Chapter Ten: The Art of Deception
A/N: Wow! As always, thanks for the brilliant feedback, guys. I'm always amazed at how many of you lovely people stop to review, favourite or follow. Anyhow *clears throat* tomorrow happens to be my 19th birthday, so...reviews would of course be a most excellent birthday present indeed. Hope you enjoy this chapter, in which Mella learns the truth of her heritage...
King's Landing was humid upon Mella's return – perhaps even a little too warm. She had grown used to the bitter winds and cold chill of Winterfell, and she felt a slight sweat beginning to break across her forehead. Was it from the heat then, or nervousness about seeing her family again? Everything had changed, considering the tension between the Starks and the Lannisters that grew close to boiling point after Robert's death.
It seemed that the entirety of court had gathered in the main courtyard to welcome the Princess back to the capital. Mella felt a little uneasy upon seeing all of them, in particular her brother strutting around with a crown upon his head. Joffrey had always been a cruel boy, and now she feared that he would make a terrible King. Taking a deep breath and wondering if they would see how much she'd changed, Mella pushed open the wheelhouse door and stepped out onto the moist earth of her home. Yet somehow, it didn't feel the same.
"Mella, my sweet." Cersei was the first to move forward, her green eyes glittering and a smile playing about her lips. She took her daughter in her arms and embraced her tightly. Over her mother's shoulder, Mella saw Joffrey's lip curl in contempt. There was no doubting her brother was not pleased by her return, although for what reason, she wasn't sure. They had never been close, but Mella though even Joffrey might show the slightest happiness at her arrival.
"What has happened?" Mella frowned and glanced around, searching for the familiar face of Ned Stark. He would be Joffrey's Hand now, but he was nowhere in sight. At first she felt insulted at his absence, but then a cold clutch of fear came over her as she realised Ned was far too respectful to miss the arrival of his best friend's oldest child. "Where is Eddard Stark? Should he not be present?"
Cersei's expression was sympathetic, but Mella noted that her mother's eyes had hardened.
"Mella, darling, you're in for some bad news. Eddard Stark is a traitor. He is currently imprisoned for attempting to usurp the throne that rightly belongs to your brother Joffrey. It would seem being the Hand didn't hold enough power for his liking."
Mella felt for a moment as though the stifling heat prevented her from breathing. She had always believed Ned Stark to be an honourable man, one worthy of every respect and not to mention the title of Hand of the King. She found it difficult to comprehend that he would want to usurp the throne, for he did not seem a power-hungry man. Yet...what reason did her mother have to lie? It was true that the Starks and the Lannisters did not get along, but Cersei would not have imprisoned him for something so petty.
"There is more." Joffrey stepped forward, his eyes glimmering with something like triumph. "Your precious Robb Stark has declared war on us."
Mella suddenly felt as cold as the north itself. Robb had declared war on them – on her? He had claimed to care for her. Mella knew his reasons would have to do with Ned's imprisonment, yet she wondered what impact the declaration of war would have on her relationship with Robb...if it could even be called that. Was it just a passing phase, a fleeting moment of desire? She had feelings for him, but even now, they were conflicted as she was torn between her family and the young man she just might love.
Mella was just starting to settle back into her normal routine, and it was already only her first night back in King's Landing. She allowed Alyss to braid her hair, but she remained in silence, listening to her lady's chattering but making no attempt to participate in the conversation. She and Robb were now enemies. Her family had imprisoned his father. Could there really be any going back to what they had before? She swallowed the lump in her throat.
There was a soft knock at the door and Alyss rose to her feet, crossing over and swiftly opening it – and Mella was surprised at her visitor. Lord Varys bowed from the waist, the hint of a smile playing about his lips. Immediately, Mella was cautious, for she had always known Varys to be a man she should not trust. Biting her lip, she quickly dismissed Alyss and then turned to the matter of her unexpected visitor.
"It was a shame I could not be there when you arrived this morning," Varys said delicately, taking a seat. He was more graceful than most men, this eunuch. There was a soft touch to his words, a flourish when he spoke. Yet that did not make him any less dangerous. "But as you are no doubt aware, I am a busy man."
"Of course, Lord Varys." Mella offered him a brief smile, sitting across from him. "What I do wonder about is why you have chosen to visit me now. Surely I would have seen you in court on the morn?"
Varys smiled too. "No doubt at all, my lady, however there are matters I wish to discuss with you – away from the prying eyes and ears of the nobility."
Mella was guarded now. Matters he wished to discuss? She wondered if perhaps they were to do with the reason Ned Stark had been arrested. She leaned forward in her chair, eyes conveying her interest.
"Yes, Lord Varys?"
"Ned Stark wishes to speak with you," Varys stated dryly, tapping his fingers lightly on the table as Mella leaned back, a little astonished. "As you know he is held prisoner in the dungeons, and I doubt your dear mother would permit you to see the man for fear of what he has to say."
"What does he have to say?" Mella whispered, beginning to feel the colour draining from her. Now she was afraid, because it seemed that there was something Ned Stark knew that her mother had no wish for her to find out. She gnawed at her lip anxiously and Lord Varys offered her a sympathetic smile.
