Maegor Targaryen and Tyanna of the Tower were wed atop the Hill of Rhaenys, amidst the ashes and bones of the Warrior’s Sons who had died there. It was said that Maegor had to put a dozen septons to death before he found one willing to perform the ceremony. Wat the Hewer, limbless, was kept alive to witness the marriage. King Aenys’s widow, Queen Alyssa, was present as well, with her younger sons Viserys and Jaehaerys and her daughter Alysanne. A visit from the Dowager Queen and Vhagar had persuaded her to leave her sanctuary on Driftmark and return to court, where Alyssa and her brothers and cousins of House Velaryon did homage to Maegor as the true king. The widowed queen was even compelled to join the other ladies of the court in disrobing His Grace and escorting him to the nuptial chamber to consummate his marriage, a bedding ceremony presided over by the king’s second wife, Alys Harroway. That task done, Alyssa and the other ladies took their leave of the royal bedchamber, but Alys remained, joining the king and his newest wife in a night of carnal lust.
Across the realm in Oldtown, the High Septon was loud in his denunciations of “the abomination and his whores,” whilst the king’s first wife, Ceryse of House Hightower, continued to insist that she was Maegor’s only lawful queen. And in the westerlands, Aegon Targaryen, Prince of Dragonstone, remained adamant as well. As the eldest son of King Aenys, the Iron Throne was his by right. Prince Aegon was but seventeen, however, and the son son of a weak father besides: few lords cared to risk King Maegor's wroth by supporting his claim. His own mother Queen Alyssa had abandoned his cause, men whispered to each other. Even Lyman Lannister, the prince’s host, would not pledge his sword to the young pretender though he did stand firm when Maegor demanded that Aegon and his sister be expelled from Casterly Rock.
And thus it was there at Casterly Rock that Princess Rhaena gave birth to Aegon’s daughters, twins they named Aerea and Rhaella. From the Starry Sept came another blistering proclamation. These children too were abominations, the High Septon proclaimed, the fruits of lust and incest, and accursed of the gods.
The dawn of the year 43 AC found King Maegor in King’s Landing, where he had taken personal charge of the construction of the Red Keep. Much of the finished work was now undone or changed, new builders and workmen were brought in, and secret passages and tunnels crept through the depths of Aegon’s High Hill. As the red stone towers rose, the king commanded the building of a castle within the castle, a fortified redoubt surrounded by a dry moat that would soon be known to all as Maegor’s Holdfast.
In that same year, Maegor made Lord Lucas Harroway, father of his wife Queen Alys, his new Hand…but it was not the Hand who had the king’s ear. His Grace might rule the Seven Kingdoms, men whispered, but he himself was ruled by the three queens: his mother Queen Visenya, his paramour Queen Alys, and the Pentoshi witch Queen Tyanna. “The mistress of whispers,” Tyanna was called, and “the king’s raven,” for her black hair. She spoke with rats and spiders, it was said, and all the vermin of King’s Landing came to her by night to tell tales of any fool rash enough to speak against the king.
Meanwhile, thousands of Poor Fellows still haunted the roads and wild places of the Reach, the Trident, and the Vale; though they would never again assemble in large numbers to face the king in open battle, the Stars fought on in smaller ways, falling upon travelers and swarming over towns, villages, and poorly defended castles, slaying the king’s loyalists wherever they found them. Ser Horys Hill had escaped the battle at Great Fork, but defeat and flight had tarnished him, and his followers were few. The new leaders of the Poor Fellows were men like Ragged Silas, Septon Moon, and Dennis the Lame, hardly distinguishable from outlaws. One of their most savage captains was a woman called Poxy Jeyne Poore, whose savage followers made the woods between King’s Landing and Storm’s End all but impassable to honest travelers.
Meanwhile, the Warrior’s Sons had chosen a new grand captain in the person of Ser Joffrey Doggett, the Red Dog of the Hills, who was determined to restore the order to its former glory. When Ser Joffrey set out from Lannisport to seek the blessing of the High Septon, a hundred men rode with him. By the time he arrived in Oldtown, so many knights and squires and freeriders had joined him that his numbers had swollen to two thousand. Elsewhere in the realm, other restless lords and men of faith were gathering men as well, and plotting ways to bring the dragons down.
None of this had gone unnoticed. Ravens flew to every corner of the realm, summoning lords and landed knights of doubtful loyalty to King’s Landing, to bend the knee, swear homage, and deliver a son or daughter as a hostage for their obedience. The Stars and Swords were outlawed; membership in either order would henceforth be punishable by death. The High Septon was commanded to deliver himself to the Red Keep, to stand trial for high treason.
His High Holiness responded from the Starry Sept, commanding the king to present himself in Oldtown, to beg the forgiveness of the gods for his sins and cruelties. Many of the Faithful echoed his defiance. Some pious lords did travel to King’s Landing to do homage and present hostages, but more did not, trusting to their numbers and the strength of their castles to keep them safe.
King Maegor let the poisons fester for almost half a year, so engrossed was he in the building of his Red Keep. It was his mother who struck first. The Dowager Queen mounted Vhagar and brought fire and blood to the Reach as once she had to Dorne. In a single night, the seats of House Blanetree, House Terrick, House Deddings, House Lychester, and House Wayn were set aflame. Then Maegor himself took wing, flying Balerion to the westerlands, where he burned the castles of the Broomes, the Falwells, the Lorches, the Myatts, and the other “pious lords” who had defied his royal summons. Lastly he descended upon the seat of House Doggett, reducing the hall and stables to ash. The fires claimed the lives of Ser Joffrey’s father, mother, and young sister, along with their sworn swords, serving men, and chattel. As pillars of smoke rose all through the westerlands and the Reach, Vhagar and Balerion turned south. Another Lord Hightower, counseled by another High Septon, had opened the gates of Oldtown during the Conquest, but now it seemed as if the greatest and most populous city in Westeros must surely burn.

