Rhaegar

Balerion brought them to the port of King's Landing at first light. Only when Bezzaro finished his prayer did the king stepped down from the war galley. There was already a good party of escort waiting for him. Aegon was at their head, dressed in black and grey, the colors of both his parents. He had not thought to see his son here. Aegon was always aware of his duty and what was needed of him. And he was needed at the Red Keep in his absence. If he was here then he must have reasons to be here.

The men all went to one knee when he stepped onto the ground and the sight was almost pleasing. When people fear you it is the most intoxicating sensation a man can possess. He had learned that long ago. A move of his fingers had them all on their feet again.

"Aegon," Rhaegar said walking to his son. He pulled him in for a tight embrace. He had missed his son. He still remembered the day he had put him over his dragon for the first time. He missed the old times.

"Father," Aegon greeted him back with a melancholic smile. The boy had got his brooding, melancholic face from him.

"My prince," Bezzaro followed him.

Aegon greeted him with a simple word. His son never liked the red priest much. He shouted some orders to prepare for their ride back to the Red Keep on Aegon's Hill. A boy brought two horses for him and Bezzaro. Rhaegar mounted his ride and the column fell in behind him after his kingsguard. Aegon rode to his left while Bezzaro stayed in his right flanked by the three remaining Kingsguard.

They rode from the port at once accompanied by a dozen citywatch guards in their gold cloaks and gold enameled halfhelms. As they passed beneath the river gate, his son came beside him. Looking at him Rhaegar could say that something was troubling him. "Father," he called, "What happened in Braavos?"

Rhaegar grew hesitant. "Its nothing to worry about," he managed himself to say. "Someone has paid to see me dead. But no worries, the killer lays dead in the gutter."

"But who was that?" Aegon asked. "Who wants you dead? You should've tried to catch him alive. We could've got the answer from him."

That is if I had managed to catch him in the first place. The bastard had slipped through his hands, escaping by using the canals. Rhaegar prayed to the gods to keep him alive just so he could take his filthy life away from him.

"You don't have to worry over it. It would've been either one of Stark's friend." But he knew that was not the truth. Robert would never send an assassin to do the work for him. Jon Arryn, too honorable to do it. He would put his money on Tywin Lannister. When he heard of Viserys' death Rhaegar had been so sure that it was not the work of Tywin but now with the thing happened to him he doubted no one more. But the lion was a cunning one. Tywin wouldn't have allowed Jaime to accompany if he had already planned this.

"You don't have to trouble over it son. I'm planning to deal with them soon." Rhaegar put his heels into his horse and trotted away, leaving the gold cloaks to follow as best they could.

He had intended to take the measure of the city when he was in Braavos. Rhaegar Targaryen was not pleased by much of what he saw. The streets of King's Landing had always been teeming and raucous and noisy, but now they reeked of danger in a way that he did not recall from past visits. The streets were filled with poor fellows eying them covetously with pale eyes and hollow cheeks. Watchmen were much in evidence, moving in pairs through the alleys in their gold cloaks and shirts of black ringmail, iron cudgels never far from their hands. The markets were crowded with ragged men selling their household goods for any price they could get… and conspicuously empty of farmers selling food. What little produce he did see was three times as costly as it had been a year ago. One peddler was hawking rats roasted on a skewer. "Fresh rats," he cried loudly, "fresh rats." Doubtless fresh rats were to be preferred to old stale rotten rats. The frightening thing was, the rats looked more appetizing than most of what the butchers were selling. On the Street of Flour, Rhaegar saw guards at every other shop door. When times grew lean, even bakers found sellswords cheaper than bread, he reflected.

"There is no food coming in, is there?" he said to Aegon.

"Little enough," his son admitted. "I've asked Lord Mace Tyrell to send a raven to Highgarden and bring in more food. But without the riverlands it is twice as hard to find food for the entire city."

"And what have you done about keeping the peace?" Rhaegar asked as he saw a naked corpse in the gutter being torn apart by some dogs.

"I've been taking steps to restore the king's peace," Aegon assured him. "I've tripled the size of the City Watch and put it under the command of Ser Jacelyn Bywater, and Daenerys has put a thousand craftsmen to work on our defenses. We lost Vhagar and Meraxes in a storm but the new Master of Ships, Aurane Waters has started to build others to replace them. The stonemasons are strengthening the walls, carpenters are building scorpions and catapults by the hundred, fletchers are making arrows, the smiths are forging blades, and our dragons stay strong."

Rhaegar shifted uncomfortably in his saddle. He was pleased that his son had not been idle. They might need all of them so soon. "I have not finalised the deal with the Iron Bank though. We might want to make sure to every coin from the royal coffers wisely."

"We might want to talk to Littlefinger about that. But I don't like him, father."

"You don't have to like the man," Rhaegar said. "You just have to like his work. He is a skilled man. Ask him to raise the taxes by three times than the old. It should put some gold in our coffers."

Aegon looked at him wide-eyed and surprised. "It's cruel. The people can't manage to pay it." It's Cruel, yes, but Clever. Clever and cruel. They had an ample amount of gold in the royal coffers but restoring the city and strengthening it will take more coin. The increasing of taxes would fill the royal coffers again.

"I never said to increase it today," Rhaegar told him. "Get the food from the Tyrells and feed them. When they sing songs about you for your generosity raise the taxes. They'll have to pay because they can't eat gold."

