The Witch Queen of Essos

Tyene: Are you projecting your lack of a love life onto fluffy romance?

Wanda: Oh, do shut up. (flushes and looks away) I do not own Harry Potter or Game of Thrones.

Chapter 9: Dangerous Choices

**With Rhaenys and Emily, 24 Hours Before the Assault on King's Landing**

"Think of the warm grass beneath your feet...the cool wind against your face." Rhaenys murmured, gently running her fingers through boy's hair as she prepared to euthanize him. He had been skewered through the lung with a spear; he was beyond her or Emily's help. All she could do was end his suffering. "There's no pain there...no boundaries, no kings, no armies...and no winter. There is a table with more food than you could ever eat, and a bed of flowers just for you."

The boy – he was barely more than fifteen, a milita member born to common parents – smiled softly. "Will there be someone as beautiful as you there?" He whispered, choking slightly on the blood in his mouth.

Rhaenys nodded slightly. "Yes...of course. There's everything you can want." When he closed his eyes, she quickly slit his throat with her knife, sending him almost painlessly to the next world.

Biting her lip to control her sorrow, Rhaenys got to her feet and moved to her next patient. Emily had strongarmed a number of Stark soldiers through force of will to help her move the injured who they may be able to save.

Unfortunately, a lot of them would require amputation – Emily only had so much Skelegrow and related potions with her at the time.

Emily was absorbed in healing a young squire who was missing his right hand.

Rhaenys came to a stop near a boy who was faintly struggling with a gargantuan arrow wound in his knee. A conscript from Lannisport, probably, Rhaenys thought bitterly. Tywin will start a war but he certainly doesn't care who it hurts aside from himself.

She went about binding all the other wounds she could before reaching the foot in question. "I'm sorry," She said calmly, "but your foot is mangled beyond repair."

"Wha?" The boy caught on quickly and started to struggle; Emily hurried over to help Rhaenys hold him down. "No no no no, please! I'll use a crutch, it'll be fine, I don't want to be a cripple!"

"I'm sorry, but if I don't remove it, you'll die slowly and painfully." Rhaenys said with some force, hoping to scare him into stillness. She looked at Emily and nodded before giving the boy a cloth to bite down on.

"Shhhh..." Emily whispered, "Close your eyes...it will hurt less that way." Rhaenys saw the glint in her eyes that Sirius and Ginny both shared when using wordless magic. This would numb the pain for the poor boy.

"Such kindness should be reserved for the Northerners, my lady." A quiet, frigid voice floated from behind her. Rhaenys twisted her head to look over her right shoulder.

Roose Bolton stood side by side with Robb Stark, Warden of the North. The older man was frowning disapprovingly at her; his eyes were empty chasms. Rhaenys instinctively wished to avoid him.

Robb, meanwhile, was surveying the site of the wounded. Now that the battle high had disappated, he was visibly aghast to see the number of injured left behind by his victory.

"Your men are not my men, Ser." Rhaenys responded coldly. They are all my people. I am a Princess; their well being is my burden and my responsibility.

"Lord Bolton," Robb said quietly before the man could respond, "Please find the Greatjon and discuss our next move."

Roose didn't look happy, but reluctantly he stepped back and walked away. Once he had left, Robb knelt in the mud and assisted Rhaenys in her bloody work. The foot was cleanly amputated; and the boy didn't even scream much. He's brave, Rhaenys thought as she bound up the stump and staunched the bleeding. That's a blessing.

Emily glanced between Rhaenys and Emily, an oddly curious look on her face, before helping the boy limp away to a horse and carriage piled with those who could no longer fight.

"He was lucky you were here," Robb remarked once they were alone.

"He wasn't lucky you were," Rhaenys noted, glancing down at her bloody hands. It's one thing to fight equals, but another to fight a child. "He was just a fisher's boy in Lannisport before they shoved a sword into his hands and made him part of Lord Lannister's army."

