The Witch Queen of Essos
Tyene: Well, that took long enough.
Wanda: (ignoring her, binge-watching Star Wars: The Clone Wars)
Tyene: Why do I even talk to you anymore? I refer you all to the first chapter for the disclaimer.
Chapter 13: The Red Dinner
Ginny was awake late at night, watching the skies, when she intercepted the raven.
The stars were all different from the home she once knew...the home that was beginning to feel more like a dream than this reality. After all these years, she was starting to recognize patterns in them; constellations she named after her first children and the friends she had made in this second lifetime. The more she named, the more she felt like she had a home.
A twinge in her magic caught her attention. Ginny had set up wards to capture the ravens used to deliver Lannister intelligence; the twinge told her that she had gotten a hit.
Twisting her portkey bracelet, Ginny transported herself into the forests. The bird was thrashing in the glowing red net; clasping it in both hands the redhaired witch queen gently retrieved its burden before setting it free.
Opening the letter, Ginny's brow furrowed.
"I'm preparing a feast for you, my lord. My gift of fealty is a pair of wolf pelts."
Wolves...
Ginny's eyes narrowed, and she portkeyed back to King's Landing.
**~Throne Room~**
"It was meant for Tywin..." Rhaegar mused. The Targaryens had woken quickly when Ginny sounded the alarm; and Jon and Aegon had already been awake. The only dragon rider not present was Viserys; he was still on his way from the Twins.
"But who wrote it?" Lyanna asked, her face creased with worry.
Rhaenys had locked her fingers together, thinking furiously. Who indeed? The Starks have returned home, and Winterfell is a natural fortress. If an army had been approaching, we should have had ample warning...
Her blood ran cold as the realization hit her. Unless it isn't an army from outside, but from within. A traitor who was subverted by Tywin's promises of power and glory...who among the Stark Bannermen were not satisfied with what they had?
She thought about Roose Bolton's cold, emotionless face. She thought of his disapproval for Robb's tactics and his refusal to torture prisoners. She remembered how Roose seemed to view the Stark heir as a child making foolish mistakes.
"Bolton." Rhaenys gasped, her eyes widening.
"Bolton?" Rhaegar repeated, looking at his eldest daughter in surprise. "What makes you-?"
"Bolton never believed Robb could win a long way against Tywin." Rhaenys muttered, panic flickering through her eyes. "Bolton resented not being the Great House of the North. ...Robb!"
Without another word, Rhaenys turned on her heel and ran down the hallways.
"Rhaenys!" Daenerys called in surprise, immediately taking off after her niece.
Jon, after taking a second to understand his half sister's panic, glanced back at his father. "We'll need three of the dragons," He said before hurrying off himself.
"Robb?" Aegon echoed, utterly confused as he stared after his usually level headed sibling. "Come back! You can't just leave without a plan!"
"She's not going to stop or be careful!" Emily exclaimed nervously. "That threat might as well have been against us. She cares too much about him."
"What does that mean?" Aegon demanded, befuddled.
Emily, in her panic and sleep deprived nature, temporarily forgot her promise to her friend and yelled back, "Well I'm assuming she does, she did sleep with him!"
"WHAT!?"
**~With Rhaenys~**
On wings of wrath, did Rhaenys grab her sword and armor, saddle Visenya and begin flying north. Her heart was pounding with fear. I had suspected Bolton from the start, there was something just not right about him. Oh by the Seven, let me reach him in time!
Balerion and Viserion had to struggle to keep up with their aggravated sister as she cut through the air, urged on by her rider.
Daenerys cast Jon a worried look. "Do you think we'll reach them in time?" She asked.
Jon's face was a mixture of anger and concern. "That raven never reached Tywin." He answered. "If we're lucky, that was simply meant to confirm their alliance. It must be a ploy to take hostages."
His thoughts turned to Arya, his younger cousin, to Bran and Rickon and Sansa and Robb. He thought of his uncle and aunt, Eddard and Catelyn. They had already gone through enough as it was; now his uncle's own banner men were betraying him.
Eddard Stark was everything a noble, principled man should be, and yet Bolton would still turn on him for the promise of power?
It's terrible, isn't it? Ginny had remarked one night after telling him a story about her experiences with a magic war. What people are willing to do to each other?
Viserion let out an angry howl, which echoed across the land as the dragons flew further north. Never stopping, they made it to Winterfell within a day.
**~At Winterfell~**
Rhaenys skidded off her dragon's back the moment she reached the ground, drawing her sword. The first thing she heard were the faint lyrics of that accursed song, drifting in from the Great Hall.
