…
VIII.
Unspoken
"You have a smooth tongue, Alyce," Ser Barristan complimented her.
"At times." She wanted to return to Tyrion and the queen. She parted with Ser Barristan; she would see him later for her training.
She returned to her position as a silent listener to Tyrion's education of the young queen, and when it came time for her training, Daenerys insisted on accompanying her and Tyrion down to the gallery to watch.
Alyce did not particularly enjoy the idea of an audience, but it did not affect her performance; the moment she engaged with Barristan, his movements and their battle became her entire world, and her mind did not have space to remember she even had an audience. Barristan too seemed unmoved that the queen was present. He barked orders, made her repeat herself until she moved to his satisfaction, and behaved no differently than when they were alone.
Today they were still working with longsword, and more intensely. Despite her armor, Alyce felt bruising welling in some places. But she was pleased with how well she had transitioned, despite her last training with longsword and shield being more than five years ago. Overall, for lack of a better word, she was happy. It showed in her focus and her confidence.
"Acknowledged," Ser Barristan grunted when she managed to land a particularly strong blow that rattled him. Alyce lowered her sword. "Leave me some energy for the young ones," he said, and gifted her a pleased smile. The boys were coming in, but lingering near the entrance of the gallery, rather afraid of the queen and her retinue.
Alyce bowed. For her part, she still had a great deal of energy left and was a bit disappointed not to fully tax herself.
She glanced over at their audience when Daenerys clapped appreciatively, standing.
"Rarely do I see such skill with arms," she complimented. Tyrion stood as well. Ser Barristan encouraged the boys inside the gallery and a couple of them helped Alyce off with her plate and mail. She breathed deeply, overwarm from exertion and the weight of the steel.
Pehzo, a young boy with some skill with knives, tugged on her shirt.
"Can we train today?" he asked her in Meereenese.
"I have time today, yes, but you'll have to ask Ser Barristan."
The boy hurtled away toward his teacher, and the knight gave her a glance and then nodded to the boy. Pehzo darted back and then Alyce brought him over next to the edge of the gallery where the open air over the marble railing looked out over the city and columns supported the high ceiling of the huge space.
Tyrion ambled over to watch her with the boy, though Daenerys remained to watch Ser Barristan's training of the rest as a whole. They were still donning their gear and talking.
She encouraged the child, showing him moves and lecturing on the limitations and advantages of adding a knife to a fight.
Sooner than the boy wished, Ser Barristan barked for him to join the others in his lesson, and Alyce straightened.
"Taking on a squire?" Tyrion asked with a smirk. Alyce shrugged.
"He's a sweet boy and has good quick hands for knifework."
"Quick from pickpocketing, I would wager."
"Perhaps."
"It seems you need another bath." They were walking out of the gallery. Alyce motioned for two Unsullied to accompany them. Tyrion gave a bow goodbye to the queen, which she nodded to before returning her eyes to the training.
"We shall go somewhere else this time."
"Oh the wonders of living like a royal."
"This one is more communal, but I'll do a little something about that." She led him down a few levels to one of the nicer communal washrooms. Outside the door, she murmured instructions to the soldiers in Meereenese, then led Tyrion inside.
This room, like the gallery they had just come from, had a wall open to the air interspaced with thick stone columns. The bath was in fact a very large circular pool, slightly scented with the smell of tea. White sunlight came down in stripes into the room from the breaks in the columns.
"Did they steep the water?" he asked her.
"A little, yes—the Meereenese believe green tea has healthful properties."
There were two older, entirely naked women bathing when they walked in, but seeing them, the women quickly got out, toweled themselves off, and dressed. When they had left, he and Alyce were alone.
"How often do they change the water?"
"Twice a day," she replied. "This bath isn't exactly meant for getting clean—more for bathing for one's health—and I'm being a bit rude to wash my sweat off here, but who's to say so?" She was undressing as she spoke. Tyrion did the same, though he mostly watched her. Alyce undressing held less of the erotic charge it had had before, but it was still a sweet and delicious sight.
The sunlight lit her differently than candlelight, and gave the edges of her figure a sort of glow. Her breasts curved gently, paler than the rest of her body, and her hips swayed with curves. Her eyes were a brighter blue in the light—that of a summer sky instead of deep waters.
