A squire for a day and the three musketeers

Perhaps elsewhere in Westeros, a lord did not also have to be a knight.

But in a special region like the Dornish Marches, that clearly would not work.

There were different kinds of knights, too.

Landed knights generally had a permanent residence, along with productive assets commensurate with their strength.

For example, mills, warehouses, and fodder yards that nearby farmers could pay to use.

In wartime, landed knights had to serve the lords to whom they owed allegiance, and had the right to levy nearby farmers under their protection as soldiers.

As for how well these peasant soldiers fought with their pitchforks and sickles, most clearheaded leaders held out little hope. They could only rely on numbers to fight battles that were already going their way.

House Peake imposed stricter requirements: farmers were only qualified to serve as auxiliaries or porters.

There were also knightly houses that had used their own advantages to reach the top.

For instance, among the most famous knights of the eastern Vale of Arryn, House Templeton of Ninestars answered directly to the duke of the Eyrie.

Their house wielded considerable power, fully equal to many Vale lords who held the title of earl. Apart from lacking legislative and judicial authority within their lands, House Templeton had formidable military potential, easily able to muster an army of over a thousand, most of them cavalry.

So long as they were not compared with the lords of the densely populated Reach, where Titus lived, such strength placed them above even many earldoms throughout the Vale.

Another example was House Shett of Gulltown, one of the five great cities of Westeros, also situated in the Vale. They, too, had nearly reached the very pinnacle of what a "landed knight" could achieve.

Within Gulltown's sphere of influence, House Shett, which occupied New Harbor, could even vie with Grafton, the lord of Gulltown whose claim to his position was illegitimate.

Landed knights like these, whose income and military potential exceeded those of ordinary impoverished lords, were far beyond comparison with the numerous "hedge knights."

Apart from "established" landless knights, such as sworn knights and household knights who served a lord or joined a lordly household, the most common knights in Westeros were actually sellswords with no right to inherit land, little personal property, and neither the standing nor the opportunity to swear allegiance to a lord.

They had no master, and most had neither followers nor squires. They could only wander about in worn, outdated equipment, looking for someone willing to hire them, often sleeping in the open and bedding down beneath hedges at night. Even if they qualified to enter a tourney, they might not win money or armor from their better-equipped opponents.

Let alone fame and glory.

Some among this group had foul reputations and were not trusted, eventually becoming robber knights amid the turmoil of war, famine, and plague.

The knightly culture of the Andals was not particularly prevalent in the Dornish Marches, but knighthood was a prerequisite for becoming the lord of a castle.

The help Titus had given Bryce that evening was enough to count as giving him a new life.

There had been a crown prince for a day in the past; now there was a squire for a day.

Whatever else, the two had spent two and a half years in the same castle, trained, instructed, and disciplined by the same earl.

After his initial unfamiliarity, Bryce gradually began acting as though they were old friends.

The young Earl of Nightsong was, after all, far too young.

He had already admired Titus's swordsmanship, a lingering effect of the repeated thrashings he had received on the training ground.

After their reunion that day, he discovered that Titus's swordsmanship had improved by leaps and bounds. At the banquet held for the Peake soldiers, he kept asking what method had made him so formidable in such a short time.

They moved to a new banquet hall where no blood had been spilled and no one had died.

Titus sat at ease, rapidly carving the golden roast leg of lamb on his plate with his table knife, giving intermittent answers to young Earl Bryce's roundabout questions probing House Peake's training methods.

What could he say?

Tell him that he had "double bones," while ordinary people only had single bones?

Unwilling to waste his breath explaining the power of double bones to his former squire, Titus simply drank freely and sliced off meat to eat, occasionally tossing out well-practiced fabrications:

How, in an empty cellar in Starpike, he had imagined himself fighting a giant mantis weighing two hundred and twenty pounds...

And how, amid those fierce imaginary battles, he had miraculously improved his thinking and fighting abilities, developing a so-called "demon brain"...

Could House Peake truly possess such a bizarre method of knightly training?

At a nearby table, the towering Iomine, who had also been listening, slowly grew utterly bewildered.

Impossible. Absolutely impossible!

This made no sense at all. Was the lad so exceptionally gifted that he could improve himself and rapidly grow stronger through such an absurd method?

Since the Earl of Starpike had adapted Westerosi terminology and made it sound quite convincing, even a veteran knight like him began to waver, let alone Bryce Caron, who listened in a daze.

The Earl of Nightsong was nearly being taken for a complete fool.

Even that was getting off lightly, thanks to Titus showing mercy with his words.

Otherwise, he could have come up with "knightly breathing," "night breathing," "song breathing," and "total concentration," leaving the poor young earl questioning his whole life even more...

Although Titus had taken Bryce as his squire, he had never taught him anything useful.

The lordly houses of the Dornish Marches had no shortage of instruction in swordsmanship, horsemanship, heavy weapons, spear fighting, and battlefield command. Each had its own complete military system and core techniques.

Thus, Titus said little about individual combat skills and tactics, offering a few insights into castle management instead. During the meal, he also took an interest in Lord Baylan's bastard son.

Yes, Bryce Caron also had a bastard brother named Roland Storm, who was roughly his age and had no right to sit at the table.

He was Bryce's only surviving brother. Bryce heartily agreed with Titus's advice and intended to train him properly so that he could serve as his aide in the future.

It seemed that the fate of Nightsong's bastard was about to change, and that he would receive better treatment from now on.

Titus said with satisfaction, "You're already a mature... well, not particularly mature knight. I intend to leave Bowen and ten Peake soldiers here to help you maintain order in the castle. What do you think?"

"That would be wonderful. I saw him in action earlier. He stabbed three men in a row... er."

Beside him, Iomine repeatedly gestured reminders, and Bryce finally realized that the men who had been stabbed were his own Nightsong soldiers.

Titus laughed and settled the matter, lending Bowen and his ten men to Nightsong for the time being to secure Bryce's position and stabilize the situation in the castle.

Iomine, known as "the Wall," was certainly loyal, but it would still be best to wait until Bryce had personally won over the castle guards under Maddy's command.

A lord of the Dornish Marches was best off holding military power himself.

He gave a meaningful glance, and Bowen hurried forward to offer a toast. Bryce, carried away with happiness that evening, naturally drank toast after toast with him and soon became drunk.

Afterward, Titus also met Maester Van Gandy and Seven-String Tom, who had made quite an impression on him. He invited the latter to visit Starpike when he left Nightsong.

They rested in Nightsong for a night.

After instructing Bowen on what to prioritize here, Titus and his party prepared to return to Starpike early the next morning.

Titus thanked Bryce for asking him to stay. It was not that he was unwilling to remain as a guest, but that he had other considerations.

Before long.

His Majesty the current king and his crown prince would both go mad, competing to see who could be crazier...

Perhaps Rhaegar had reached that age and was beginning to lose his mind, too?

In short, this Targaryen father and son would offend five of the kingdom's seven great lords of ducal or princely rank in one fell swoop.

Before that, Titus still had many important matters to attend to. At the very least, he had to prepare in advance.

They had come with some twenty men and forty-one warhorses; on the return journey, their numbers were halved.

The men riding the horses were imposing and robust, their galloping steeds swift as the wind.

Since there was no need to hurry on this journey, the ride was fairly relaxed.

Around the afternoon, the riding party of a dozen or so once again reached the forest where Titus had first met Lora.

Without slowing their horses, the riders charged straight into the dense forest.

At that moment, Titus did not yet know that three musketeers were waiting for him ahead...

The Starpike riding party: