!UPDATE!: 25/07/2017 CHAPTER 1 HAD BEEN REWRITTEN!
Hello everyone! That's my try to write Lyanna/Rhaegar. That's completely AU story, as my main mission in my fanfics is… a happy end. While reading/watching Game of Thrones we're not used to that kind of endings, so I've decided to give the characters (created by amazing and brilliant George R.R. Martin) some happiness and… justice? (I think?) The story of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen wasn't completely discovered and actually anybody can interpret it in the every way they want; I see them as star-crossed lovers and would like to give them a 'happy story' and both parents to Jon Snow/Targaryen of course! The first chapter may appear dull or something, but it's just an introduction. I swear later chapters will be better, and well, longer.
Soooo, I hope you will like it. Reviews are welcome as always, even those critical one(I will try not to cry while reading them XD)!
English is not my first language, so I'm sorry for every grammar error or misspelling.
Enjoy!
I've decided to rewrite this chapter, because I felt that it wasn't how I wanted it to be. I'm sorry!
Lyanna splashed her face with a cold water. King's Landing was definitely too hot for her, but slowly, she was becoming used to the sunny weather of the South. It was one full moon since she had been living in the Red Keep with her husband, Prince Rhaegar Targaryen.
She, Lyanna Stark of Winterfell, wild and tomboyish girl became princess and future queen of the Seven Kingdoms.
Her lady mother used to say to Lyanna that she should be a proper, well-behaved lady; no climbing the trees with Ned, no wallowing in the mud with Benjen, no horseracing with Brandon, no fighting with swords with her brothers, no acting like a boy. If otherwise, the Old Gods would be displeased and send her a punishment.
Lyanna should have listened to her late mother. Lady Lyarra had threatened her only daughter like that while Lyanna was still an unruly child and only menace of the Gods' wrath could have calmed her. When she grew up, Lyanna figured this were only big words, but perhaps there was a grain of truth in them?
Lyanna considered her marriage to Prince Rhaegar as this very punishment. She had always known that she shall be wed to some nobleman, but to the prince? The heir to the Iron Throne? The Rhaegar Targaryen, who was the dream of every maiden in the Seven Kingdoms?
When Lyanna first heard she was betrothed to the Crown Prince, she thought her lord father must be playing tricks on her. It was simply impossible that she was to be his wife. It should have been the greatest privilege for Lyanna, but she wasn't the best choice for a princess nor queen. Brandon called her a boyish, willful and loud-mouthed she-wolf, without chances to be a model lady. He still treated her like a little girl with constantly bruised knees and elbows, chasing cats around Winterfell. Eddard looked at her differently, he saw strong-willed young woman, full of loveliness. Benjen thought her as annoying, big sister, but his constant companion and confidant as well.
Targaryens had never before arranged a marriage with the Starks. Her marriage was her father's fault. Two years ago her father decided to build a fleet, huge fleet to empower northern strength at the sea. Since King Brandon the Shipwright had been lost at the Sunset Sea and his son burned all the ships in grief, the North lacked the fleet, and it was Lyanna's father, lord Rickard Stark, who ordered building of the ships. No one knew why lord Stark did that, his only answer was: I'd dreamed about it. Fruition of his dream made King Aerys II Targaryen enraged as he saw it as conspiracy against him. House Stark and whole North for certain wanted to unleash rebellion and take the Iron Throne from him. That was why the Mad King married his eldest son and heir Prince Rhaegar off to Lyanna Stark.
Lyanna was enormously happy her lord husband was sane. Rhaegar was nothing like his father; he was calm, rational and well-loved by the smallfolk, nonetheless she wondered if her lord husband would go insane at some point in his life. Lyanna's father once said that King Aerys hadn't been insane when he began his reign, his madness developed with age. It frightened her that Rhaegar or her children would be the same.
That all thinking gave her a headache. Her life wasn't meant to be like that.
Lyanna dreamed of visiting Free Cities, go beyond the Wall, reach the Summer Isles and cross the Sunset Sea to learn what lies on the other side. But it all melted like snow in the first days of spring at the day she had married the prince.
She missed her old life. Did Benjen and Brandon miss her? And Ned, did he still want her to visit him at the Eyrie? They probably did not. Maybe except Benjen.
Brandon had Lady Catelyn Tully now, and little Lyarra. Besides Catelyn was pregnant again and lord's duties were occupying his whole days; as for Eddard, he had his friend Robert Baratheon with him at the Eyrie, so why would he miss his little sister?
Loneliness and homesickness made Lyanna very tender and she cried sometimes in the retreat of her bedchamber. She cried for her old self. Where was that she-wolf maid they called her? Where was her self-confidence and convulsiveness? Where was her foul mouth and boldness? Where was Lyanna Stark of Winterfell, who swore to never marry?
