River Pale and Flash of Stars

As Fair as Dawn

Starfall was everything a castle from the tales Dunk had heard from other hedge knights and Ser Arlan himself about – as white as snow, as tall as the sky and as busy as a small city. It had the required requisite of gallant knights – once Dunk got over Lord Dayne's resemblance to Aerion, he deemed the man a skilled warrior and a just magistrate – and the witch, the old Lady Dayne playing the part. Not that she was this old or had a wart on her nose or something but something about her aloof demeanor somehow differed from her son's aloofness, or even Prince Maekar's. She looked distanced from the world, unmoved by anything… and quite resentful of the company her youngest grandson had. Yes, she even thought she could have an opinion on this, albeit even Dunk the lunk, as thick as a castle wall, could say that a grandmother who had made no effort to see her grandson and only got to meet him because he had fallen into her lap, so to say, was hardly the doting kind, the one that was entitled to pretences.

"Maekar has clearly deteriorated worse than we thought," Dunk heard her say to her son once. "Sending Aegon with this boy? He might be a decent lad and all but Ser Calan says he has much to learn – and so do I! I do wish he had half of Arthur's manners."

"And I wish that Arthur had his health," Lord Dayne said bitterly which effectively shut Lady Elsbet up.

Rather uncharitably, Dunk wondered what this hostility between the witch lady and her goodson. It seemed to him that these two had much in common…

"Oh, Lady Elsbet doesn't like anyone she deems untowardly," Egg said later as he took care of Dunk's sword. "The squires say she wasn't always like this but since her husband died, her mind started wandering."

Vorian who was working on a gleaming dagger next to him cast him a swift look. "That is what one gets when they only associate with squires," he said and for the first time, Dunk heard in his voice derision that could rival his lady grandmother's. "Did it ever occur to you to ask me before you go around gossiping?"

Egg bristled. "I wasn't gossiping! I was merely gathering information."

The other boy did not grasp the difference. "Well, what information did you get, pray tell? Except for the claims that our grandmother was mad?"

"I didn't call her mad."

"You would have." Vorian looked at him expectantly. "So?"

The air got so cold that Dunk thought he could use a coat. There was nothing indicating that the two boys had been friendly since the moment they met. For the first time, Dunk noticed the resemblance between them. The different colouring did not matter. Their faces were twin images of anger.

"Let me tell you, then," Vorian said at last. "Just so you know why her mind started wandering after losing another loved one. She survived the fall of Sunspear where every third man, woman, and child died. She saw murders, burnings, maimings, and ruins caused by untowardly people, Cousin. And chief among them were your great-grandfather, as well as the King. The Young Dragon, they call him."

The Conquest of Dorne, Dunk knew. The boy was talking about the most glorious event in recent history – and viewed it in a way that was nothing like Dunk had ever seen. If Egg's silence could be taken as a sign of anything, he was unaware as well. Of course he would be. With this Dornish mother of his… this Dayne mother of his… how likely is it that Prince Maekar would have let such talks spread in Summerhall?

"I know that Lady Elsbeth was among the hostages King Daeron took to King's Landing," the boy finally said.

"She was. But perhaps the King's personal slave would be a better description," Vorian said.

"Slavery has been long forbidden in the Seven Kingdoms," Dunk said, the boys looked at him, and he understood. "Oh."

Egg looked stricken. "I did not know," he said.

Vorian did not look mollified and Dunk thought he quite resembled Egg himself when he heard someone talking poorly of his father. "You know nothing, Aegon Targaryen," he said. "Nothing at all."

"Who doesn't know what?" a voice asked from the door.

Red splashed across Dunk's cheeks – he could even feel it himself. Starfall had another character from the tales all right. Lady Aurelia, Lord Dayne's daughter and heir. The fair lady. He had only seen her from afar, save for two times when she had passed close by but it had been enough for him to know that the future Lady of Starfall was as fair as the dawn after which her House had named their sword. She looked a little like Tanselle, but only a little. Dark and lithe like her, that was it. But her hair was spun of silvered gold, or perhaps gilded silver, and flowing like a river around her, although he had seen it hidden under a cap when she had left the castle. From this close, he saw that her eyes were as violet as Egg's. And her father's. But unlike Egg, she could never hide their true colour, no matter the sun and shadows. Her swarthy skin would always make them as bright as stars...

The young man next to her resembled her in hair and eyes but not skin. Dunk had seen Lady Dayne who had come from Essos and now marveled at how different and alike their three children were: Arthur Dayne resembled his father just as much as young Vorian resembled his mother. Which meant that he resembled Aerion. Egg stared at him and Dunk wondered if this was how he longed to see his brother –so frail that the tiniest breeze could carry him through the open window and toss him into the Torrentine. His hair was close cropped – Dunk supposed it had been done to make him more comfortable during his last fever. His face was as pale as no one's face should be, his gait slow and uncertain.

"Who doesn't know what?" he asked again and his eyes moved from Vorian to Egg. For a moment, shock came upon his face and he stumbled, only recovering his balance by his twin sister's quick movement to steady him. A moment later, his face was smooth again. "Very well, I'll leave the two of you to settle it between yourselves. I just wanted to see our guests, now when I'm recovered enough. I am Arthur, Cousin, as you might have guessed already. And I was dying to meet the two of you."

