Cap 4

Rhaegar

A day like many others. The knights are fighting in the training yard, the servants are running silently along the halls and the nobles are talking with low voices about what's new and interesting. Everybody in the Great Hall is expecting the King.

The air is full of agitation and loud noises. Lords and common people, they have come to request the king's justice. Usually, the King's Hand hears the pleas, but today he is morning his dead wife.

It was a long time since the King came to the Hall to hear the requests himself. Everybody has heard the whispers about the His Highness' sanity, but nobody wanted to test the rumors.

The Great Hall's doors opened to reveal the King, the Crown Prince and some of the Kingsguard. A general gasp was heard in the Hall. Albeit the Aerys was just 34 years old, he looked like an old, sick man. His pupils were dilated and they have a feverish glow about them. His hair was already white, but not a silver blond nuance, just plain white like every other old man from his kingdom has. His skin was like parchment, yellowish and corrugated, and his face was half hidden behind a long beard.

Prince Rhaegar knew that his father was not a handsome man anymore, but this…thing that he became was horrible. Lord Lannister was truly looking more like a king, than the King himself. Sighing to himself, the Prince take his seat behind the King and began to listen the complains.

The first one who has the courage to ask for the King's justice was an old man dressed like a sailor.

"Your Grace, I was nearly killed last night. My son and my traitor wife tried to kill me in my sleep in order to steel all my money. I'm a poor man, Your Highness, and all my life I worked as a sailor so the Gods know that I have very few money saved for my black days. I give them everything they need, my Lord, but they are greedy and want to take the little I have to spend on petty things. And not just the fact that they wanted to rob me! No, my King, I'll have never bothered You with that, but they wanted to kill me! Me, their savior and their protector !Me, who has skipped my meals to give them something to eat. Me, who was starving on my trips in order to afford to send them money for food! Oh, Your Grace, I have sacrifice myself for their good….", the man kept wailing about the injustice of his life, when the King raised a hand, asking for silence.

"Where are the culprits?", asked the King in a collected tone.

An old, gaunt woman and a small, underfed child came from the crowd. They stood there sacred and unsure about their future.

Rhaegar's heart melted before that sight. It was oblivious that the old sailor was lying, but why? What could he gain from the imprisoned of the two? It was clear as daylight that neither the small, skinny woman nor the meager child could have done anything to the man, than what…

"Do you have any witness?", asked Aerys.

"Yes, yes of course, my Lord!". Two City guards came into the view and began to told the King that while they were doing their patrols, they heard screams and therefor go in to that house. Arriving in the respective place, they saw the sailor unconscious on the floor. They began to question the woman and the child, but the two refused to talk. At this point in the story, the women furrowed her brow and raised her eyes shyly to look at the King. Rhaegar was about to ask his father to pay attention to her when Aerys ordered tot the other witnesses to come forward.

After another witnesses, Prince Rhaegar was not so sure about the innocence off the two. All the facts proved the other way. The neighbor said that the two husbands often fight about the money, that the women was a greedy person and that the child was a little pickpocket. The shopkeeper said that the women was always in debt and that her husband always pays her arrear .

Aerys looks at his son and opened his mouth to ask him something. Rhaegar leaned forward ready to tell his opinion about the crime. In the last moment, the King changed his mind and began to pronounce the sentence:

"For the crime of attempting to kill and rob his husband, you…" and the King indicated the women " …will be punished with…" Aerys stayed a little to think about the punishment. His eyes fell on Rhaegar, who was looking angry at his father. When the prince saw that his father eyes were on him, he prepared to say something to defend the women.

With a thin and mean smile on his lips, Aerys raised his hand to silence his son. "… death…" Ignoring the gasp and the protesting murmurs of the Hall, he began to laugh silently and whispered with pure hate "… by burning at the stake!"

Rhaegar cursed and walked towards his father, who was laughing lauder now, with a maniac edge in his voice. Coming close to the throne, he heard his father whispering harsh commands : " Kill them. They disobeyed the law, they disobeyed the king. Kill Them! Kill them! Burn the traitors!"

The King red eyes fall on his form and the prince saw with horror how his father eyes filled with joy at sight of his terrified self.

"Lord Lannister was right!", thought Rhaegar desperate. " My father is crazy". Throwing at the laughing man from the throne one last disgusted glance, Rhaegar started to yell commands at the guards to stop their activities. A strong hand caught him from behind.

"Stop it, Rhaegar!" whispered Ser Arthur Dayne. " It's your authority against the Kings! You don't want to provoke your father more, do you?"

"And what am I supposed to do? Stay and watch as an innocent women is burned alive for a crime that we are not even sure that has taken place as we were told? Lord Lannister never…"

" Shut up with the Lion! It's clearly as daylight that your father didn't ordered the death of this women because he considered her truly guilty! He thought of your mother, Rhaegar! He thought that you will need a reminder of what happened to traitors.."

"Why me?" asked Rhaeger in an hysterical voice. Looking at the screaming women that was dragged towards a newly build stake, the prince tried to pull himself free from Arthur's iron grip. " Let me go! For the sake of the seven! He is going to burn the poor women for nothing! I can't let that happen! I can't let an innocent women die for my father craziness!..."

" Your father is the King! The one and only! And you are his son and a Prince! So stop acting like that if you don't want your father to accuse you for rebellion!"

"God dammit, Rhaegar" barked the knight to the struggling prince. " Pay attention! It's you or her! Let him burn her if that means that you'll keep your head on your shoulders!"

Rhaegar stopped and looked helpless as the women was mounted on the stake. The guards pour a substance on the wood and the stake erupted in green flames.

By now the Hall was stunned in a terrified silence. The eyes of the watchers were dancing between the screaming women and the laughing King.

"Mad! The King is Mad!" whispered the people in a horrified awe. The Grand Master was looking rather sick and the other Kingguards were looking like they were having an inside battle between the desire to help the women and the thought that they were swear to the King.

Rhaegar stood there with the rest of them, looking at the dying women. This was the first day of terror of the true reign of Aerys Targaryen, the Mad King. He watched helpless how her body was eaten by the flames. He hear his father's insane laughter echoing towards the Hall and everything that Rhaegar could think was that this was a nightmare of fire and blood came true. And the only one that was pleased by it was King Aerys himself.