I hope you enjoyed chapter 1 and Saebyl. I never intended this story to have so much to do in Kings Landing but it didn't seem right otherwise and I kept getting ideas. I struggle with rushing stories in fear I will grow bored with them. I hope I can finish this one!
Reviews always help that! Keeps me motivated. Thanks!
She had done it. Casterly Rock was as good as hers, her insurance policy was growing steadily in her womb. It was noticeable now, her mother told her that less then two months and she will greet her son.
"Soon you will be able to meet your little lion." Maebyl said proudly, combing out her daughter's wild locks. They seemed to have only grown curlier since falling with child. The wild untamed curls were the only thing she had passed down to her.
"He will be a dragon, like his mother. I can feel it." Saebyl pressed a hand to where the child raged within her.
"Do not say such things. Especially around your Lord."
"Do I look stupid to you, mother?" She looked at herself in the mirror. She was tired, the child was very active, there were dark circles under her eyes that she took a concerned effort into hiding. She had to hold Tywin's feeble interest and being heavy with child and looking sorry for yourself was not the way to go about that. When she had found out she was pregnant, she had almost considered going to the nearest brothel and asking what they do in situations like this, but her mother had ratted her out before she got the chance.
Tywin's reaction to the news was not exactly how she would of imagined the father of her child would give her. She'd always imagined it to be a happy moment, where her husband would pick her up and kiss her and run down the streets proclaiming the news. No, Tywin's reaction was like they had given him another horde of soldiers to use at his command. Triumph, like he had another pawn in his game or back up plan and it had scared Saebyl.
Though she and her mother got considerably better accommodations and quite generous gifts from him. She was the only thing people gossiped about, the child's heritage was no secret. Now she was getting some hateful rumours spread about her, witchcraft was one of the many speculations had on how she kept the Stone Lions interest.
She was not used to being hated. She had only ever been loved, and if someone had a problem with her, it was so mild that it was never brought up. These days though, her name and treason were becoming uncomfortably synonymous. Though Tywin reassured her that her fears were groundless, stating that if she was a traitor, he'd personally pull her child from her and drown it in the sea. The whispers only grew louder and harder to ignore as her midsection became more distended.
She walked down an empty corridor on the way back to her chambers, late one evening. When she heard a shuffling noise behind her, it was already too late. A tall, thin man in a hood grabbed her from behind and pressed a knife to her neck.
"Now, now, don't scream, little lady. Don't want to be waking up the old Lion now do we?" The stranger taunted.
"Let me go, what ever they're paying you, Tywin will pay double." She said in a panicked whisper.
"It's not the money I'm after sweet thing, it's your little cub. We can't have any more lions roaming around." He cooed in her ear in a sickly sweet way.
"My son is no lion." She growled at him.
"I think he is, pet or else I've got the wrong whore."
"No, you've got the right one but my son is a dragon and you've just attacked his mother." She took the brief second the attacker needed to think about her statement to stomp hard on his foot, push him off her and yell for the guards. She ran but he was quick, he leaped at her causing her to fall hard to the ground, hitting stomach then head on the stone floor.
When she woke, she knew something bad had happened after she was knocked out. There was a throbbing pain in her head, abdomen and parts beyond. She felt her stomach, it was considerably smaller then before.
"My baby-" She managed to gasp out. The Maester shook his head sadly and that was all Saebyl needed to know. She wailed uncontrollably. Everyone left her to it. Her mother came to visit her, and held her for the longest time, trying to console her.
"My poor, poor child. What do you need?" Maebyl said brushing the tangled mess of hair from her distraught daughters face. She had finally stopped crying after nearly two full days.
"The man that murdered my son, did they catch him?" She asked in a faltering voice.
"Yes, they have him in the prisons now, they are going to hang him." Her mother informed her. Saebyl shook her head and shifted to get out of bed. "No, lie down, you need to recover your strength."
"Fuck my strength, I need to see Tywin. I need to see that man. I need to see a blacksmith." Her voice was stronger now. She winced as she got out of bed but she could stand with tolerable pain. Her mother obeyed her and helped her into a robe and to Tywin Lannister's chambers.
He was pouring over maps when she stormed into his quarters, her hair mussed, her eyes blood shot but steely. He looked mildly surprised that she was out of bed so soon.
"Where is the man who took my son from me?" She neglected all the proper curtsies.
"He's rotting in a cell until I have time to go hang him over the front gates." Tywin responded in almost a bored tone of voice.
"Not good enough." She punched her fist onto the table.
"What would you have me do, then?" He growled back at her.
"A hanging is too quick for him. Let me decide his fate, I promise my lord, he will pay for what he has done." There was a stern, unwavering look in her eye that could only come from a woman robbed of her chance to become a mother.
Her bags and trunk were packed, they were headed to Kings Landing to visit Tywin's children. John Arryn, the King's Hand, had just died, Tywin thought that being former Hand of the King he could lend some assistance or at least that's what he told Saebyl. As they rode through the gates of Casterly Rock, she stared up at the man who had killed her son.
