Hello, I'm back, so I wrote next chapter with princess Jaenna. It's slightly slow building, I know, but I'm just like that.
One of you suggested, that Jaenna should look more like her mother or mix of her mother and father, otherwise she has no point. But first, she HAS purple eyes and other non-physical resemblance with valyrian blood, second, Martell's gens are quite powerful, even some Targaryens with one Martell parent looked like dornish (Baelor, Rhaenys, Daeron, I really don't know what about children of princess Daenerys, sister of Daeron II, but I think, at least some of them looked dornish too – she married prince of Dorne) therefore Valyrians aren't resistant to other features, and third, I thought her look out very well and it's part of the plot. So it has a point.
And another one suggested, that Rhaegar wants Jaenna as his Lyanna. Well, nice idea! I don't plan to have Lyanna in this plot (maybe in last chapters because of other matters), so who knows? Maybe. In A Song of Ice And Fire you never just get what you want :)
Jaenna didn't jump with fright or surprise, although she was frightened and surprised. Instead, she clenched her fingers around the handle of her bloody dagger and let the cloak into which it was wrapped fall down. She was ready to jump after that unknown disturber and stab him right in his neck or whatever place he could carelessly offer but made only two steps aside to see his face for now.
"I do not think it necessary to seize knives."
His head was round, corpulent and bald, his voice soft and like effeminate. Jaenna was sure she had never seen this man before, but then her eyes slid to the thing on his lap and growl forced to her throat. This time, she made few steps towards him with her dagger held to his chest. She, quite the contrary, had the feeling it to be very necessary.
"Who are you and what are you doing here? And leave that egg be!"
But the unknown didn't look worried. He didn't look at the dagger but right into her eyes lit by just a few candles. It started to getting dark outside, the light was faded even in the castle, so he had to light them.
"No worry, princess. I don't want to hurt you. I just simply could not resist and had to make sure, that you really brought a dragon's egg. And it is truly beautiful."
"How do you know about it?" Jaenna carefully circled him, ready to attack. She barely dealt with one rapist and should have a thief in front of her? But thief would not be sitting in her chair and waiting for her, so what was that about? She didn't understand and didn't like him at all despite his smooth smile and perfume, what she smelled from him. After all, what kind of man would wrap himself in the perfume, if he didn't work in the brothel?
"My little birds sang to me."
"What birds? And how do they know?" she frowned. She didn't like when someone was playing with her and this dangerously resembled a mockery more and more.
"Oh, I can not reveal that, can I? I would not be the master of whisperers if I told all my secrets."
Master of whisperers? Her father warned her of him today. Varys was his name. Just as strange as he was. So he really already knew what did they take into the city.
"But you do know mine."
Varys bowed a little and carefully put her egg on the second empty chair. Jaenna immediately headed to it and shielded it with her own body.
"It is only fair, if I tell you some of mine, then."
Princess eyed him suspiciously. Now, when she didn't have to fix her eyes on the egg in his hands with fear, she scanned him better. He wore a purple garment what local men certainly didn't use. It was no doublet or coat, but real robe with wide trousers and slippers underneath. Its sleeves were as wide as maester's habit and she didn't doubt, that he was hiding a lot of things in them too. But she urged him to continue.
"Very well, so perhaps... one of my unrevealed secrets is about certain lord-to-be Daeron Vaith and his proposal of a certain princess in Water Gardens several years ago."
Jaenna scowled at first because that didn't sound interesting or important, took a breath, then blushed, when she realized who was he talking about, and wanted to protest that they were just children, but didn't say it. Something else occurred to her.
"That is not your secret at all. That is secret about me. And no one had ever found it, I just told my aunt and-" then she stopped. She would never believe Elia to give away such thing to the stranger like him. They really were just children. She was ten and Daeron two years older. They used to play in Water Gardens and she once told him, that he had to be the fourth leopard who ran from Vaith's sigil because she could never outrun him neither on land nor in water and envied him his ability to sneak so quietly, that he had always startled her. Perhaps because of that, he childishly fell for her and secretly, utterly reddened, asked for her hand behind a gardenia bush. He already knew he would be lord and probably thought it a good idea, but she responded equally childishly, called him stupid, he called her bigheaded and she slapped him. And when Elia asked what happened after the dinner that day, she confessed the whole story. Her aunt just laughed then and admonished her for the bad word and never brought it up. Moreover, Daeron was probably married by now or had at least his chambers full of more grateful paramours.
But what if Elia told someone else, perhaps lady Ashara, her lady-in-waiting and closest confidante, and this lord of spies heard them and saved it in his treasury of gossips? Could it be possible?
"You are clever," he smiled as if he knew what was happening in her head and confirmed it.
"And you are weird. I do not believe you."
"I really have no intention to cause you harm. But you chose well, every lady should listen to her lord father. And princess to prince father as well. Oh yes, I know you spoke to him in the gardens today and he warned you," he explained, when she widened her eyes, partly surprised and partly angry.
