The maids and midwives were frantic as they fussed about the room, bumping into one another in their frenzy to attend the woman writhing on the bed. Her mother and grandmother before her had been lost in their labors to birth children, fueling superstition and court gossip. Yet Rhaenyra Targaryen was not the typical expectant mother. As she braced herself for the next round of pain, brow sweating, teeth clenched, she knew she would not die this day nor any other spent on the birthing bed. She was the heir to the Iron Throne, keeper of the Song of Ice and Fire. No, she would not die a mother's death.
"Fuck!" she snapped as once again the pressure in her abdomen crescendoed and she felt the flesh between her legs tear. "Fuck's sake are we not done?!" She cried digging her fingernails into the hands of the maids sitting beside her.
The midwife gripped the Princess's knees, ducking her head closer, "The head is almost out, Princess. One more great push and we will see the princeling's shoulders. Nessa, Kareen, get the Princess up on her knees." Rhaenyra did as she was bid, the maids taking her under the elbows. What strength was left to her after two and a half days was summoned by the silver-haired woman with a mighty roar, humble only in comparison to that of Syrax a mile away in the Dragonpit. The Dragon keepers would later tell her of the turmoil her dragon had been in while she labored.
She heard her body give way in tandem with the feeling of small wet flesh passing through her before she collapsed back into the arms of her two maids. The midwife pulled the babe, already wailing, from its mother before bundling it and severing its cord.
"What is it? Tell me," Rhaenyra murmured, her eyes seeking out the tiny reaching fingers she could make out of the small bundle. The midwife turned to the Princess, her face suspending her own reaction.
"Tis a girl, my Princess, the babe is a girl," she replied before giving the child over to her mother. Rhaenyra's outstretched arms did not hesitate in taking the girl from the midwife. The women around her waited for the reaction of their lady. Rhaenyra drank in the little face; long lashes, small pointed nose, brow furrowed under brown curls. She began to laugh almost maniacally with the glee she felt in that moment, delight sounding from her lips in trilling sounds. The blood, shit, and pain lay forgotten as she held her firstborn child. The amusement ended quite suddenly though when another violent pang spasmed through her lower back. The princess groaned, leaning down slightly into the crook of the baby's neck.
"What is it? The afterbirth?" she questioned as her eyes shut tightly. The midwife lifted the Princess's nightgown and reached two fingers inside the womb. With mild shock she looked to the Princess and shook her head.
"Another babe, your Highness."
"Fuck's sake," growled Rhaenyra through clenched teeth, "I can't do it again."
"Brace yourself, Princess, it seems the pains will not have slowed."
Rhaenyra shook her head. She did not want to die but she could not fathom anymore of what she had just endured. "I can't…I require a moment."
"We may not have a moment. Ladies, take the babe and adjust her Highness," commanded the midwife.
As her maids reached for her and the babe, Rhaenyra snarled and clutched her daughter to her.
"Princess, you must unburden yourself to focus on the forthcoming babe, one who might surely be a prince," the midwife pleaded. Rhaenyra looked to the woman, feeling the pains begin to stir in her womb once more. She looked down at the girl clutched in her arms and at the same moment found the little eyes open boldly and stare back. Impossibly dark eyes, deeper even than those of her father, held her gaze. In that moment, the two dragon princesses were bonded together for Rhaenyra knew this child to be forged from a piece of her very soul.
She nodded, bringing herself up on her knees herself, all the while clutching her daughter to her chest. "I am ready, but my daughter stays with me."
They did not contest for they knew there would be no compromise to which the she-dragon would acquiesce. With her daughter's solemn gaze urging her forward, maids' hands at her back and supporting her weight, Rhaenyra pushed her body through the pain once more. Where the girl had taken two days, her brother was summoned in two minutes.
There she sat with her two babes, balanced on her legs. While the girl never let her gaze waver from her mother's face, her brother was more content to sleep nuzzled into his sister's shoulder. She sniffed the tops of their dark heads, a detail that she knew would surely not go amiss at court. The door to her chamber opened and her husband entered, swaying slightly as he leaned his weight on Ser Harwin Strong. Clearly Laenor had been to drink.
"My wife, such happy news!" Laenor beamed, "I hope it is alright, I found Ser Harwin standing guard outside your chambers and he was good enough to help me along."
Rhaenyra shared a knowing glance with the Lord Commander, his warm brown eyes looking from her to the babes before them.
"Congratulations, Princess," he smiled as he walked Ser Laenor to the bedside chair, "I hear we have been blessed with both a prince and a princess."
"Aye, Ser Harwin, that we have. Would you be good enough to hold Prince Jacaerys before his father so as to better admire him?" she smirked joyfully. The man known as "Breakbones" melted for an almost imperceptible moment, evident only to Rhaenyra, before beaming and taking the small princeling into his arms. He held him at an angle before Ser Laenor, who in his silly wine-spurred state took the boy's hand around his finger.
