Lyanna bit her lip as she waited, waited for the man to make his move. And when the moment came, her fingers tightened into fist, anticipation building up inside her as she watched the Sword of the Morning leaned in, his purple eyes meeting hers when he slowly brought out his most valuable piece.
She knew right then that she would lose to him.
And Lyanna all but groaned when Arthur's elephant took out her dragon from the board.
"Damn you, Dayne!" Lyanna hissed angrily as the man leaned back on his chair afterward with a look of triumph on his face. "Damn you!"
"You shouldn't have left your dragon out in the open, your grace." Arthur said, a small smile tagging across the corners of his mouth, which incensed Lyanna all the more. "A trebuchet or a catapult at the front would have serve as a –"
"I was about to kill your King!" Lyanna burst out, slamming her hands on the table. The cyvasse pieces on the board scattered and fell at her sudden move.
Somewhere behind her, she heard Rhaegar's sleepy voice calling out from the bed, "Wha – who – Lyanna?..."
Her outburst must have woken her husband up.
"Who is about to kill me?" She heard Rhaegar asked but Lyanna ignored the King in favor of glowering at the man sitting opposite her, who tried to hide his smile. She could see the twitch on the knight's lips and Lyanna resisted the urge to kick him beneath the table.
"I was this close to killing your King!" She snarled, wanting to wiped that smile off Arthur's face. "I was two moves away from defeating you! Damn it!"
Arthur met her gaze without flinching and then he said to her, "If you haven't move your King three squares to the right, and had left your heavy horse and light horse in between to guard it, then you could have use your dragon to move two squares forward, then right and you could have defeated me, your grace." Arthur crossed his arms in front of him. "However, as it were, you relied too much on your dragon and I had the forethought of removing it before you can use it effectively and irrevocably damage my pieces."
Lyanna regarded him for a moment, her jaw clenched tight. Defeat tasted bitter in her mouth. She didn't know how many times the Sword of the Morning had defeated her since they began playing the game, but it certainly wasn't numerous as the amount of times she had won, which was only twice in every blue moon.
"The two of you are not done with your cyvasse yet?" Lyanna heard Rhaegar asked from behind her, and she turned around to see her husband sitting up from the bed, his silver hair tousled and with a frown marring his brows.
Lyanna felt a bit guilty for waking him up. She knew her husband had to wake up early in the morn to do his duty as a King of the Seven Kingdoms.
"The game has only ended, your grace." Arthur informed the King, standing up from his chair, his white armor clanking loudly. "And I was about to take my leave."
At his words, Lyanna protested immediately, "No you're not! You're not leaving!" She caught a hold of the knight's arm before he could leave.
Arthur looked so surprise at her action.
"We're not done here…" She met Arthur's purple eyes. "I want another."
The White Knight could only stare at her in silence before he gradually turned to look over her head and towards the King.
Lyanna followed Arthur's gaze just in time to see Rhaegar rubbing a hand over his face.
"It's late, Lyanna…" Rhaegar remarked, sounding so very tired that Lyanna instantly flushed with shame at her thoughtlessness. "Let Arthur leave for his Tower and you can see him the next day for another game of cyvasse…an entire day, if you so wish. But for now, you both need to sleep. We all do…and considering the two of you had stayed well into the night playing cyvasse, in the last what? Nearly a moons turn now? Surely, the two of you have considered about getting a proper sleep once in a while?"
"I'm sorry, Rhaegar, I truly am…" Lyanna replied, letting her hand slide away from Arthur's arm. "But the game is quite…addicting. And.. well, Arthur has presented a challenge that I can't resist. I won't accept it until I see him defeated, even at least once."
Rhaegar shook his head.
"Challenge him by the morrow, Lyanna." Rhaegar said and turned to address the knight in their room, "Arthur, you may go...The Queen will see you on the morning to finish your game of…cyvasse."
Lyanna watched as Arthur nodded his head, "Then, I will bid my leave…" He momentarily glanced in her direction as he said, "I will see you on the morrow, your grace...Good night."
And with a deep bow to both of them, the White Knight quickly left the room, his white cloak swirling behind him.
Lyanna stared after the knight, feeling completely, and utterly, defeated. She hadn't won one single game today and she knew she won't be able to sleep at all because of that.
She continued to stare at the door, where the Lord Commander of the Kingsguards had disappeared to.
