A Shadow and a Wolf

Kevan IV

Riverrun surrendered. Lord Edmure Tully has been given the castle and reinstated as Lord Paramount of the Trident before the obvious inability of House Frey to keep the Riverlands in the king's peace. Men were dispatched to Raventree Hall and Seagard to end the fightings still going on there, as well as to the Twins to receive the fealty of House Frey to the Crown and to their liege lord. Peace will be re-established soon in the Riverlands.

Tyrion Lannister, Lord of Casterly Rock, Shield of Lannisport, Lord of the Westerlands and Warden of the West.

Pycelle's quivering voice read the message they received from Tyrion yesterday. It was sent from Riverrun with one of their ravens, but it had the seal of Casterly Rock on it and Tyrion's signature. Kevan had sighed in relief when he had read the message for the first time, but now he showed no emotion as the Grand Maester read the new before the small council.

The small council had taken a very odd appearance in the last weeks. Tommen still sat at the head of the long table with Kevan at his right. However, for two weeks now, the queen sat left to the king, face to face with Kevan, and it became very obvious for more and more people that the Hand and the queen were fighting for the king's ear. Kevan could live with that, though he wished he didn't have to. Tommen hadn't wanted to back down on this matter and ordered that Margaery Tyrell would be present at every meeting of the small council. Kevan didn't have many reasons to give against it. Cersei's decisions back when she was Queen Regent came back to hunt them. She created a very recent example that legitimated Margaery Tyrell's place on the small council. If a Lannister queen once sat on the council, why not a Tyrell queen? There was nothing Kevan could oppose to that.

On the queen's left were her father, Mace Tyrell, the Lord of Highgarden, and Paxter Redwyne, the Lord of the Arbor and the Master of Ships. The Tyrell queen, the Lord of House Tyrell, and a Tyrell bannerman. Kevan was worried that there were so many Tyrells on the small council and in the capital. At least, Mace Tyrell was only there as an advisor and held no real power. Things were different for the Master of Ships and the queen. Kevan had his ow allies however. Ser Harys Swyft, his father-in-law and the Master of Coin, sat at his right. Kevan would have preferred to have Tyrion as Master of Coin, but his nephew was in the Riverlands, and marching on the Twins now. Pycelle was also a staunch supporter of House Lannister, though Kevan doubted his usefulness lately. The Grand Maester cumulated errors and failures for the last months. There was also Varys, the Spider, the Master of Whisperers, a man so mysterious that no one could guess who he was loyal to. He sat on the side of the table where Kevan and his allies were, but he couldn't be counted as an ally.

The member of the small council who made it quite unpredictable and dangerous was the Lady Nymeria Sand. She had arrived last week with a large retinue to take the seat her father occupied before his death. According to Varys, she was twenty-five and the second daughter of the Red Viper. He had her with a noblewoman from Volantis. Kevan couldn't have believed it from her appearance. She had a skin so pale that she could have come from the north of the Wall. However, if she had lived north of the Wall, she would have frozen immediately in her attire. She wore a very lightweight dress displaying most of her body with three overtures on the sides and between her legs. Her shoulders were entirely free of any cover just like almost half of her breasts, except for the long single braid that assembled all her black hair and fell to the level of her breasts. Margaery Tyrell's lightest gowns would have looked decent for the Sparrows in comparison. She sat there, at Lord Paxter's left, a leg crossed on the other one, listening to what was being said without really looking interested. She was the daughter of Oberyn Martell, there was no doubt about it.

The Sand Snake, like Varys told him Oberyn's daughters were called in Dorne, could turn a meeting of the council into hell with a single insult and could offer comments that could be very wise or so impertinent that it would make everyone around the table blush. She was also eyeing Tommen and every other man on the council, except Kevan and Varys after she probably understood she would get nothing from them. That made the relations between the two women on the small council silently thunderous, especially when Nymeria Sand was trying not very subtly to seduce Tommen. Kevan wished they had Doran Martell, or even his son Trystane, in the lady's place. She was an ally to no one, could cause more trouble than they could imagine and was totally impossible to predict just like her father.