She had requested the blacksmith make a contraption that secured him firmly in place but kept him alive and looking only forward. Then she requested that someone find out if he had a wife or children, and he did. His ugly little wife was brought in chains before Tywin, Saebyl and her son's assassin. The little wife was gutted before him and stuck on a spike, while the man was strapped into the contraption that had been rigged up. He was kept alive and forced to watch his wife's corpse rot. She whispered to the murderer, "You've woken this dragon, I want you to feel my pain.".
It was a long journey, especially for her still recuperating body. Riding horse back was nearly unbearable and riding in a carriage with a bunch of old ninnies that would paw around the subject of her dead child was even more painful. Saebyl kept her composure in spite of all these things, she appropriately wore black the entire journey but had found her old talents in being the centre of attention. Moping wouldn't give her another son.
The entire way she wondered why in seven hells she went on this trip. Tywin has requested she join him and her mother insisted that she go. Maebyl had stayed behind, told her daughter it was time she became her own woman and forge her way in the world. Now, she sat atop a horse, wanting to cry from the pain of it all, riding towards a foreign place with a man who could be her grandfather.
Though on arrival, life in the capital made that trip worth while, she now regretted not wanting to come and grumbling about it on the way here. There were so many other things to do in court, so many interesting people, so much wine and food. She ate and drank the days away with her new companions. It was even better when the Royal family rode north, the castle seemed so empty, she explored without fear, no Cersei Lannister breathing down her neck.
King Robert had decided to make some man from the North his Hand. It was no concern to Sae, she was more concerned about keeping Tywin's fancy. He had been cold to her the entire trip, and when she had forced to turn him away at her chambers because the Maester did not think it prudent for her to lay with anyone yet, it only resulted in an icier wall than the one that kept the wildlings out.
"I'm leaving back for Casterly Rock, tomorrow." Tywin announced to Saebyl when she was summoned to his chambers. She had worn her most beautiful dress in order to please him again, she had finally been given a clean bill of health.
"Oh, very well, I'll have my things packed straight away, my Lord." She curtsied briskly, surprised by the news. They were scheduled to stay at least another fort night.
"No, I am leaving for Casterly Rock, you are staying here." Her poured over his paper work and didn't look up at her. He didn't see her shoulders visibly slump at the news.
"My Lord?" She treaded these waters delicately.
"You heard me. You will stay here and be a lady in waiting for my daughter." Anger swelled up deep inside her but she bit her tongue.
"Have I done something wrong, my Lord?" She valiantly tried to temper her voice.
"No, it is just best if you stay here." He still didn't look at her. The was a heavy pause in the conversation, while a million responses rushed through Saebyl's head. She knew that tone in his voice, he was not to be toyed with at the moment. His stubborn mind was set and there was no amount of flirtations or lewd acts that could change it now.
"As you wish." She curtsied again and left the room, running to her chambers, tears flooding down her face. She had lost and now she was stuck in here with strangers, a Queen who hated her, her mother days away, no one to counsel her, and absolutely no one to trust.
The Queen was even worse then she had imagined. She did not take well to her father's mistress being in her court. For the first few weeks, she took to making passive aggressive remarks about everything, from her distinctly Targareyn looks, her last name of Waters, and her place in Tywin's bed. When Cersei found that her new handmaiden could easily deflect these remarks, and still manage to make the other ladies laugh, the Queen decided to freeze her out. All of the Queen's court dare not even make eye contact with her, no matter even share a few words. It was torture, Sae's natural inclination to be a social butterfly was squashed.
The only person that only showed her any amount of kindness, was Joffrey's guard, the Hound. When the queen had belittled her with task of carrying a cask of wine to her chambers, she tried valiantly, she had managed to push it to the stairs but couldn't get a grip to lift it up. She sat on the cask and cried, thinking she had finally been broken by the horrid queen.
"Why does the little bird cry?"A rusty voice broke the silence. Saebyl nearly leapt out of her skin, she thought for sure she had been alone.
"I'm not crying." She lied pathetically, sniffling and wiping her eyes on her dress.
"I'm not stupid, girl." The Hound came into her view. How he snuck up on her with that heavy armour on, she didn't know.
"It's the Queen, she's awful to me. Wish I could just, ugh, she wouldn't be saying these things to me if..." she stamped her foot on the ground. "That stupid cu-"
"Shut it, girl. Do you think we are alone down here? All these walls have ears and worse yet, spiders. Do not give them more ammunition. Come." He forced her off the small barrel and tucked it under one arm while guiding her back up the stairs. When they reached the Queen's chambers, Sae stopped, collected her self and turned to her rescuer.
"Thank you, ser." She bowed her head low, and gave him a brilliant smile. The Hound shifted uncomfortably in his boots.
"It is not 'ser'" He grumbled. If she had not been so despondent earlier, she would have revelled more so in how uneasy she made him.
"Apologies." Her smile turned impish as she turned and allowed him to follow her into the room, adding extra sway in her hips.