Prologue
The walls of Cedrick's home had long since crumbled and in their place stood thick beams of wood, blackened and charred from where the flames had licked at them. The walls were still smoking and he could see the faintest glow of embers. Glass littered the floor where the windows had broken. Nothing had escaped the fire that ravaged King's Landing.
Cedrick laid idly in his hard bed, his little sister curled against his side. Staring up at the rose-pink light of dawn where the ceiling once was. He was wide awake, restless with fear. Fear that made him feel as if every single nerve ending in his entire body was alive with electricity.
Although it has been several weeks now, he could never erase the cataclysmic day from his mind. The day that the kingdom has been seized by the Mad Queen. Daenerys Targeryen. And the fateful day that Cedrick learned that freedom is a precious commodity.
He remembered how terrified he was. Not just for himself, rather his siblings. His sixteen-year-old brother, Conin, punctilious and broad-shouldered, who tried so hard to be a man twice his age after Father passed away, leaving him determined to be the breadwinner of the family. His fifteen years old sister Jana, always diligently helping Mama cook and clean. His eight-year-old little brother, Keven, exhilarated by the anticipation of seeing a real-life dragon. And dear baby Hazelle, who is only six; the youngest of the family.
The house was engulfed with ravenous flames. And as the flames consumed the walls, his mother, his siblings, and himself all fled the house. Even now, Cedrick could still smell the rising, black smoke, he could still smell the stench of the roasting corpses. He could still hear the blood-curdling screams ringing in the other districts of King's Landing. He remembered the terrifying sight of the dragon soaring in the skies. The beast expelling scorching fire from its mouth, razing buildings and houses in its path.
The air was full of wordless shouts and shrieks and unbearable heat. Citizens rampaged the streets in a mad haste. The world around Cedrick was swiftly transformed into a surreal nightmare.
Jana and Keven were the first among the slain. Incinerated by the dragon's flames.
The streets were cast with thick black ash, blinded, Cedrick lost all of his senses, all he could feel was his little sister's hand clutching to him and the urgent yelling of Conin screaming at him to run.
"Do not stop! Do not stop!" Conin screamed. His voice is hoarse and shrill.
He did with Hazelle and Mama running behind him. Hysterical citizens flooding the streets, shoving and thrashing Cedrick and his sister forward.
Cedrick ran blindly through the smoldering streets, clenching Hazelle's hand like a vice. Her shrill weeping echoed through his eardrums.
In a sudden act of impulsivity, Cedrick finally looked back and he realized that his elder brother and Mama were gone. Not even a trace of them. Everything in him was screaming for him to turn around and look for them. But he fought tooth and nail against these urges, focusing on Hazelle.
Whether they had either suffocated from the smoke or incinerated by the fire, Cedrick did not want to know.
"Dragon!" Hazelle suddenly screamed.
At that moment, a massive shadow overcast on the siblings as it releases out a blood-chilling roar. The dragon instantly unleashed a scorching stream of flames onto the street. Cedrick's eyes, hardly daring even to blink, remained fixed firmly on Hazelle's frantic form, as he ran. When he could feel the rays of the scorching heat roaring close, he yanked them both into a side alleyway, narrowly dodging the attack. The scorching heat simmered on Cedrick's skin as they both collapsed in a heap onto the ground. Hazelle wept as she struggled to scramble to her feet, her cheeks and hands raw with blood. Cedrick's legs throbbed, and his knee was completely bloody.
"Haz..." Cedrick coughed, unable to speak with the thick smoke. He jolted to his feet and yanked Hazelle to hers. He waited no time as he and Hazelle sprinted down the alleyway.
As the unbridled flames consumed Flea Bottom, the intense heat blistered Cedrick's skin. All he could feel was his little sister's hand clinging to him. Hazelle's shrill weeping echoed through his eardrums. Cedrick spilled through countless mazes of twisting alleys and cross streets, unaware of where he was heading. He ran and ran until his lungs twinged with excruciating agony. When his legs refused to move, he stopped in an alleyway and looked up to catch a glimpse of that dark figure of the dragon soaring overhead and away from the slums, still expelling unbridled flames through the far streets. A powerful wave of exhaustion overwhelmed Cedrick, excruciating pangs of pain surged through his legs.
