Hugh Hammer (ASOIF/SI)

Men, and most women were easy to read, that was a skill she had

 long acquired in her former profession, few, if any, had a complete

 level of control over their bodies to the extent that they could

 eliminate the tells and giveaway movements that allowed them to be

 read.

 That had been an invaluable skill that had stood her in good stead

 over the years of her life, and was still valuable to her now, but it was

 less of an advantage in her current situation.

 Secreted as she was in the Tower of Whispers in the Red Keep and

 with only the odd stray and by blow brought before her for

 questioning she was dependent on her network of agents and

 informants to provide her with the coin that was her trade.

 Her network of whores was priceless, and it was not just confined to

 Kings Landing either, but as the moons of this war had rolled on, its

 drawbacks had become increasingly evident. There were places her

 whores could not go, men they could not reach, for one reason or

 another, and equally importantly, there were tasks they could not

 carry out.

 Murdering a Queen? Easy, as simple as slipping a combination of

 refined herbs into the tea she liked to drink before she went to bed,

 that in small enough doses assisted with sleep and relaxation. But in

 a sufficiently high dose would cause the heart to slow and eventually

 stop altogether.

 But finding and more importantly catching Lord Larys Strong? No,

 that was a task that an army of whores was less suited to. And catch

 the former Master of Whispers she wanted to with a desperate

 fervor, and for several reasons, not all of which were complimentary.

She wanted Lord Strong as he was a thorn in her side, his presence

 in Kings Landing a constant threat to her survival, for if Daemon fell

 from power, then her fate was sealed. She knew he was up to

 something, for as she had discovered he was always up to

 something was Lord Strong. She had thwarted some of his plans

 and plots, but she was sure there were others that she was either

 wholly unaware of or only partially aware of.

 His plot to stir the smallfolk against the Queen she had rooted out

 rather easily, and Prince Daemon had taken some interest in her

 work on this matter. The Rogue Prince had been insistent on her

 making sure that a number of begging brothers and other such

 religious riff raff were disposed of as part of her destruction of this

 plot by Lord Strong.

 Numerous other little plots and plans had been discovered, agents of

 his turned or eliminated, secret messages intercepted and even

 some of them decoded.

 The Septon that attended to Queen Alicent for example, he had

 proved impossible to subvert, careful observation of the man had

 revealed that he was a rather pious individual and not prone to any

 vice or perversions. So instead of trying to turn him he instead was

 watched closely, and the frequency with which he received

 communications from Lord Strong's minions observed.

 Oh, it did not take a Maesters education to know what Lord Strong's

 overall goals were, that was easy, but the often small steps he would

 take to get there, they could sometimes be missed or misread.

 She knew for example that he was definitely plotting some sort of an

 attack on the Red Keep, but as to what its purpose she could not be

 certain. Would he try and rescue the family of Queen Alicent? Would

 he try and murder Daemon and his sons? Would they try both

 options? Would it be in conjunction with a general attack by the

 forces of the Stormlands, camped at most two days march away to

 the south?

She did not know, and that was frustrating her, so she wanted to take

 Lord Strong alive and question him, use all her panoply of tools,

 mental and physical to open the man's mind and extract his secrets,

 and not just his secrets, she wanted to know the tools of their shared

 trade, what details he knew that she did not, what tricks that had not

 occurred to her yet. For she knew that her trade was vast in its

 complexity and subtlety, and she wanted to learn as much as she

 could.

 She might project an aura of competency and secret knowledge to

 Daemon and his Queen before, but she was aware that she was

 lacking in certain refinements of the arts she practiced. And she was

 clever enough to admit these to herself in the privacy of her own

 mind, and to cover up and minimize any flaws she might have to the

 gaze of others.

 Another item that piqued her curiosity was the involvement of Lord

 Corlys in the plots by the Greens, for she knew he was in

 communication with Lord Strong and by extension the leadership of

 the Greens. But as to what was being said between these parties

 she was as yet unaware of the exact details.

 But like Lord Strong's goals it was not difficult to assume what was

 being talked about - how these men intended to carve up the Seven

 Kingdoms between them once their plots and plans had succeeded.

 Titles and marriages, concessions and land, the currency of these

 sorts of negotiations, with the assumptions always that they were

 acting in 'good faith', and that the parties involved would not

 backstab each other at the drop of a hat!

 Hah! She knew that these lords played their game on face value as if

 each understood that the other would act 'honorably' but she knew

 that each acted also in the sure and certain knowledge that each

 would betray the other at the slightest provocation or chance. Such

 were the lessons that highborns in Westeros learned from their

 mother's milk, of that she knew with certainty.

And the question was what to do with what she knew, if she went to

 Daemon he might instantly have Lord Colrys arrested and

 imprisoned. Such a rash move that would strip Daemon of much of

 his support and would endanger his position, and by extension hers.

 And Daemon was as likely to let his torturers lose on the Sea Snake,

 when she knew that she would be much more proficient at extracting

 the information that she wanted. Added to this was the fact that she

 was watching the communications between Lord Corlys and Lord

 Strong with intense interest, as she believed that she was close, oh

 so very close to ferreting out Lord Strong's hiding place.

 Well not his hiding place, as she had discovered that he had many

 and was wont to move around regularly. But patterns were starting to

 emerge, things were beginning to coalesce. Lord Strong, though she

 was sure he was not getting desperate or sloppy, seemed to be

 making much more urgent and rapid use of several of the lines of

 communication she had discovered that he was using.

 She was sure that she was closing in on Lord Strong and was loath

 to lose the opportunity this presented to catch him. So, the secret

 communication between Lord Strong and Lord Corlys would have to

 remain her secret for now, but she knew it would not be long now, a

 matter of days at most, before she would have Lord Strong in her

 grasp.