"How has your life been here, Visenya?" Jaehaerys asked the little wolf.
"It doesn't smell like poop," replied the girl. Before, her comments were sporadic, as if she could barely control them. Now she seemed to say them naturally.
"I hated that King's Landing thing too," confessed the prince, earning a knowing smile from the little girl. "I heard you stopped spending time with the dragon," he asked.
During her first days in ArgentStone, she used to go to the Forest of the Gods to meet the red dragon. But she gradually went less and less until she stopped altogether.
"The dragon doesn't like me. He runs away from me," she said with annoyance. "He's not my companion. My companion wouldn't be afraid of a little girl; he's a coward!" she complained.
It was no surprise that the red dragon was the shyest, hiding from everyone except Jaehearys and Daenerys. Visenya had to make an effort to get close to him.
"A wolf scares everyone, even dragons," he said, waiting for her reaction.
"I'll make sure to howl if I see him again," she said, looking at Bethany in the distance and running in her direction, leaving the prince alone.
The girl became wilder in her castle, no longer renouncing her Stark side, much to her mother's delight. The girl spent the day running up and down, chasing around the grounds. Ser Barristan followed her. The old knight deserved credit; he never let her out of his sight.
Lyanna also seemed more at ease in ArgentStone. She had begun training with other guards. She wasn't powerful and her skills were stagnant, but she was slowly recovering, even though she often lost fights. But there was one thing no one could beat her at, and that was horseback riding. They called her a centaur. Any horse she rode became tame and obedient.
Jaehaerys thought it was the warg blood the Starks had. The prince noticed certain glances between the queen and Torrhen and had to warn them both that a possible romance should not happen. Not while ArgentStone was so exposed.
The king would look for any excuse to oppress him, and Jaehaerys's man sleeping with Rhaegar's wife would be enough.
Jaehaerys went to visit Ros. The young woman spent her time in the village, talking to merchants. The prince rode up the hillside on which his castle stood and made his way to the village. It had grown. There were tents pitched everywhere and people building wooden houses.
The prince found his former lover conversing with a wealthy, fat merchant. She had a tense smile on her face.
"And riches, my beautiful lady. I swear that if you accept my offer, you will never want for anything in your life," the man had to breathe heavily.
"I'm afraid I'm not looking for a husband at the moment," she declined politely.
"I'll talk to the prince, if that's what you're worried about. I'll give him a huge dowry," the people considered Ros part of his family, like an adopted daughter, so they looked at him when they asked for her hand.
"The prince will refuse," Ros watched Jaehaerys arrive.
"Bah! The prince will accept. I will give him a golden ship as a dowry," the man's eyes lost themselves in her curves.
"That ship would sink under its own weight," the prince interjected with a smile.
The man blushed and looked at the prince's smile. He felt fear in his bones. He gave a slight bow, wanting to bend over completely, but his fat body would not allow it. All the promises he had made to Ros vanished the moment he saw the lord of ArgentStone.
"My apologies," the man withdrew. The prince thought he would lose a few pounds running.
"You're scaring away my suitors," said the girl angrily.
"All the perfume I had on couldn't hide the smell of shit and urine on his body," replied the prince. "Although having a golden ship would have been nice."
"Would you trade me for one?" the girl narrowed her eyes.
"No," he replied quickly. "For two, maybe," he added jokingly.
"Idiot," the girl muttered. "What do you want?"
"Insulting a prince is a crime," he said.
"And what will you do?" she approached him defiantly. "Punish me?" She put her arms under her boobs, pushing it up.
Jaehaerys kept his eyes on hers. He had played that game for years. It no longer affected him.
Not that much.
His eyes dropped for a second to enjoy the view. She smiled, delighted.
"I'll give you more work," said the prince.
"Fuck you. No, even better, fuck me. Yes, tie me up and fuck me," the girl asked sweetly.
"I'm married. Remember," he refused. "I want to know how much you've earned in the last five moons," which was how long it had been since Ros returned from the king's landing—the exact amount of time since the dragons were born.
"Gold, gold, all you care about is gold," the woman snapped her fingers, and a girl brought her a leather-bound notebook.
Jaehaerys glanced through the book. Sales in the first month totaled 84,000 gold dragons. This was less than what he would have earned at the initial price. In the second month, he had no sales because he ran out of stock. In the third month, he earned half of what he had gained in the first month. Sales declined in the fourth month and remained at 26,000 in the fifth month. The main items sold were soaps, oils, and shampoos. Perfumes were less sought after.
Over time, prices fell, as he had expected. In the end, in those five months, he made a total of 178,000 one hundred seventy-eight thousand. Now that the price had stabilized, he expected to earn around 25,000 or 30,000 dragons per month. It wasn't much when compared to the 100,000 dragons that the Lannisters extracted every two moons.
He also had to deduct salaries, raw materials, and taxes paid to the capital, leaving him with about 70 percent of gross income. In other words, the nearly 178,000 he earned in five moons became 115,000.
"And you need 2,000 dragons a month. What for?" At least he was grateful that Ros wasn't lying to him by simply skimming income and stealing money.
"You asked me for a spy network. I'm building it," she answered, and Jaehaerys nodded.
"I can get someone else to take care of the business. I don't want to overload you," and she smiled affectionately at his show of concern.
"I feel so tired and... repressed," the girl reached out to take his hand. She began to caress his forearm. The other girl, who appeared to be Ros's assistant or apprentice, looked away.
"How are you building the spy web?" asked the prince.
"I've opened brothels in the village. There were already prostitutes, I just gave them a place to work. Their lives are better," she said.
She allowed them to work on other things. The girl who helped her agreed to work with her as an assistant. She knew how to count and was a valuable asset.
Many others preferred to spread their legs for a few silver coins, which she respected.
"Only in the village?" The idea made sense; that was how Baelish had started. That meant they would clash at some point.
"I bought one in Maidenpool and another in Riverrun. I'll take girls from here and send them there to gather information," the prince nodded.
"Take as much gold as you think necessary. Just make sure you record it. Build the foundations well, Ros. Don't rush," the prince held her cheek gently.
Shortly after, the prince left. The income was good, but it wouldn't work in the long run. He would start preparing to sell the glass. He needed to set up a space for the blowers to work.
He would not start selling glass until Brandon returned with the Unsullied. But he could start making it. He had left a furnace in the north; he already knew the process, and his glassmakers had been idling ever since.