You thought I had abandoned this fic, right? Well, here I am. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and sorry for the long delay.

In the Shadow of the Throne

Being Oldest, Still So Young

Two weeks later…

He was dreaming of times when it was all better, times when he still had a mother, a brother close to his age nearby, a constant smile on his face, a dragon to hatch soon, and much older half-brothers he worshipped. Times when he still thought everything was goodness and light. Times when he would not look up and shiver at the sight of a dragon wing, his heart pounding until he recognized it as one of theirs but instead gloried in the very sight of it, for young as he was, he still knew that Targaryen dragons were something very special indeed, something that set them apart from other people. Something that made them better. Those were the times he had woke up smiling, eager to see what the new day would bring him.

Now, he only wanted to hide in sleep.

Ikarras roared, the sound hitting Viserys' straight in the chest and making his head hurt. There was a bright lightning in the night sky. A storm. Dragons love storms, he thought.

A new thunder shook the world loose and Viserys opened his eyes. Edvar Celtigar, his father's right hand, stood at his bedside, shaking him away roughly. "Dress yourself," the tall man snapped and looked around, grabbing the first clothes he saw lying around and tossing them on the bed.

Alysse opened her eyes and cried out in fear, clutching Viserys. Ser Edvar squinted at her. "That's Prince Aemon's little girl, right?" he asked.

"She is," Viserys said. Since her parents' deaths, Alysse had started clinging to him all the time and for all his muttering, he didn't really mind. Sure, a girl who was so much younger might be boring but she was another human being and he felt better just by having her around. At night, she crept to his bed and he threw an arm over her, feeling like her protector. With her next to him, darkness was not so very frightening.

In the light of the single torch he carried, Viserys saw the cold glint of his eyes mixed with grave worry. A second lightning shone through the crack in the shudders and Viserys realized it was no lightning at all but a streak of fire produced by a huge mouth.

Dragonstone was under attack.

He started dressing himself quite haphazardly while Ser Edvar was trying to help Alysse dress – trying being the key word. His constant urging to hurry up only made her more awkward and slowed them down further. Shouts rose from the courtyards, the dragon pits, the entire castle, and all around the island.

"Come on," Ser Edvar said when Viserys was ready. "I have to take you out. Your lord father's orders."

A year ago, Viserys would have refused to comply, insisted that he knew where he was being taken, demanded to talk to his father first. War had taught him better. Ser Edvar was Gaemon's most trusted man and there was really no time for explanations. "Come on, Alysse," he said. "We're leaving here."

Her lower lip quivering, she reached for his hand.

Ser Edvar ushered them down the hall but then, they took the lead. The man had rarely set foot into this part of the castle where private chambers were located.

Frenzy wrapped them by all sides. Shouting men, screaming women, running feet everywhere… As they passed a high marble arcade, Viserys saw the horses in the yard far below. In their horror, they had broken the stable doors and were now running wild.

The enemy dragons – two of them – had had their aim at the warehouses of fodder; a few breaths had been enough. Now the entire castle that had barely started to recover from the attack a few weeks ago was burning anew, much faster this time.

"Is it near?" Ser Edvar yelled through the din.

"Just a little more," Viserys assured him. A moment later, they reached the door they had been running for and the man threw it open. The wet nurse spun back, Alaena sleeping soundly in her arms. How can she sleep, Viserys wondered. Doesn't she hear what's going on?

"Come with me," Ser Edvar ordered.

The girl looked at Viserys helplessly. He nodded. "Come on," he said. "Fast!"

She grabbed a few pieces of cloth and stuffed them into the first bag she saw. And then they were running down the hall, Alysse somehow stuffed under the knight's arm. His other hand held Viserys' in a vise-like grip. The boy constantly stumbled and slipped, for he could not keep up, but the big hand would not let him fall down – and Viserys knew they should move as fast, so he didn't say a word of plea to slow down a little, despite the fact that his shoulder burned as much as the castle around them.

All of a sudden, the torchlight around them died. They were now in a low corridor meant for the servants that was not lit at night. The wet nurse's voice came, loud and clear, and shaking with fear, "Careful now, there is a staircase a few steps ahead…"

The shouts became increasingly fainter as they kept moving in the darkness. Ser Edvar cursed once or twice when he missed a corner but Alaena's wet nurse knew every inch of this part of the castle and kept directing them. Viserys could feel his shoulder no longer, there was a red curtain in front of his eyes and no air in his lungs. From time to time, he heard a stifled gasp from Alysse and realized that all through their running, she was crying without a voice.

All of a sudden, new light filled their eyes – the light of flames. Alaena started crying. Viserys slapped a hand over his eyes and gingerly looked from beneath his palm.

High above them, two dragons circled Dragonstone, sending flames down, and Viserys recognized one of them as the usurper's own dragon. In the yard around them, servants ran panicked and warriors poured out of the gates for the ships, to meet the coming fleet in the open sea. Viserys saw his father rising on his own dragon to meet them, and while he was awed, Ser Edvar next to him spat out something that he did not understand but the meaning was quite clear. The three dragons were roughly the same size; Gaemon had no chance to win.

"He shouldn't have done this," Ser Edvar murmured, his eyes wide with disbelief. "Surely he knows…"

One of the dragons shrieked in fury and the sound made everyone look up. "Come on," Ser Edvar ordered.