"Don't be frightened, my lady. Come with me, and I will take you to see Lord Stark."
The dungeons were the place in King's Landing that Mella was most afraid of, and rightly so. They were dark and dank, housing all manner of criminals. The fact that a noble man such as Ned Stark was being kept in such conditions repulsed her. She shivered and wrapped her arms tight around herself as Varys unlocked the door to Ned's cell and held the torch out to her. Mella knew she was meant to enter alone, and the prospect made her so very frightened and claustrophobic, but if Ned could endure in the darkness, so could she.
"Lord Stark?" she called, hearing how small her voice sounded, resonating throughout the cell. "It's me, Princess Mella."
There was a clinking sound, which Mella made her way towards. She found herself looking upon a bedraggled man – but this couldn't possibly be Lord Stark. Yet it was. Ignoring the filth that smeared the floor, Mella knelt in front of him, holding the torch up so that he could see the light, and her face. Ned flinched away from it, not afraid of the fire, but unaccustomed to the sudden light that Robert's daughter brought with her.
"You came." Lord Stark's voice was hoarse. "I didn't think that you would, my lady. But there are things you need to know...about your father and your mother."
"What kind of things?" Mella's voice was a whisper and she watched the light of the torch flicker before her. Lord Stark had been imprisoned for something. Cersei suggested treason, but was that treason knowing something he shouldn't? Could Lord Arryn's death have been something more sinister as well? It seemed that the Hands were being gotten rid of as quickly as possible.
"What I am about to tell you will come as shocking." Ned's voice had grown stronger now, and she found herself listening intently. "I'm sorry it has to be so abrupt, but your mother is attempting to hide the truth, and I know that if your father were alive, he would believe me. You...you are so like him, Mella. With those eyes and that dark hair. His one true child."
Mella's eyes widened at his last words and she found herself starting to shake. She had noticed it before, stuck out painfully because she was the only child with dark hair and her father's eyes, rather than blonde hair and green eyes like Cersei. But, if she was Robert's only true child...no, Ned had to mean something else by his words.
"Your brothers and sister were all fathered by Jaime Lannister, your uncle." Ned's voice was heavy, as was his heart. It would all be too much for the poor girl to comprehend...yet she needed to know. "Think about it, Mella. You are a clever girl. Every member of House Baratheon has dark hair. It is dominant in your family, yet all three of your siblings are golden-haired. You are Robert's only legitimate child, and with that knowledge, you should be Queen of Westeros..."
"Stop it!" Mella jerked backwards as if his words had stung her. It wasn't because she thought him a liar. It was because everything he said made sense, started to answer the questions that had been niggling in the back of her mind. Yet if others found out that she was the true heir...if Joffrey found out... "There must be some mistake, Lord Stark."
"You and I both know it's the truth," Lord Stark sighed heavily. "Now it seems that it's a truth I may die for."
Mella found herself unable to sleep that night, Lord Stark's words taking root deep inside her, causing her to fill with doubt. What could she do with the knowledge that she was the true heir? Joffrey would kill her if he believed her to be a threat to his claim to the throne, she had no doubt about that. Cersei...it stung Mella to know that her own mother would prefer her sadistic son on the throne rather than her oldest daughter. Perhaps it was because when she looked at Mella, she saw Robert's likeness.
The only thing Mella could think to do, cowardly as it was, was run. The whispers of Lord Stark's treason, of her legitimacy, would circle the court. Once they did, there wasn't a safe place she could turn. If she had been a boy, it would be different. Now people such as Lord Baelish and Lord Varys would attempt to have her married off to a powerful candidate, a man who would make a more benevolent King than Joffrey.
She understood now that she had been wrong to place her trust in her family. Cersei had been lying to her for so many, spoiling Joffrey and making Mella feel as though she was the outcast. The anger burned in her veins, and she remembered the words of House Baratheon: ours is the fury. With her father dead, that fury was all hers, and there would come a day when she would exact revenge upon those who had attempted to conceal their lies. Mella didn't think she could trust anyone in King's Landing anymore...but maybe, just maybe, she could trust Robb.
It was that notion that drove Mella to pack her bags in the dead of night. Of course, she wasn't foolish enough to think she could venture north alone – so she gathered all her ladies and guards who had accompanied her from Winterfell, convincing them that Cersei had assured her it was best to leave under cover of night. Mella had sworn her vows of fealty to Joffrey – but now, irate, she wished for nothing more than to take them back.
"My lady, why does the Queen wish us to return to Winterfell so soon?" Alyss inquired, a cloak tugged around her shoulders despite the fact that King's Landing was far warmer than the north had been.
"She doesn't want Robb and Catelyn to suspect anything is wrong," Mella lied with a saccharine smile. "She says we should return to Winterfell for now, for that would give Robb reason to believe we still have some trust in him."
In truth, Mella planned to find Robb's war camp, no matter how dangerous the task may be. She would tell him the truth about her heritage, about why his father had been arrested – but her chaperones weren't to know that, not yet. As she watched a stableboy saddle her horse, Mella wondered that there was some of her mother's manipulative side in her after all.