Chapter 36.5- The Seadragon's Roar

They walked forward as one, having left their Sandsteeds some distance away. The rules around entrance into the fortress were old, and every noble son of Dorne learned them early enough. Some did it while held to their mother’s breasts. Others, like he and Yoren, learned it playing at the feet of the Prince of Dorne themselves.

“Who goes you?” The prompt came from the shadows of the mountainous path. The wrong answer would lead to them being filled with more arrows than any man could count before they would even finish the statement.

“The snake, the scorpion, the venom. I ask you, my good man, who goes you?” The code, designed to be nonsensical quite intentionally, was more than just a test of knowledge. Say the words with the wrong accent, and it was over for you. Say them with too heavy an accent, and much the same would be the case. This was designed to prevent even Faceless men from entry. Nothing the Targaryens could ever try would make its way to the Prince in here, at least that had been the intention. If only Nymeria had foreseen treason as the undoing of the Principality of Dorne. Well, if she had, then their plan would be even more difficult to execute.

“Well enough. What seeks thee in the shadow of the pass?”

“The milk of a mother’s venom. What seeks thee in my mouth?” He replied the prompt perfectly again, and then he heard it. It was his fifth time here. Whenever the Prince did something and suspected the Targaryens would retaliate in some way, or whenever he was feeling more paranoid than usual, he retreated from Sunspear into his mountain fortress. The winch began to move, activating the mechnism that moved the thick wall buried into the side of the mountain.

“Good to see you, Icarus, Yoren” He heard the voice before he saw its owner. Even with as many torches as they had, the nature of a fortress built into the side of a mountain was that it was near impossible to properly light. He accepted the hug though.

“Good to see you as well, Gerold” he said. And he felt a twinge in his chest. If this man knew just what he and Yoren had come here to do, then he would remove their heads from their shoulders with that sword of his before they could even react. He would have to be removed eventually, because he would hunt them to the ends of the world once they did what they were about to.

“And Yoren, you little scamp, what’s it been since I last saw you? Three years? Five? Not got the time for old teachers now that you are a High Lord and whatnot?”

“You know it’s not like that, Gerold. Fatherhood. It just…it takes a lot out of you” He said.