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Here is the next chapter! Let me know what you think. There is a A/N at the end.
Chapter Nine – Age 26/27
IX
The chaos was immediate. Baratheon cried in outrage, as Arryn tried to calm him down and the Ironborn Lords present tried to protest.
At her request, Storm let out a cry, bringing silence back to the room.
"I care not for your complaints" She stated firmly. "Lord Arryn, please keep a better watch over your charge. This falls into the non-aggression pact we signed after the Rebellion, and you very well know it." She ignored Baratheon's outrage at still being considered a 'charge' turning instead towards the Lannister Lord. "Besides, I will keep a firmer hand over the Ironborn activities in the sea, which was certainly not happening under your rule. If they somehow decide to attack again, you can come and conquer them back into your own rule, as I just did."
Lord Tywin frowned. "Reparations must be made. They burned a great portion of my fleet, and I refuse to face the cost of building it up again on my own." Jason Malister nodded in agreement.
Heddara hummed, considering. "That is understandable. After all, they burnt most of the fishing fleet belonging to House Flint. However, that has only happened due to the inaction of your own King, and therefore my generosity will only go so far." Her smirk turned vicious as she raised a hand to rest on top of Storms head. "The Ironborn fleet has not been completely decimated. Most of their ships arrived from their raiding in your lands too late to face us at sea, and so are quite intact. I will gift you with some of them as compensation, but no more them I deem acceptable, in exchange for a trading treaty with your Houses. Anything else, you will rebuild with your own coin, or ask for satisfaction from your King."
Balon's Greyjoy's face reddened in his fury. "Those are Ironborn ships! They will sail only under Ironborn hands and follow the purpose of the Drowned God!"
Heddara regarded him coldly. "You lost the right to speak such things the moment you ordered the first raid on my land."
"The old way is the only way for the Iron Islands!" He cried out, raising his head.
"There is no oldest way in this world, then the way of the First Man." She stated strongly. "You raid because you are too lazy to trade. You pillage because you are too craven to duel. You rape because you are not man enough to find a willing woman. You take salt wives because if you didn't, no woman would wish to marry you." She sneered down at him, taking a step closer. "You are nothing but a trumped-up Pirate with illusions of grandeur, too craven to even lead his own men in battle."
He spit at her, missing her face when she calmly stepped out of the way.
"I challenge you to a duel! A trial by combat like you Greenlanders like so much!" He said, showing a feral smile.
Heddara chuckled, the sound followed by those of Rohar and the rest of the Northern men present.
"Wrong Gods, Greyjoy." She said with a smirk. "You want the old ways, I'll give you a trial with eight thousand years of existence."
Turning to Rohar, she gestured for him to bring Balon's surviving children closer. "You are Theon and Yara, correct?" At their nod, she smiled at them. Unfortunately, many children in this world didn't deserve the parents fate had chosen for them. "I trust my men treated you as befitting to your station?" They nodded once again, uncertain of what she wanted.
"Fear not. The First men do not punish children for their parent's follies. You are here to understand." She looked the two of them in the eye, bending down to be at their level. "This man is your father, and you love him as children do. But he also did terrible things, and for that he must be punished, as any other man would."
She gave a last smile at a shaky nod and an angry stare, before turning to the assembled Lords present.
"Lord Umber, as Magnar of Laws in the North, please list the offences of this man"
Greatjon Umber came forward. The gigantic man had been wearing a sneer on his face since the start of the procedures, but now blanked his face to support a more professional expression that he had perfected during the last few years in service to the crown.
"Balon Greyjoy of House Greyjoy, Warden of the Iron Islands. You are accused of ordering the raiding of the following locations: of Flint's Fingers, which resulted in the destruction of twenty Flint fishing boats, and five and forty deaths, six of them of children under the age of eleven name days, and kidnapping five woman;
"Of the shores of the Rills and Stony shore, resulting in four completely burnt villages, one and fifty deaths of which one and ten were children and the disappearance of seven woman and two young female children;
"Of attacking Barrowtown, destroying six boats and stealing the products of the last harvest and finally, of attempting to attack Moat Cailin, which is considered the gravest declaration of war to the North." Bowing, Lord Umber returned to his place among the other Lords.
The hall was silent, with only Balon's children's surprised gasps being heard. Her face hard, Heddara turned back to the Greyjoy man.
"Is there anything you would wish to add to your defense, Balon Greyjoy?"
The man spit at her again in answer.
"Very well then. As Queen of the North and witness to the consequences of your actions, I Heddara Stark, consider you guilty of the crimes you are accused of." She narrowed her eyes at him. "The sentence for such crimes is obviously death, however, the Nights Watch is always looking for people to join its ranks, if you so choose."
