PROLOGUE

"I'm not going"

A bored expression dulled Stannis Baratheon's eyes as he sat in the council chambers of Storm's End, and drawled: "Yes. You are."

The late morning sun shone through the tall windows, catching the tenacity in her blue-green stare each and every time she strode past it. Her long dark hair fell in waves around her shoulders, flying like the sails of a ship in the wind as she spun towards him and waved the letter in front of her.

"'The King commands it.' Who, in Seven Hells, does Robert think he is?"

"The King."

Whilst the elder of the two remained monotonous and unamused in his response, a musical laugh erupted into the room like birds released from captivity. Her stormy stare landed on Renly as he approached, his eyes - much like hers in colour - crinkled in amusement. However his laughter at her expense was soon cut short as he arrived at her side. He stumbled back slightly on his feet as the younger woman shoved him, barely overpowering him.

"Why must you always be such a boy, sister?"

As Renly scowled at her, she grinned: "Because you are girl enough for both of us, brother."

The youngest Baratheon siblings had always been inseparable, much to Stannis' dismay when his sister would wind their brother up. For a fraction of a second, as he watched them niggle, he thought back to their childhood. Thirteen and fourteen years their senior, and with an elder brother off starting a war and parents long buried, Stannis had played a vital role in their growth. However, as he viewed them as bickering adults, he neglected the memory of the brother and sister that had been each other's best friend as they ran unruly and wild through the corridors, wreaking havoc amongst the garrison at the height of the year-long-siege, and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Enough." He rasped, bringing the conversation back to the matter at hand. Back to his brother's orders. "Rhaelle pack your things."

"No." Named for their grandmother, the young woman had grown to inherit as much fire in her veins as expected from the blood of the dragons.

"I don't have time for this." His expression was as stoic as ever. Tone even and eyes uncaring. "If I have to drag you kicking and screaming, I will."

"You'd have to catch me first and everyone in the Seven Kingdoms knows that the mighty Stannis Baratheon does not smile, let alone run." Rhaelle grinned brightly at Renly as he burst out into another harmonious laugh, this time at the expense of his brother. The pair an unrelenting force when on the same side of the battle.

"I am not playing any games. Robert has decided that you shall reside in the capital with him, and we all know that he gets what he wants. One way or another." Stannis' eyes were ablaze as he looked up from his battle-worn gloves, only softening to the keenest of gazes as they landed on the only sibling that had always loved him unconditionally. The contempt that he had held for their brother, ebbing slightly as she sighed and met his stare evenly.

"Walk the wall with me."

"No."

"Stannis, please." Ocean green eyes widened as they pleaded, oozing the childlike innocence that accompanied the protection from her older brother and the safety of the walls that she called home. An innocence that would never survive King's Landing. "Gods know if I will ever have the chance to return here."

From his seat to his sister's right, Renly watched his siblings. Both horrendously stubborn. "Go on, brother. We all know that you've never been able to resist that face." He urged, smirking as he continued: "Besides, you might return to find her belongings packed and horse saddled."

The only daughter born to Steffon Baratheon and Cassana Estermont scowled as she muttered under her breath: "Traitor." However, her disdain was short-lived as the man that she had idolised since birth, sighed heavily and rose from his seat.
The very first man that Rhaelle Baratheon had wrapped around her dainty little finger.

The wind battered her as she stood on the wall that surrounded the stronghold; pulling at her hair. The cool ocean air reddened her cheeks and she almost felt as though she could fly as she spread her arms wide. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath of the salty air. A smile tugging at her lips, wild and as untamed as the waves below. To her, this was freedom. Freedom in its purest of forms. She had wanted to feel that one last time before conforming to her brother's request of obeying Robert. Feel the wind cradle her and know that she was truly and utterly free, one last time before any notion of freedom or solidarity was ripped from her by the King. After all, in a world of mysteries and corruption, no being alive had ever seen a stag that could fly.

Stannis glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, muttering: "Watch you don't fall."

"I'm going to miss them." Her gaze was fixated on a single point of Shipbreaker Bay, causing her brother's stoicism to falter slightly as he realised that she was referring to their absent parents. "I never knew them but whenever I am standing right here, looking out over the bay, I feel as though they are right here beside me. I don't want to leave. I know that I have to but…" As she trailed off, the second eldest Baratheon watched her. Searching her expression. However, as a man of very few words, he neglected to dispel the silence. The ocean air tugged at her raven hair, eyes stinging as she blinked back the tears of a loss that she had always known. A hole that had been made before her first name day. Taking another deep breath and banishing her pain, she spun around to face her brother, so quickly that he shot out a hand to steady her, for fear that she would tumble off the edge. "Do you remember when you taught me to shoot a bow for the first time? I was…five?" Stannis nodded curtly. "You told me that I didn't need a sword like Renly because if I was smart, I would never need to be within six feet of my enemies." A confused frown deepened the ridges that sat just below the shadow of hair at the forefront of his brow. "I am going to be drowning in them in King's Landing. Everyone knows that it is a viper pit there. Full of spies and horrible people."

"Who is 'everyone'?"

"Maester Cressen." Rhaelle scrunched up her nose as she admitted her lack of knowledge and a sound that could almost resembled a chortled laugh escaped Stannis. He should have suspected as much scaremongering from the old man that had raised him and his siblings after their parents perished and before his elder brother rode off to start a rebellion.

"Come on. Get down from there, we have to ride before sundown." A kind expression crossed the man's hard eyes as he held out a gloved hand to his sister. As her hand clutched at his own, a subtle hint of fear brewed in the depths of his mind. Storm's End had been all that the young woman had ever known. She had been kept from the clutches of politics by his protective nature. Shielded from anyone who would do her harm, and whilst the man had taught her archery, he now feared that she was right. That she was entirely unprepared to leave behind her childlike ignorance; to grow up. That King's Landing would swallow her whole. As logic made his fears rather real, he turned to his youngest sibling and placed his hands on her shoulders. Stannis Baratheon had always had a very special place in his heart for Rhaelle. A cordoned off section of himself that was reserved only for the child that padded barefoot through the castle to seek him out when the terrors of the storms that raged outside tore her from her slumber; for the babe that reserved her very first smile for the serious and overly mature teenage boy that many people neglected to acknowledge as he suffocated in the shadow of his hugely popular older brother. It was that love, the love of a brother to his only sister, that had weakened her. She had never been forced to fight for hers own causes, never had to approach anything with the maturity of someone twice her age. His love for her had allowed her to live as happily and as carefree as she desired and now, Robert was about to take that away. "It's time to mature into the young woman that I know you are capable of being. You are not a child any more and the world is unforgiving." As Stannis spoke, she listened intently and nodded lightly. "I know that this relocation will be hard for you but we must do our duty. Great or small, we must do our duty. Find strength in perceived weakness and soar when you feel like you ought to fall."