Chapter 2 – Jon
When he was resurrected, when he fought at Winterfell, when he was named King in the North… if anyone had asked Jon what he saw himself doing with his power, his current situation would have been the last thing he suggested. Away from the snowy terrain that was home; trying to negotiate a southern queen to face a common enemy. And he certainly didn't expect himself to begin to feel the way he did about her.
But how could he not? Daenerys was so strong, so brave, so beautiful, with her cloudy silver hair and iridescent purple-blue irises. Her little smiles, and even her sharp tongue; every inch a queen…
He was with her now, safely locked in the council chamber, accompanied by Missandei, Davos and Varys. Two Dothraki stood guard outside. Jon glanced at his companions. Varys wore his normal affected expression. Davos looked neutral. Missandei stood, looking out of the cavern like room towards the sea, no doubt keeping an eye out for more ships. And the queen… she just stood in the centre of the quiet chaos, hands poised over the map table and trembling slightly, while she looked puzzled and slightly fearful, although her voice was still strong when she spoke.
"Why aren't there more ships?" Daenerys mused. "Cersei must know that she is outnumbered."
"Perhaps she just wants to treat with you, Your Grace," Jon replied respectfully, looking at her and moving a couple of paces closer. "A truce, maybe?"
"I highly doubt that, Lord Snow," Varys interjected, heavily and patronising. "I really do think this is a trap, or a trick of some sort of description."
"Thank you for the optimism," Davos mumbled.
"I hope that Lord Tyrion will be alright," Missandei murmured uncertainly from the other side.
Tyrion had stayed on the beach, flanked by several of the Dothraki, while Daenerys had been rushed up to the castle for safety. Jon had offered to stay there with him – and he knew Davos would have been good with his sailor's expertise. But Daenerys had asked, no, commanded him to stay with her.
"It would be good if our Queen had a skilled swordsman with her in the castle," Tyrion had supported her argument. "Just in case." And just like that, Longclaw had been returned to him. Daenerys trusts me now Jon realised. I'm not sure why. But she does all the same.
"If Cersei wants to parlay with me, why did she come here so freely, and without sending word first?" the dragon queen said now. "This has to be a trick of some kind. Perhaps Euron Greyjoy's fleet is surrounding Dragonstone as we speak, just far enough away to not be seen!"
"Let's not assume anything, Your Grace," Davos said gently, in an effort to calm her down. "One ship at a time, one problem at a time."
"With your permission, I will go and find Tyrion, and try to get some information for you, my Queen," Varys offered.
"Very well," Daenerys said. "Be safe." He left.
"I want my dragons," she said a few seconds later, startling Jon and the others. "Like I said before, I want to try and find Euron's fleet – and sink it."
"Your Grace, please stay," Missandei spoke up, urging her. "Lord Varys will come back with Lord Tyrion soon; we can discuss the next course of action then. Please, Your Grace. I just want you to be safe." Jon watched Daenerys stare at her friend for a lengthy moment, before glancing away, defeated. It was silence after that; Missandei intently watching out of the cavern, Davos wringing his hands. Daenerys paced up and down. Jon stood still, near the door, listening for the light clutter of footsteps, one hand gently resting on the wolfish pommel of his sword.
Footsteps came just moments later. Jon drew Longclaw. He noticed Daenerys giving him a small, grateful smile, but he could see the fear in her slightly widened eyes. Friend or foe? he wondered. Or rather, the queen's friend or foe? Missandei crossed the room to stand by Daenerys; Davos too moved closer as the sound of movement grew louder.
The door opened… to reveal Tyrion, with another, far leaner, man – perhaps a couple of years younger than Jon himself. His eyes were trailed on the floor.
"And?" Daenerys said at once, slightly irritable with nerves.