It was quite brave of him to invoke death so casually when it awaited him so close, just behind the corner. Egg smiled back, good manners and perhaps pity winning over the desire to keep the grudge going. "I am sure we have met before," he said. "But, understandably, I can't remember the occasion."

Arthur grinned. "Quite understandably indeed!" he agreed. "Vorian, you are wanted at the forge," he said. "They're going to shoe Steel and as you know, he's going to calm down if you're near."

Egg stood as well. "I'll go and take care that our horses are shoed as well, Ser," he said and while Dunk knew that the horses were just fine, he did not press the matter. If Egg wanted to mend things with Vorian or avoid the Aerion lookalike, Dunk would leave him to it.

As soon as the two boys were out of the door, Arthur dropped on Dunk's bed without asking for permission and raised a shaking hand to his forehead. "I'm fine," he told his sister. "I just overestimated my strength a little, that's it."

"Just a little," Aurelia muttered but did not argue.

Arthur Dayne looked at Dunk and his eyes were intent, fierce. "Don't leave him," he said.

Dunk blinked. "Leave him? Who, I? Why would you…"

"I know," Arthur said. "I see. And what I saw when I looked at him was a burning castle, dragons dead and shrieking to be born and so many, so many lost in the torch that this castle became…" He paused and drew a hand across his forehead. It came down wet. "Perhaps he will be there," he finally said. "Or perhaps it will be him who will do it. But given what we know about Targaryens, who would even try to stop the one who will order this horror?"

Prince Baelor would have, Dunk thought even as he nodded and swore that he'd protect Egg at all costs, all the time wondering where this had come upon him as well. Everything in life conspired to keep him close to a boy who he was trying very hard not to get too fond of. It would hurt too much when Egg left, as people always did.

Lady Aurelia stirred from her place at the window and stared hard at her brother. "What did you see, Arthur?" she asked intently. "What else?"

He shook his head. "Nothing. This is the truth, Aurelia, nothing."

Oh no, it isn't, Dunk thought as the fair-as-the-dawn pair of twins crossed gazes in a silent combat of will which Aurelia looked as if she would lose. Before she could, Dunk blurted out the first thing to come to his mind. "Prince Daeron has visions, like you, m'lord, but he is…" He stopped and cursed his tongue, as clumsy as the rest of him. But neither of them looked surprised.

"I know," Arthur said. "I knew him when we were children, and now I think he has it harder than me. I only got the vision of the First Men whose blood flows through my veins after the thunder killed me and the river almost carried me away and this, one can live with, just like the Targaryens can live with their dragon visions. But someone who has inherited both…" He shuddered. " I don't think he even needed near-death to open his third eye. I think he was born seeing with it. I can't even imagine."

"You'd better not," his sister snapped. "Let our cousin take care of himself. You are the one you should be focused on."

"I am focused," he said patiently. "I won't die, I'm telling you, so all of you can just stop worrying."

Is it this easy, Dunk wondered as before his eyes, a tremor started from the tips of Arthur's fingers and spread upward, to his neck and face. The other boy did not seem to notice it, though. He was staring at the sword Egg had been polishing with such longing that Dunk had to look away. The men at the practice yard still talked of Arthur's amazing prowess before the mishap.

"We should go," Lady Aurelia said, trying for composure and failing. She had noticed her brother's state as well.

"You're free to go," he replied but without the patience or focus of before. Dunk realized that his eyes had moved to the miniatures Egg had been showing Vorian before the matter of Lady Elsbet came along, the ones they had taken from his brother Aemon at Oldstown. "Who is she?" he asked and Dunk rose and went there to look.

"This is the lad's sister, I think," he said. "One of them, at any case."

Lady Aurelia also came to have a look and when she lowered her eyes, her hair fell down in a heavy curtain and brushed against Dunk's arm. The blush crept up his cheeks again and only intensified when he felt the scent she wore – something that reminded him of flowers and the river flowing under this castle.

"Rhae," she said. "It reads Rhae, here," she added, pointing at the tiny lines that looked like snake adornments to Dunk. But he saw that Arthur was disheartened by his failure to spot them and wondered what it felt like to be his own age and going to die. "She's rather sweet," Aurelia commented and Dunk agreed. "Are we going?"

Arthur put the miniature aside with great care and rose. They had made it to the door when he stopped, swayed unsteadily and died.

Aurelia's scream gathered all of Starfall to them. Those who the tiny chamber could not fit crowded in the hall. Lord Dayne knelt at his son's side. A pale-faced maester rushed to them and all around, Dunk heard the horrified murmur that this time, it was the end. This time, Arthur's heart would not start beating again.

"Here!" Ultor Dayne said sharply. "That's it. That's a good boy. Come on, come on, keep going!"

Dunk thought that the man had gone mad with grief but the maester wiped the sweat off his forehead the moment Dunk noticed the very faint tightening of Arthur's fingers in his father's as he scrambled his way back to life.