The washroom was warm despite its size due to its openness to the arid outside air and the sunlight lighting it, but the water of the pool was pleasantly cool. Alyce's skin glinted with beads of sweat as she lowered herself into the water, sighing happily. She gazed at him as he moved toward her. The ends of his slightly-curly hair grazed the bathwater. He did not look an impressive sight standing in the pool beside her. At certain moments, Alyce still became tangibly put off by his appearance, but she concealed those moments from him to spare his feelings.
Tyrion did not immediately reach for her; he gazed at her as he sat beside her on the ledge of the pool, the water to his collarbone, and seemed content. Alyce rubbed her arms and legs in the water, and at one point pushed off the underwater stone seat to submerge herself in the slightly deeper center of the circular pool. She ran her hands up and back through her thick raven hair, then went under again. When she came back, she pushed her hair back and away from her face. She looked like a courtier with oiled-back locks, and Tyrion laughed.
"What's funny?"
"Nothing, sweet. Are those soldiers you left outside there to guard our privacy?"
"Yes."
"Excellent." He took one of her hands in his underwater and began running gentle fingers over her wrist and arm. The pleasures his fingers promised were known now to her body, and she tightened with expectation between her thighs.
"When is Daenerys going to let me see these fabled dragons of hers, do you think?" he asked her absently.
"Be patient."
"How angry would she grow if I were to try to go down and have a glance?"
"I don't know, but I should like to think you will not risk finding out."
He sighed. "It pains me to know there are dragons far below my feet and I cannot go see them."
"I know remedies to such pain," she murmured throatily to him, her fingers cupping his chin and caressing the bristly skin there. His eyes softened and smoldered; he moved closer to her. His fingers teased her waist, and she leaned and cocked her head to kiss and suck his skin where his neck joined his shoulder. They splashed a bit as Tyrion stood to shove himself close to her and ended up straddling her lap. She giggled into his mouth as he claimed it with his.
They kissed deeply, and more roughly than they had that morning. Tyrion was an excellent kisser… And his hands…
When he touched her, she heard their late-night conversations on the deck of the poleboat; she felt the comfort of pulling him to her under a fur the first night they had slept beside each other. When she opened her eyes to his, she saw all the agony of losing him, all the moments he had made her laugh, and remembered the way his eyes had looked when she had stepped into Yezzan's tent and found him again.
He nibbled down her jaw and onto her right earlobe. His cock was hard against her stomach in the water. He feathered kisses over her face and bit her shoulder deliciously hard. His hands pulled, his body pressing ever closer.
"Love, I want you so…" he groaned, pressing the tip of his cock against her entrance with his hand guiding it.
She put her hands on his shoulders, a little displeased with him. "Tyrion, I'm not ready for you."
He blinked at her twice, then his face fell with apology. "I'm sorry. Of course you're not." She could see the self-deprecating glint in his eyes, and she cupped his face in her hands to kiss it away. As sure as if she could read his thoughts, she knew he was thinking of whores and how he had grown used to their behavior. Whores pleased whether they were physically ready to receive or not.
The heat between them had fled on his side, she could feel, but it had not for her, and men were not difficult to arouse again. She pulled him tight against her as he sat in her lap in the water and kissed his temple, his forehead, very gently his ears. Her hands ran down and up his wet, warm skin.
She kissed his mouth slowly and steadily, her tongue warm and exploring, raking her hands through his hair and down his back. When his tongue flicked or went diving in her mouth, she groaned softly, and that groaning seemed to reignite him.
He held her tighter and also raked his nails down and up her flesh. Alyce liked that pain and pleasure froth of sweet kiss and sharp sting. She bit his lower lip. Tyrion's fingers teased her inner thighs, the terribly sensitive skin behind her ears, and exercised an excruciatingly developed patience while he avoiding touching her where she was pulsing with heat between her legs.