 

[Daena]

Спойлер: Часть 7

Thousands fled the city that night, streaming from the gates or taking ship for distant ports. Thousands more took to the streets in drunken revelry. “This is a night for song and sin and drink,” men told one another, “for come the morrow, the virtuous and the vile alike shall burn together.” Others gathered in septs and temples and ancient woods to pray they might be spared. In the Starry Sept, the High Septon railed and thundered, calling down the wroth of the gods upon the Targaryens. The archmaesters of the Citadel met in Conclave. The men of the City Watch filled sacks with sand and pails with water to fight the fires they knew were coming. Along the city walls, crossbows, scorpions, spitfires, and spear-throwers were hoisted onto the battlements in hopes of bringing down the dragons when they appeared. Led by Ser Morgan Hightower, a younger brother of the Lord of Oldtown, two hundred Warrior’s Sons spilled forth from their chapterhouse to defend His High Holiness, surrounding the Starry Sept with a ring of steel. Atop the Hightower, the great beacon fire turned a baleful green as Lord Martyn Hightower called his banners. Oldtown waited for the dawn, and the coming of the dragons.
And the dragons came. Vhagar first, as the sun was risingm then Balerion, just before midday. But they found the gates of city open, the battlements unmanned, and the banners of House Targaryen, House Tyrell and House Highgarden flying side by side atop the city walls. the Dowager Queen Vysenia was the first to learn the news. Sometime during the blackest hour of that long and dreadful night, the High Septon had died. A man of three-and-fifty, as tireless as he was fearless, and to all appearances in robust good health, this High Septon had been renowned for his strength. More than once he had preached for a day and a night without taking sleep or nourishment. His sudden death shocked the city and dismayed his followers. Its causes are debated to this day. Some say that His High Holiness took his own life, in what was either the act of a craven afraid to face the wroth of King Maegor or a noble sacrifice to spare the goodfolk of Oldtown from dragonfire. Others claim the Seven struck him down for the sin of pride, for heresy, treason, and arrogance. Many and more remain certain he was murdered…but by whom? Ser Morgan Hightower did the deed at the command of his lord brother, some say (and Ser Morgan was seen entering and leaving the High Septon’s privy chambers that night). Others point to the Lady Patrice Hightower, Lord Martyn’s maiden aunt and a reputed witch (who did indeed seek an audience with His High Holiness at dusk, though he was alive when she departed). The archmaesters of the Citadel are also suspected, though whether they made use of the dark arts, an assassin, or a poisoned scroll is still a matter of some debate (messages went back and forth between the Citadel and the Starry Sept all night). And there are still others who hold them all blameless and lay the High Septon’s death at the door of another rumored sorceress, the Dowager Queen Visenya Targaryen.
The truth will likely never be known…but the swift reaction of Lord Martyn when word reached him at the Hightower is beyond dispute. At once he dispatched his own knights to disarm and arrest the Warrior’s Sons, amongst them his own brother. The city gates were opened, and Targaryen banners raised along the walls. Even before Vhagar’s wings were sighted, Lord Hightower’s men were rousting the Most Devout from their beds and marching them to the Starry Sept at spearpoint to choose a new high septon.
It required but a single ballot. Almost as one, the wise men and women of the Faith turned to a certain Septon Pater. Ninety years old, blind, stooped, and feeble, but famously amiable, the new High Septon almost collapsed beneath the weight of the crystal crown when it was placed upon his head…but when Maegor Targaryen appeared before him in the Starry Sept, he was only too pleased to bless him as king and anoint his head with holy oils, even if he did forget the words of the blessing.
Queen Visenya soon returned to Dragonstone with Vhagar, but King Maegor remained in Oldtown for almost half the year, holding court and presiding over trials. To the captive Swords of the Warrior’s Sons, a choice was given. Those who renounced their allegiance to the order would be permitted to travel to the Wall and live out their days as brothers of the Night’s Watch. Those who refused could die as martyrs to their Faith. Three-quarters of the captives chose to take the black. The remainder died. Seven of their number, famous knights and the sons of lords, were given the honor of having King Maegor himself remove their heads with Blackfyre. The rest of the condemned were beheaded by their own former brothers-in-arms. Of all their number, only one man received a full royal pardon: Ser Morgan Hightower. The new High Septon formally dissolved both the Warrior’s Sons and the Poor Fellows, commanding their remaining members to lay down their arms in the name of the gods. The Seven had no more need of warriors, proclaimed His High Holiness; henceforth the Iron Throne would protect and defend the Faith. King Maegor granted the surviving members of the Faith Militant till year’s end to surrender their weapons and give up their rebellious ways. After that, those who remained defiant would find a bounty on their heads: a gold dragon for the head of any unrepentant Warrior’s Son, a silver stag for the “lice-ridden” scalp of a Poor Fellow.
The new High Septon did not demur, nor did the Most Devout. During his time at Oldtown, the king was also reconciled with his first wife, Queen Ceryse, the sister of his host, Lord Hightower. Her Grace agreed to accept the king’s other wives, to treat them with respect and honor and speak no further ill against them, whilst Maegor swore to restore Ceryse to all the rights, incomes, and privileges due her as his wedded wife and queen. A great feast was held at the Hightower to celebrate their reconciliation; the revels even included a bedding and a “second consummation,” so all men would know this to be a true and loving union.
How long King Maegor might have lingered at Oldtown cannot be known, for in the latter part of 43 AC word of another challenge to his throne reached his ears. His nephew Aegon, Prince of Dragonstone, had emerged from the west at last to stake his claim to the Iron Throne. Mounted on his own dragon Quicksilver, the eldest son of the late King Aenys had denounced his uncle as a tyrant and usurper, and was marching across the riverlands at the head of an army fifteen thousand strong. His followers were largely westermen and river lords; the Lords Tarbeck, Piper, Roote, Vance, Charlton, Frey, Paege, Parren, and Westerling were amongst them, joined by Lord Corbray of the Vale, the Bastard of Barrowton, and the fourth son of the Lord of Griffin’s Roost.
Though their ranks included seasoned commanders and puissant knights, no great lords had rallied to Prince Aegon’s cause…but Queen Tyanna, mistress of whisperers, wrote to warn Maegor that Storm’s End, the Eyrie, Winterfell, and Casterly Rock had all been in secret communication with the widowed queen, Alyssa. Before declaring for the Prince of Dragonstone, they wished to be convinced he might prevail. Aegon required a victory.
Maegor denied him that. From Harrenhal came forth Lord Harroway, from Riverrun Lord Tully. Ser Davos Darklyn of the Kingsguard marshaled five thousand swords in King’s Landing and struck out west to meet the rebels. Up from the Reach came Lord Rowan, Lord Merryweather, Lord Caswell, and their levies. Prince know where to turn. Lord Corbray advised him to engage each foe separately before they could join their powers, but Aegon was loath to divide his strength. Instead he chose to march on toward King’s Landing.
Just south of the Gods Eye, he found Davos Darklyn’s Kingslanders awthwart his path, sitting on high ground behind a wall of spears, even as scouts reported Lords Merryweather and Caswell advancing from the south, and Lords Tully and Harroway from the north. Prince Aegon ordered a charge, hoping to break through the Kingslanders before the other loyalists fell upon his flanks, and mounted Quicksilver to lead the attack himself. But scarce had he taken wing when he heard shouts and saw his men below pointing, to where Balerion the Black Dread had appeared in the southern sky.
King Maegor had come.
For the first time since the Doom of Valyria dragon contended with dragon in the sky, even as battle was joined below.
Quicksilver, a quarter the size of Balerion, was no match for the older, fiercer dragon, and her pale white fireballs were engulfed and washed away in great gouts of black flame. Then the Black Dread fell upon her from above, his jaws closing round her neck as he ripped one wing from her body. Screaming and smoking, the young dragon plunged to earth, and Prince Aegon with her.
The battle below was nigh as brief, if bloodier. Once Aegon fell, the rebels saw their cause was doomed and ran, discarding arms and armor as they fled. But the loyalist armies were all around them, and there was no escape. By day’s end, two thousand of Aegon’s men had died, against a hundred of the king’s. Amongst the dead were Lord Alyn Tarbeck, Denys Snow, the Bastard of Barrowton, Lord Jon Piper, Lord Ronnel Vance, Ser Willam Whistler…and Aegon Targaryen, Prince of Dragonstone. The only notable loss amongst the loyalists was Ser Davos Darklyn of the Kingsguard, slain by Lord Corbray with Lady Forlorn. Half a year of trials and executions followed. Queen Visenya persuaded her son to spare some of the rebellious lords, but even those who kept their lives lost lands and titles and were forced to give up hostages.