Lyanna splashed her face again and sat angrily on the stony fountain. Sitting in the garden seemed to be the best choice, she didn't want to stand in the Throne Room and observe how the Mad King treated his subjects. She prayed deep down that no one would be burned or deprived of the tongue. She was scared of Aerys and avoided him as much as she could.
Lyanna heard approaching light steps and raised her head to find jolly violet eyes looking at her.
"You should get used to the weather soon, Your Grace." Lady Ashara smiled at Lyanna and handed her a blue handkerchief to wipe her wet face. "You look beautiful with a tan, My Princess."
"Thank you, Lady Ashara, yet I still miss harsh wind and snow of the North." Lyanna sighed wistfully and shook her head, picturing her delicate and used to the sun lady-in-waiting at Winterfell's cold grounds. "You wouldn't like my father's lands. Have you ever seen snow, Lady Ashara?"
Ashara shook her head. "No, Your Grace. During winter in Dorne, there's only chill in the air and strong winds." She took Lyanna by the arm and guided her towards the castle. "Come, Princess, Queen Rhaella wishes to see you."
"Perhaps you know why the Queen wants to see me?" Lyanna bit her lower lip, a fine flush appeared on her cheeks when she thought that her mother-in-law may want to know if Lyanna already was with child. She wasn't really comfortable with discussing her married life with Queen Rhaella. Worse still, Lyanna blushed like crazy every time when Rhaegar was intimate with her, she simply didn't know what she should do, it was all new for her.
"I'm sorry, My Princess, but I don't know." Lady Ashara seeing Lyanna's uneasy expression, added. "But Queen Rhaella was good-humoured. She is very fond of you, Your Grace, she always speaks highly of you."
"Is that so?" Lyanna raised an eyebrow and gave a side-ways glance at her companion. A warm feeling spread in Lyanna's chest.
The moments with Queen Rhaella now appeared as a throwback… She remembered then how it was to have a mother again. It seemed like Rhaella was her mother and Lyanna was the daughter the Queen longed for. Lady Lyarra Stark departed this life when Lyanna was barely five years old and Lyanna had difficulties with recalling her mother well as she grew in years.
The Queen welcomed Lyanna in the chamber full of gowns and colourful fabrics. White-haired sewer gave Lyanna a long and thorough look.
"Lyanna, my sweet, how lovely you joined me!" Queen Rhaella beamed and motioned the princess to approach her and wrapped her arm around Lyanna's shoulder. "You should wear new dresses at the tourney at Harrenhall! Your wedding tourney I shall remind you! Those gowns you brought here from home are… quite plain."
Lyanna made a sour face at the thought of spending her whole afternoon on trying the gowns on and tittle-tattling about the murmurings from the whole realm. She wanted to finally saddle her dun mare and ride around the city. "But, Your Grace, I don't-"
"Ah, I don't want to hear any excuses!" The Queen laughed lightly and her lilac eyes shifted towards Ashara. "Lady Ashara shall help us choose you a dress for the opening feast, shan't she?"
"Certainly, Your Grace." The Dornish girl nodded with a big smile on her face.
Tourney at Harrenhall was organized by Lord Walter Whent, who was so kind and generous that he decided to throw a tourney in honour of the new royal marriage. It would be the first tourney in Lyanna's life, she was wildly eager to travel to the riverlands and see it all. Besides, she would see her family again, and that was the happiest reason to come to Harrenhall.
The sky was covered in pink and dark blue colours when Queen Rhaella let Lyanna and Ashara go. Lyanna quickly rushed through the corridors to her bedchamber, tired and slightly exasperated, she couldn't remember the last time when she had spent so much time on choosing a dress. Perhaps it was the time when her lady mother still lived…
Suddenly her last night dream flashed in front of her eyes. She saw them again. The crypt of Winterfell. Dark and cold with tombs of her ancestors.
She was walking down the winding spiral stones steps, to the deeper levels where the whispers were calling her, yet she couldn't understand them. Abruptly, the fire in the torch she was holding went out and she strayed blindly in the darkened corridor, skimming the coarse statues. Finally, a gentle light appeared in what she thought was the end of the crypt, and it lighted something. The huge chest. Curiosity of what was in it niggled her. The closer she was to the light, the heat increased. The sweat on her skin, the feeling of her blood boiling, the feeling of exhaustion, rid her of the chance of opening the chest. Before she woke up, Lyanna only remembered s soothing snowflakes, falling at her skin.
