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This time, at Jimmy's strong insistence, Daenerys left only Varys behind on Dragonstone to handle logistics.
His job was simple enough. Oversee the mining of dragonglass, load it onto ships, send it north to White Harbor, then have it worked into weapons there before forwarding it on to Winterfell.
By now, the Dothraki had already arrived in the North by sea, and the cold was hitting them hard.
Jimmy's Free Folk supplied them with a large amount of furs, which were quickly turned into winter clothing.
The heavy layers kept them warm, but they also made them far less agile.
The Dothraki had never worn armor in their lives, and this kind of bulk interfered badly with the way they fought. So they began drilling immediately, riding every day, and practicing with curved dragonglass blades until their bodies adapted.
With that many people gathered in one place, someone had to keep order.
That responsibility fell to Jimmy, Tyrion, and Jon.
Tyrion handled communication with Daenerys.
Jon managed Tormund, the Free Folk, and the northern levies.
Jimmy, meanwhile, was in charge of keeping the Dothraki in line.
And his method was simple.
Beat them.
Act up. Get beaten.
Provoke someone. Get beaten.
Ignore orders. Get beaten.
He would strip off the armor, go in with his fists, and put down one Dothraki after another.
In under three days, every last one of them had learned to behave.
At that point, Jimmy could have raised an arm and declared, My rules are the rules.
Right now, he was right in the middle of a crowd of Dothraki, casually plucking at one of their own instruments.
A moment later, a fiery, pulse-pounding tune burst out across the camp.
The effect was ridiculous.
By the time the song ended, even the turtles coming ashore at White Harbor looked like they were moving too fast.
Daenerys watched the lively crowd from a short distance away, with Tyrion beside her taking the occasional drink from his cup.
"Your Grace," Tyrion said, "what are you looking at?"
"A man with a remarkable presence," Daenerys said. "He draws people in without even trying. He was born to lead, wasn't he?"
Tyrion nodded.
"Yes. He has a way of making people trust him without realizing it. Even his enemies find it hard to fault his character."
He took another sip.
"Where's Jon today? I haven't seen him."
"With Rhaegal," Daenerys said. "The dragons need time to get used to the cold here. They don't like the North much. If Jon and Rhaegal can grow accustomed to one another, if they learn to move together, our strength in battle should rise considerably."
She truly did treat Jon, her nephew, with unusual generosity.
"You really are very good to him," Tyrion said.
Daenerys only smiled faintly and said nothing.
Over this time, she had seen enough of Jon's character to trust him, and she clearly did not mind the thought of him growing close to Rhaegal.
After a brief silence, she hesitated, then asked,
"Tyrion, Jimmy keeps calling you the sharpest mind in Westeros. Tell me something. Have you ever heard of the name Halstead? I never have."
"Before I met Jimmy, neither had I," Tyrion admitted. "Not among the great houses. Not among the lesser ones. Not even among landed knights."
He glanced toward the crowd.
"That said, we do have a few theories about who he might be. Whether any of them is right is another matter."
"The first time he appeared was in the dungeons beneath the Red Keep, when he broke Ned Stark out.
The first time he truly entered the public eye was in the Riverlands, disguised as the Knight of the Laughing Tree. You've heard of Gregor Clegane and Amory Lorch, haven't you, Your Grace?"
"Of course," Daenerys said. "Two monsters who preyed on women and children."
She knew exactly who they were. In truth, she hated them even more than she hated Jaime or Robert.
At least Jaime and Robert could claim circumstance.
What the Mountain and Amory had done was beyond contempt.
"Exactly. Jimmy's swordsmanship is extraordinary. He can take on Jon and a whole group of fighters at once and still come out on top.
Lord Eddard himself once said that if Ser Arthur Dayne had possessed even half of Jimmy's ability, there likely would have been no Warden of the North left after the fight at the Tower of Joy.
And yet, among the well-known names Jimmy has personally killed, there are only a few.
He killed Petyr Baelish to save Sansa. He killed Hother Umber and Ramsay Bolton during the war that brought the Free Folk into the open. All of those deaths came from circumstance, or from necessity.
But there were only two men he deliberately hunted down.
Gregor Clegane and Amory Lorch.
As the Knight of the Laughing Tree, Jimmy found them in the Riverlands. Amory was left pinned through with forty-seven swords. The Mountain had his skull caved in by Jimmy's bare hands.
Does that sound familiar?
For a time, people in the Riverlands even whispered that Prince Rhaegar himself had returned for vengeance.
Oh, and there's one more thing. You may know the story of the Knight of the Laughing Tree, but you probably don't know who that knight really was.
It was Lord Eddard's sister, Lyanna Stark.
Uncomfortable as it is to say, when Prince Rhaegar rode after the knight and knocked Lyanna's helm loose, she still managed to surprise him by hurling her shield and knocking him clean off his horse.
So that crowning of the Queen of Love and Beauty was not some grand romantic gesture. It was Rhaegar deciding he couldn't beat Lyanna."
Daenerys sat there in silence.
That was one hell of a revelation.
Still, the way Amory and the Mountain had died was deeply satisfying.
"And then there are Jimmy's eyes," Tyrion continued. "Blue, but with flashes of violet light now and then. Sound familiar?
So we came up with a theory.
Maybe Rhaegar and Lyanna had twins. One was Jon, taken away and raised by the Starks. The other was Jimmy.
Jimmy himself denies it, and no one has proof. After all, everyone who knew the truth is long dead."
Tyrion gave a small shrug.
So that was it.
At last, Daenerys felt as though several pieces had fallen into place.
No wonder he feared no fire.
No wonder dragons tolerated him.
He was Targaryen too.
Tyrion, of course, had his own reason for telling the story this way.
He wanted Daenerys to pay attention to Jimmy's nature.
Jimmy was kind, and not in some soft, shallow way. His sense of mercy shone with the same force as the truest knightly vows.
He treated strangers fairly. He spared the weak. He never went after women, children, or the helpless.
If Cersei were carrying a child, then no matter how furious Jimmy might be, he would spare her life for the child's sake, or at the very least spare the life inside her.
And if Daenerys cared about Jimmy's opinion, then she might start shaping her own choices to stay close to his standards.
If that happened, if she spared Cersei's unborn child, Tyrion would be satisfied.
As for Cersei herself, that was another matter entirely.
At that very moment, Jimmy had no idea he had once again been forcibly declared a Targaryen. He was still out there celebrating with the Dothraki.
Before long, word reached Jon, and Jon came looking for Jimmy.
Rickon, who had been staying in the Vale, had come back.
He said he wanted to fight beside his family.
Which was absurd.
The whole reason they had sent him to the Eyrie was to preserve the last blood of House Stark.
And now he had come back anyway.
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