RHAEGAR
The sound of fast but careful steps made him smile for a little bit before it fainted again like so many ghosts around them. He knew Lord Stark was coming in a rush to the crypts of Winterfell after knowing that the King had come down here without his lordship's permission or knowledge. Rhaegar Targaryen knew what comes next. His lordship will throw some cold words of courtesy on him before protesting about 'His Grace's' arrival to his family's crypts and most importantly to his sister's grave.
"Will he ask me if I'm about to steal your statue too Lya?" He asked to the stone eyes silently, which were staring to the undefined distance in the darkness.
The shadows of Stark Kings and Lords of the crypt started to elongate when the fire of torch flickered on the long stairs. The light came before Lord Stark and for one moment Rhaegar Targaryen was astonished to see the statue before him. And he realized that he intentionally had forgotten the light. He cannot see the love of his life frozen into the ceramics.
The stonemason has done all the justice to her beauty, but something was missing altogether. What was it? Rhaegar tried to recall for one or two minutes and then realized. The only thing about her, which made him to fall for her, was the stubbornness behind those grey eyes. There were hundreds of beautiful girls of the seven kingdoms around him but only one pair of those willful eyes.
But sadness was the only habitant of these stone eyes making them different. Involuntarily, Rhaegar's hand moved toward the stone face. He was about to touch when finally Lord Stark showed up. Even without seeing, Rhaegar knew that Lord Stark was glaring at him, and slowly he stopped right before the contact of his hand could be made to the hard stone. Then, more slowly, he withdrew his hand.
"Your Grace should not wander without the Kingsguard. There could be hundred enemies even in a secure castle like Winterfell." The first set of courteous words was spoken, and damn, it was just like the King has imagined.
"Lord Stark, I'm certain that there are more than hundred enemies down here for me. Tell me again how many are these graves?" Rhaegar was tired of being ashamed. Tired of being the constant target of Lord Stark Ice words. Becoming the target of his sword, Ice would have been easier than this.
"These are more than thousand, Your Grace. There are countless layers underneath us and all of them contain the graves of the kings in the north." The slight amused tone of Lord Stark has acknowledged the King that his lordship has actually returned the sarcasm. Rhaegar smiled. He never knew a Stark could have returned such gesture without being so livid.
"All Starks?" Rhaegar was in full mood to provoke 'this Stark'.
"Yes! Your Grace." The answer took longer than expected to come.
"What about the Ladies or Queens in the North? I mean, can there be anyone who once was a Stark but became someone else after marriage?" The grimness on Lord Stark hardened. Rhaegar wondered if his lordship's face is itching due to it but the king was beyond caring.
"Lya will hate me for this." He glanced on the statue again.
"Your Grace, the Stark daughters, who had been married to other noble houses and died in their marriage, are buried in the crypts of the respective noble houses. There is no one else here except the Starks." Lord Stark said without a hint of politeness in his voice.
"I was married to her Lord Stark." Rhaegar said abruptly without looking onto Ned's face. "Our relationship was as much sacred as much the love we had for each other…" He stopped for some kind of protest but did not have the courage to face it. So he just continued.
"… When I first saw your sister, I knew it was impossible for us to be together. Believe me I knew. And I never believed it would happen to me. After my first marriage, I was contented. I was happy for what I have. Elia was polite, loving and lovable. We were blissful. Much of the world believes that what I did, I did to fulfill a damned prophecy but it is not truth My Lord. It can never be true. I did not love Lyanna of house Stark for having another child. Elia blessed me with two children and I was delighted for them. Except one night, after many nights of that tourney at Harrenhal, a letter from Lady Stark shook me to death. She was scared and did not want to marry Lord Baratheon and her true feelings for me…" Lord Stark was about to speak but Rhaegar used his King's privileges and waved a hand to make him stop.
"Those were not wrong Lord Stark. No religion of this world has prohibited a living human being to love another. The actions can be wrong but not the feelings behind them. Before Elia and I were a married couple, we were best friends. In those days, I was so lost that I had no option but to go to my best friend. We had made promise that we won't keep any secret and she sensed something wrong on me. I had to tell her. And when I did it she…
She laughed at me. You know the Dornish people Lord Stark. Our sacred boundaries are their source of laughter. On the next day, she went to High Septon and made him to issue a consent decree that my first wife has agreed for my second marriage. And then, she made me to ride for North. Her kidnapping was just a mummer's farce to save her honor. We did not just marry in a Dornish Sept but also before a Weirwood. I have the papers, if you want to see them." The king stopped to take a breath.
