Everything was brighter in Dorne. Even in something called the shadow city the hovels and hut, winesinks and pillow places in browns, reds, oranges, and yellows. Pinks, and Purples, even warm tan ribbons and vase garnish the streets. The people were colorful as well with colorful language most of it shouted from one person to another and it all made me so very uncomfortable.
My hand stayed steady on the hilt of my sword, these dark days made me more paranoid then I ever felt, at least I knew danger was truly everywhere unlike Aerys whose enemies had charged in his own mind before they were ever real and on a battlefield.
In my left arm I clutched against my chest the one true king of Westeros. A boy little more than a babe, smuggled out of the capital city. Aegon wiggled relentlessly under the blanket veiling his identity. He was closer to two then one now and was disgruntled at being held all the time even though it was for his own good. He began to cry when I did not let him down.
"Be still." Elia told him softly as we moved through the crowd. She was exhausted from the trials of being on the run, I was sure she never had to walk so far in her life. I offered to carry her on my back, but she had put her daughter upon my back instead asking me as always to guard her children the last things she had. She looked at me softly as if to assure we were almost there. I had to assure myself they would let us in. Elia was sure. Even in the rags Varys gave her she was beautiful and elegant. Her big black eyes were becoming more readable to me after spending so much time with her. When we had first met her haunting black eyes were a mystery to me, every thought and feeling carefully hidden by her flawless manners. The long thick curls that fell to her waist had to be covered because it was to fine for a peasant woman, there was nothing to do about her warm smooth brown skin, several people had remarked on how beautiful my wife was on the journey here and very few of them were still living.
Even covered in dirt and blood we both passed poorly for peasants, thankfully Elia was much more clever then I and had told people that she was once a handmaiden in the capital and I a bastard hedge knight and we had fled the capital with our children when it was taken. It was a very passable tale mayphaps because some of it was true.
"Momma!" Rhaenys whined from my back. She was only three years old but a joy of a child. She looked mostly Dornish like her mother though there was a little Targaryen in her, there was something purple in her black eyes, she had her fathers cheek bones and looked a little like her grandmother in her face structure.
"One more gate to go." Princess Elia promised her daughter but she was tiring.
"Hold onto me princess." I told her. We hadn't coin left for a donkey to-make the long journey a little less bracing for a woman of fragile health.
Princess Elia grabbed onto my left arm her son laid his head against his mothers' hand and seemed to settle, what little weight she had leaned against me for support. "You are so very good to us; I swear I shall not forget the debt you are owed. "She said with the honor of a princess.
In truth she owed me no debt it was my duty. After all, Aegon was the rightful king and I swore an oath to the king, though it had not saved the last one. I felt endless guilt for what I had done, it was princess Elia who was the voice of reason, she shed no tears for the king and reminded me often if I had not killed Aerys he would have killed us all. I was the knight and she the princess, but it was princess Elia who was truly strong.
We moved through the maze of a city finally the buildings and people looked finer as we headed for the last large gate this one was grander than the others with marble columns on either said and gold embellishment on the several suns.
"Get lost!" A guard said in his thick Dornish drawl. Princess Elia's was delightful and made her all the more enchanting the same could not be said for the annoyed guard.
Princess Elia looked up at me with her big black eyes she gave my arm a squeeze before letting go. "We must get in." She said determined. Hesitantly I let her take the baby king from my arms. Before putting Rhaenys down who tiredly went to her mother, she took after her so easily walking proudly like a princess next to her mother even covered in dirt without shoes. Elia dropped her peasant covering before unveiling her Targaryen Baby. The guard's eyes widened at his silver hair, pale skin, and purple eyes.
"I am Princess Elia Nymerous Martell Targaryen of Dorne, Dowager princess of Dragonstone, and sister of the Prince of Dorne. These are my children; Princess Rhaenys Targaryen the princess of Dragonstone and King Aegon the sixth of his name." She declared even though she was tired she still talked with eloquence of a princess.
The giant gate opened, and they walked into Sunspear or Old castle as it is known. I remember being told the water gardens were made as a more comfortable extravagant castle. Seeing the decadent towers and walking a crossed marble floors and looking at the strange and ornate tiled walls I could not imagine what the water gardens were like.