 

[Daena]

Спойлер: Часть 8

The forty-fourth year After the Conquest was a peaceful one, compared to what had gone before…but the maesters who chronicled those times wrote that the smell of blood and fire still hung heavy in the air. Maegor I Targaryen sat the Iron Throne as his Red Keep rose around him, but his court was grim and cheerless, despite the presence of three queens…or perhaps because of it. Each night he summoned one of his wives to his bed, yet still he remained childless, with no heir but for the sons and grandsons of his brother Aenys. “Maegor the Cruel,” he was called, and “kinslayer” as well, though it was death to say either in his hearing.
In Oldtown, the ancient High Septon died, and another was raised up in his place. Though he spoke no word against the king or his queens, the enmity between King Maegor and the Faith endured. Hundreds of Poor Fellows had been hunted down and slain, their scalps delivered to the king’s men for the bounty, but thousands more still roamed the woods and hedges and the wild places of the Seven Kingdoms, cursing the Targaryens with their every breath. One band even crowned their own High Septon, in the person of a bearded brute named Septon Moon. And a few Warrior’s Sons still endured, led by Ser Joffrey Doggett, the Red Dog of the Hills. Outlawed and condemned, the order no longer had the strength to meet the king’s men in open battle, so the Red Dog sent them out in the guise of hedge knights, to hunt and slay Targaryen loyalists and “traitors to the Faith.” Their first victim was Ser Morgan Hightower, late of their order, cut down and butchered on the road to Honeyholt. Old Lord Merryweather was the next to die, followed by Lord Rowan’s son and heir, Davos Darklyn’s aged father, even Blind John Hogg. Though the bounty for the head of a Warrior’s Son was a golden dragon, the smallfolk and peasants of the realm hid and protected them, remembering what they had been.
On Dragonstone, the Dowager Queen Visenya had grown thin and haggard, the flesh melting from her bones. Her nephew’s widow, the former Queen Alyssa, remained on the island as well, with her son Jaehaerys and her daughter Alysanne. Maegor had made them his mother’s wards, prisoners in all but name, but Prince Viserys, the eldest surviving son of Aenys and Alyssa, was summoned to court by Maegor. A promising lad of fifteen years, skilled with sword and lance, Viserys was made squire to the king…with a Kingsguard knight for a shadow, to keep him away from plots and treasons.
For a brief while in 44 AC, it seemed as if the king might soon have that son he desired so desperately. Queen Alys announced she was with child, and the court rejoiced. Grand Maester Desmond confined Her Grace to her bed as she grew great with child, and took charge of her care, assisted by two septas, a midwife, and the queen’s sisters Jeyne and Hanna. Maegor insisted that his other wives serve his pregnant queen as well.
During the third moon of her confinement, however, Lady Alys began to bleed heavily from the womb and lost the child. When King Maegor came to see the stillbirth, he was horrified to find the boy a monster, with twisted limbs, a huge head, and no eyes. “This cannot be my son,” he roared in anguish. Then his grief turned to fury, and he ordered the immediate execution of the midwife and septas who had charge of the queen’s care, and Grand Maester Desmond as well, sparing only Alys’s sisters.
It is said that Maegor was seated on the Iron Throne with the head of the grand maester in his hands when Queen Tyanna came to tell him he had been deceived. The child was not his seed. Seeing Queen Ceryse return to court, old and bitter and childless, Alys Harroway had begun to fear that the same fate awaited her unless she gave the king a son, so she had turned to her lord father, the Hand of the King. On the nights when the king was sharing a bed with Queen Ceryse or Queen Tyanna, Lucas Harroway sent men to his daughter’s bed to get her with child. Maegor refused to believe. He told Tyanna was jealous bitch, and barren, throwing grand maester’s head at her. “Spiders do not lie,” the mistress of the whisperers replied. She handed the king a list of names.
Written there were the names of twenty men alleged to have given their seed to Queen Alys. Old men and young, handsome men and homely ones, knights and squires, lords and servants, even grooms and smiths and singers; the King’s Hand had cast a wide net, it seemed. The men had only one thing in common: all were men of proven potency known to have fathered healthy children.
Under torture, all but two confessed. One, a father of twelve, still had the gold paid him by Lord Harroway for his services. The questioning was carried out swiftly and secretly, so Lord Harroway and Queen Alys had no inkling of the king’s suspicions until the Kingsguard burst in on them. Dragged from her bed, Queen Alys saw her sisters killed before her eyes as they tried to protect her. Her father, inspecting the Tower of the Hand, was flung from its roof to smash upon the stones below. Harroway’s sons, brothers, and nephews were taken as well. Thrown onto the spikes that lined the dry moat around Maegor’s Holdfast, some took hours to die; the simple-minded Horas Harroway was said to linger for days. The twenty names on Queen Tyanna’s list soon joined them, and then another dozen men, named by the first twenty.

 

[Daena]

