Valyrian Steel

Chapter 5

Daughter of the Kraken

Yara Greyjoy was cold, but it wasn't the ice or the snow that chilled her. It was the screams. Lady…..Queen Selyse Baratheon was screaming and burning away the flames seemed to reach higher and the light from the fire played across Stannis' face. She had gone into the flames smiling, taking her mangled children with her and the poor princess' body with her. This "great sacrifice" was supposed to bring Spring, or so King Stannis' men believed. Yara knew the truth, Stannis wanted dragons. His men had been searching the crypts of Winterfell for dragon eggs, an old wildling woman had said that only the Starks could navigate those crypts. Stannis had burned her last week for her impudence. He had also removed the blades from the statues of the old Kings of Winter to outfit some of his men. With every group sent into those crypts more stories came back and more bodies.

The stories ranged from outrageous to chilling. Two men had been found with their throats torn out and one beheaded. When Stannis had sent more men to investigate that section of the crypts they said that they had found naught but a statue of an unnamed winter king with blood on his blade and wolf companion. Many of the soldiers would have refused to participate in the search had it not been for the fact that the first one that did had immediately been burned for the red god. Yara was greatful that Jon Snow had asked for her brother at the wall. She would have taken the black too but Stannis had other plans for her. Euron had sold her off for his support, everyone knew that the Dragon Queen was coming and that there was little they could now do. Euron was counting on the horn that her uncle Victarion had stolen in an uncharacteristically ignoble moment, he had also stolen Eurons dragon bride.

The Kingdoms where scrambling for form new allegiances with the Dragon Queen on the horizon and the supposed Dragon Prince in the South. "Aegon Targaryen" had ousted Eurons forces from Hightown and gained an allegiance with the Tyrells who had tired of Cersei's abuse. No doubt they had offered their pretty little rose to the young prince, but no word of a marriage had travelled this far North. Yara felt a nudge at her side, one of her guards motioned for her to move. She was going to be a caged queen. Stannis would probably burn her after she gave him a few sons. Instead of guiding her to her room in Winterfell the guards led her to the Kings quarters.

Stannis sat on a throne with Melisandra at his side, his true queen. Yara grinned at the sight of the red witch. The bitch unnerved her, but Yara would be damned if she allowed herself to show it. She was a warrior and a Greyjoy, she wasn't going to let her enemies know that she feared them. She would grin and let them guess at what secret or trump card she held, even if she had none. The witch frowned at her, for the first time she seemed unnerved by the smile. This pleased Yara to no end, the witch usually treated her like a child who was playing a game too advanced for her but she had been on edge lately.

"Our wedding will take place a fortnight from today, to allow me time to grieve. Your brother sent a letter from the wall that has been placed in your quarters. Do you have any concerns."

"Are you going to invite the Stark bastard, I don't think he will appreciate your treatment of his childhood home."

"That is no concern of yours," Melisandra said with a hint of anger.

Yara stood straighter, "Your forgetting who will be queen. I may know little of magic but I do know of politics. The Starks value their dead and their honor, you've managed to insult both. Be grateful my future husband stopped you from cutting their little tree. Your Lord of Light knows little of ice and less of winter, the men know that with every tree you burn you deepen winter's hold on the land. The Skaggosi won't join you because of what you did to their froggy neighbors and the wolf pup has chosen to stay with them and pray to his trees"

The red witch pursed her pretty lips and Stannis watched his soon to be wife contemplatively. "The swords will be returned to the grave sites. The tree will be left alone."

"Trees." Yara interjected

Stannis nodded "Trees." He stood and turned towards Melisandra. "leave us."

The red bitch looked like she was about to argue but one look from Stannis and she left.

"We will be married soon and hopefully you will provide me with children."

"And then you'll burn me like your previous wife." Yara said with no small amount of disdain.

"No, never again. I lost a wife to the flames and a daughter to the ice. I will not lose another." The hall was silent but for the crackling of the fire. "I will not fool myself into thinking that you are going into this marriage willingly or that we will find love with eachother, but we can find mutual respect, maybe even come to care for eachother."

Yara stood perfectly still, this was her opportunity, gain his trust and power, then use it. She stepped forward reached for his hand and kissed it demurely.

"As you wish my king."

)O(

Suprised I even wrote this chapter, Yara isn't someone I'm interested in but for some reason I got up at four in the morning and wrote through her. or atleast I tried to.