For several hours, the only sounds in the Water Gardens besides the brothers' conversation were the children laughing by the fountains, and the occasional soft plop of another orange falling to the ground.
The fragrance of blood oranges filled the Water Gardens. The Red Viper stood beside Doran, while Captain Hotah guarded the archway.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
A short while later, the maester arrived to the sound of boots striking the floor, and the Sand Snakes came with him.
The first was Obara. Prince Doran knew the way she walked: long strides, quick, impatient, and angry. She always rode stallions. Some had heard her boast that she could tame any horse in Dorne, and any man.
Prince Doran truly envied the way they walked. Beneath his linen robe, his limp body had lost its shape, and his legs were a thing best not looked at. Gout had left his joints red, swollen, and grotesque. His left knee was like an apple, his right like a melon, while his toes had become ripe dark-red grapes that seemed ready to burst at a touch. Even the weight of a bedsheet was enough to make him tremble, yet he bore all his pain without complaint. Silence was a king's friend.
"Uncle. Father," Obara said.
Obara was the eldest of the Sand Snakes, nearly thirty, tall, with close-set eyes and mouse-brown hair just like the Oldtown prostitute who had borne her. She wore a mottled dark-gold cloak of sandsilk, and her riding clothes were old brown leather, worn soft and close to the body. They were the softest thing about her. A whip was coiled at one hip, and on her back hung a round shield of copper and iron, along with a spear.
Every Sand Snake was different.
The second Sand Snake, Nymeria Sand, was slender as a willow branch. Her straight black hair was braided into a long plait and tied with a red-gold cord. The widow's peak above her dark eyes was exactly like her father's. Her high cheekbones, full lips, and milky skin gave her the beauty her elder sister lacked. Lady Nym also looked remarkably graceful in a shimmering pale-purple gown. Obara's mother had been a prostitute from Oldtown, but Nym had the noblest blood of old Volantis.
The third Sand Snake was the quietest and the prettiest, but danger lay behind that quiet. She was the bastard daughter of the Red Viper and a septa. Tyene Sand wore a close-fitting pale-blue silk gown, and the intricate Myrish lace at her cuffs made her look as innocent as a maiden. She was beautiful, with golden hair and eyes like deep blue pools.
"Have you decided on war?" Obara asked them.
"We are ready," the other Sand Snakes answered solemnly.
"Our strength is great, but it is also small," Prince Doran said.
"Just give the order to take revenge on the Lannisters. In Sunspear, on the Broken Arm, along the Greenblood, in the mountains, deep in the great desert, everywhere in Dorne. The women will cheer, and the men will cheer too." Obara curled her lip.
"What would you have me do, child?" Doran asked.
"Uncle, you need not leave your wheelchair or the Water Gardens. My father can do it for you. You have one army at the Prince's Pass, and Lord Yronwood has another at the Boneway. Put them under my father's command. Whether along the Kingsroad or through the Marches, no one wants to die for the Lannisters. They all want to arrive in time for the feast of division."
"You want blood?"
"And gold. The road to the Westerlands is open too."
"We already have The Mountain's head."
"That was my father's doing. The Storm will not care much about it. I want more. More Dornish warriors, more blood. Let me put a spear through Tywin's belly and see whether there is gold inside."
"Look at those children, daughter," the Red Viper said instead.
Several of the older children lay facedown on the smooth pale-red marble, basking in the sun. The others wandered along the beach in the distance. Three were building sandcastles, while in the great pool, some children played as others watched. The youngest was no more than five, the eldest nine or ten. Half were girls, half were boys. Their sharp young voices rang out as they splashed water at one another.
"War is not a children's game. Your uncle has far more to consider. I promised revenge, but the plan is not what you imagine," the Red Viper replied.
"That is no small request, Obara. Let me think on it," Prince Doran said as well.
"You have thought for too long."
"Good things do not spoil by coming late," Doran said, looking at the Sand Snakes. "Once I have made my decision, I will send someone to Sunspear for you at once."
"Uncle, Obara shouts and roars, but I am different," Lady Nym said. "When the sweet news of The Mountain's death reached me, I was in bed with the Fowler twins. The news was too sweet, and I want more. You know House Fowler's words, don't you? Let Me Soar. That is all I ask you to give me. Let me soar, Uncle. I do not want an army, only one dear sister."