"And what about Varys?" Aegon asked. "You said that you'll take care of him once you came back."

Rhaegar sighed. "Varys has his flaws," he admitted. "But he has proven useful in more than one occasion. Especially in the thing with the Outlaw, Eddard Stark. Him and Baelish. I said I'll change them in due time and I shall. Now, all we have to worry about is your marriage."

"Speaking of marriage," Aegon started, "there is something you need to know."

"What is it?"

"The Martells are here," Aegon said. "With Prince Oberyn Martell."

Oberyn... He is here. Rhaegar has not spoken with Oberyn ever since Harrenhal. The Red Viper of Dorne had stayed away from him after that. He wondered if Elia had something to do with it. Now he has seen it fit to face him after seventeen years. He wondered what kind of troubles Oberyn is going to bring. It was not a secret that Oberyn blamed him for Elia and their children's death. Of all the people he had known, Oberyn was the most dangerous. No one knows when the viper strikes and no one knows why the viper strikes.

"When did he arrived?" Rhaegar asked his son.

"A moon ago."

"And Doran Martell?"

"Prince Doran never came. His health is not so good as to make the journey," Aegon answered.

That's not good. If someone can talk some sense into Oberyn Martell it was Doran.

"Where is Lyanna?"

Aegon looked back at him hesitantly. "In the Godswood," he said at last. "I don't know what is wrong with her. She has been like this ever since you left for Braavos. I have never seen her like that."

He might want to talk to her too. Gods be damned. He had thought that getting back home would help him to get away from the things happened in Braavos. He would have gladly chosen to stay in Braavos if it had known that he had so much waiting for him here.

They took the short route to Aegon's Hill and soon came to the Red Keep. As he had predicted Oberyn was waiting for him in the yard, dressed in flowing robes of striped orange, yellow, and scarlet.

The others in the yard knelt at once when Rhaegar dismounted but Oberyn never did. He just stood there on the ground as if he owned it.

"Prince Oberyn," Rhaegar greeted him.

"Your Grace," Oberyn said tilting his head lightly in a nod.

"I'm pleased to know that you came to welcome me," Rhaegar said.

"The pleasure was mine," Oberyn said, dark eyes shining. "I should welcome the King and his trusted advisor." He eyed Bezzaro with black eyes darkening with rage.

Rhaegar was not ready for the Red Viper's plays right now. "I'm sorry, Prince Oberyn. The long journey has left me exhausted," Rhaegar told him as politely as he could. "So if you'll excuse me, we'll talk again after."

"Why, we shall have the talk on the way," Oberyn said. "I shall not take much of your time."

After sending Aegon away to Lyanna, Rhaegar joined Prince Oberyn and walked with him to the castle. Bezzaro followed him with the kingsguard trailing behind. There was a certain wickedness in Oberyn's smirk that Rhaegar hated. "Are you finding King's Landing to you like, Prince Oberyn?"

"Oh, I like it," The Red Viper said with a chuckle. "It is certainly more kind to me than it was to another Martell once.

"I am glad that you find it kind to you," Rhaegar held his head high. He would not give into the viper's pushing. "Most don't."

"And that is why I've come here. To make it more hospitable."

Will he ever grow tired of this talk? He knew the answer to it. This is the Red Viper of Dorne. He knows how to use his tongue as well as he knows how to use his fangs.

"Seems like you've got a new advisor now," Oberyn said cocking his head at Bezzaro. "As a replacement to Arthur Dayne?"

"Take it what you will."

"Your father had an advisor as well," Oberyn said, his voice growing as dark as his eyes. "One who burns people."

"Do you take me for my father?" Rhaegar asked him coldly. "If I was my father you would have lost your tongue by now. You should be glad that I'm not my father. I'm a dragon but not my father."

By way of answer Prince Oberyn gave a smirk, and said, "When the Young Dragon conquered Dorne so long ago, he left the Lord of Highgarden to rule us after the Submission of Sunspear. This Tyrell moved with his tail from keep to keep, chasing rebels and making certain that our knees stayed bent. He would arrive in force, take a castle for his own, stay a moon's turn, and ride on to the next castle. It was his custom to turn the lords out of their own chambers and take their beds for himself. One night he found himself beneath a heavy velvet canopy. A sash hung down near the pillows, should he wish to summon a wench. He had a taste for Dornish women, this Lord Tyrell, and who can blame him? So he pulled upon the sash, and when he did the canopy above him split open, and a hundred red scorpions fell down upon his head. His death lit a fire that soon swept across Dorne, undoing all the Young Dragon's victories in a fortnight. The kneeling men stood up, and we were free again."

"Is that a threat?" asked Rhaegar. "You would need more than a hundred scorpions to kill a dragon."

"If I find the need to threat you, I'll do it to your face."

"We don't have any problem between us, Oberyn," Rhaegar tried to reason. "What happened to Elia was an injustice. I have brought my father low for it. Make no mistake I have not forgotten her no more than I forget our children."

"Oh, do you?" The prince's eyes were dark with amusement. "Tell me, what you have not forgotten, Elia and your children's deaths or the man who burned them?"

"You see, Your Grace," Oberyn said, softly. "I have found a certain guard who saw you bring your father low. He sings songs of your great victory that day and I've heard his songs and like you, I have not forgotten those songs as well."

With that the Red Viper never even waited for a reply from him and all he saw was the man walking away from him danger dripping from his every step.