I looked to Elia who was smiling looking at her home which I supposed was to be expected. Handmaidens and servants came to us hurried.
"The children will need bathed and clothed; they will need to be feed and after what they have been through Rhaenys may have any cakes she like and I want Aegon to get a bowl of honey." She addressed to the cheer of her children.
"We cannot split up princess?" I said she gave me an odd look before continuing. "The children will be guarded at all times while the war wages and those guards will answer to ser Jamie." She said simply.
She kissed her daughter and son before letting them go. "Send for my Lady Ashara, in fact send for all my ladies." Elia said her smile grew. Elia was kind to have sent her ladies back to Dorne for their own safety instead of making them stay with her in the capital as my sister would do.
Elia began laughing to my surprise I looked at her wide eyed and large smile she laughed so hard she covered her mouth, but it did nothing to relent her over joyousness.
I breathed heavily from our long journey. "You cannot lose your mind now." I muttered under my breath, she never seemed to notice my little comments.
"We survived Ser Jamie!" She said triumphantly. "We are in Sunspear, we are in my home, we are safe!"
I couldn't help but smile to when I realized it. "We lived." I repeated there were so many times I thought I would die trying to save them and they would die due to my matter what happened next maesters in there stuffy halls and nurse maids telling tales to there wards and even fishwives swapping gossip would say that we made it to Dorne.
"The mountain, the soldiers sacking the city, that horrible sailor-and his posy, then there were the assassins in Lys, they all tried to kill us for some reason or another and they were all defeated. My children are alive, you and I are alive and in no small part because of you. My children are alive because of you." She told me happily all while smiling.
My own smile faltered thinking of the Mountain, I thought about sitting on the iron throne when I killed Aerys but then I remembered Elia, I don't know why I was going to her, if I was going to tell her what I had done or to tell her to submit to my father or if I could say anything but then I heard her scream I ran in to find the mountain he killed the pisswater prince that I thought was Aegon at the time. The mountain stood over Elia though she through a vase at him it only made him laugh she didn't beg or cry she refused to give him the satisfaction as he stalked over to her. I ordered him to stop but he did not care for my words, so I drove my sword through his eye socket. Elia screamed that we had to find her daughter and her son though I was sure she was just in disbelief as she was covered in her babies' blood. She told me the truth after we went and saved Rhaenys from Ser Loch, Varys had the real prince Aegon in his own care and force at sword point he helped us escape even giving us peasant clothes to wear before making a herring journey out of Kingslanding to Lys and from there to Dorne mostly on foot. Princess Elia was supposed to be a fragile woman, but she survived what would have killed most. What Rhaegar alone did to her would kill most women.
I smiled again because she never once lacked for courage through the whole ordeal and her merry celebration from surviving was incredibly endearing. "No small part due to you." I reminded her. It was odd to know her now after so long of only seeing the formal princess she let people see. Her knees started to give out on her, I caught her holding her in my arms, her black eyes looked up at me gratefully.
"Weak knees?" I asked not letting her go in fear she would fall again or at least that's what I told myself. She gave me a soft smile and hummed lightly before saying. "Weak everything." Her delicate hand went to my hair. "We both need baths." She told me only inches away from my face before finally pulling away and turning to a servant ordering us baths and telling them which corridors to layout for me, which did not mean a lot to me I just starred at her.
"And after I put on something appropriate we must see my-"Princess Elia started turning back to me.
"ELIA!" A voice shouted I heard the clatter of armor and my hand went to my sword out of instinct. A tall man appeared his skin was a rich brown like Elia, his black eyes wept when he saw her, he had the same hair though his was slightly graying, he wore ornate Dornish robes, he had an odd gate to his run as he hurried to her making me think one of his legs was injured she ran into his arms. Behind him was a large post of soldiers.
"I thought you- they said you were dead." He cried his face showed utter agony the tears wisp down his face.