"Cersei is here. She has been taken to a chamber and is being guarded by a dozen of the Dothraki for as long as you see fit. I know you would probably prefer her in the dungeons, but… regardless of what else, she is still highborn and I noticed she was really struggling to walk. The guards that accompanied her… half dead, the rest imprisoned in the dungeons. I found this lad at the back –" Tyrion broke off and gestured to his companion. "No weapons, but he claims to be friends with my sister. I felt he would be the safest person to question." The queen's Hand said all this rather fast, and Jon wondered how he really felt, having to imprison his own sister, regardless of the circumstances. He paused, then continued. "Varys is prepared to go and question her. With your permission, I would go too – I think he may need the backup."
"No." The queen regained her usual, commanding composure. "I will be the first of us to talk to Cersei Lannister. I want you and Lord Varys to ensure that her ship is dealt with, then I want the pair of you to investigate. Find out if we are under a naval siege. Meanwhile –" she broke off and gestured to the young lad – "I will keep the boy here and question him." Tyrion gave her a long, searching look, before nodding and leaving without another word. Jon carefully put Longclaw back in its scabbard.
"Come forward, my lord," Daenerys said to the young man. "Into the light, where I can see you." The boy seemed confused, looking around, yet keeping his eyes cast down. He moved hesitantly as he was told to.
"I'm no lord," he murmured simply.
"What is your name?" the queen asked him harshly, ignoring his previous statement. The boy looked up at her with blue, blue eyes and an expression that was somewhere between confusion and terror.
"It's –"
"Gendry?"
Davos had been quiet up until now, but upon seeing the boy in front of him he had rushed forward in alarm.
The young man looked back at him. "Ser Davos?"
"Gendry, what in seven hells are you doing back here?" Gendry looked between the older man and the queen several times fearfully.
"You know him?"
"What do you mean, back here?"
Daenerys and Jon had spoken at the same time, with neither seeming to notice. All eyes were on Davos.
"Perhaps we should all sit down?" Missandei suggested. Daenerys nodded wordlessly in response and all of them took seats at the map table, Davos pulling out a seat for Gendry too.
"Gendry," Daenerys began again, slightly gentler in tone this time. "Please tell me, firstly, how you know Ser Davos."
"I was travelling with the Brotherhood Without Banners, with a… friend," he broke off and glanced nervously at Jon, which Jon thought was pretty strange. "I wanted to stay with them, while my friend wanted to move on. But before we could part ways, the Brotherhood sold me off, like a slave, to a red witch to be murdered." His voice turned bitter. "I was brought here, before the witch tricked me and put leeches on me. I was thrown in a dungeon after that. I think Lord Stannis meant to kill me, but Ser Davos rescued me," he glanced at Jon's Hand again. "I owe my life to him. He helped me escape, gave me a boat to get back to Kings Landing. I never saw the red witch again." Gendry looked up then, and the fear was back. "Wait… she's not here too, is she?"
"No." Davos was quick to reassure him. "The Red Priestess is not present. The only magical things you have to worry about here are the dragons."
"So you went back to Kings Landing," Daenerys continued. "Then what? How did you come to be such a close friend of Cersei Lannister?"
"It's a very long story," he said slowly. "I think she would probably be able to tell it better. But I went back to the Street of Steel. I grew up there, and I was a smith's apprentice before I left the capital the first time. And then, the next thing I know, I'm on a boat back here, the last place I want to be." His eyes blazed. "I realise it doesn't look good. If you're going to kill me, just get it over with. I don't know any of the political stuff – I don't know, uh… Cersei that well; she doesn't trust me enough to tell me everything."
"Very well," the queen replied after a moment, during which she had studied him, trying to detect for lies. "A smith, you say? Perhaps you could make something for me."
The boy shrugged. "So long as I have the materials."
"You will," she said, fixing him with her steely gaze. "For now though, you will be shown to your chamber. You must be too well-acquainted with the dungeons." She turned and muttered something guttural to the Dothraki standing guard.
