Spun of Ashes, Spun of Fire
Red Sky at Night
The sun slowly set upon green that spun all around. Green foot of the circle of mountains surrounding them from all sides but one, green buds of the young flowers that had yet to bloom into their colourful magnificence, green grass on the pastures of herds that had been led away in fear the moment the first warhorse had shook the earth with the echoing of its hooves. The young man stared at the flaming gold, sinking lonely and magnificent, and tried to imagine the other side of the ridge in front of him, the white dots littering the side of the mountain. Daemon's camp. He has us pressed here like rats in a trap, he thought.
As if reading his thoughts, the man at his left spoke, "Should I find out who told him our route…"
"He will wish that he had never been born," Aelyx Targaryen interrupted wearily. "I know, I know. I even believe you, Brynden."
"He'd better believe me." Brynden Rivers' eyes were as scarlet as the sun and just as implacable. "He'll be happy if he gets killed tomorrow."
"I hear they say the same about us," Maekar put it indifferently. "As far as I know, Lord Yronwood had vowed to kill me in person. He's still bitter that after all the effort he put forth to take Starfall, he had to find out that Dyanna wasn't home."
He said it so prosaically that the other two smiled. He looked at them, uncomprehending, but Brynden was not about to explain and Aelyx was too busy to marvel at the sight in front of him. Maekar Targaryen and Brynden Rivers not arguing. For almost two hours. Miracles did happen and he was almost ready to believe that Baelor could arrive in time. That they could avoid the absolute bloodshed.
"It's my nameday tomorrow, you know," he said abruptly, having just realized it. "I am going to be twenty-four."
"I forgot." There was apology in Maekar's voice. Aelyx grinned.
"So did I."
But his smile faded quickly as the reality of what was going on returned. These two were more of brothers to him than the man they would fight tomorrow was but it still made him wonder what had happened, why had it come to this. Why he had found himself at this field, ready to meet his brothers' enemy. His true brother.
It had started many years ago, at Queen Daena's deathbed…