Their teasing shifted in its intensity, and they regained the roughness of a few minutes before. Tyrion pulled her head to his by her hair. She dug her nails into his backside to clutch him against her. As her fingernails circled his erection, Tyrion lowered his mouth to her warm, wet nipples and swirled his tongue. She arched in response and sucked in air with a gasp. "Unhg…"
He kissed her breastbone, the pulsing hollow of her throat, and then his mouth was on hers again and finally his fingers were dancing between her legs. A whimper escaped her, and with a rush, she lifted them both out of the water with a splash to sit on the edge of the pool. She sat with Tyrion standing between her legs on the ledge, the water at his knees. He did not release her mouth as his tongue speared beside her cheek and his thumb began to rub back and forth across a place above her entrance that was too sweet to bear.
She gasped and bent her neck to mouth the skin of his shoulder, lest she cry out. He abandoned his touch to kiss her with both hands at the sides of her face, and her arms clutched him to her. They kissed hard, panting; Tyrion groaned like a broken man when she closed a fist around his cock and stroked up and back. Those groans set her skin on fire.
"Gods…" he moaned.
No…just us. You and I.
"Tyrion."
His head was in her hands and he opened his eyes to hers to meet her fevered gaze. She nodded just once and he pushed himself inside of her wet, soft body, not taking his eyes from hers. He winced and groaned with the heartbreaking pleasure of first entering her but did not close his eyes. Alyce breathed deep, shuddering breaths as she pushed his hips away from hers and then brought them back tight so that he went deep.
His hand slipped between their bodies and he found where she needed to be touched. They gazed at one another as he rubbed her and she met his thrusts, her mewing and whimpering and him groaning and gasping.
He had not said the words since the first night she had brought him into the pyramid, but in his eyes was I love you.
Alyce heard it inside her each time he groaned with each blissful rocking. Each time he breathed her name.
"Wait for me," she ordered breathlessly. He nodded and kept his completion back while their hips met roughly again and again and she fisted his hair in her hand. His hand was a magician's. His fingers wedged between their bodies seemed to be able to read her mind, even when conscious thought was beyond her.
She was copper and rose, the light silvering her skin. Tyrion pressed his mouth so hungrily, so adoringly, to the sculpture of her throat, thrown out to him by her tilted head. Alyce was trying to contain her writhing; she could not hold him fiercely enough or get his hand hard enough upon her. She braced her hips against his to catch his every movement. She had gone quieter again. Tyrion had learned that she grew quiet when overwhelmed by sensation.
She brought his forehead up to her mouth again with her fist in his hair, and under her panting breath, her noises of pleasure began again in a new pitch.
"Please," she whispered, her voice faint and childish in that moment, as finally his thumb sent her as high as she could go, and she began to fall blissfully back down in a rush of release. Tyrion could feel the contractions around him, the flash of heat, the new wetness. He moved his hand from her and held her with both arms, gazing into her expression of bliss, never stopping his fierce taking of her.
Her eyes opened to his. They were smoky. She took his backside into her hands and added an extra power as she tilted her head back again, her eyes closed.
"Gods—Alyce—yes—" he gasped, dizzy with sensation.
His hands found her face and he brought her head down to kiss her hard and breathlessly as release rushed for his veins. Their eyes gazed, so close. I love you.
He pulled himself from her with a slick sliding, as he let himself go with a cut groan; the wave crashed and took him down into resonant peace. There was quiet now, their bodies flooded with sweetness, and outside sounds slowly returned. Still groaning, he kissed her again and drank her mouth.
Smiling contentedly, Alyce lifted him so that he was out of the water and straddling her lap, and kissed him gently. Sometimes she could not get enough of his mouth.
On their way back to their room, they teased each other, touching and sneaking childish grabs, and at one point, Tyrion yanked her into a darkened alcove. She hauled him up into her arms, pressing his back against the cold stone of the dark wall, and they kissed hard, breaking occasionally to laugh.
Back in their room, they did not make it to the bed. Instead, Tyrion pulled her down to the floor on top of him, smirking devilishly. He put his mouth to her and gave her bliss again twice as she writhed beneath his tongue before her skin grew too sensitive to continue.
They made it to the bed then, and Alyce dropped her warm mouth down over his manhood. The hooding of his eyes and the helpless groans of pleasure that began to issue forth from him were deliciously gratifying. Despite having already spent himself earlier, he still did not last long under her power.
"There is no meeting today?" he asked later, when her head was tucked against his arm and he was still light-headed from the pleasures of her mouth.
