Game of Thrones: King of Magic

Chapter 62

Eddard Stark. King's Landing.

The day of the tournament in my honor, held outside of the capital, had arrived, and it certainly did not bring me the same pleasure and merriment as the various lords and knights from across the realm who had arrived in King's Landing.

A total of three spectator boxes were set up. One was reserved for the royal family and was the highest; the second, close to the first, was for the nobles, the members of the Great Houses and the like, where I, Sansa, Renly, and so on sat; and the third, the lowest, was for those who had enough money and status. Ordinary people, on the other hand, stood on their own two feet, but that didn't make their interest and enthusiasm disappear.

Everywhere you could hear the clinking of coins in leather pouches, the singing of trumpets, the thunder of hooves and the noise of the crowd, steel, armor and armor glistened in the sun, banners of various houses fluttered in the wind, knights were not shy to show off in front of the royal family and noble ladies, and knights' shields were displayed above the door of every tent placed around.

Almost every citizen of the city wanted to watch the fights between the best of the best, but I knew how much gold dragons had gone into the organization and prizes. And every time I remembered the numbers, I got a headache, which was only made worse by the noise around me.

The tournament consisted of a knight's joust, a general bout, and an archery competition. Robert wanted to give the winners ninety thousand gold dragons alone, which could rightly be called extreme wastefulness. But I, with the help of Renly, Lord Baelish, and Ser Barristan, managed to temper his wishes by a quarter, which I was glad of.

Robert had always been stubborn, and he must have been to blame for the crown's debt, for Lord Baelish could not have behaved to the king as I did. If it were my will, I would not have held the tournament on principle, but Robert is still the king, and it is my duty to do his bidding.

As the tournament participants made their final preparations for the general battle, I shifted my gaze to Stannis and then to the royal box where Robert sat with Prince Joffrey and the queen.

I frowned inwardly, for the conversation with Stannis had kept me on my toes.

Stannis had never been a joker. He was strict and stern, and he valued dignity and honor. And he suspected that Robert's children were not his children at all, and that the queen had conceived all three Baratheons on the side, as I had thought in passing.

And it made sense, because when Stannis had come to my office, he'd brought the Baratheon family tree book with him, and every child with stag blood in his veins had black hair and blue eyes. Of course, there could be exceptions, as in the case of Sansa with red hair like Cat's, but for all three children to have traits of only their mother? That raised questions.

I have enough on my mind right now, as I have to sort through the backlog of cases that Jon left behind, but I MUST make time to research this issue. And if mine and Stannis' suspicions are true, then the Queen has sullied the honor of not only the Baratheons and Lannisters, but of royalty with an oath to the gods.

I made myself promise to look into the investigation beyond what I already had concerning Jon's murder and looked at Sansa. She was studying the nobles' box with her gaze and was definitely planning something, though I wasn't sure what.

I had some concerns about the safety of my girls, but she assured me that everything was fine, at least for now. That was rejoicing, however I was now concerned about another matter concerning my youngest daughter, which I decided to ask.

- Sansa?

- Yes, father?

- Where's Arya? I thought she would have wanted to see the general fight.