Спойлер: Часть 9

The worst death was reserved for Queen Alys herself, who was given over to her sister wife Tyanna for torment. Of her death we will not speak, for some things are best buried and forgotten. Suffice it to say that her dying took the best part of a fortnight, and that Maegor himself was present for all of it, a witness to her agony. After her death, the queen’s body was cut into seven parts, and her pieces mounted on spikes above the seven gates of the city, where they remained until they rotted.
King Maegor himself departed King’s Landing, assembling a strong force of knights and men-at-arms and marching on Harrenhal, to complete the destruction of House Harroway. The great castle on the Gods Eye was lightly held, and its castellan, a nephew of Lord Lucas and cousin to the late queen, opened his gates at the king’s approach. Surrender did not save him; His Grace put the entire garrison to the sword, along with every man, woman, and child he found to have any drop of Harroway blood. Then he marched to Lord Harroway’s Town on the Trident and did the same there.
In the aftermath of the bloodletting, men began to say that Harrenhal was cursed, for every lordly house to hold it had come to a bad and bloody end. Nonetheless, many ambitious king’s men coveted Black Harren’s mighty seat, with its broad and fertile lands…so many that King Maegor grew weary of their entreaties and decreed that Harrenhal should go to the strongest of them. Thus did twenty-three knights of the king’s household fight with sword and mace and lance amidst the blood-soaked streets of Lord Harroway’s Town. Ser Walton Towers emerged victorious, and Maegor named him Lord of Harrenhal…but the melee had been a savage affray, and Ser Walton did not live long to enjoy his lordship, dying of his wounds within the fortnight. Harrenhal passed to his eldest son, though its domains were much diminished, as the king granted Lord Harroway’s Town to Lord Alton Butterwell, and the rest of the Harroway holdings to Lord Dormand Darry.
When at last Maegor returned to King’s Landing to seat himself again upon the Iron Throne, he was greeted with the news that his mother Queen Visenya had died. Moreover, in the confusion that followed the death of the Queen Dowager, Queen Alyssa and her children found their way to a ship and made their escape from Dragonstone…to where, no man could say. They had even gone so far as to steal Dark Sister from Visenya’s chambers as they fled.
His Grace ordered his mother’s body burned, her bones and ashes interred beside those of her brother and sister. Then he told his knights to seize his squire, Prince Viserys. “Chain him in a black cell and question him sharply,” Maegor commanded. “Ask him where his mother has gone.”
“He may not know,” said Ser Owen Bush, a knight of Maegor’s Kingsguard. “Then let him die,” the king answered famously. “Perhaps the bitch will turn up for his funeral.” Prince Viserys did not know where his mother had gone, not even when Tyanna of Pentos plied him with her dark arts. After nine days of questioning, he died. His body was left out in the ward of the Red Keep for a fortnight, at the king’s command. “Let his mother come and claim him,” Maegor said. But Queen Alyssa never appeared, and at last His Grace consigned his nephew to the fire. The prince was sixteen years old when he was killed, and had been much loved by smallfolk and lords alike. The realm wept for him.
In 45 AC, construction finally came to an end on the Red Keep.
King Maegor celebrated its completion by feasting the builders and workmen who had labored on the castle, sending them wagonloads of strong wine and sweetmeats, and whores from the city’s finest brothels. The revels lasted for three days. Afterward, the king’s knights moved in and put all the workmen to the sword, to prevent them from ever revealing the Red Keep’s secrets. Their bones were interred beneath the castle that they had built.
Not long after the completion of the castle, Queen Ceryse was stricken with a sudden illness, and passed away. A rumor went around the court that Her Grace had given offense to the king with a shrewish remark, so he had commanded Ser Owen to remove her tongue. As the tale went, the queen had struggled, Ser Owen’s knife had slipped, and the queen’s throat had been slit. Though never proven, this story was widely believed at the time; today, however, most maesters believe it to be a slander concocted by the king’s enemies to further blacken his repute. Whatever the truth, the death of his first wife left Maegor with but a single queen, the black-haired, black-hearted Pentoshi woman Tyanna, mistress of the spiders, who was hated and feared by all.
Hardly had the last stone been set on the Red Keep than Maegor commanded that ruins of the Sept of Remembrance be cleared from the top of Rhaenys's Hill, and with them the bones and ashes of Warrior's Sons who had perished there. In their place, he decreed, a great stone "stable for dragons" would be erected, a lair worthy of Balerion, Vhagar, and their get. Thus commenced the building of the Dragonpit. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it proved difficult to find builders, stonemasons, and laborers to work on the project. So many men ran off that the King was finally forced to use prisoners from the city’s dungeons as his workforce, under the supervision of builders brought in from Myr and Volantis.
Late in the year 45 AC, King Maegor took the field once again to continue his war against the outlawed remnants of the Faith Militant, leaving Queen Tyanna to rule King’s Landing together with the new Hand, Lord Edwell Celtigar. In the great wood south of the Blackwater, the king’s forces hunted down scores of Poor Fellows who had taken refuge there, sending many to the Wall and hanging those who refused to take the black. Their leader, the woman known as Poxy Jeyne Poore, continued to elude the king until at last she was betrayed by three of her own followers, who received pardons and knighthoods as their reward.

 

[Daena]