Robb winced slightly. He was a young warrior, and thus wasn't practised at hiding his reservations. He looked among the Lannister wounded with some guilt; his anger was directed solely at the Queen and Tywin, who had his sisters Sansa and Arya.

Rhaenys saw this, and the heat that she had felt towards him upon seeing the wounded softened significantly. I would have done the same, she realized, if it was Ginerva or Daemon or Aegon who was captured. "Gods be willing, they will be some of the last of the wounded." She said.

"Yes," Robb agreed. He regarded her for a moment and said, "What is your name? I haven't seen you before."

"Talisa Maegyr." Rhaenys lied, suddenly grateful he hadn't recognized her. His eyes had a different quality than any other man she'd ever met. "From Volantis. What does it matter to you, my lord?"

"I...was just curious." Robb said, a bit quickly. "Do you plan to follow my forces, Lady Talisa?"

"I go where ever there are injured." Rhaenys responded.

**Just after Aegon and Jon take King's Landing**

"You're in love with him." Emily said flatly when Rhaenys entered their tent.

"What?" Rhaenys parroted, flushing red.

"You have never spent so much time talking to a boy before." Emily said. "Especially a boy your age. When ever you had to play pleasant to the suitors who came knocking at your door, you looked like you were being force fed poison. You look at him like you're seeing a living star."

"Shut up."

"I didn't think I'd live to see the day you'd fall in love."

"I said shut up!" Rhaenys snapped, giving Emily a furious look. "That's impossible. People...people can't fall in love that fast."

"Lord Rhaegar fell in love with Lady Lyanna the moment he unmasked her as the Knight of the Laughing Tree." Emily observed. "Perhaps it's in the blood."

"Let it drop!" Rhaenys bit out, pacing angrily around the small enclosure. "Robb is promised to Lady Whoever Frey so he can use a vital bridge. Catelyn promised him that."

Her eyes felt hot for a moment, but she pushed it back.

"You called him Robb, Rhaenys." Emily noted, though the teasing tone had left her voice.

Rhaenys collapsed heavily on her bed. "It can't be, Emily." Her voice had dropped. "Stop reminding me."

Emily moved next to her and held her hand in comfort.

**The Next Evening**

Rhaenys walked into Robb's tent the next day, intending to ask him about moving a couple of soldiers who had lost their fingers, only to discover a very oppressive aura.

Robb was bent over a desk, head in his hands, radiating horror and anxiety. "Robb?" Rhaenys asked softly. "Robb, what's wrong?"

Robb didn't seem to notice her until she placed her hands on his shoulders. "My home has been invaded," He said, his voice cracking slightly.

Alarmed, Rhaenys leaned over and read the letter sitting on his desk.

Robb;

If you receive this, it means I may still be alive. My father has assaulted Winterfell as of few days ago, taking Brandon and Rickon hostage. Cassel attempted to keep him out, but in the end there weren't enough men – Balon's occupying it along with a host of six thousand Ironborn. It's meant as revenge against your father.

If you hear news of your brothers deaths, it is a lie. My father disowned me when I refused to kill Bran myself, to reclaim my Ironborn roots. He then decided to do it himself. A wildling woman helped me smuggle the boys out of the castle, but we had to cover our tracks. There was a family of four killed them their house was burned down; those bodies are now buried in the Stark crypt.

Bran and Rickon are with me. We have no choice but to flee north and hide. I don't know if you've rescued Sansa and Arya yet, but I doubt we have too long before we are found.

Your friend, Theon.

Another thing – I received a proclamation from King's Landing in your absence. The Targaryens have taken King's Landing. They said no word of your sisters.

"Oh, Robb..." Rhaenys wasn't sure what to say for a moment. Father never thought highly of the Greyjoys, but for them to rebel again at a time like this...! The war will drag on at this rate...

I have to send a raven to Aegon and Jon right now...they could reunite the Starks, let them march north and reclaim their home. ...but I can't leave Robb like this.