"No. Every other day."
"Tomorrow, and next, and then the wedding."
"Aye." She kissed his arm near her mouth absently. "But I should spend some time with the queen tonight unless she is with Daario. Perhaps even if she's with Daario. She used to sometimes crawl into bed with me after he was asleep."
"Really? What did you talk of?"
"I just told her stories. And tried not be irritated that she was preventing me from sleeping." She grinned ruefully. "I can be grumpy when it comes to that."
Tyrion smirked at that, then murmured thoughtfully, "She is so young."
"She doesn't always act like it—except when she does."
"Your logic is certainly sound on that score."
"Hush up."
He chuckled and stroked her hair. "I hate to be deprived of you, but I suppose I can stand it, as long as you don't assign Daxros to guard me from my damnable bed."
His teasing did not make her giggle as intended. "If you were to disappear on me again, Tyrion…" she muttered. She didn't know how to finish her sentence. She shook her head slowly.
"Yes, Varys would be quite wroth with you."
Her arm, slung across his stomach, tightened. There were words in the back of her throat she could have said. Words about his importance to her. To the world. About her heart breaking if she could not keep him safe. But they did not come, and the moment passed in unspoken quiet.
…
Hello wonderful people! Especially those kind enough to review!
So a couple of you know me pretty well as an author and you know I usually end up creating soundtracks for the projects I get into and you've been inquiring after it (yes Emmy dear I'm looking at you), so here it is. It's separated by part, and if you have Spotify they're also up on there under (for example) "AoSF - Part I: Sworn Sword and Shield."
user/luckwouldhaveit/playlist/4Cla36MpL19yoJProHl8ik
Part I: Sworn Sword and Shield
Game of Thrones (Main Theme), Boyce Avenue
Oh Bondage! Up Yours!, X-Ray Spex I hate to scare you off the soundtrack this early with this doozy of an anthem, but this is definitely one of Alyce's theme songs. Keep going—I promise they're not all this caustic.
The Hands that Thieve, Streetlight Manifesto
Heavy Is As Heavy Does, Menomena
Daniel in the Den, Bastille
The Gloaming, Jonae'
My Body Is A Cage, Arcade Fire
The Wolves and the Ravens, Rogue Valley
Shenandoah, Scott Christopher Murray
Silver Dagger, The Staves
Once, Bradley Caleb Kane
I Don't Want Love, The Antlers
Perfect Sonnet, Bright Eyes
The Lion's Roar, First Aid Kit
(I Just) Died in Your Arms Tonight, Bastille
Acoustic #3, Goo Goo Dolls
Please Let Me Get What I Want, William Fitzsimmons
Monster, Runaground
Boots of Spanish Leather, Mandolin Orange
Part II: Another Day to Live or Die
Silver Coin, Angus and Julia Stone
The Professor, Damien Rice
Sorrow, The National
God's Gonna Cut You Down, Johnny Cash
Rains of Castamere, The National
Another Day, Karan Casey / Tim O'Brien
Left Hand Free, Alt-J Not even Alyce's left is free, but it's another good theme for her
River, Bishop Briggs
The Future, Teddy Thompson
Sorrowing Man, City and Colour
Gotta Get Away, The Offspring
State of My Head, Shinedown
Ophelia, The Lumineers
Man of the World, Marc Cohn
I Don't Want to Change You, Damien Rice
Hysteric, Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Bloodstream, Stateless
Flames, Vast
Part III: Fire and Blood
Starlight, The Wailin' Jennys
Work Song, Hozier
The Book of Love, The Magnetic Fields
Battles, Hudson Taylor
You Look Like Rain, Morphine
Over The Hills and Far Away, Led Zeppelin
Cover Me, Candlebox
Better Love, Hozier
I Send My Love To You, Palace Brothers
Vengeance, Zack Hemsy
Disparate Youth, Santigold
Killing in the Name of, Rage Against the Machine
Seven Nation Army, Melanie Martinez
Woman King, Iron & Wine
Fire and Blood, Game of Thrones OST
...
I love discovering amazing music, so if you have suggestions, let me know! Thank you guys for all your support and kind words. You are lovely people!