Спойлер: Часть10

Three septons traveling with His Grace declared Poxy Jeyne a witch, and Maegor ordered her to be burned alive in a field beside the Wendwater. When the day appointed for her execution came, three hundred of her followers, Poor Fellows and peasants all, burst from the woods to rescue her. The king had anticipated this, however, and his men were ready for the attack. The rescuers were surrounded and slaughtered. Amongst the last to die was their leader, who proved to be Ser Horys Hill, the bastard hedge knight who had escaped the carnage at the Great Fork three years earlier. This time he proved less fortunate.
Elsewhere in the realm, however, the tide of the times had begun to turn against the king. Smallfolk and lords alike had come to despise him for his many cruelties, and many began to give help and comfort to his enemies. Septon Moon, the “High Septon” raised up by the Poor Fellows against the man in Oldtown they called “the High Lickspittle,” roamed the riverlands and Reach at will, drawing huge crowds whenever he emerged from the woods to preach against the king. The hill country north of the Golden Tooth was ruled in all but name by the Red Dog, Ser Joffrey Doggett, and neither Casterly Rock nor Riverrun seemed inclined to move against him. Dennis the Lame and Ragged Silas remained at large, and wherever they roamed, smallfolk helped keep them safe. Knights and men-at-arms sent out to bring them to justice oft vanished.
In 46 AC, King Maegor returned to the Red Keep with two thousand skulls, the fruits of a year of campaigning. They were the heads of Poor Fellows and Warrior’s Sons, he announced, as he dumped them out beneath the Iron Throne…but it was widely believed that many of the grisly trophies belonged to simple crofters, field hands, and swineherds guilty of no crime but faith.
The coming of the new year found Maegor still without a son, not even a bastard who might be legitimized. Nor did it seem likely that Queen Tyanna would give him the heir that he desired. Whilst she continued to serve His Grace as mistress of whisperers, the king no longer sought her bed. It was past time for him to take a new wife, Maegor’s counsellors agreed…but they parted ways on who that wife should be. Grand Maester Benifer suggested a match with the proud and lovely Lady of Starfall, Clarisse Dayne, in the hopes of detaching her lands and House from Dorne. Alton Butterwell, master of coin, offered his widowed sister, a stout woman with seven children. Though admittedly no beauty, he argued, her fertility had been proved beyond a doubt. The King’s Hand, Lord Celtigar, had two young maiden daughters, thirteen and twelve years of age respectively. He urged the king to take his pick of them, or marry both if he preferred. Lord Velaryon of Driftmark advised Maegor to send for his niece Princess Rhaena, his brother’s daughter and the widow of his brother’s son, and take her to wife. By wedding Rhaena, the king would unite their claims and strengthen the royal bloodline.
King Maegor listened to each man in turn. Though in the end he scorned most of the women they put forward, some of their reasons and arguments took root in him. He would have a woman of proven fertility, he decided, though not Butterwell’s fat and homely sister. He would take more than one wife, as Lord Celtigar urged. Two wives would double his chances of getting a son; three wives would triple it. And one of those wives should surely be his niece; there was wisdom in Lord Velaryon’s counsel. Queen Alyssa and her two youngest children remained in hiding (it was thought that they had fled across the narrow sea, to Tyrosh or perhaps Volantis), but they still represented a threat to Maegor’s crown and any son he might father. Taking Aenys’s daughter to wife would weaken any claims put forward by her younger siblings.
After the death of her husband in the Battle Beneath the Gods Eye, Rhaena Targaryen had acted quickly to protect her daughters. If Prince Aegon had truly been the king, then by law his eldest daughter Aerea stood his heir, and might therefore claim to be the rightful Queen of the Seven Kingdoms…but Aerea and her sister Rhaella were barely a year old, and Rhaena knew that to trumpet such claims would be tantamount to condemning them to death. Instead, she dyed their hair, changed their names, and sent them from her, entrusting them to certain powerful allies, who would see them fostered in good homes by worthy men who would have no inkling of their true identity. Even their mother must not know where the girls were going, the princess insisted; what she did not know she could not reveal, even under torture.
No such escape was possible for Rhaena Targaryen herself. Though she could change her name, dye her hair, and garb herself in a tavern wench’s roughspun or the robes of a septa, there was no disguising her dragon. Dreamfyre was a slender, pale blue she-dragon with silvery markings who had already produced two clutches of eggs, and Rhaena had been riding her since the age of twelve. Dragons are not easily hidden. Instead the princess saddled her, and took them both as far from Maegor as she could, to Fair Isle, where Lord Farman granted her the hospitality of Faircastle, with its tall white towers rising above the Sunset Sea. And there she rested, reading, praying, wondering how long she would be given before her uncle sent for her. Thaena never doubted that he would, she said afterward; it was question of when, not if.
The summons came sooner that she would have liked though not as soon as she might have feared. There was no question of defiance. That would only bring the king down on Fair Isle on Balerion. Rhaena hand grown fond of Lord Farman, and more than fond of his second son, Androw. She would not repay their kindness with fire and blood. She mounted Dreamfyre and flew to the Red Keep, where she learned that she must marry her uncle, her husband’s killer.
And there as well Rhaena met her fellow brides, for this was to be a triple wedding. All three of the new queens-to-be were widows. Lady Jeyne of House Westerling had been married to Lord Alyn Tarbeck, who had marched beside Prince Aegon, and died with him in the Battle Beneath the Gods Eye. A few months later, she had given her late lord a posthumous son. Tall and slender, with lustrous brown hair, Lady Jeyne was being courted by a younger son of the Lord of Casterly Rock when Maegor sent for her, but this meant little and less to the king.
More troubling was the case of Lady Elinor of House Costayne, the fiery red-haired wife of Ser Theo Bolling, a landed knight who had fought for the king in his last campaign against the Poor Fellows. Though only nineteen, Lady Elinor had already given Bolling three sons when the king’s eye fell upon her. The youngest boy was still at her breast when their father, Ser Theo, was arrested by two knights of the Kingsguard and charged with conspiring with Queen Alyssa to murder the king and place the boy Jaehaerys on the Iron Throne. Though Bolling protested his innocence, he was found guilty and beheaded the same day. King Maegor gave his widow seven days to mourn, in honor of the gods, then summoned her to tell her they would marry.
At the town of Stoney Sept, Septon Moon appeared to denounce King Maegor’s wedding plans, and hundreds of townfolk cheered wildly, but few others dared to raise their voices against His Grace. The High Septon took ship at Oldtown, sailing to King’s Landing to perform the marriage rites. On a warm spring day in the forty-seventh year After the Conquest, Maegor Targaryen took three wives in the ward of the Red Keep. Though each of his new queens was garbed and cloaked in the colors of her father’s House, the people of King’s Landing called them “the Black Brides,” for all were widows.

 

[Daena]

Спойлер: Часть11

The presence of Lady Jeyne’s son and Lady Elinor’s three boys at the wedding ensured that they would play their parts in the ceremony, but there were many who expected some show of defiance from Princess Rhaena. Such hopes were quelled when Queen Tyanna appeared, escorting two young girls with silver hair and purple eyes, clad in the red and black of House Targaryen. “You were foolish to think you could hide them from me,” Tyanna told the princess. Rhaena bowed her head, and spoke her vows, weeping.
Many queer and contradictory stories are told of the night that followed, and with the passage of so many years it is difficult to separate truth from legends. Did the three Black Brides share a single bed, as some claim? It seems unlikely. Did His Grace visit all three women during the night, and consummate all three unions? Perhaps. Did Princess Rhaena attempt to kill the king with a dagger concealed beneath her pillows, as she later claimed? Did Elinor Costayne scratch the king’s back to bloody ribbons as they coupled? Did Jeyne Westerling drink the fertility potion that Queen Tyanna supposedly brought her, or throw it in the older woman’s face? Was such a potion ever mixed or offered? The first account of it does not appear until well into the reign of King Jaehaerys, twenty years after both women were dead.
This we know. In the immediate aftermath of the wedding, King Maegor declared Princess Rhaena’s daughter Aerea his lawful heir, “until such time as the gods grant me a son,” whilst sending her twin sister Rhaella to Oldtown to be raised as a septa. His nephew Jaehaerys, felt by many to be the rightful heir, was expressly disinherited in the same decree. Queen Jeyne’s son was confirmed as Lord of Tarbeck Hall, and sent to Casterly Rock to be raised as a ward of House Lannister, and Queen Elinor’s elder boys were similarly disposed of, one to the Eyrie, one to Highgarden. The queen’s youngest babe was turned over to a wet nurse, as the king found the queen’s nursing irksome.
Half a year after the wedding, Lord Celtigar, the King’s Hand, announced that Queen Jeyne was with child. Hardly had her belly begun to swell when the king himself revealed that Queen Elinor was also pregnant. Maegor showered both women with gifts and honors, and granted new lands and offices to their fathers, brothers, and uncles, but his joy proved to be short-lived. Three moons before she was due, Queen Jeyne was brought to bed by a sudden onset of labor pains, and was delivered of a stillborn child as monstrous as the one Alys Harroway had birthed, a legless and armless creature possessed of both male and female genitals. Nor did the mother long survive the child.
Maegor was cursed, men said. He had slain his nephew, made war against the Faith and the High Septon, defied the gods, committed murder and incest, adultery and rape. His privy parts were poisoned, his seed full of worms, the gods would never grant him a living son. Or so the whispers ran. Maegor himself settled on a different explanation, and sent Ser Owen Bush and Ser Maladon Moore to seize Queen Tyanna and deliver her to the dungeons.
There the Pentoshi queen made a full confession, even as the king’s torturers readied their implements: she had poisoned Jeyne Westerling’s child in the womb, just as she had Alys Harroway’s. It would be the same with Elinor Costayne’s whelp, she promised. It is said that the king slew her himself, cutting out her heart with Blackfyre and feeding it to his dogs. But even in death, Tyanna of the Tower had her revenge, for it came to pass just as she had promised. The moon turned and turned again, and in the black of the night ueen Elinor too was delivered of a malformed and stillborn child, an eyeless boy born with rudimentary wings.
That was in the forty-eighth year after Aegon's Conquest, the sixth year of King Maegor's reign and the last year of his life. No man in the Seven Kingdom could doubt that the king was accursed now. What followers still remain to him begin to melt away, evaporating like dew in the morning sun. Word reached King’s Landing that Ser Joffrey Doggett had been seen entering Riverrun, not as a captive but as a guest of Lord Tully. Septon Moon appeared once more, leading thousands of the Faithful on a march across the Reach to Oldtown, with the announced intent of bearding the Lickspittle in the Starry Sept to demand that he denounce “the Abomination on the Iron Throne,” and lift his ban on the military orders. When Lord Oakheart and Lord Rowan appeared before him with their levies, they came not to attack Moon but to join him. Lord Celtigar resigned as King’s Hand and returned to his seat on Claw Isle.
Reports from the Dornish marches suggested that the Dornishmen were gathering in the passes, preparing to invade the realm.
The worst blow came from Storm’s End. There on the shores of Shipbreaker Bay, Lord Rogar Baratheon proclaimed young Jaehaerys Targaryen to be the true and lawful king of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men, and Prince Jaehaerys named Lord Rogar Protector of the Realm and Hand of the King. The prince’s mother Queen Alyssa and his sister Alysanne stood beside him as Jaehaerys unsheathed Dark Sister and vowed to end the reign of his usurping uncle. A hundred banner lords and stormland knights cheered the proclamation. Prince Jaehaerys was fourteen years old when he claimed the throne: a handsome youth, skilled with lance and longbow, and a gifted rider. More, he rode a great bronze and tan beast called Vermithor, and his sister Alysanne, a maid of twelve, commanded her own dragon, Silverwing. “Maegor has only one dragon,” Lord Rogar told the stormlords. “Our prince has two.”
And soon three. When word reached the Red Keep that Jaehaerys was gathering his forces at Storm’s End, Rhaena Targaryen mounted Dreamfyre and flew to join him, abandoning the uncle she had been forced to wed. She took her daughter Aerea…and Blackfyre, stolen from the king’s own scabbard as he slept.
King Maegor’s response was sluggish and confused. He commanded the Grand Maester to send forth his ravens, summoning all his leal lords and bannermen to gather at King’s Landing, only to find that Benifer had taken ship for Pentos. Finding Princess Aerea gone, he sent a rider to Oldtown to demand the head of her twin sister Rhaella, to punish their mother for her betrayal, but Lord Hightower imprisoned his messenger instead. Two of his Kingsguard vanished one night, to go over to Jaehaerys, and Ser Owen Bush was found dead outside a brothel, his member stuffed into his mouth.

