Cheese (ratcatcher)

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Cheese
Cheese the ratcatcher.jpg
Blood (left) and Cheese (right), by Will Owen ©

Alias "Cheese"
Allegiance Blacks
Culture Crownlands
Books

Cheese was the alias of a ratcatcher who, during the Dance of the Dragons, helped Blood murder six-year-old Prince Jaehaerys, King Aegon II Targaryen's firstborn son and the heir to the Iron Throne. Cheese's true name is lost to history.[1]

Appearance and Character

The hidden doors and secret tunnels that Maegor I Targaryen had built in the Red Keep were as familiar to Cheese as the rats that he hunted.[1]

History

Cheese was a ratcatcher in the Red Keep, and he also spent time in Flea Bottom.[1]

After Prince Aemond Targaryen killed Prince Lucerys Velaryon at Storm's End, the blacks wanted vengeance against the greens. Cheese and the swordsman called Blood were employed by Mysaria, Prince Daemon Targaryen's spymaster, to slay one of the sons of Aemond's older brother, King Aegon II Targaryen.[1]

Cheese led Blood into the Red Keep through a forgotten passageway, and creeping through walls, they entered the chambers of Aegon's mother, Queen Alicent Hightower, in the Tower of the Hand. After Cheese bound and gagged the Dowager Queen and Blood strangled her bedmaid, the assassins waited for Aegon's wife, Queen Helaena Targaryen, and her children to arrive.[1]

Blood killed Helaena's guardsman once she arrived, and Cheese grabbed her youngest son, Prince Maelor Targaryen. Cheese asked Helaena which of her sons she wanted them to kill. Helaena offered herself but Blood refused, stating it had to be a son. Although Helaena eventually named her youngest son, Maelor, Blood beheaded Prince Jaehaerys instead. Blood and Cheese then fled through the secret passages with the prince's head in hand.[1]

While Blood was captured at the Gate of the Gods and tortured to death, no trace of Cheese was found by the gold cloaks of Ser Luthor Largent. In his fury, Aegon II ordered all of King's Landing's ratcatchers to be hanged. Afterward, Ser Otto Hightower brought one hundred cats into the Red Keep to replace them.[1] Aegon II wanted to attack Dragonstone to avenge his son's murder, but Ser Criston Cole instead suggested sending Ser Arryk Cargyll to infiltrate the castle.[2]

Quotes by Cheese

Helaena: Who are you?
Cheese: Debt collectors. An eye for an eye, a son for a son. We only want the one, t' square things. Won't hurt the rest o' you fine folks, not one lil' hair. Which one you want t' lose Your Grace?[1]

—Cheese to Helaena Targaryen and Cheese

You hear that, little boy? Your Momma wants you dead.[1]

—Cheese to Maelor Targaryen

Quotes about Cheese

Cheese knew the Red Keep better than the shape of his own cock.[1]

—writings of Mushroom

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons - A Son for a Son.
  2. Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons - The Red Dragon and the Gold.