Titus held his scabbard and surveyed the family's secret chamber. It was not particularly large, but had a small raised level at the back.
Originally, it had been the private workshop of Emmerick "the Avenger" Peake.
As the years passed, it had gradually become the Earls of Peake's treasury.
As the chamber grew brighter, Titus could see more clearly from the entrance-
The chamber had two levels beneath a white vaulted ceiling, its crown carved with intricate astronomical patterns.
Directly opposite the entrance stood a golden desk bearing both mechanical contraptions and peculiar ornaments.
Oak stairways on either side led to the raised level behind the desk. Shelves along the walls beside the stairs held secret records and books on the occult that House Peake had collected over the years.
From his memories, Titus knew that a third of these books concerned architectural engineering and mechanical construction, subjects that the people of Westeros would find quite "magical." Another third was filled with descriptions of Valyria, sorcery, and dragons.
Technology plus magic. Very steampunk.
He approached the desk. Setting aside the oddly shaped ornaments, he found seven parchment books stacked on its surface.
Titus picked up the topmost book and leafed through it casually, only to discover that it contained a certain Earl of Peake's summary of the lessons learned from the "Peake Rebellion."
They really were tireless.
He had to admit that House Peake had quite a connection with the number seven. He wondered whether some wondrous occult connection lay behind it.
Not only had seven daughters of House Peake served as queens of the Reach, but during the Peake Rebellion, Roger Reyes, the "Red Lion" of Castamere in the Westerlands, had personally executed seven captive members of House Peake in his eagerness to avenge his father's death in battle.
Titus skimmed a little more of the notes, his gaze stopping on the final passage-
Unbowed, unbent, unbroken, the Peakes of three castles: choose a side, fight a war, lose a castle.
Who came up with that little saying? Did they have to be so vicious?
Titus's scalp prickled as he read. Just looking at it, he could feel how hard that Earl of Peake, nursing his grievances and biding his time, had pressed as he wrote. The strokes had practically pierced the page.
What a masterstroke.
Someone had actually used "Unbowed, unbent, unbroken," the words of House Martell of Sunspear, the Princes of Dorne and liege lords of the hereditary enemies of the martial lords of the Dornish Marches, to mock House Peake's "glorious achievements" in losing castles and lands?
Kids, this isn't funny.
Speechless, Titus put the book back.
As marcher lords, the Peakes had a family history stretching back thousands of years and considerable influence in the Reach.
They had staked heavily on Daemon Blackfyre during the Blackfyre Rebellion. After his rebellion failed and he died on the battlefield, House Peake, his trusted supporters, had been punished by King Daeron Targaryen II, losing both their other domains and retaining only Starpike.
This meant that House Peake had lost vast amounts of land, grain, manpower, and wealth. Their strength had waned, never to regain its former glory, while their standing in the Reach had plummeted.
It was hardly surprising that many nobles of the Reach, resentful of House Peake's bullying but once too afraid to voice their anger, had stepped forward to kick them while they were down.
This was the mess Titus had inherited.
After all, in that brutal Battle of the Redgrass Field, the rebels had upheld chivalry while the loyalists had been pragmatic and utilitarian, and the black dragon had ultimately lost to the red.
Having lost their wager, the Peakes naturally refused to accept it and wanted to recoup their losses.
And so Earl Gormon Peake had plotted the second Blackfyre Rebellion at Whitewalls in the Riverlands.
Fortune had not favored him.
The plan had barely begun before it encountered interference from Duncan "the Tall," disruption from Ser Gawen "the Gallant" Galladon Flowers, a swift strike from "Lord Bloodraven," Brynden Rivers, and yet another defeat.
House Peake, which really did possess something of an "unbowed, unbent, unbroken" spirit, never gave up and secretly supported the third Blackfyre Rebellion as well.
Unexpectedly, Aegor "Bittersteel" Rivers and his Golden Company, including Haegon Blackfyre, whom Aegor Rivers had put forward, proved every bit as useless as Daemon Blackfyre II of the second rebellion, falling far short of their father, the first Blackfyre.