 

[Daena]

Спойлер: Часть 12

Lord Velaryon of Driftmark was amongst the first to declare for Jaehaerys. As the Velaryons were the realm’s traditional admirals, Maegor woke to find he had lost the entire royal fleet. The Tyrells of Highgarden followed, with all the power of the Reach. The Hightowers of Oldtown, the Redwynes of the Arbor, the Lannisters of Casterly Rock, the Arryns of the Eyrie, the Royces of Runestone…one by one, they came out against the king.
In King’s Landing, a score of lesser lords gathered at Maegor’s command, amongst them Lord Darklyn of Duskendale, Lord Massey of Stonedance, Lord Towers of Harrenhal, Lord Staunton of Rook’s Rest, Lord Bar Emmon of Sharp Point, Lord Buckwell of the Antlers, the Lords Rosby, Stokeworth, Hayford, Harte, Byrch, Rollingford, Bywater, and Mallery. Yet they commanded scarce four thousand men amongst them all, and only one in ten of those were knights.
Maegor brought them together in the Red Keep one night to discuss his plan of battle. When they saw how few they were, and realized that no great lords were coming to join them, many lost heart, and Lord Hayford went so far as to urge His Grace to abdicate and take the black. His Grace ordered Hayford beheaded on the spot and continued the war council with his lordship’s head mounted on a lance behind the Iron Throne. All day the lords made plans, and late into the night. It was the hour of the wolf when at last Maegor allowed them to take their leave. The king remained behind, brooding on the Iron Throne as they departed. Lord Towers and Lord Rosby were the last to see His Grace.
Hours later, as dawn was breaking, the last of Maegor’s queens came seeking after him. Queen Elinor found him still upon the Iron Throne, pale and dead, his robes soaked through with blood. His arms had been slashed open from wrist to elbow on jagged barbs, and another blade had gone through his neck to emerge beneath his chin.
Many to this day believe it was the Iron Throne itself that killed him. Maegor was alive when Rosby and Towers left the throne room, they argue, and the guards at the doors swore that no one entered afterward, until Queen Elinor made her discovery. Some say it was the queen herself who forced him down onto those barbs and blades, to avenge the murder of her first husband. The Kingsguard might have done the deed, though that would have required them to act in concert, as there were two knights posted at each door. It might also have been a person or persons unknown, entering and leaving the throne room through some secret passage. The Red Keep has its secrets, known only to the dead. It may also be that the king tasted despair in the dark watches of the night and took his own life, twisting the blades as needed and opening his veins to spare himself the defeat and disgrace that surely awaited him.
The reign of King Maegor I Targaryen, known to history and legend as Maegor the Cruel, lasted six years and sixty-six days. Upon his death his corpse was burned in the yard of the Red Keep, his ashes interred afterward on Dragonstone beside those of his mother. He died childless, and left no heir of his body.
Nine days later, three dragons were seen in the sky over King’s Landing. Princess Rhaena had returned, and with her came her brother Jaehaerys and her sister inviting all lords great and small to come to King’s Landing to bear witness at the coronation of a new king, a true king.
And they came.
In the forty-eighth year After the Conquest, before the eyes of gods and men and half the lords of Westeros, the High Septon of Oldtown placed his father’s golden crown upon the brow of the young prince, and proclaimed him Jaehaerys of House Targaryen, the First of His Name, King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men, and Lord of the Seven Kingdoms. His mother Alyssa would act as his regent during the remaining years of the king’s minority, whilst Lord Rogar Baratheon was named Protector of the Realm and Hand of the King. (Half a year later, the two of them would wed.)
Fourteen years old at his ascent, Jaehaerys would sit the Iron Throne for five-and-fifty years, and in due course become known as “the Old King” and “the Conciliator.” But that is a tale best told at another time, by another maester.

 

[Daena]

Все.

 

[Меда]

Заранее извиняюсь, если вдруг увидите пропущенный кусок или опечатку, или ошибку. Чертова гугл-книга не давала копировать всем кусокм, так что я копипастила кусками, пока не выкопировала квоту. Плюс почему-то не копировались первые и последние строки на страницах.
Все это набирала руками, вот этими самыми, блин. (однако, я быстро набираю, правда такая фигня получается).