"You'll have another chance with him the next day, dear wife. Now, stop looking so defeated and come to bed." Rhaegar said, patting the bed beside him.
She didn't move from her chair. Instead she continued to stare at the door with a frown on her face.
Then suddenly, Lyanna jumped from her chair and began picking up the cyvasse pieces quickly.
If she hurried, perhaps she could catch up to Arthur.
"What are you doing?" Rhaegar demanded, watching her with narrowed eyes.
"I'm picking up the pieces." She replied, placing all the onyx, alabaster, ivory and jade pieces within the cyvasse board.
"Why?"
"Because I'm taking the cyvasse board with me." She responded, snapping the board shut once all the pieces were hidden away.
Then, she hastily don on her outer robe; a black and red color of House Targaryen.
"Taking – Taking it where? Where are you going?" Rhaeagar queried, sounding perplexed.
"To the White Sword Tower," was Lyanna's reply, already moving towards the door with the cyvasse board secured beneath her arm.
Upon realizing what Lyanna intend to do, the King tried to canjole his wife,"Lyanna…come to bed and leave Arthur alone. He is probably crossing the drawbridge by now."
"Then, I'll have to catch up to him fast. I'll see you on the morrow, dear husband."
And with that, Lyanna opened the door and left.
"Lyanna!"
She could hear Rhaegar calling after her, but she ignored it as she closed the door behind her.
From the corners of her eyes, she saw a white figure detached from the shadows.
At first she thought it was Arthur Dayne, but then realize that it was only Prince Lewlyn Martell.
"Good evening, your grace." The knight greeted her. He stood there guarding the door as was his duty as the knight of the Kingsguard.
"Good evening, Ser Lewlyn." Lyanna said in turn.
"May I know where you are going, your grace?" the knight asked as she swept past him.
To which, Lyanna replied, "Elsewhere," before she hurried down the stairs.
.
Rhaegar stared at the door where his wife had disappeared to. He knew that he had no way of stopping Lyanna Stark if her mind was set on it. If she wanted to play one last game with Arthur Dayne, then she would.
The Queen always got what she wanted and Rhaegar had no heart to deny her anything.
In fact, Rhaegar could only feel relieve that his wife had stopped complaining about being bored in Kingslanding, and had finally ceased insisting on her desire to go back to Winterfell, where she had plan to stay there for half a year. If it weren't for Arthur introducing the game to Lyanna, Rhaegar would have endured long months in Kingslanding without his wife. Rhaegar had to thank his friend for Lyanna's current… obsession.
However…what Rhaegar didn't expect was for his wife to spend most of her time playing the game with the Sword of the Morning. And he didn't know whether he should be jealous or amuse at the sight of them playing cyvasse without end. He may have lost a lot of sleep since the two had begun their cyvasse nights, yet he decided to leave them be, if it meant keeping the Queen in Kingslanding.
Slowly, Rhaegar settled back amongst the pillows, yawning. He was so very tired. Rhaegar could only understand what his friend must have felt when Arthur had come to him one morning looking like he hadn't slept for days, which was not far from the truth.
"The Queen told me that she would kill me if I purposely let her win." Arthur had told him that day. Rhaegar recalled how his friend ran a hand through his dark hair in a sign of either frustration or distress. "And I'm sorely tempted to let her win, your grace, just so I can get some sleep."
"And why I haven't you?" Rhaegar had asked.
"Because I don't want to displease the Queen." Arthur had admitted.
Rhaegar suspected that Arthur must have regretted introducing the game to Lyanna. Even now, he could clearly imagine the shock on Arthur's face at the sight of the Queen barging into the White Sword Tower with a cyvasse board in hand and demanding to, "Play with me!"
By this time, Lyanna must have caught to the White Knight, and Rhaegar had to admit that he had no desire to leave the bed and follow where his wayward wife had gone to. He trusted Arthur. Rhaegar was confident his friend would make sure nothing happened to the Queen while she was in the knight's company.
Rhaegar would simply leave them to their games.
Right now, he needed to sleep.
He would just see them both on the morrow.
Author's Note: Thank you for reading! Your reviews fuels my passion for writing so please don't hesitate to tell me what you think! If you want to see the aesthetics, story trailer and photoshopped edits that I made for the story please check out my twitter, facebook pinterest, youtube or tumblr account. But you can always contact me on twitter, facebook or tumblr so please don't be a stranger and let us be friends!