"Jacaerys Velaryon," crooned her husband, "a fine Valyrian name." Ser Harwin nodded in agreement, eyes meeting the Princess's in a moment's melancholy.
"Yes, Ser Laenor, a fine Valyrian name for a fine Valyrian prince" he mused before turning his focus to the other child, "And who do we have here?"
"Well, Ser Harwin, I'd like to introduce you to our firstborn child," she smiled caressing her daughter's cheek as she held her gaze, "This is Princess Jaedys."
"Jaedys," repeated Ser Harwin with a smile, "Already I see an intense spirit from behind those eyes."
Rhaenyra nodded, "Yes, it seems she will surely not make an easy time of her upbringing, if her birth is any indication."
Laenor shifted his gaze adoringly at the small girl in his wife's arms. "She's beautiful, Rhaenyra. She will make a fine lady one day and help strengthen the realm for her brother."
Rhaenyra shifted a moment, adjusting her pillow as she chose her words. "Well husband," she started, "It was Jaedys that first entered this world by the grace of the gods. Am I not my father's heir?"
Both knights looked to the Princess. While the wine in his belly gave Laenor pause, Harwin smiled quietly to himself absent of any astonishment. Her succession had been the subject of pillow talk on more than one occasion as had the topic of heirs she might bear.
"You mean to place our daughter ahead of her brother in the line of succession?" questioned Laenor.
"Twas not I who placed her ahead of her brother, my love, but the gods and her own strong will," she replied simply. Laenor sat with the idea she posed to him, looking between his two twin children.
"No one besides your maids know the order of their birth," he said softly, "Nobody would know."
"I would know," Rhaenyra shot back before looking to her baby daughter, "and so would she."
Ser Harwin observed the exchange, Jacaerys still bundled in his arms. Laenor nodded slowly before looking to his wife. "My words are only out of concern for what she will have to bear and whether it is fair of us to choose this for her. We see every day that which you must bear against the court and the presence of your father's two sons. I only mean to protect her."
Rhaenyra gave him a small smile before taking his hand in hers. They were not a love match, it was true, but she had love for the man before her who was her friend. "She can bear it. I know she can."
Ser Harwin cleared his throat slightly, "If I may, Ser Laenor, it would be my honor to be her sworn protector and take her training in hand when she is old enough. If that would please you and the Princess."
Laenor looked to the two people before him as they held his children. They would be his children in name and in love, regardless of what anyone might say. He clapped Ser Harwin on the arm nodding, "Yes, Ser Harwin. It would please us greatly." He looked to his lady wife and bowed his head, "I will do as my Princess commands."
Rhaenyra smiled to the men before her then to the two babes she had brought forth into the world. Looking to her daughter, she cooed, "Well then, we shall have to send a page to inform your grandsire that he may meet you when ready. He mustn't keep the future Queen of the Seven Kingdoms waiting."
In her rooms on the other side of the Red Keep, Queen Alicent sat watching her children at play. One of her lady's maids struggled to calm the young Prince Aegon as he ran screaming about the room ripping the hair on one of his sister's dolls. The young Helaena could not be bothered as she had little care for dolls or any of the pretty things he mother put before her. Instead, a beetle at the windowsill had captivated the young princess. Prince Aemond, having just passed his second name-day sat beside his mother as she read to him fables of Old Valyria the Grand Maester had kindly had translated for her.
"The sky was so filled with dragons that some say it could transform the sunniest of Valyrian days into night," she read as Aemond reached for the green dragon on the page.
The chamber door opened and her maid, Talya entered. Alicent halted her reading, holding the book shut on her finger. She looked to the maid chasing Aegon, "Yela, take Prince Aegon and Princess Helaena to the Dragonpit. They have yet to see their dragons today."
After the three had left, door closed behind them, she looked to Talya. "It has happened, my Queen."
"And?" she questioned.
"They're saying twins, a prince and princess," her maid said quickly. Alicent's eye twitched. Of course Rhaenyra would secure her line so assuredly in one go. Nothing had ever come to her with difficulty. "There's more."
She held Aemond's hands at bay as he reached for the book. "Well, go on."
"Both Velaryon children arrived with dark features."
Alicent scoffed, "Well naturally, look at Ser Laenor."
Talya shook her head, "Forgive me, your Grace, not dark skin. The babes are reported to be fair as their mother. It is their hair which is dark." At this Alicent quirked her brow, realization dawning on her face. Oh how satisfying it would be to watch her fall from her pedestal at court, she who for so long had remained the apple of her father's eye all the while shirking her duty and flaunting her lack of propriety.
"Well…I must certainly ready myself to join the King in the presentation of his first grandchildren," she smiled sweetly looking to her young silver-haired son, "Come, Aemond, we have bastards to meet."
Author's Note:
It's been a while since I've published, but I'm feeling rather passionate and will also be editing my old stories for re-publishing.
Hope you enjoy- there is certainly more to come!