Леди, вы - герой! Спасибо вам огромное

 

[Лаэлли]

Вообще, мне чего-то начинает казаться, что с Мэйгором "что-то не так" было с самого начала - слишком уже сильно им пренебрегал Эйгон (ко двору настойчиво не зазывал, особо участия в воспитании не принимал, хотя с Эйнисом много времени проводил, вырастить сыновей такими же друзьями, как сам был с Орисом, не пытался...), быстренько согласился женить его на Серисе Хайтауэр (хотя необходимость именно этого брака пока неочевидна, чтобы унять Септу, кмк, достаточно было выбрать любую другую девицу из "хорошей семьи". Вот Висенью таким браком и заткнуть с ее попытками усилить претензии Мэйгора на трон через брак с дочерью Эйниса, и позлить...)...
Будете смеяться, мне это чем-то напоминает отношение Тайвина к Тириону. С двумя уточнениями: у Мэйгора была мать, которая за него горой, и Мэйгор не родился карликом (т.е. презирать за неполноценность его не могли). В общем, что-то из серии " не могу доказать, что ты не моя кровь". Кмк, вопреки слухам ходившим о происхождении Эйниса, Эйгон подозревал что Мэйгор - не его сын.

 

[Alenna Redwin]

Всегда вызывала скептицизм Висенья. Казалось, что власть для неё важнее долга. Посмотрим.

Мне кажется, она сама путала свою жажду власти и трона для своего сына с долгом. То есть доля справедливости в ее рассуждениях была, но по сути она всю дорогу отыгрывает этакого обиженного Станниса, и это является одним из немаловажных импульсов в ее действиях.

Простите, но я все же дождусь саму книгу.
Потому что все равно слабо представляю суровую и воинственную "овцу Висенью, распускающую слухи". А то может там как с последними родами Рейниры, где архимейстер Гильдейн, вопреки временным рамкам, лично то ли свечку держал, то ли под дверью подслушивал с банкой.

...или так пишет Яндель.
Причем подчеркивается, что пишет Яндель не просто так, а со слов великого мейстера Гавена - о других же событиях такой сноски нет. Того самого Гавена, которого Мейгор быстро укоротил на голову.

*шепотом* это таки не у дедушки, а у мейстера Гильдейна. А "Гильдейн" не столько "как было" рассказывает, сколько "как принято считать в 7к".

О, так и знала, что, конечно же, пойдут разговоры о том, что на самом деле всё не так было. Лично мне кажется, что здесь это совершенно не актуально, и рассказано ровно то, что Мартин нам хотел рассказать. Это не тот кусок Мира, который об Эйрисе с Рейгаром или Эйгоне Невероятном, где правду хрен найдешь, потому что там вмешался Пицель, и все эти события важны для финала самой саги ПЛиО. Это не Танец Драконов, где откровенно противоположные версии, и полный текст истории нам еще неизвестен. Я лично с чтения вообще не помню особо ссылок на то, кто что написал. Ну, может быть, просто это я не помню уже. По крайней мере, у меня точно было ощущение что Мартин уже расставил все акценты и разъяснил то, что было спорно в Мире относительно характеров персонажей (например, историю с Мейгором и кошкой), выдав нам именно то, как он видит эту историю.
Про Висенью, конечно же, сказано, что именно она это делала "по некоторым сведениям". Но я не представляю, для чего вообще упоминать эту новую информацию, если это не является именно тем, как сам Мартин ситуацию и видит. И там у Висеньи еще масса всяких других ярких проявлений недовольства тем, что на троне сидит Эйнис, а не ее сынуля. Да и сама формулировка о мече отца, отданном Мейгору, что Эйнис явно сделал от чистого сердца, прямо кричит о Висенье.
Что касается того, почему Эйнис был удивлён восстанием, Убийца Матрешек говорит о СД, а не Мире, где это выглядит действительно довольно дебильно из-за усечения текста, в СД же это всё довольно подробно расписано. Эйнис рос в очень спокойное время, Эйгон таскал его с собой во все свои командировки по регионам, Эйниса с женой все обожали: и народ, и лорды. А когда ему стукнул тридцатник, и он взошел на трон, просто подросло новое поколение молодых, четких и дерзких, готовых кому-то что-то доказывать и восстанавливать попранные права. К такому Эйниса жизнь не готовила. Поэтому его удивление было вполне логичным. Он был красавчиком мужчиной, которого обожают женщины, человеком умным и добрым, обожал как Ренли красивую одежду и прочее цацки, интересовался науками и искусствами, астрологией, прекрасно пел. Не был супер воином , но, как говорится , не посрамил бы себя в бою . Всегда прислушивался к советам, шел на компромиссы и старался все решать миром.

Увы, непринципиально.
Ну, спорили они. Так 30 дней спорили. К делу-то переходили?
Спорили, спорили - бац, сверху на них из огнемета... Нехорошо, однако...

Ещё как принципиально. Они должны были признать власть Мейгора или его наследника, в случае если Мейгор всё-таки не выжил бы, сразу после суда. А тут получается Мейгор честно и смело вышел на бой, предложил всё решить без войны, по их же септрианским правилам и заморочкам, Сыны Воина же поденько решили его подставить, предложив 7 на 7, в расчёте на то, что все очканут умереть за Мейгора. Не вышло. Мэйгор честно победил и сам чуть не умер, отстаивая свои права в проигрышний позиции иргы по чужим правилам. Но вместо того, чтобы признать уже в конце-концов свое поражение, Сыны зашкерились в Септе Поминовения и сидели там с рассуждениями в духе: "а, пофиг, что Мейгор доказал свою правоту по нашим же правилам, мы будем подчиняться верховному септону, и нии... колышет". У меня во время чтения на этом моменте у самой уже было желание просто сжечь всех этих подлых тварей там дотла на месте Мейгора, а потом я такая: "Wait, oh sh..., он ведь это и сделает сейчас", только до этого Мартин не дочитал.

..и после всего этого Яндель на голубом глазу твердит, что Мейгора так ненавидели, ну так ненавидели, особенно к концу правления... аж кушать не могли, бедные...

Ну, кто-то ненавидел, а кто-то любил . По тому отрывку, который Мартин прочитал в Рощино, Мейгор выглядят вообще очень адекватным, но не даром Дедушка (Недедушка), закончив чтение, упомянул что дальше в повести мы узнаем еще много подробностей о короле Мейгоре, которого не зря прозвали Жестоким. Так что не удивляюсь, что к концу правления он всё-таки успел настроить против себя огромное количество народа.

Еще интересно было, что после истеричного письма Верховного Септона, вызванного вторым браком Мейгора, Эйнис предложил Мейгору 2 варианта на выбор: set aside Алис, или уехать в ссылку на 5 лет. Мейгор выбрал второе.


