| Note: The title of this article is conjecture and may be subject to change. |
An inn near Ashford existed in the Reach during the reign of King Daeron II Targaryen.[1]
Layout
Found beside a stream, the tall building was daub-and-timber with a common room and stables.[1] The innkeep was a stout, short, whey-faced woman. She had two children, a boy who wanted to be a soldier and a girl interested in knights, who she expected to leave the inn to.[1]
Ashford was a day's ride away from the inn, accessible by bearing north when a road forked at a burned mill.[1]
History
After burying Ser Arlan of Pennytree, Dunk decided to compete in the tourney at Ashford Meadow. On the way to Ashford, Dunk saw the inn and decided to buy a meal there. He encountered a bald boy, Egg, bathing in the stream by the inn, assumed he was the stableboy, and told him to take care of his horses. In the near-empty common room, Dunk noticed a drunken lordling, who woke and told Dunk he had dreamed of him, before stumbling upstairs. The innkeep served Dunk lamb, duck, and ale, while telling him that half the town had gone to the tourney, and that her own children would be gone if she had allowed it. In the stables, Dunk refused Egg's offer to to become his squire, assuming he was the innkeep's son, and chose to continue alone to Ashford Meadow. Egg later followed in the cart of a man bringing lambs to Ashford Castle, and his persistence and diligence convinced Dunk to let him be his squire.[1]
The bald youth was actually Prince Aegon Targaryen, and the drunken lordling was actually Aegon's older brother, Prince Daeron Targaryen. The siblings had departed Summerhall together on the direction of their father, Prince Maekar Targaryen, to attend the Ashford tourney. However, Daeron did not want to participate in the tourney, so he had shaved Aegon's head to hide his Targaryen silver-gold hair, and hid at the inn incognito. Nevertheless, Aegon still wanted to be someone's squire and attend the tourney, so joined Dunk without revealing his identity. After Prince Maekar's sons never arrived in Ashford, he had the Kingsguard search for them and later joined the search party himself. He found Daeron at the inn, still drunk, and unaware that Aegon had left him. Daeron claimed to his father that Aegon had been abducted on the road by a huge robber knight, and he had been searching for them the whole time.[1]
Daeron's lies and Dunk's confrontation with another son of Maekar, Prince Aerion Targaryen, led to a trial of seven being held at Ashford.[1]
Quotes
The warm yellow light spilling from its windows looked so inviting that he could not pass it by.[1]
—thoughts of Dunk
—the innkeep and Dunk
Dunk: You seem to have no custom.
Innkeep: Half the town's gone to see the tourney. My own would as well, if I allowed it. They'll have this inn when I go, but the boy would sooner swagger about with soldiers, and the girl turns to sighs and giggles every time a knight rides by. I swear I couldn't tell you why. Knights are built the same as other men, and I never knew a joust to change the price of eggs.[1]—Dunk and the innkeep
I'd had enough of that inn.[1]