Soon, they were climbing up the rocks overseeing the most desolate of the shores of Dragonstone. The knight cursed from time to time but not too often and Viserys had come here plenty of times with Aemon, while Alysse was light and graceful and most importantly, having no idea just how arduous the ground here was, so they had no particular troubles keeping their footing on the insidious rocks. Yet the young girl, Alaena's nursemaid, constantly stumbled and a few times, Ser Edvar had to steady her on her feet.

"Give the child to me," he said after a while, and she gratefully surrendered Alaena who had gone quiet, too tired of crying.

Now, Viserys realized where they were going. Clearly, they were to hide in one of the many caverns time and winds had cut into the rocks, the caverns pirates sometimes used when they came ashore under the protective mantle of darkness.

The dragons danced and the night glowed like a bright sunny day. Ser Edvar took a deep breath at seeing the amount of ships trying to reach Dragonstone, against their own men's resistance. "We all supposed there was a spy hidden here," he said. "Now, we know for sure… but it's too late."

With a horrified gasp, Viserys realized what the man meant. Their staunchest, most important allies had gathered at Dragonstone in person only two days ago. Now, all of them were either trapped in the burning castle, or embroiled in the fight.

The timing of the attack had been no coincidence.

"They saw us!"

The wet nurse's voice was high-pitched with fear. Her finger feverishly started pointing at the nearest of the usurper's ships where the sailors were pointing at them.

"The Stranger take them," Ser Edvar cursed. "Now, when it comes out that you're missing, they'll remember the four they saw climbing those rocks… No!" he added sharply to the wet nurse. "They cannot reach you."

Because it looked like the sailors had no intention of remembering anyone: they just took the road of certainty and started sending arrows against the fugitives.

"Filthy traitors," the knight muttered. "Stay still, I said! We're too high above them…"

But it looked like the sight of the arrows bathed in the light of the flames above their heads had finally proven too much for the girl: she shrieked and drew back, swaying precariously on the edge of the rock. Ser Edvar sighed impatiently and decided to change approach. "Stay here," he told her, tucking her behind a huge boulder. "You two, come with me," he said. "I'll come back for you as soon as I leave them behind this rock," he added, pointing at another boulder a little ahead, at a sharp angle that would hide them from view from the sea.

Two dragon clashes later, Viserys and Alysse pressed close to each other behind the boulder, the babe squirming in Viserys' arms. Ser Edvar had left her on the ground but she was moving her head and might hurt herself. Viserys was quite surprised at how nice the touch of her warm cheek was. He had never been close to a babe and this one had looked quite unpleasant, what with all this wailing.

"Is the bad queen coming?" Alysse wailed.

"I don't know!" Viserys cried right back.

The knight and the peasant girl started making their way towards them but even Alysse could see that their progress was too slow. The wet nurse was paralyzed with fear from the steep climbing and the arrows the men kept sending their way made her jerk away and tremble.

With a huge roar, Gaemon's dragon made a sharp line downwards, obliterating ship and sailors in a huge fire ball. This sudden flash of light so near, though, proved the last blow to the girl's feeble nerves: she gave a shriek and jumped away, instinctively; this time, the loss of balance sent her straight against the water.

Ser Edvar tried to steady her one last time; a moment later, fire and sea took both knight and wet nurse in front of the children's terrified eyes.

Alysse screamed and started whimpering; Viserys did the same.

The battle went on for a while. The children were only a boulder away from the sight of it, yet they were too scared to look. Instead, they clung to each other, almost crushing the babe between them, and squeezed their eyes.

It was only when night became a day, and the sound of battle died away, and no one came for them, that Viserys realized that they had lost. Dragonstone was in Aegon's hands and he was here in person. Viserys' father was either dead or captured, or else he would have sent someone for them. No one knew that they were here, so no help would come. But they don't know we're here either, Viserys reminded himself.

Alysse had gone to sleep, huddled to him for warmth, her head rested against the boulder; Alaena was sleeping, too, finally, and he had been able to put her on the ground. His arms ached from holding her for so many hours – oh how they ached! But they were both blue with cold: the wind was harsh so high above the island, and so close to the sea, too. Reluctantly, Viserys changed his pose and lifted his knees to his chest, not quite pressing them; he placed the babe there, under the doublet he unfastened, so Alaena could get some warmth, and felt something like hatred when she stirred and started crying again, her lips searching for breast and food. At least they cannot hear her in this waste, he thought angrily. Still, her wailing was grating on his nerves. Shut up, shut up, he wanted to scream angrily. But she kept going.

As he fought the urge to take her out from beneath his doublet and throw her on the ground or in the sea, just to get rid of that crying, the realization came to him slowly, like a core of terror that spread all through his body, just like the dawn had appeared as a thin line on the horizon before overtaking it. He was now responsible for a little girl and a babe who would probably die because of the loss of her wet nurse. In truth, he didn't mind the last all this much: Alaena was a bother. A bother with too loud a voice.

But she was his niece. His responsibility. He had to find a way to keep her alive. And that meant finding a way to feed her. Somehow. Very soon.

He nudged Alysse awake and placed the babe on top of her, so he could rise. "Come on," he said. "We have to keep going."