Greyjoy laughed sarcastically. "What is dead can never die." He said, giving her a hateful look.
Heddara sneered back. "It can, if you burn it into ashes or stick dragon glass into their hearts." She said back, citing the old Northern tale of the Others and the wights.
The Northern Lords chuckled as the Ironborn looked confused, but she ignored all of them.
"Bring me Ice. And take the children back to their rooms." She wanted them to understand what was happening, not to become traumatized for life.
As the children were rushed out of the Hall and the comforting weight of Ice was on her hand, she turned to the Greyjoy Lord. Her good brother had put a wooden bench in front of him to help stabilize his head.
"You go so low as to do the thing yourself?" Balon mocked, in a last attempt to attack her.
She simply gave him a wry smile. "In this issue, we Starks have always followed the old way of the First Men. The one who passed the sentence, is the one to swing the sword."
His eye stung. Fuck all the blood.
His brother was stupid as fuck. There was no other way to call it.
Why the fuck would he order Victarion to attack the North if he hadn't completely lost his fucking mind?
Before that day, he had never before seen the Queen of the North, but now he cursed that terrible oversight.
The woman was glorious.
Too bad she was married.
Not that that had ever stopped him before, but he had a feeling he shouldn't try anything with the Bolton man. He might go by Stark these days, but there was a saying about Bolton's in the Iron Islands, from a time when a King had taken one as a salt wife.
You could take the Bolton out of the Dreadfort, but you could never take their knives.
Simply put, that King had never made it past a week after taking the woman, having been found short a few layers of skin.
"Now what to do with the two of you." Heddara Stark wondered, as she calmly cleaned her family blade with a rag provided by her husband, completely ignoring the cooling corpse and the detached head laying in the middle of the hall.
The cut above his eye throbbed. Thankfully it hadn't taken his eye, but it had been a close thing. As it was, the Queen in the North had left him with a scar for life. And the blood seeping into his eye was annoying as fuck.
He could feel himself getting aroused at the picture she presented. His experience with powerful women was very limited, and he had never thought he would find one attractive at all.
Maybe he should change that. There was something to be said about making a strong woman warrior surrender willingly to him.
"Your generation is, quite honestly, a bust. I cannot trust either of you to not follow on your brother's footsteps." His new Queen said, her eyes studying him and his brother intently. "The seat of the Iron Islands will pass to one from the youngest generation."
She returned rag and sword to the ex – probably still knife happy – Bolton, before turning back to them.
"I will allow for a… let's call it a Wardensmoot." The women said with a slight smirk. "Inspired in your Kingsmoot. You will be allowed to put forth your candidates, but they must be vetoed by myself, considering their reputations and interviews I will hold for the occasion."
Someone behind him stepped forward, probably considering himself relatively safe, now that Balon was short a head.
"And when will this take place?" Ah, it was Rodrick Harlaw. The pacifistic bastard.
"The youngest member of the Greyjoy House at this time is currently five years old. In ten years he will be off age, and the Wardensmoot will be held."
He kept himself silent, observing his new Queen as she silenced the protests of the Iron Lords present in the hall. All this talk was just pointless noise to him. If he would never be able to rule, who cared about who did?
"I will hear no more about this. During this time, I will appoint an Overseer who will make sure that the Laws of the Kingdom are followed in these Islands. He will in turn appoint a Governor from among the Iron Lords to be regent for the still to be appointed Warden of the Iron Islands." She narrowed her eyes, looking around at the various Lords. "The North does not allow for slavery. That means no more salt wives or thralls. You will do your own work or pay to get it done. And if you want a woman, you will get a willing one, or you will either find yourself one head shorter, or wearing Black for life." She sneered at the men in the hall. "And it won't be the head above your shoulders."
A silence went through the Lords and seemed to drag on forever, as they shuffled uncomfortably in place. Heddara Stark seemed content in making them squirm, but he was done with the dramatics.
"That is all well and good, but that doesn't tell me what you intend to do with me." He said, finally tired of waiting for what he wanted to know. "I can't be a Lord or a King, your giving our boats to the Lanninsters, and taking the rest for yourself, so we can't even fish!" He sneered at the group of Lords from the Seven Kingdoms lingering at the edge of the Hall, no doubt wanting to know how things would turn out, even though they no longer had anything to do with the situation. "What is left for us, uh? Are we supposed to all be digging in the rocks trying to plant seeds we know we will never see grow?"
Besides his new Queen, Rohar Stark smirked, as his wife chuckle lightly.
"These are the Iron Islands, Euron Greyjoy." She said. "You will be digging the rocks for Iron and selling it to me for food. You know, like any normal people would. Not to mention that I said nothing of your fishing boats. You can keep the smaller ones that can't be refitted for war purposes."
He blinked, seemingly not understanding her words.
