Chapter 33.2- The Seadragon's Roar

“In some ways, yes, and in some ways no. Thankfully, father had the bare bones of an agreement of sorts with the King. The crown never wants to be forced to defend the Stepstones when the Pirates come back, or when the Triarchy attacks again, or when Dorne gets another bright idea, so recognising them as full parts of the Seven Kingdoms wouldn’t really work. They’ll be a semi-independent protectorate. So while we are still subject to Westerosi law, and everything we do there will be subject to the same laws, the Stepstones will only have to agree to lower tolls for Westerosi ships. No taxes.” I said, and I could see her getting the idea.

“So if we move our shipbuilding and everything else to the Stepstones, we’ll be fine? But how are we going to do that?”

“Not easily, of course. I suspect that you and mother are going to have your hands full with managing that for the next decade maybe. But for the time being, we won’t have to move everything. For one thing, the new taxes don’t come into effect in the new year. By then we should have enough infrastructure in the Stepstones that we can split things to avoid the worst taxes. Something like maybe building half of a ship— the most important bits on Driftmark and then shipping it to the Stepstones for finishing” I said.

“And because we don’t build the complete ship on Driftmark, no taxes to worry about.”

“Indeed. It’s shameless tax avoidance, but no one likes paying taxes so who cares? They’ll challenge us on it, but we’d argue around it over and over again, and by the time they manage to amend things to close the loophole, we’d be fine”

“You’ve done a lot of thinking about this” She said, and it was almost accusational.

“Well, it’s not like I have much better to do than think these days”

“Think and buy expensive earrings for the Princess” She said. If I didn’t know better, I would have taken that as a throwaway statement, but thankfully I knew better. Laena and I weren’t twins, but there was a reason we had been mistaken for such in childhood. And that understanding I had of her hadn’t gone anywhere.

“Merely a gesture of gratitude. She had offered to show me around the city, you see?”

“I heard even. I think the only people in the Red keep who haven’t heard about it are the dead rats. The two of you smiling like suns and frolicking about the city must have made some sight.” She said.

“Is there something you want to say, Laena?”

“Are you trying to get the betrothal?” She asked point-blank. I looked in her eyes, seeing them guarded.

“No. No I am not. Getting tied to the royal family doesn’t work for my plans” I did not add the ‘for now’ to the end, even as I mentally said it.

“Good.”

“It was a gesture and nothing more.” I assured her. She nodded, seeming to be in a better mood about things.

“Good then. So shall we go tell mother of this plan of yours before she goes burning down Otto Hightower’s chambers?” She asked with a smirk.

“Probably. Yeah, that seems like a good idea.”