Finally, disgusted with the useless Blackfyres and driven nearly to breaking point by their losses, House Peake abandoned any hope in a fourth Blackfyre Rebellion... Subsequent events proved that there had indeed been no hope to place in it.
They might as well cast off those useless burdens and take on the Iron Throne themselves!
The year 233 after the Conquest.
His head turned by his predecessors' successive defeats, the Earl of Starpike made his "Decision One": challenge the Iron Throne alone, launching the famous Peake Rebellion.
To quell this rebellion in the Reach, King Maekar I, who had won many wars and had ample experience suppressing rebellions, personally led troops against Starpike.
The siege was a meat grinder, with the attackers drawing troops from at least the Crownlands, the Westerlands, and the Reach.
Facing all three alone, House Peake did indeed achieve the greatest result of their rebellious career-
The muddleheaded Earl of Starpike made his "Decision Two." They killed King Maekar Targaryen I in his prime, a king renowned for his valor, whose illustrious victories were even celebrated in a dedicated song, "The Hammer and the Anvil."
They also killed Earl Robert Reyes of Castamere and his squire, Tywald Lannister, heir to the Lord of Casterly Rock, for good measure.
They had truly lived up to House Peake's words: "Who can rival us!"
What do they mean, "Who can rival us"? Titus thought. Isn't that just the Westerosi version of "Who else wants some?!"
The king's death in battle had come so suddenly that the question of who would inherit the Iron Throne had to be brought to the table.
To avoid another civil war over the succession, and to choose a new king who could live long enough for a kingdom that had lost several kings in succession, Hand of the King Brynden Rivers had presided over a Great Council to select a new king.
In the end, the king's fourth son, Aegon Targaryen, who had traveled the continent as Duncan the Tall's bald-headed squire, had been fortunate enough to inherit the throne. He became Aegon V, also known as the "Unlikely King."
Thank goodness those great lords were busy fighting for power and advantage, hoping to secure good positions at the new court. And thank goodness the newly crowned Aegon V didn't get along with Brynden "Bloodraven" Rivers... Otherwise, wouldn't our house have been wiped out long ago?
Titus was clearheaded. He would not naively assume that House Peake was so extraordinary that it could offend so many people and houses yet remain peacefully standing in the southernmost reaches of the south.
Starpike had, in fact, exhausted its strength by then. Had the others not had more important matters to attend to, the family would probably have been exterminated in a flash, without even a chance to cling to life.
The political arena of the Red Keep in King's Landing had remained in turmoil amid the repercussions of that event.
Lord Bloodraven, who had served as Hand of the King to both Aerys I and Maekar I and once wielded overwhelming power, was later thrown into the Black Cells by Aegon V himself, the man he had indirectly placed upon the throne.
Given a choice between execution and exile to the Wall, Brynden Rivers had taken his longbow-wielding personal guard, the Raven's Teeth, and joined the Night's Watch at the Wall, later becoming its Lord Commander.
Meanwhile, in the kingdom's Westerlands.
After staining his hands with Peake blood, Roger Reyes, known as the "Red Lion," had inherited his father Robert Reyes's title, becoming the new Earl of Castamere;
Tywald Lannister's twin brother, Tion Lannister, had become the new heir to Casterly Rock;
Lady Ailien Reyne, who had been betrothed to Tywald, refused to let her dream of becoming mistress of Casterly Rock fall apart. To become a duchess, she began seducing Tion Lannister...
Thus began the prelude to The Rains of Castamere.
House Peake had, almost single-handedly, shaped the course of the kingdom's next fifty years.
Putting the contents of those notes out of his mind.
The current head of House Peake turned right with his beloved scabbard in hand and climbed the stairs.
Titus's footsteps echoed faintly through the secret chamber.
Step by step, he reached the top and ascended to the chamber's raised level.
There lay the most precious treasure in all of Starpike... no, in all of House Peake, and indeed the entire Dornish Marches.
The Peake secret chamber:
Before you continue