"No, the children and I survived, they are bathing and eating now, you should let me bath too Doran , I am ruining your fine clothes." She teased and it was true dirt and dried blood now stained his yellow robes but he held her tighter. I care more for you then thousands of clothes." He promised before kissing her head.
He finally glanced to me his eyes were hard and judging. "Who are you?" He asked finally.
"Ser Jamie Lannister I-" I started after a moment but he waved to his guard already having passed judgement.
"Kill him!" He said simply.
They came fourth with Spears but Elia moved to stand in between them and me, I was about to pull her behind me when to my shock the Dornish guards dropped their spears and fell at her feet. She inspired loyalty I could not fathom. A Westerman guard would not drop his sword and fall to his knees for Cersei, or me and certainly not Tyrion. They would look to my father and wait for his orders. Doran didn't have to say a word and they did this for there princess.
She looked to Doran strongly. "Ser Jamie is the reason my children and I are alive, he saved us from the mountain and took us from a burning city, he protected us all the way here. If it were not for him my children would be dead, if it were not for him horrible men would have done terrible things to me. I will not allow any harm to come to his person!" She declared like the queen she was always meant to be.
Doran looked at me again longer and harder. "I suppose my thanks are in order and a form of payment." He said he clapped his hands and servants came quickly bringing cushions, chairs, a table, and food on top of it. "Sit eat, anyone who protects my sister has a place at my table." He says as he struggles into a chair. The guards pick up their spears and man the doors. Elia sits delicately on a cushion and I sit on the one next to her and it is so nice to sit. The burning in my legs told me that. A glass of wine is handed to me and as thirsty as I am, I only stare at it, everyone knew the rumors of Dornish and poison.
Elia took the goblet from my hand apparently understanding my fear I watched her gracefully drink from it before giving it back to me. I drained it of the rest of its contents. Elia took her own glass carefully to her lips before drinking freely.
"I will not keep you long I know you must want to freshen up."
"The sooner I can the sooner I can be back with my children." she reminded anxiously I never knew a nobelwomen to spend time with her children as Elia did. My mother certainly had not.
"The Usurper holds the throne." Doran informed. "We must let the world know of your survival before our allies submit."
"If you do that Robert may march on dorne." I said before I could stop myself.
"Let him come." Doran mused. "Dorne has survived Dragons it will not fall to a usurper."
"It fell to King Daeron the first." I reminded he was something of a childhood hero for me.
"A weaker man ruled Dorne, we are not weak and we do not bow, bend, or break." Elia said simply and her brother smiled approvingly. Doran was different then my father he seemed to have his strength and intelligence but something Foreign to Tywin Lannister who would never let my aunt Genna speak for him the way Elia did.
"What of Rhaella?" Elia asked her brother taking his hand.
"She is with the Targaryen fleet on Dragonstone." Doran said.
"She must abandon Dragonstone and sail the fleet here where she and her son will be safe." Elia said simply.
"Viserys is competition for your own son, Aerys himself claimed him heir over Aegon." Doran reminded.
"Rhaella is not Aerys." Elia promised and her brother nodded. He cared about her opinions and I myself had found Elia to be intelligent and clever a lesser man would not use the resource Elia was because of her sex but Doran did not appear to be a weaker man. He smiled at me for the first time.
"We will have clothes made for our guest but in the meantime, I insisted you wear some of my clothes." Doran said a great gesture.
Elia turned to me looking me over. "He is taller then you are, mayphaps Oberyn's clothes?" Elia suggested.
"Oberyn is slender though and your guard here is so very muscular." Doran reminded.
Elia tilted her head and hummed lightly as she thought looking me up and down, I felt as though both Martells were able to see through my clothing in the most unnerving way. "Arthur has surely left clothes here." Elia said finally.
"Oh yes that should do nicely." Doran agreed.
"Ser Arthur Dayne?" I ask trying not to grin stupidly but Ser Arthur Dayne was my hero.
"One in the same." Doran said as Elia only nodded as she ate a small bit of pastry I watched her lick the frosting off of it carefully before putting it in her mouth and for some reason my mouth felt dry again.
"Where is he?" Elia asked finally never saying who apparently, she did not have to.