"Why are you telling me this? Why now?" Lord Stark found the opportunity.
"Because she had told me about you." The King said. "She was scared about the reactions of her father and Brandon Stark, but she was assured that you will understand. She said you're the only one in her family who will not punish her for what she had done. She was hopeful that you'll forgive her."
"I have forgiven her. Or otherwise you won't be standing here." Lord Stark snapped. All the courtesies aside, he was actually a wolf of Winterfell. Rhaegar smiled again. How easier it was to provoke the Starks.
"Oh really? Then why you always look like you're about to kill me any moment?" Rhaegar said with a retreated smile.
"I said I have forgiven my sister not you." Lord Stark said.
"And why not me? What wrong I have done to you or to your family? It was my father who killed your father and brother. It was 'your brother', who was stupid enough to get caught in Mad King's…" Rhaegar blurted back.
"Pardon me Your Grace, are you asking for my forgiveness or trying to dishonor my dead brother." Ned Stark asked. And Rhaegar stopped for a moment.
"All I'm saying that it was ALL planned. That me and Lya will hide in Dorne until I become the King. The Baratheons and Starks would defiantly try to make noise across the North or Vale. Not I or she had expected that Brandon would go to Kings Landing for his sister, and then Lord Rickard would make that mistake too. Everybody knew about my father. He was mad in the curse of the Great Targaryen Dynasty. How could you expect him to do any justice to anyone in this world? If only they have thought about it at that time, the things would have been different now. Lord Rickard and Brandon would have been alive." Rhaegar stopped.
"Would Lya have been alive too My King?" Ned Stark asked suddenly. Rhaegar looked toward the statue. He did not have the answer of this question.
"Brandon and Father did not go to Kings Landing to prove the honor of their house. Brandon was there because he loved his sister. He wanted to rescue her from the claws of the stubborn dragons, who use madness as the excuse for their brutality. My father was there because he wanted his children back. He wanted his heir safe. How did you even think that the Starks will just sit there while thinking that their daughter has been kidnapped and may be is being harassed at that time? They did it for Love. My father and brother went to Kings Landing because they wanted their Lyanna back; instead they found nothing but death there." Suddenly Lord Stark realized that he is off his limits. And thus he stopped.
The silence crept in the crypts like the coldness around them.
"We all did what we did for love My Lord. And we all are at loss. At least you had her bones to burry." Rhaegar sighed.
"And you have her son." Ned replied.
"My son." Rhaegar corrected. "He is a Targaryen my lord."
"Then why he reflects the North in one person? It was not the fever that took her. It was childbirth. Am I right Your Grace?" Ned asked.
"Do you blame Jon for that?" Rhaegar asked unbelievingly.
"No! But I blame the lies, which were being told for over fifteen years now. Why you did not tell me about him before? Why you hid him from the North? I have a four and ten years old nephew and I came to know about his existence just a fortnight ago. What did you tell him about his mother? What did you tell him about Starks? Why you…?"
"Because I'm not a hero like you Lord Stark. You do not blame that child for your sister's death but I had done the deed.. I blamed him for my Lya's death. I just could not believe that she was dead. She was strong and healthy. Maester said she can have as many children as she wants, and she died birthing her first child. The day I won the battle I lost her. Midwives have all the things said they usually say in that situation. The child was huge. They couldn't stop the bleeding. She died smiling. She held her son before dying blah blah blah, but I couldn't hold that babe in my arms. I couldn't even look toward his face.
I hated him too much that I actually thought I will kill him somehow. I ordered the wet nurse to hide the babe in Red Keep for as much time as she can before I'll find enough courage to do the deed."
"Did you?" Ned snapped. "Did you hurt him Rhaegar?" Lord Stark's hand was now on the hilt of his sword. "Did you hurt the boy?" Rhaegar laughed at the question, and sat on the nearby stone with a sigh.
"For almost two years I never heard a single noise of him. Somehow the wet nurse has done the splendid duty of hiding him from me in the same castle. I thought if you'll not know about the existence of the child then there will be a lesser mess, when I'll become overwhelmed of my hatred for this child.
