Dunk had a sudden sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. "I will tell him, but he won't give up Ser Bennis". He hesitated. "The dam was the cause of all the trouble. If your ladyship would consent to take it down-"

"Impossible", declared the young maester by Lady Rohanne's side. "Coldmoat supports twenty times as many smallfolk as does Standfast. Her ladyship has fields of wheat and corn and barley, all dying from the drought. She has half a dozen orchards, apples and apricots and three kinds of pears. She has cows about to calf, five hundred head of black-nosed sheep, and she breeds the finest horses in the Reach. We have a dozen mares about to foal".

"Ser Eustace has sheep, too", Dunk said. "He has melons in the fields, beans and barleycorn, and.. ".

"You were taking water for the moat !" Egg said loudly.

I was getting to the moat, Dunk thought.

"The moat is essential to Coldmoat's defenses", the maester insisted. "Do you suggest that Lady Rohanne leave herself open to attack, in such uncertain times as these?"

"Well", Dunk said slowly, "a dry moat is still a moat. And m'lady has strong walls, with ample men to defend them".

"Ser Duncan", Lady Rohanne said, "I was ten years old when the black dragon rose. I begged my father not to put himself at risk, or at least to leave my husband. Who would protect me, if both my men were gone? So he took me up onto the ramparts, and pointed out Coldmoat's strong points. ‘Keep them strong,' he said, ‘and they will keep you safe. If you see to your defenses, no man may do you harm.' The first thing he pointed at was the moat". She stroked her cheek with the tail of her braid. "My first husband perished on the Redgrass Field. My father found me others, but the Stranger took them, too. I no longer trust in men, no matter how ample they may seem. I trust in stone and steel and water. I trust in moats, ser, and mine will not go dry".

"What your father said, that's well and good", said Dunk, "but it doesn't give you the right to take Osgrey water".

She tugged her braid. "I suppose Ser Eustace told you that the stream was his".

"For a thousand years", said Dunk. "It's named the Chequy Water. That's plain".

"So it is". She tugged again; once, twice, thrice. "As the river is called the Mander, though the Manderlys were driven from its banks a thousand years ago. Highgarden is still Highgarden, though the last Gardener died on the Field of Fire. Casterly Rock teems with Lannisters, and nowhere a Casterly to be found. The world changes, ser. This Chequy Water rises in the Horseshoe Hills, which were wholly mine when last I looked. The water is mine as well. Maester Cerrick, show him".

The maester descended from the dais. He could not have been much older than Dunk, but in his gray robes and chain collar he had an air of somber wisdom that belied his years. In his hands was an old parchment. "See for yourself, ser", he said as he unrolled it, and offered it to Dunk.

Dunk the lunk, thick as a castle wall. He felt his cheeks reddening again. Gingerly he took the parchment from the maester and scowled at the writing. Not a word of it was intelligible to him, but he knew the wax seal beneath the ornate signature; the three-headed dragon of House Targaryen. The king's seal. He was looking at a royal decree of some sort. Dunk moved his head from side to side so they would think that he was reading. "There's a word here I can't make out", he muttered, after a moment. "Egg, come have a look, you have sharper eyes than me".

The boy darted to his side. "Which word, ser?" Dunk pointed. "That one? Oh". Egg read quickly, then raised his eyes to Dunk's and gave a little nod.

It is her stream. She has a paper. Dunk felt as though he'd been punched in the stomach. The king's own seal. "This… there must be some mistake. The old man's sons died in service to the king, why would His Grace take his stream away?"

"If King Daeron had been a less forgiving man, he should have lost his head as well".

For half a heartbeat Dunk was lost. "What do you mean?"

"She means", said Maester Cerrick, "that Ser Eustace Osgrey is a rebel and a traitor".

"Ser Eustace chose the black dragon over the red, in the hope that a Blackfyre king might restore the lands and castles that the Osgreys had lost under the Targaryens", Lady Rohanne said. "Chiefly he wanted Coldmoat. His sons paid for his treason with their life's blood. When he brought their bones home and delivered his daughter to the king's men for a hostage, his wife threw herself from the top of Standfast tower. Did Ser Eustace tell you that?" Her smile was sad. "No, I did not think so".

"The black dragon". You swore your sword to a traitor, lunk. You ate a traitor's bread and slept beneath a rebel's roof. "M'lady", he said, groping, "the black dragon… that was fifteen years ago. This is now, and there's a drought. Even if he was a rebel once, Ser Eustace still needs water".

The Red Widow rose and smoothed her skirts. "He had best pray for rain, then".

That was when Dunk recalled Osgrey's parting words in the wood. "If you will not grant him a share of the water for his own sake, do it for his son".

"His son?"

"Addam. He served here as your father's page and squire".

Lady Rohanne's face was stone. "Come closer".

He did not know what else to do, but to obey. The dais added a good foot to her height, yet even so Dunk towered over her. "Kneel", she said. He did.

The slap she gave him had all her strength behind it, and she was stronger than she looked. His cheek burned, and he could taste blood in his mouth from a broken lip, but she hadn't truly hurt him. For a moment all Dunk could think of was grabbing her by that long red braid and pulling her across his lap to slap her arse, as you would a spoiled child. If I do, she'll scream, though, and twenty knights will come bursting in to kill me.

"You dare appeal to me in Addam's name?" Her nostrils flared. "Remove yourself from Coldmoat, ser. At once".

"I never meant-"

" Go, or I will find a sack large enough for you, if I have to sew one up myself. Tell Ser Eustace to bring me Bennis of the Brown Shield by the morrow, else I will come for him myself with fire and sword. Do you understand me? Fire and sword! "

Septon Sefton took Dunk's arm and pulled him quickly from the room. Egg followed close behind them. "That was most unwise, ser", the fat septon whispered, and he led them to the steps. " Most unwise. To mention Addam Osgrey.. ".

"Ser Eustace told me she was fond of the boy".

"Fond?" The septon huffed heavily. "She loved the boy, and him her. It never went beyond a kiss or two, but… it was Addam she wept for after the Redgrass Field, not the husband she hardly knew. She blames Ser Eustace for his death, and rightly so. The boy was twelve".

Dunk knew what it was to bear a wound. Whenever someone spoke of Ashford Meadow, he thought of the three good men who'd died to save his foot, and it never failed to hurt. "Tell m'lady that it was not my wish to hurt her. Beg her pardon".

"I shall do all I can, ser", Septon Sefton said, "but tell Ser Eustace to bring her Bennis, and quickly . Elsewise it will go hard on him. It will go very hard".

Not until the walls and towers of Coldmoat had vanished in the west behind them did Dunk turn to Egg and say, "What words were written on that paper?"

"It was a grant of rights, ser. To Lord Wyman Webber, from the king. For his leal service in the late rebellion, Lord Wyman and his descendants were granted all rights to the Chequy Water, from where it rises in the Horseshoe Hills to the shores of Leafy Lake. It also said that Lord Wyman and his descendants should have the right to take red deer and boar and rabbits in Wat's Wood whene'er it pleased them, and to cut twenty trees from the wood each year". The boy cleared his throat. "The grant was only for a time, though. The paper said that if Ser Eustace were to die without a male heir of his body, Standfast would revert to the crown, and Lord Webber's privileges would end".