"And now the rains..."
She spotted several dead guards near the stables. Running over to them, she pulled up one's arm and a chill went down her spine. It was the mark of a flaying knife.
I knew it!
Rhaenys whistled sharply, summoning her dragon. Then she headed straight for the Stark's castle.
The last thing the guards Roose had posted outside doors saw was Rhaenys and Visenya's gaping maw, just before they were consumed by dragon fire.
Daenerys forced the door down before drawing her own blade, and Rhaenys burst into the hall.
The attack had already begun; there were already a number of bodies strewn across the floor. Catelyn Stark was backed into a corner, trying to shield Bran and Rickon from approaching men; Jon went to her aide and cut them down.
Daenerys, meanwhile, went to assist Arya. The youngest Stark girl had taken a sword off one of her father's men and was using it surprisingly well for a child with less than a year of formal training.
Rhaenys only had eyes for Robb.
The young wolf had been in conflict with Roose himself; trying to draw the older man away from his father, who's knee injury had been reopened. Robb was a brilliant warrior, but he was already sustaining several injuries, one from a crossbow bolt that had struck his shoulder.
With a scream of rage, Rhaenys attacked Roose from behind. Taken off guard, the infamous flayed man found the Valyrian steel blade impaled through his arm. Viciously pulling it back, Rhaenys forced him away from his would be captive, fighting with the fever similar to when her father had faced Robert Barantheon at the Trident many years before.
However, in that battle Rhaegar had been put on uneven ground against the Usurper thanks to wounds from earlier in the battle. Rhaenys, meanwhile, was younger and more nimble than her old and somewhat tired opponent, so she pushed him back and barked out a command in High Valyrian.
Roose hardly had time to turn and throw himself to the side to avoid the fate the men at the door had been given; Visenya's massive frame was halfway through the door, blocking any potential escape and devouring anyone foolish enough to approach her.
Satisfied that she had routed him, Rhaenys rushed over to Robb. The young wolf had collapsed against an upturned table, his hand reaching for the bolt in his shoulder.
"Don't touch it! You'll make it worse." Rhaenys said as she fell to her knees next to him. Robb looked at her in pain and confusion until she removed her helmet. "In fact, don't move at all!"
"R-Rhaenys...You came back." Robb said, his voice full of tenderness and wonder.
Rhaenys let out a small sob as she examined his bloody shoulder. While her internal medic warned her to remain calm, seeing the man she loved so dearly injured brought out all her fears. "I never should have left you." She bemoaned, as she searched for something clean enough to stop the bleeding. "I'm so sorry."
Still dazed, Robb reached out and took her hand.
"You're beautiful," He murmured, part of him wondering if she was a hallucination comforting him in his final moments. "When I first saw you, I wasn't sure if you were real."
"Don't say that now, Robb. Save your strength," Rhaenys urged, tears forming at the edges of her eyes, before finally snatching a cloth off the floor. Hastily she sought to bind his shoulder, easily the worst of his injuries.
Her mind focused on the task at hand, she didn't notice that Roose had managed to get out of the range of her dragon's fire breath. Filled with rage and panic now that his scheme was falling apart around him, the Lord of the Dreadfort chose not to die without committing one final murder...
Robb saw Roose coming, eyes narrowed and blade raised at Rhaenys's unprotected back. He pushed her aside, and would have taken the blow himself had the unthinkable not happened.
Eddard, having freed himself from soldiers a moment before, saw Roose approaching his son and the distracted Princess of Dragons. Despite his knee injury, the rage of a father wolf gave him the strength he needed to cross the floor and grab the man from behind, preventing the fatal injury from taking place.
Enraged, Roose threw Eddard to the floor and drove his sword into the man's chest.
Rhaenys froze for a moment when she witnessed this final act of love. "That was meant for me." She whispered, distraught.
On the other side of the room, Jon was alerted by Catelyn's heartbroken scream and spun around. For a moment, he stared at his uncle's dead body in shock and disbelief.
Then Bolton moved, and grief turned to rage.
Jon charged the man, cutting off his sword hand and driving back into the mouth of Visenya. The dragon clamped her jaw shut around Roose's torso and shook her head violently and repeatedly until all his limbs had been torn off and she had bitten his body in half.
End Chapter
(sad smile) Well, it's not quite a Red Wedding, but it wouldn't be Game of Thrones if somebody decent and good-hearted didn't die.
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