Lost in her thoughts, she didn't realize that she already reached her bedchamber. Lyanna opened the door and saw her lord husband sitting in the armchair, reading a book, as always. Rhaegar enjoyed reading even more than sparring with Ser Arthur Dayne. It was funny that she would preferred it conversely.
"How was your day, my lady wife?" Rhaegar looked up at her from behind his weighty book.
"I hadn't known dress fitting can be so exhausting until this afternoon, my lord husband." Lyanna rolled her grey eyes and closed on him. She furrowed her eyebrows at the title of the book. "It's not in the common tongue. What are you reading?"
"Se cieshe hen Ahsī. It's in High Valyrian." Rhaegar smiled and closed the book. "Shadows of Asshai."
"Is it an interesting book then?" Lyanna felt her cheeks started burning under his gaze when he got up and stood closer to her.
"Very." Rhaegar wrapped his arms around her waist and Lyanna's heart beat a little faster. "I would like to take you for a horse riding around the King's Landing tomorrow."
"I'm afraid I must decline." Then Lyanna quickly explained herself when she saw his disappointed face. "Your mother wants to see me at the dancing lesson. I must represent my husband well at the tourney."
"Yes, you definitely must." Rhaegar laughed lightly, probably remembering that few times on their wedding feast when she trod on his feet.
"I had never said I am a very good dancer, but I can dance!" Lyanna said in a huff.
"And I had never said I doubt that." Rhaegar's smile widened and he leaned down and kissed her.
Lyanna liked Rhaegar's kisses. This one was sweet and tender, but sometimes his kisses were like fire, melting her until she couldn't even remember her own name. She had never felt such attraction towards other man than Rhaegar before. Her husband was a handsome man of course, but his silver-gold hair and indigo eyes made him unique among men. His attitude towards her was baffling for Lyanna. Rhaegar was kind and caring and he respected her opinions, he actually wanted to know her views. She wanted to believe she wasn't just a lovely face for him.
Robert Baratheon treated her like that, he only saw her beauty. Every time when Ned brought him from the Eyrie to Winterfell, he was circling around her, pay her compliments, was oblivious to Lyanna' betrothal to the Prince, but Robert never truly wanted to know her, only nodding and laughing every time she opened her mouth. Robert even said once he was in love with her, but how possibly it was true if he still bedded Winterfell's maids? Robert's courtship was only to steal a kiss from her. And he never get it.
Perhaps her marriage to Rhaegar Targaryen wasn't a punishment from the Old Gods at all?
Knocking sounded in their bedchamber when Rhaegar almost unlaced the bodice of her dress and Lyanna sighed at the lack of his lips on her own. Her husband grunted something under his nose and opened the door.
"Important message for Princess Lyanna. From the North." The blonde-haired man handed Rhaegar a letter and bowed low.
"You may go. Thank you." Rhaegar narrowed his eyes and closed on Lyanna.
She broke the seal with the wolf of House Stark and scanned the message from her lord father quickly. She went completely pale once she ended reading.
"My brother-Bran-Catelyn-Dear Gods." Lyanna murmured and pressed the letter to her chest.
"Lyanna? What's happened?" Rhaegar sat her on the armchair and she looked at him with tears in her grey eyes.
"Catelyn, she gave birth to a son, but-" Lyanna could only imagine the pain her brother's wife was feeling now. "He was stillborn. She- It's terrible Rhaegar, my father is lost, Brandon is furious with this whole misery-Catelyn… She cannot have more children. This childbirth almost killed her."
"I'm sorry, Lyanna." Rhaegar wrapped his arms around her and she cried silently, he brushed her brown hair with his fingers and after some time she calmed down, realizing something.
"Wait, but…" Lyanna frowned and looked into his eyes. "Brandon doesn't have a son. There's only Lyarra… He doesn't have a heir... That means… Brandon… Must he marry again?"
Rhaegar nodded sadly, then added. "Or your father will grant Winterfell to Eddard."
"What…? Eddard?" Lyanna bit her lip, thinking about her calm brother. Ned wasn't prepared to be Lord of Winterfell; since he was a young boy he was always told that he would never be the heir of their father, there was only Brandon.
Lyanna could only imagine the violent fight between her brothers that was about to happen. Brandon wasn't the one to handle affairs easy. If father disentitled him of his heir status Brandon would not accept it. He was born to be Lord of Winterfell.
Their lives were supposed to be different. She was to marry her father's bannerman and Eddard and Benjen were to settle in New Gift or Moat Cailin or simply never marry.
"It was all supposed to be different." Lyanna whispered and closed her tired eyes, burrowing herself in the arms of her husband. She was afraid of the coming news from the North.
When sleep took over her, she had a gut feeling she would dream about Winterfell's crypt again.