"In Essos, I have sent him a message the moment I heard of your arrival." he promised.
Elia rose and we did as well. "Thank you for taking us in brother, I know it is no easy task." Elia said eloquently.
"This is always your home Elia; you will always be the princess of Dorne." Doran promised he could not stop himself from embracing her again before letting her go.
I was taken to lavish chambers in the tower of the sun. I was not sure what made me happier the bath or the bed. By the time I finished the bath I put on the clothes laid out for me. Arthurs clothes I reminded my self giddy. As I put on the greatest swordsman of our day's shirt, trousers, and boots. I remembered that Arthur may not be alive and if he was, he certainly would curse me as a kingslayer and oath breaker which I was both. The voices in my head and turmoil they bring ceased when I found Elia in that horrible way and left me be as I did everything in my power to bring her to safety. Now she was safe with her brother and the voices that hissed I should have died with my king was back with a vengeance and would not relent.
I went to the wall, Elia had shown me how to open it before leaving me, it joined our rooms. My hand went to it, but I did not dare open it. After all it was quiet one thing for a beautiful princess to break into a kingsguard's room quite another for a kingsgaurd to bother a princess. I let my hand press against it for a while, wondering if she was on the other side thinking about me, if nothing else she had come to rely on me, even though she had her brother now I still hoped she knew she would have me and my undying support. My hand rested against the wall for longer than it should have before abandoning it.
Every hall and corrider was bright there were not a dark corner or passage anywhere. By the end of it the reed keeps seemed to be full of eyrie halls and silent threats then people. I decided how ever slightly Dorne was better than the red keep and all its ghosts. Rhaenys and Aegon were easy enough to find. She was asleep on a pile of cushions and Aegon was splayed on the floor with a bowl of honey between his legs. He had already been cleaned his silver curls were still damp and combed though it did nothing to tame his wild curls. He was put in fine yellow clothes now covered in honey. They waited on him hand and foot as though he were a god and with all these servants with foods, toys, and blankets he gave me all his attention when I entered the doorway.
"Yabbie!" He cried holding out a glob of honey in his hand as though to offer it to me. I couldn't suppress the smile. When his mother said my name her Dornish slang made J's sound like Y's. for some unknown reason my heartbeat faster when she said it. The first time I heard my name on her lips I was seven and it made my heart soar. Cersei hated it and mockingly called me Yamie for weeks but her stinging words even in jest couldn't match the skip my heart took every time still to this day when Elia said my name. And though it should annoy me I had fully excepted being Yabbie for Aegon just as I was the golden man for Rhaenys.
"No thank you." I told him as I sat on the cold floor next to him. He happily shoved his hand into his mouth sucking on it to get the honey off it.
Rhaenys lifted her head up observing me with her purple eyes. "Golden man are you going to leave us?" Rhaenys asked softly in her tired little voice.
"No princess." I told her simply it was a decision I made when I took them out of Kingslanding our fates were attached now I could not return to my father if I wanted to and nothing in me wanted to. I knew in my heart it was my duty to take care of them and their mother. Mayphaps it was my penance.
"My papa left." The child whined with the same pouty looks of her mother.
"You are stuck with me." I teased but she didn't understand though they were colored like her fathers she had big doe eyes like her mother, and they welled with tears. "I won't leave, I will take care of you and your brother and mother." I told her.
I was not sure she understood but she laid her little head back down. The marble felt good against my burning legs and sore body. I thought about resting my eyes when I looked over at Aegon. My king had put his bowl of honey over his head.
Handmaidens went to his aid but the moment his hair was pulled he screamed and ran into my arms.
"It's okay buddy." I told him too tired to be proper. He held onto me so tightly his little tears wiped away against my chest. For a moment he wasn't a king and I was not a disgraced kingsguard. He was just a small child without a father, and I was the man who almost died trying to get him to Dorne. He was so little but somehow, he knew I was safe.
A handmaiden nervously put a water basin before me.
"Let's clean you off." I told him. He made a whinny noise.