UPD: ой, поздно я, тут уже оригинал Daena выкладывает.

 

[Ашка-Вайти]

Будете смеяться, мне это чем-то напоминает отношение Тайвина к Тириону. С двумя уточнениями: у Мэйгора была мать, которая за него горой, и Мэйгор не родился карликом (т.е. презирать за неполноценность его не могли). В общем, что-то из серии " не могу доказать, что ты не моя кровь". Кмк, вопреки слухам ходившим о происхождении Эйниса, Эйгон подозревал что Мэйгор - не его сын.

Чтобы Висенья допустила кого-то еще в свою постель кроме брата? Как-то не верится в это, если допустить что она для зачатия использовала магию, то вполне вероятно Эйгон подсознательно чувствовал что в Мейгоре что-то не так, соответственно держался от него подальше.

 

[Лаэлли]

Чтобы Висенья допустила кого-то еще в свою постель кроме брата?

учитывая "оперативность" объявления о беременности - как раз в тот момент, когда Эйгону собирались "подсунуть" новую жену из числа лордских дочек, а Эйнис крепко занедужил после исчезновения (смерти?) матери? Тем более, что до этого, даже с учетом всех проблем Таргов с размножением (долго не было наследника вообще), Висенья никакой супермагии для зачатия, похоже, не применяла. Кмк, вся эта самая "магия", позволившая Висеньe наконец родить, вполне могла заключаться в банальной смене "производителя".
Возможно, мысль о том, что "все достанется сыну Эйгона и Рейнис" Висенья еще могла вынести (хотя потом и это ее устраивать перестало, Мэйгор-кровиночка же появился), а вот "мы старались, а все загребет ребенок Эйгона и какой-то левой дамочки" - нет.
Не настаиваю, впрочем.

 

[Alenna Redwin]

Тема для перевода.

 

[Меда]

Мне кажется, она сама путала свою жажду власти и трона для своего сына с долгом. То есть доля справедливости в ее рассуждениях была, но по сути она всю дорогу отыгрывает этакого обиженного Станниса, и это является одним из немаловажных импульсов в ее действиях.

А мне не кажется, что это вам кажется)
Так и не поняла, где вы углядели "овцу Висенью", рубящую какие-то там суки...
Ее сына методично вышибали с места, на которое он имел все права. Ее сына унижали. Ее сына, наконец, изгнали. А плохая Висенья всего-то и сделала, что после того, как терпеть уже не было никаких возможностей, гордо удалилась в свой дом, бросив Эйниса-предателя с его драгоценной семейкой?..
Или она "рубящая сук овца" потому что после того, как Эйнис столько раз предавал и бросал ее сына, своего брата, не встретила племяничка хлебом-солью?
Или потому что чуть-чуть и по сплетням показала зубы?
А может она потому что она все же возилась с предателем-племянничком, а после его смерти сразу вылетела за Мейгором?..
Или все дело в том, что она нашла в себе силы в ее-то годы лично проверить что с ее сыном и настоять, что победа - его?..
Или в том, что она сохла и чахла, видя во что превращается ее сын и ее страна?
Или в том, что она то ли так вовремя умерла, то ли помогла сбежать детям Эйниса и его супружнице, которые якобы сидели в плену и шагу не могли ступить?..
Но если это - рубила сук, на котором сидела и "овца", кто тогда Алисска-то?.. Стравливала родственников, доставала брата собственного мужа, хотя лично ей, как бы, гордиться нечем, отреклась от сыновей, как только их родство стало опасным, а дело, в которое она их втравила - проигранным. Прекрасная женщина

О, так и знала, что, конечно же, пойдут разговоры о том, что на самом деле всё не так было. Лично мне кажется, что здесь это совершенно не актуально, и рассказано ровно то, что Мартин нам хотел рассказать.

Даже не сомневаюсь) особенно в причинах, почему для вас "здесь это совершенно не актуально".
И остаюсь при своем мнении.
Когда Мартин хочет рассказать, Мартин рассказывает, как есть. Когда Мартин хочет вбросить - в ход идут "мейстеры" и их истории.
Даже по этой истории несостыковка на несостыковке. То Мейгора все боятся и друзей нет, то на его зов является человек, знавший его с детства, и прекрасно понимающий, что у него шансов выжить нет. То быть устрашающим на поле боя и не прощать побежденных, если ты Мейгор, плохо, то - рубить конечности, находящемуся в твоей власти сыну врага, и любоваться на них до самой смерти - вот он, финал, достойный настоящего мужчины.

Про Висенью, конечно же, сказано, что именно она это делала "по некоторым сведениям". Но я не представляю, для чего вообще упоминать эту новую информацию, если это не является именно тем, как сам Мартин ситуацию и видит. И там у Висеньи еще масса всяких других ярких проявлений недовольства тем, что на троне сидит Эйнис, а не ее сынуля. Да и сама формулировка о мече отца, отданном Мейгору, что Эйнис явно сделал от чистого сердца, прямо кричит о Висенье.

А для чего в основной Саге упоминать, что Санса превратилась в крылатую волчицу и, убив Джоффа, улетела? Или Оленну Тирелл, якобы уронившую своего мужа со скалы? А в "Рыцаре" зачем рассказывать о Бриндене Риверсе, который, по тем же "некоторым сведениям" планирует переморить всю свою Таргосемью? Или Ширу, которая купается в крови?
О чем кричат ее слова я так же не поняла. Ну, кроме того, что терпение Висеньи было не безгранично. Но этак ей в вину и "кричащее поведение" нужно записать и то, что она, после того как Эйнис покусился на права ее сосланного сына, покинула его серпентарий в свете кровавой (непременно) луны.
з.ы. К слову, о световых эффектах.. а не комета ли наша, красная, дала такой эффект?

 

[Gravemaster]

Заранее извиняюсь, если вдруг увидите пропущенный кусок или опечатку, или ошибку.

Я нашел другую версию, сравнил с вашей и там на 80 слов больше. Сейчас все в ворд кину и залью куда-нибудь.

 

[Меда]

*в печали смотрит на герб* мне одной кажется, что в версии мейстера, Эйгон Завоеватель - тот еще долбодятел?..

 

[Shtee]

Господи, мало, мало-то как!!!

 

[ЛедиЛёд]

Господи, мало, мало-то как!!!

Конкретно: 17 088 слов.
И к тому же получерновик.

Что ж, можно сказать только одно: не только российские издатели пытаются срубить денежку любой ценой...

мне одной кажется, что в версии мейстера, Эйгон Завоеватель - тот еще долбодятел?..

Увы, не только вам.
Версии о Завоевателе-долбодятле ходят еще с 2013 года, с момента самых первых чтений после Мартиновского таргозапоя.
Потому мне и ближе версия о Висенье-завоевательнице. Как-то не верится, что мужик мог оказаться способным задумать и осуществить столь грандиозный проект, как Завоевание, а в семье у него - просто ох, и слов-то вежливых не найти...