"I will go too," Davos spoke up. He looked at Jon, who nodded, then back at Gendry. "I believe a proper reunion is well-needed." Daenerys smiled slightly.
"All I know," Gendry said suddenly, "is that Cersei wants to speak to you alone." He glanced over his shoulder at Jon. "And Jon Snow, the King in the North – she'll definitely want to speak to him alone, too."
"We shall see," Daenerys said diplomatically, and then Gendry and Davos were gone, leaving Jon with just her and Missandei.
"Your Grace, perhaps I could be of some assistance to Lord Tyrion and Lord Varys," the translator suggested timidly, as Daenerys made her way towards the other side of the cavern to look out to sea once more. "If they plan to speak with the Dothraki about protecting Dragonstone, I may be able to help them."
"Alright," Daenerys replied, as the dragons screeched as they circled overhead. Missandei left quickly and Jon could hear her footsteps getting quieter and quieter with every passing second. The queen sighed beside him, sitting right back in her chair.
"Why?" she murmured quietly, eyes closed. Jon looked over at her.
"What are you going to do about her?" he asked her curiously.
"I don't know, yet," Daenerys replied. "I will sit on the Iron Throne, Jon Snow. I will be Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. But I want to be respected by the people. I want to be firm and merciful." She opened her eyes and they bore into him. "Which are you, Jon Snow? Firm or merciful?"
"It's too early to tell, Your Grace," he told her honestly. "I have killed men who broke vows, who didn't follow orders…" he broke off, thinking about the Nights Watch. Ser Alliser, and Olly… For the Watch a voice in his head hissed, making him shiver, and his chest twinge with pain. But then he thought of Ned Umber and Alys Karstark, just green summer children, and the way Sansa wanted to condemn them. "Although, I suppose I showed more mercy to others," he mused. Daenerys watched him intently, before looking back out to the open sky and the faint outline of wings.
"I don't want to just give Cersei what she wants, either," the queen said softly. "A private audience? With both of us? What do you think?"
"I'm not sure what to think," Jon responded. "I certainly have no wish to speak with the woman responsible for my father's death, my brother's, and for hurting and endangering my sisters. But my father once said that the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. No doubt Cersei will die before this war is over, at one of our hands. He once said that if you cannot owe it to someone to look in their eyes and hear their final words, perhaps they do not deserve to die."
"Will you speak to her then?" Daenerys asked after a moment, having taken in every word.
"I don't know," Jon sent her an intense gaze. "She wants to speak to you. She wants to speak to me. Neither of us exactly want to give her what she wants, as though she is in charge – she's not. Why don't we let Cersei speak to both of us, together, at the same time?"
"That's a good idea," Daenerys said, smiling faintly, after a while. "I will not let Tyrion attend, though. I don't know what it will do to him – or her for that matter." She stood quickly and shifted her gaze away from Jon. Instead she crossed the room and stared out at the sky, where the three great beasts loomed.
"I still want my dragons," she said quietly.
"To take the Red Keep?"
"No, not the Red Keep. Cersei may be here, but there are still battles that need to be fought." She paused. "You would stay at Dragonstone if I left for a day or so, wouldn't you?"
"Yes, Your Grace," Jon replied, feeling slightly spooked at why she would say such a thing. "I still have dragonglass to mine."
"Ah yes, of course," Daenerys said quietly, though Jon could have sworn he saw her scowl. "Well, I'll be back soon."
And she was gone.
A/N: Hello everyone! Thank you so much for reading. I am absolutely overwhelmed at all the lovely, positive feedback I got for chapter one, and I just wanted to thank all of you who have taken the time to read, follow, favourite and review so far – it really does mean a lot to me. I got this chapter out as fast as I could.
Just to iron some things out: don't worry, Gendry will end up with Arya, Ghost will show up later in the story and Jonerys will happen. In my next chapter I will try to capture Arya/Cersei POV which will probably end up with it being very short and not very good – but please stick with me.
And again, thank you so much! See you next time