"Come now be a tough boy." I told him lowering him gently to the water his little handheld onto me. One handheld him the other washed his hair carefully, probably more carefully then I ever done anything else. He never cried he only stared up at me with those big purple eyes filled with trust. I was careful not to hurt him I had never taken care of any one before. I pulled him up.
"How is that?" I asked.
"I love you yabbie." Is all he said.
"That was sweet." Elia's voice called. I looked up to see her emerge from the doorway. Even though he abandoned them I could not imagine Rhaegar would think his son telling me he loved him was sweet. Rhaegar always got quite when he was angry, and his rage was only shown in a judgmental look. Silence had always been Rhaegars weapon just as it had been Elia's shield. An easy way for her to keep surviving unnoticed, and as unscathed as she could manage. Since we left kings landing, I had heard her talk more times than ever as Rhaegar's wife. She still talked in a soft demure tone instead of with unending joy and the brightest smile like she did when she visited the rock. I wondered if that girl was hiding or if she was as dead and gone as the boy I used to be.
Elia was clean with done hair and makeup and jewels like she was the crown prince's wife again. However, as his wife she always wore thick Westeroes gowns that made her seem so small. Now she wore a Dornish dress of thin silk with a plunging neckline to beat the heat.
"I have a fine future as a handmaiden." I mumbled. I knew I shouldn't say snarky things in front of Elia, she is not just a princess twice over she was good and gentle and didn't deserve it. All I could do was mumble them quietly and she never seemed to notice.
She bent down first kissing her daughters head before and began to remove his sticky clothes. She was this refined, elegant woman of noble birth but she was also the most maternal women I ever met. She loved those children the boy and the girl equally. I was beginning to think there were no gods at all but when I thought of the mother, she had Elia Martell's face.
"Towel please?" Elia said before being handed one she dipped it in the water before ringing it out and washing him with it.
"Someone could do that for you." I told her, probably because I was tired and moody. I expected her to answer me the same way she always would answer Rhaegar when he would tell her not to care for the children herself. She would always look so hurt as she would say I like to care for the children. She didn't she barely spared me a glance and it was expressionless.
"Someone could have washed his hair as well." She said simply.
Aegon grabbed for a little wooden knight.
"When the war starts your brother shouldn't waste his time going through the Reach, he has ships he should go to Kingslanding first." I told her.
"What do you mean?" Elia asked.
"Aegons throne?" I told her simply.
"What about Aegon's throne? The usurper has it." Elia said nonchalantly as she toyed with her sons curles. Aegon for his part shook the knight fiercely as he giggled.
"And we need to get it back for your son." I reminded her.
"No, what we need to do is keep the children here in Dorne where it's safe, when Aegon is a man he can take it back, or Rhaenys if she'd like it." Elia said as if this was not the legacy of her children we were talking about. She paid more attention to her sons playing smiling softly at him.
"Your children are not safe while Robert is on the iron throne, not in Dorne not anywhere!" I told her. She gave me a warning look I had never seen anything like it before.
"I cannot make you stay with us. I would like you to stay but I cannot force you to. So, if you want to go, leave." She told me sternly but something about her lips gentle pout made me realize she was just as worried about being left again as Rhaenys.
"I am sorry if I over stepped, you are the regent and I am the guard." I said I watched her eyes flicker over me for sincerity. Her black eyes settled on my green ones for a while before she emotionlessly got up pulled Aegon up and keeping ahold of his hand and picking Rhaenys up.
"Ser Jamie, are you coming?" Princess Elia asked softly I smiled. "Shall I take the princess your highness?"
She handed her sleeping child over to me. She adjusted Rhaenys in my arms. I stared at her in the bright light of Dorne she seemed to sparkle. She turned and I followed her looking to Rhaenys whose little hand clutched at my tunic. Not something unorthodox for a bodyguard to carry a child but Elia wasn't like most Highborn women, her children were the most important thing to her, and she happily handed me one of them. After our journey together she trusted me at least on some level, I wanted to earn that trust. I wanted to be able to always tell the dark voice in my head that I never betrayed Elia and the children I kept my oath to them because it was an oath worth keeping.
Finally wrote a Jamie story! Many more chapters to come. Thanks for reading let me know what you think.