The captain of the guards looked at the girl. Obara had a whip at her waist and a spear in her hand, plain for all to see. But Lady Nym was just as dangerous. She always hid her daggers well.
"You want Tyene?" the Red Viper asked her.
"Yes. Obara is too loud, while Tyene is so sweet and gentle that no one would suspect her. I am not so greedy. I do not need an army. We can look at other prices. I want only four heads: the old lion of Lannister, the golden twins, and that bastard Joffrey."
"That boy has done nothing to us."
"That boy is a bastard born of betrayal, incest, and adultery. The Storm and Lord Stannis spoke true."
"You ask too much," Doran said.
"Perhaps just enough. We have waited more than ten years."
"The waiting has not been useless. Your father and I have been weighing the king and his small council all this time, watching their strengths and weaknesses. In secret, we have also sought friends. I told myself to investigate Elia's matter as much as possible, but not to anger Great Lord Tywin too much. For more than ten years, that is what I have told myself."
"Now we have friends," Lady Nym said. "Friends even more hot-blooded than we are."
"He is our friend, but also a dangerous one. He has many loyal servants, and even more enemies watching hungrily. So we wait a little longer."
"If I were you, I would never wait like this. At this very moment, spears thick as a forest should be sweeping down the Kingsroad."
"Tyene, what about you?" the Red Viper asked the third Sand Snake.
"I can do it alone." Lady Tyene's voice was very soft, and she looked as lovely as a summer strawberry. Her mother was a septa, which gave Tyene an innocence that almost seemed not of this world. "I can do something to ease the Lannisters' suffering."
"You want to go to King's Landing?" Doran asked.
"Yes." Tyene nodded.
"No. We have decided you are not going to King's Landing, but to the Stormlands or Dragonstone. Disguise yourself as a septa. That is what you do best."
"Why?" Tyene asked.
"The Storm has appeared in the Stormlands. King Renly is either dead or has been sent to The Wall. If you go upriver now, you can still catch up with them. Protect them, appear at the Storm's side, and keep Daenerys safe," the Red Viper arranged.
"What about us?" Obara and Lady Nym asked.
"You can help me clear the cobwebs from the house," the Red Viper said calmly.
The Old Palace and the Shadow City were full of spies. Some belonged to the Spider, and others to other lords of Dorne.
"Take Arianne with you. She should know that this is a bloody age," Doran instructed.
"With pleasure," the Sand Snakes said, satisfied, then turned and left.
"Is choosing Tyene too great a risk?" Doran asked the Red Viper.
"She is the quietest of my children, and the prettiest," the Red Viper declared.
"And the most dangerous. Obara's dagger, Nym's dagger, Tyene's poison. And there is a fourth Sand Snake, playing her games in Oldtown."
"The fourth is not quite suitable. Her skin is too conspicuous," the Red Viper said. That girl's mother had been a merchant captain from the Summer Isles.
"The first two are too hot-tempered, and their lives are too chaotic. Tyene may not be as devout as a septa, but she has not yet found a suitable man. Her standards are higher, her temperament is better, and she is the most beautiful maiden among them."
"I hope this gift of yours will move the Storm. But I fear Tyene may be moved by his charm instead, and then you will have lost a daughter."
"I trust my daughter, and I trust the Storm. She is qualified to seek the best, and need not be confined to Dorne." The Red Viper shrugged.
"We have no choice. Sending Tyene is nothing more than the personal choice of a Dornish bastard daughter, not mine and not yours," Doran reminded him.
"I will deal with the spies first, together with Arianne, Obara, and Nym," the Red Viper said. "For years, we pretended nothing was wrong. But now, I have long since had enough of the eunuch's stink."
"Very well." Doran nodded. "From Westeros to Volantis, the clouds of war are everywhere."
"But I think I will soon have to enter the field as well. The Dornish army cannot remain on the road forever. Once the Stormlands have fully gathered, King's Landing will be in grave danger." The Red Viper picked up an orange. Its flesh was red as blood, but its taste was very sweet.
"Perhaps the turning point is about to arrive," Doran said. "I hear the Lyseni and the Volantenes can hardly wait any longer, and the city-states of Slaver's Bay have already been sending money without cease. Tywin has sent out gold as well. War. A more tangled, greater war."
"Chaos is chaos, and war is war, but crowns are born from chaos. Opportunities are difficult to seize."
"I hope you are right." Doran nodded. "Though it is uncomfortable that the Storm has won, it is still better than the Lannisters."
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