The Prince of Thorns

♟Preparations🛡

Bronn, Alester and Tyrion sit in his chambers. Alester is looking at maps. Tyrion is attempting to read, but he is annoyed by Bronn's fingernail scraping with a compass.

TYRION: "Do you have to do that here?"

BRONN: "I like to keep me hands clean."

ALESTER: "Your kidding?"

Bronn looks at Alester, then throws the compass down on the desk in front of him.

TYRION: "You should start wearing the gold cloak."

BRONN: "I don't want to wear a gold cloak."

ALESTER: "You're commander of the City Watch. You should dress the part."

BRONN: "A cloak slows you down in a fight. Makes it hard to move quietly. And the gold catches the light, so you're nice and easy to spot at night."

TYRION: "Well, you're not sneaking through alleyways any longer. You're supposed to stand out."

BRONN: "We had a deal and wearing a gold cloak wasn't part of it."

TYRION: "Fine, fine. No gold cloak."

Tyrion goes back to his work. Bronn sucks his teeth and drums his finger, continuing to look at Tyrion.

TYRION: "What?"

BRONN: "What?"

TYRION: "What? What? Why are you staring at me?"

BRONN: (scoffs) "You don't want me cleaning me nails. You don't want me looking your way. Why am I here?"

ALESTER: "To help us plan the defense of King's Landing."

Bronn laughs as he stands up and begins to pace around.

TYRION: "Stannis will be here any day."

Bronn picks up a book from the pile as he walks past.

BRONN: "And one of these explains how to beat him?"

Tyrion gestures to the volume that he is reading.

TYRION: "An History of the Great Sieges of Westeros. " By Archmaester Shevelathin. Shevelatesh."

BRONN: "Chevalteesh. I'd swap all your books for a few good archers."

ALESTER: "A good plan of defense can be as effective as a thousand men."

Varys enters.

VARYS: My Lords. Commander. I must compliment you on the gold cloaks' performance these last few weeks. Did you know there has been a marked drop in thievery?

He sits.

TYRION: "I did not know. And how did you accomplish this marked drop in thievery?"

BRONN: "Me and the lads rounded up all the known thieves."

TYRION: "For questioning?"

BRONN: "No. It's just the unknown thieves we need to worry about now."

TYRION: "We talked about this."

BRONN: "Aye, we talked about it. Have you ever been in a city under siege? Maybe this part's not in your books. See, it's not the fighting that kills most people. It's the starving. Food's worth more than gold. Noble ladies sell their diamonds for a sack of potatoes. Things get bad enough, the poor start eating each other."

ALESTER: "The man's gotta point. War shows the true in people. Bad and good."

Bronn sits back down at the table. Pleased with himself.