"Cedrick, are you okay?" Hazelle shrieked when Cedrick fell to his knees. Cedrick struggled to catch his breath, his lungs searing with ash. Hazelle grabbed his arm and vehemently tried to pull him up to his feet as hard as she could. "Please, we can't stop!" She wailed.
Cedrick coughed violently as he struggled to climb to his feet. Hazelle never released his arm, still tugging and pulling.
Once the boy was at his feet, the two began to run once more into the nearest shelter.
Even as he and his sister sequestered in the shelter, Cedrick could still smell the heavy smoke, he could still smell the stench of the roasting corpses. He could still hear the blood-curdling screams ringing outside.
Hazelle embraced him, burying his face into his chest, shivering uncontrollably. She was a dismal sight to see. Cedrick wrapped his arms around her and held her close. "We're safe here, Hazelle. No need to be afraid." He whispered into her ear. Hazelle only responded by coughing out a grating sob, her sobbing intermingled with distressing wails and whimpers from the other women and children. Cedrick laid a firm hand on his sisters' shoulders. "Come on, don't cry. It's okay. It's going to be alright." Cedrick stroked her soft locks, Hazelle looked up at him and Cedrick forced his lips to curl upward. "Your big brother will protect you. I promise, Hazelle."
He didn't believe his own words of comfort. Cedrick wanted to cry himself, but he didn't allow himself to. His mind replayed his desperate escape from the inferno razing through the city over and over. The maddened roar of the dragon, the horror and desperation in his sibling's eyes. He could see Keven on fire, incinerated alive in the streets by the very dragon he was exhilarated to see. He still recollected the harrowing moment where he watched in horror as Jana fell as she ran, and he swore that for one long and dreadful second, he could see her seemed to be suspended in midair, a look of sheer terror on her features before the cascade of flames consumed her body. Her bloodcurdling scream still rings in Cedrick's eardrums. The howling of madmen riding their stallions through the streets, slaughtering men and women alike.
It was only him and Hazelle alive.
"Cedrick?" Hazelle whimpered. She looked him in the eyes, tears stained her cheeks, making her eyes glassy "Are we going to die?"
"No." Cedrick said swiftly. "Don't say things like that."
Hazelle tightened her arms around Cedrick. "I'm really scared!" She wept.
"Don't be! We're safe here!"
The Earth shook violently from a deafening explosion. Then there was another explosion that made him lurch. The fear traveled in Cedrick's veins but never made it to his facial muscles or skin. He clenched his teeth and willed himself not to scream, not to cry. He had screamed and cried for long enough. He refused to allow himself to look afraid. That would mean she won, that meant they won. Cedrick refused to give them that satisfaction.
He heaved labored breaths, clutching Hazelle's trembling form tightly. The sudden sensation of a warm, liquid something striking his cheek made him jump. It took him a moment to realize that it was a mutinous teardrop when one fell in the palm of his hand. Before he knew it more hot tears were streaming down his cheeks. It was at this moment when all reality dawned on him all at once.
He realized that on this day the foreign enemy had won. The Lannister army had been quelled, Queen Cersei had been overthrown and King's Landing had been subjugated. But most importantly, he realized that this was the day where him and all those around him were now captives in a cage.
More tears poured out. But he wasn't crying out of sadness or fear; but rather an unbridled and intense hatred. Hate burned so deep that it was entrenched into his tissue. Enmity welled up in his heart, wrath itself threatening to burn him from the insides.
The Queen of Dragons. A woman that Cedrick recalled his Father speaking about before his death three years before. The Mad King's daughter. Daenerys I Targaryen. A foreign Queen from the East that wreaked havoc on the city of King's Landing.
The woman that seeks to take control of the Iron Throne slaughtered his family.
Murderer. Is all Cedrick could think of when he thought of Daenerys.
She is not his Queen. She will never be his Queen.
Cedrick hated Daenerys Targeryen. He hated her even though he never met her. He hated him like he had hated nothing and no one else before. His mother, his siblings, his friends, his home are all gone. All he knew was gone, erased and expunged from existence.
He wanted to do something. Anything to avenge his siblings and mother.
All he wanted was for her to die a slow and painful death.