Jon Stone believed Prince Rhaegar merely possessed an inborn fascination with dragons. He had never imagined that Rhaegar's ambitions reached far beyond that.
Rhaegar intended to build an intelligence network of his own. To recover dragon eggs lost overseas, he would need sharp-eyed spies and agile swords, men capable of operating in perilous places, whether in the desolate Bones Mountains or across the Narrow Sea in Essos.
The Braavosi hedge knight Sessa was ill-suited for such work, and Ser Barristan was hardly a master thief. Before long, Rhaegar's group would require its own spymaster. Dirty work demanded dirty hands.
A map of the known world hung in Rhaegar's bedchamber, marked with the locations where he suspected the lost eggs might surface.
After the extinction of dragons, hatching one required two things: a dragon egg and dragon blood, neither could be lacking.
Dragon eggs were even rarer than dragonseed.
Traces of dragon blood could still be found on Dragonstone, elsewhere in Westeros, and even across Essos. One of King Jaehaerys I's daughters had fled across the sea and become a courtesan, leaving behind many descendants. Though the male line of House Blackfyre had been extinguished, the family had once been prolific; any surviving daughters would still carry the blood of the dragon. In Braavos, the Black Pearl, a famed courtesan, was herself the daughter of a dragonlord, a half-sister to Daemon Blackfyre.
In the past, the dragonkings had guarded dragon eggs as priceless treasures. Yet years of turmoil within the realm had scattered them to the winds. One woman had sold three dragon eggs to the Sealord of Braavos in exchange for a ship. During the Dance of the Dragons, even more eggs vanished without a trace. None were more reckless than Aegon the Unworthy, who lay with the daughters of three lords and later gifted each of them a dragon egg.
Aside from those eggs still protected by dragon blood, the rest had long slipped beyond the Crown's control.
"Those three eggs in Essos should now be in Braavos or Pentos. Perhaps clues can be found near the bones of the Sheepstealer in the Bones Mountains. Prince Daemon was always generous, no gift was more precious than a dragon egg," Rhaegar mused.
Dragonstone possessed the greatest hoard of dragon eggs in the world, yet Rhaegar still meant to gather those scattered beyond it.
Especially the three eggs in Essos, those eggs would one day hatch and had to be secured.
Some later claimed the eggs came from Asshai, but Rhaegar suspected they had been stolen from the Sealord's treasury. Braavosi pride, and their desire to avoid conflict, meant the city was unwilling to admit such a loss.
The office of Sealord was not hereditary. Every great family produced wastrels, and emptying the treasury was nothing unusual. Prince Daemon himself had once slain the son of a former Sealord for the sake of the Sea Snake's daughter.
I must find people, organize them, and set them to gathering information on dragon eggs, Rhaegar thought. But where can I recruit a spymaster willing to serve me?
As Rhaegar pondered this, King Jaehaerys II waved for the Arryn envoy to withdraw from the chamber.
He unfolded the massive wooden map of Westeros before Rhaegar; the carved pieces still rested where they had last been placed.
Explaining the balance of power within the realm was one of Jaehaerys II's favorite pastimes.
Jaehaerys II was king, but also a loving grandfather.
"Knowledge is more precious than wine. Alas, your father never understood that. He loved women too deeply, indulged himself, and lost his way. Perhaps the crown should have passed to Duncan instead," Jaehaerys sighed, the sorrow any father feels when his son proves unworthy.
Westeros' strict primogeniture ensured clarity of succession, yet it also placed drunken mediocrities upon the throne while more capable younger brothers could only endure in silence. When heirs died young, unprepared second sons would suddenly find a crown upon their heads.
Yet his grandson Rhaegar displayed a keen intellect and the makings of a ruler, he would be a worthy king.
"The survival of our realm now depends on balance. We must bind the most powerful lords to us, tipping the scales in our favor. Once that balance is broken, the dynasty will collapse." As he spoke, Jaehaerys carefully repositioned the carved markers.
With the fall of the dragons, their bloodline had lost its unquestioned supremacy. Wise Jaehaerys saw the truth clearly: balance must be maintained, and no alliance of lords could be allowed to rise above the Iron Throne.
Rhaegar nodded. Aside from the pleasure-seeking Aerys, Jaehaerys II was the true dragon of the family, the one who exhausted himself for the sake of the bloodline. He was unremarkable in appearance and no great warrior, but he was a far-sighted and shrewd king.
"A ruler must know whom to trust and whom to rely upon. Those who draw their swords must be punished; those who kneel and beg for mercy must be spared. Justice and balance lie at the heart of kingship. To secure the throne, rewards, alliances, or blows must be dealt as circumstances demand."
"Those who rose because of us are the ones worthy of trust, the Tullys and the Tyrells. House Baratheon is bound to us by blood. Other houses once styled themselves kings, the Starks of the North, the Arryns of the Vale, the Lannisters of the Westerlands. These houses are proud and difficult to tame. The Dornish were once the same, but marriage made them kin, and gentler."
"First come the border regions: the Iron Islands, Dorne, the North, and the Vale. Each is suited for defense, not conquest, and none desire to linger long in King's Landing. The ironborn are fierce but few in number and forever hungry, mere reavers. The North is divided from the south by faith and crushed by endless winters; its population is sparse. The Dornish are passionate and warlike, capable of holding their lands but unable to expand beyond them. The Vale is ringed by mountains, the safest of all, its people are numerous, its harvests rich, and it faces the sea, yet the lords of the Vale are as stubborn as the Mountains of the Moon, rarely involving themselves in the struggles of King's Landing."
Thus, Jaehaerys began with the outer provinces.