In my head, I had pictured him having the same Targaryen features like my eldest son, Aegon. If only he had those looks, he would have been dead by now.
After two years of blind hatred and cowardice, one day, when I was going to attend my court in Red Keep, I almost stumbled over a small toy, a wooden dragon, painted in black. I picked the dragon up, and the owner of that dragon came face to face with me. A two year babe, kicking and fighting to my leg and kind of demanding to release his dragon.
What you think would Lya have done as a babe if her toy got damaged and stolen by someone?" Rhaegar asked suddenly to Lord Stark. Ned stared at him for some time and released a chuckle. A real smile was on his face without any regret or cold courtesy.
He sat next to the King. "Lya would have done exactly the same." He smiled. "She actually had faced the situation one or two times in our childhood." Lord Stark acknowledged.
"Yes?" King asked smilingly.
"Yes, and we never heard again of the persons, who tried to steal her toys." Rhaegar stared at Lord Stark seriously for a minute and then both started laughing. It was a small laugh and stopped rather as abruptly as it was started. The silence fell again.
"At that moment when I was staring at the boy. A wet nurse came running. She was apologizing and saying something about the kid will never come in my way again. But I couldn't comprehend her words. I got frozen in those brown curls and willful grey eyes. They all were hers."
"Yeah, the same was my situation when I first saw him. The boy made us stoned without even knowing about it." Lord Stark chuckled again and Rhaegar just hoped that may be this stubborn brother would eventually forgive him too.
"What happened next?" Lord Stark was actually interested in his story.
"I just picked the boy up and left the wet nurses to their wailing.
Locked myself with the boy for like a month. I knew I was a terrible father. At first the boy was scared of me. He had never seen me before that day and then was being stared up constantly by me like a freak. Then he got used to it.
But he has never accepted me as a parent. There were times, when I still couldn't forgive myself for it, but believe me Lord Stark, after that day, I have tried everything to make it right. The boy would even have forgotten about it, but he has also realized that I cannot deny any of his wishes or emotional demands. He had asked me to visit the East alone and I permitted it and then he asked me to visit North. It will be a lie, if I'll say that I did not know about his plan of going to the land beyond the wall, but I cannot help it.
The boy knows my weakness and had used it against me for more than once." Rhaegar did not know why he was telling all of this to Ned Stark, but somehow the burden of past fifteen years was fading with each word and sentence.
"I have not talked to him since his return as his punishment and now every night I see Lyanna's angry face floating behind my eyes to make peace with that brat. Am I spoiling him Lord Stark?" He asked suddenly and Lord Stark just stared in the space.
"At this point, the boy seems nice to me, but who knows what happens in next ten or twenty years? And we couldn't afford having a spoiled crown prince. The history has seen to that." Lord Stark has always been an honest personality.
"I was thinking to make him squire of some great knight. I could have ordered Ser Arthur Dayne, or Ser Barristan but they all have sworn in Kingsguard and I really doubted that any of them would order Jon, to do their work. Now, the Ser Jaime is more predictable option, as he is different from other Kingsguard.." King was suggesting when Ned Stark cut him off.
"No! Not him. Never." He said.
"Then there are other options like Ser…"
"Leave him here Your Grace,
As my ward. I have seen him fight in the training yard. I will polish those skills myself with the help of Master at arms and other Knights of Winterfell. He will live with my children. He will meet the people of North and try to understand the problems of smallfolks. I will show him how the Northern people prepare for winter and how they stay alive in those hard years." The king did not say anything in response for a moment.
"I was hoping to find someone closer to the Red Keep." Rhaegar left a sigh before getting up.
"Alright Lord Stark. I am leaving my son here in hope that one day he will be as honorable as Starks and responsible to his deeds. Make him a good King My Lord and I will never forget this benevolence. I thank you in advance for it."
"I am not doing it for anyone's gratitude Your Grace." Lord Stark got up too. The king was about to leave when Ned stopped him.
"Your Grace, You were right about the deaths of my father and Brandon. They were not on your hands. For the rest, I forgive you too." Ned Stark smiled sadly.
"Thank You My Lord." The king returned the sad smile and left him to find his son.
GOTGOTGOTGOTGOTGOTGOTGOTGOTGOT