"Of course, it would be a shame to turn some of the finest sailors of Westeros into miners. I will allow for a certain number of the more experienced sailors to join the Northern fleet, but you will be relegated to lower positions until you can prove your loyalty to the Kingdom"
The woman's eyes were hard on him, but he cared not.
He had no doubts it wouldn't take him too long to climb the ranks until he was the captain of his own ship, and then he could once again be master of his own choices.
He would follow the Direwolf for now. There was no reason not to. She was certainly stronger, and more powerful, than Balon ever was.
Only time would tell of what he would decide to do in the future.
But first, he had to get this fucking cut to stop bleeding. His eye was fucking hurting.
"King Baratheon, Lord Arryn, a word if you please" Heddara called, nodding at the other Westerosi men in their corner of the Hall, after her business with the Ironborn had been dealt with and passed over for Lord Umber to supervise.
"What do you want more?" Baratheon asked, sneering at her.
Lord Arryn sighed, making Heddara almost pity the man for having been given such a difficult charge.
"To inform you that I shall be legitimizing my nephew as a Stark soon. I might wait a couple more years, but it won't be long. I believe you would take the news better given in person."
Baratheon looked confused. "You wish to legitimize your older brother's son? Why would you do such a thing, and why does that concern me?"
Heddara shook her head lightly. "None of my brothers ever had any children that I know of, King Baratheon."
Robert blinked at her for several minutes, but both Lord Arryn and Tywin's eyes opened in surprise, immediately understanding the implications.
"I will be gifting the name Stark to my sister's son." She explained, and swiftly saw the face of the man contort as he finally understood what that meant.
"How dare you!" He bellowed, bringing the attention of the people still left in the hall to their conversation. "I should kill you for this! To keep that dragonspawn hidden all these years! The son of the man who took Lyanna!"
Lord Arryn put a hand on the man's shoulder and whispered in his ear, trying to calm him down, no doubt.
"Whatever you think that boy is, he is my sister's son, and her last words to me were to keep him safe. If you truly loved her, you would not wish his death."
Baratheon's fury abated slightly, but he still looked on the verge of a murderous rage.
"You want to use him for the Iron Throne!"
Heddara laughed, putting her head in her hands at the ridiculous statement. The number of people that believed it was ridiculous.
"Baratheon, if I wanted that damned chair, I would have taken it seven years ago. You're very welcome to that piece of steel. I didn't make the North independent only to bow down again. Not even for my own blood." She looked the man hard in the eyes. "I will make my nephew a Stark and announce his mother's name soon, and gift him lands as I will my own children. I will also announce that I have no intention of ever marching against the Iron Throne unless in defense of my people, as per the treaty we have signed. You have my word now as you did then."
Baratheon looked her in the eye, his face serious as Lord Arryn kept whispering in his ear.
"Very well, I will let the boy go for Lyanna, as long as he never steps foot on my Kingdom. If he ever does I will consider it an act of war and kill him. And then I will come for your frozen chair."
"Why did you send us word?" Lord Malister asked, finding him in camp hours later.
Rohar looked up, taking not of the suspicious face looking down at him.
"Seagard was an obvious target for the Ironborn. It is the richest port in the western Riverlands."
"But why?" The man insisted, prompting Rohar to sigh.
"We were allies once, we believe we can be again." He said. "Helping you was a step forward in this direction and made sure both of our parties succeeded in this war, as we did in the last one."
Jason studied him with keen eyes, before nodding. "Tell your Queen she can expect correspondence from me and from Lord Tully."
He was polishing his sword when she found him. Armors were noisy things, so he heard her easily, giving him enough time to take push his helmet out of the seat next to his own.
"You did not accompanied your father earlier"
He shrugged at the statement, but recognized for what it was. "I have no interest in such things."
"You are the heir to the Westerlands though. It is important to be present in such occasions."
He chuckled. "I was never a politician. When my father is dead and gone, I will leave that role to my brother."
She sighed. "Do as you wish. Tell your brother to send my council a raven if he wishes for a trade alliance in the future."
"Will do your Highness."
Heddara shrugged. She owed nothing to the golden Lion, even though her heart ached with pity at the lost look on his face.
Lots of people were saying that Heddara should kill all the Greyjoys, in The Rains of Castamere style. Well, Heda is not exactly in the business of killing defenseless children. And even if you hate Theon and Yara/Asha, they are still just that, children. It would definitely not fit Heddara's personality to be so ruthless and heartless. She decided to give them a second chance. But they will all be very closely monitored.
Most of you will hate Euron living, but you will see soon that I have a very specific role for him in the future. Don't forget that at this time he hasn't done most of the horrible things he is supposed to do, so he is technically salvageable. We will see if he stays that way.