"The Targaryens have my sisters...the Ironborn are after my brothers...I'm fighting a war and I don't know if I should march north or south." Robb lamented.

"I don't think they will hurt your sisters." Rhaenys said firmly. Aegon and Jon would never do such a thing. "Your aunt is married to their father."

"My father displaced them from power." Robb responded. "I imagine they begrudge that."

No. Of course not. You had the right to rebel. I won't let any of them hurt you.

"They would be wrong to. Your uncle and grandfather were butchered. If they have any honor, they'll return Sansa and Arya to you." Robb turned to look at her, faint hope in his eyes, prompting Rhaenys to go on, "It would be foolish of them to hurt your sisters now; they need your family to hold the north. And who but a craven would hurt a pair of defenceless girls?"

Robb gave a small chuckle at this. "Arya would heartily resent being called helpless."

Rhaenys laughed a bit as well. "She has a warrior's spirit, does she? My younger sister is like that." I miss Lillian. She always knows how to make any situation cheerful.

"She would wield a sword and become a knight if she thought our mother would allow it." Robb reminisced, some of the tension leaving his shoulders.

"I imagine your aunt would approve; she did just that didn't she?" Lyanna would be thrilled – she'd probably teach Arya swordplay personally.

"Father said as much once," Robb said. Standing up, he got a cup of wine and offered it to her. "What about you? How did two noble ladies from Volantis come by such 'unwomanly' pursuits?"

Rhaenys accepted the glass and took a drink, watching Robb's eyes. They seemed to draw her into their depths where she could drown and loose herself entirely. "My father married my mother fairly young," She began quietly, rephrasing her story to remove mention of her true name, but telling it true all the same. "The city we lived in was often restless and prone to violence; gangs of slavers often carried children away to be sold and beat to death parents who attempted to resist them. It was a dangerous place, but my parents were comfortable, because they cared for each other."

"Not a lot of lords and ladies felt like that. When your marriage is arranged, you often end up with someone you don't care for." Why am I saying this? He has to marry someone he doesn't know by contract! "I was a year old when the riot happened. You must understand – this was before Queen Ginerva united the various kingdoms of Essos, and forbade the rape and pillaging that always followed these conflicts."

"My father was away fighting when they came into our house." Rhaenys took a deep breath and let it out, her eyes still locked in Robb's. "Two men. One of them ripped me out of my mother's arms, and I could do nothing but watch as he drove a sword into her stomach twice. She bled out onto the floor. I still see it in my nightmares."

She did. As a matter of fact, she often dreamed that worse had happened – that Gregor Cleagane had raped her mother before killing her.

"I'm sorry." Robb said softly.

Rhaenys looked up from her hands, and saw his eyes filled with sorrow and compassion, and something cracked and splintered inside her chest – broken beyond repair.

"I was rescued by a warrior woman before his friend could kill me." She went on. "She took me in her arms and comforted me until my father returned."

"When I grew old enough to understand, I decided one thing. I would not be standing helpless the next time a murderer came at me with a knife, like my mother had. I would protect myself, my brother and sister, with a sword. Because those without swords can still die upon them."

For a moment, the two of them sat in silence. Rhaenys felt oddly panicked, having lain herself so bare, and stood up. "I'm so sorry. You have so much to face and here I am, babbling on about my own-"

Robb stood up too. "I don't want to marry the Frey girl." He said simply.

Rhaenys's heart skipped and then came to a complete halt. Her lips parted and the words, the sweet dangerous words slipped away. "I don't want you to marry her. ... ...But you need that bridge. I hope-"

That was all she got out before Robb gently seized her and kissed her. She threw her arms around his neck and knew nothing else for several hours.

End Chapter

Yes, it's fabulously inconvenient to the war situation, but I really do love the Robb/Talisa romance. For the story, Rhaenys and Talisa are the same person. HOPEFULLY this will end less...awfully then it did in the show.

Read and Review please!