"Just as I know about your little archery competition with a certain knight of the Kingsguard and that unfortunate incident with certain Corbin. No titles, I am afraid."
She didn't understand how could it be possible, when he was sitting here and she escaped that Corbin right now, in fact, she didn't understand how did he manage to get inside without alarming the guards in the corridor - because they would never let him in, but it was not the most upsetting.
"It was no unfortunate incident! He attacked me!"
"Oh, I know. And I am glad you can defend yourself and you are all right. Even if he is probably not."
"So that is the point? The King... wants to figure out why did one of his men almost bleed to death?" she made the only sensible conclusion.
"My dear, the King has entirely different concerns and that... man, if I may call so a creature daring to attack a woman because of his low instincts, was mere minor hog playing soldier for a few silver coins. No fear. I really just wanted to see that egg," he assured her and rose from the chair. She honestly hoped that he was leaving, because she didn't want to stay under his inquiring gaze full of palpably poisoned honey any longer.
"If you try to take it from me or do anything-"
"Dear princess... why would I need it? I am not Targaryen," he winked at her and chuckled so quietly and strangely, that he literally slammed her on the spot for a while. Then she briskly turned around, burst to the door and opened it to call the man who stood there, but found him on the opposite end near the stairs and it didn't seem that he wanted to march back. Therefore, she stormed to him and pushed him firmly into her chamber to escort her uninvited visit. But when they peeked inside, she surprisingly saw just an empty room.
Yet, Jaenna walked in and checked every corner, even peeked under her bed, but Varys was really nowhere to find.
"I didn't know you are afraid of mice or spiders, princess," the guard said. He didn't see anything suspicious and took some vermin for her uninvited visitor.
Jaenna just rolled her eyes, even though she already wasn't so sure, whether there really was someone or whether she stayed too long under the strong sun. After her enjoyable and steady afternoon full of what made her herself, she didn't know what to think again.
"I am not afraid of mice! He had to disappear somewhere. And now, if it pleases you, I need to change and I will not do it in front of you," she slammed the door in his face so that he couldn't take her for a bigger fool, and looked around again in confusion.
He couldn't just jump out of the window or evaporate in a puff of smoke, so how did he disappear? Could it be really just a dream? But then she noticed the egg lying on the pillow on the second chair. It wasn't a dream. He really said all those strange things. And then he really disappeared through some secret path she didn't know.
She decided rather not to explore library today. She didn't like the idea of Varys access to her chambers as he pleased and his knowledge about her egg. And his words... that he didn't want to steal it because he is not Targaryen and so he wouldn't need it? She wasn't sure how to interpret it. It sounded so... scary for some reason. And she was disgusted by the image of spying little birds in gardens and maybe behind doors and who knew where else. Therefore, she held up the egg and lay on the bed with it. She completely forgot even her bedraggled hair and blood on her dress. Or what the guard could see, when the dagger and her bloody coat remained on the floor, and what could he tell to her father about such entrée.
"I won't let them steal you. You are mine. I don't care how are they trying to scare me. We dine with Elia tomorrow and leave right after the feast in Aegon's honor. Father will surely let me chose the next stop. Perhaps I can convince him to anchor on Tarth, I read about its beautiful pure waters in some travel journal. Yes, so it will be. We leave for Tarth after the feast, or maybe for Storm's End, if Robert shows here. Lord Robert in fact. He would surely take me there, he never minded staying in south longer than planned. The mountains of Vale won't crash without him. And then I will be with girls again and no one will break to you. No one will play with me," she reassured herself, while talking to the egg. It worked better than just thinking about it, she could really convince herself this way. Because it seemed to her, that it responded. That the glow of the golden veins showed it heard her and meant no need to worry for her. And she needed it. Those strange words still resonated in her head and their unclear meaning whirled through her mind.
"Why would I need it? I am not Targaryen."
I am not Targaryen.
Not Targaryen...
Targaryen...
Flames flared up around her. High and massive, towered all around her like walls. But they were black, not orange, and didn't burn. They didn't hurt her, right opposite, she felt they were protecting her from something bigger and worse on the other side. But she also felt that she couldn't stay in them because they would start to burn in the end, but was afraid to pass them. She was afraid of that thing beyond and that they still sear her. And when she finally stepped out, she felt into the void.
She was falling and falling, tried to scream but couldn't. She even couldn't stretch her hands to soften her inevitable land. Instead, she was still breaking through the darkness and blurred streaks darted around.
Only then she hit the hard cobbled floor but almost didn't realize it. She spotted a flash of silver hair and fair pale face that she didn't remember for years in front of her. At first, it looked like a ghost, then it brightened after a while.
"Mother!" she tried to cry, but her voice was caught in her throat. So she tried even harder to get up and run to her, only to realize that her legs didn't obey her. She didn't feel them, therefore, she didn't realize hitting the ground. And her mother's face, her beautiful purple eyes and kind smile, was melting away and away far beyond her reach until it twisted and screamed.
"Mother!" she tried again and reached out her hand to her, but something huge emerged in front of her at that moment, jumped and stroke her back.
