DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING

DUNK

There was a heavy rain upon the city the day Alerie Hightower stormed into Aegon's solar with defiant eyes and a scrunched up letter in her hand. Such an odd match for Egg's youngest reflected Dunk as he inspected the young woman, she was certainly pretty enough to be considered a princess and she knew her courtesies well, but there was also a fierceness to her that seemed at odds with Aemon's own laid back nature. Perhaps that's why they were so good to each other? Dunk liked to think that they worked to keep each other balanced.

Yet when she marched up to the king and all but shoved the letter into his hand and watched him with burning blue eyes Dunk knew something was wrong, and the frown that was slowly forming on Egg's face was only further proof of the matter.

"I'm so sorry my dear..." he started before he was silenced with a single risen hand.

"I don't want to hear it; I'm tired of hearing apologies and condolences or anymore half-hearted gestures. I'm leaving for Oldtown with the earliest ship on the morrow."

Egg looked quite stunned at that before shaking his head. "No, no that won't do. Your time is almost upon you, it would be too risky."

Alerie had fumed at that and sent the king a look that would send knights running scared. "You read that letter, my brother and his wife are dead and his son Leyton sits the Hightower alone. King or no you will not keep me from my family, not now of all times."

"But what of your brother Gerold, or Aemon….surely you won't just leave them?"

"Gerold would agree with me and Aemon, well it wasn't me who sent him off to die in the cold now was it?" challenged lady Hightower.

Both Dunk and the king flinched at the young woman's words; she hadn't made it a secret that she blamed Jaehaerys for letting Aemon out of the Red Keep and she hadn't spoken to the crown prince in over a week, something that was extremely disconcerting to both the king and his lord commander.

Egg gave a weary nod. "Fine, you may go see to your nephew and mourn your brother and his wife, but I insist on you taking at least one of the Kingsguard, and a dozen knights."

"You have my thanks your grace." And with that the young woman gathered up her skirts and left the room.

Not two days after lady Hightower left for Oldtown did the king receive word form Lord Edwyle Stark that the prince Aemon and Ser Gerold had been found safe and were currently on their way south to King's landing.

AEMON

A few weeks later…

The trip south had been gruelling. The cold was even more devastating than he had originally thought and if it were not for Lord Edwyle's men guiding them through the blizzards and rough terrain then he and his companions would have surely died. Matters were made worse by his dreams; he was plagued with them nearly every night and sometimes their images stayed with him during his waking hours, which in turn caused him to suffer from quite a few headaches, sometimes to the point where he could do little more than sit atop his horse. Yet now that he was returned to the warmth of King's Landing he expected things to improve, though that soon proved to be false.

The people cheered him and his companions as they made their ways through the crowded streets, in clear adoration for the son of their beloved King Aegon. Despite the people's intent, Aemon was extremely uncomfortable with the scores of people watching him and he found another headache coming on just as he reached the Red Keep.

His family stood waiting for him in the Throne room. Jaehaerys stood with Duncan, Rhaella and Aerys while Rhaelle had to hold back young Steffon from running towards him. His father of course sat the Iron Throne playing the part of king as he solemnly watching Aemon walk past the various lords and ladies that seemed to inhabit the great room.

Ignoring the dull ache in his head, Aemon looked up at the king and spoke in a loud and strong voice. "I have returned Father and with the aid of the brave men of the North."

"So I see." Aegon rose from the spiked chair and addressed the Stark men who had escorted Aemon south. "You men have done the crown a great service for which I will not forget, Ser Duncan will see to your needs."

Aemon had to wait until all of the formalities had been observed and the court had gotten its fill before he would be allowed to speak with his family as he truly wished; without any prying eyes and ears around. As soon as they returned to his solar all of the courtesies were forgotten and Duncan wrapped him up in a tight embrace of which he only half hearted returned. The little ones also gave him excited hugs of their own before being ushered off by one of Rhaelle's ladies in waiting.

"Where is Alerie?" he asked in much more agitated tone than he intended.

Jaehaerys had been the first to answer, a solemn expression in his large eyes. "Her brother and good-sister have been in an accident, Leyton is now Lord of the Hightower…..you have to understand she had no idea of when you were coming back and her nephew needed someone...she has taken a ship to Oldtown."

His head was well and truly aching now and the images began to repeat themselves in mind's eye, the pain was almost unbearable and when Duncan went to gently touch his shoulder he flinched away. "Get out." He hissed.

"Brother please, I know you're worried but..."

"GET OUT!"

The room went deathly silent at that and the three eldest of the Targaryen siblings stared at their brother in shock. Rhaelle made to approach him but was stopped by a firm hand from Jaehaerys who merely shook his head and ushered the rest of them out of the room. The entire time Aegon stood quietly and watched as his son collapsed into a chair near the fire.

"That is not how a prince of the blood should act." said the king as he walked over to his son.

Aemon shot his father a hateful glare. "I know damned well how a prince of this family should act, one of two ways father."

He was silently satisfied by the look of hurt that crossed his father's face at that and hoped that the older man would take the hint and leave him to suffer alone, yet the man lingered still, his purple eyes locked on his son.

"You were wounded" observed the king as he took a step closer. "Ser Barristan told me of it all; it was clever of you to figure out the Blackfyre's plan for the Ironborn, though incredibly foolish to leave the Red Keep and try to march north with only a handful of men."

"It seemed like a good idea at the time."

Aegon frowned at his son's apathetic tone and moved to stand in Aemon's line of sight. "Enough of this, I won't have you sulking in your chambers like some petulant child. You will apologise to your brothers and sister and start acting like someone of your station."

Aemon was unable to stop himself from flinching, not because of his father's words but because of the increased volume in his voice which only served to send a wave of agony through his skull. He knew what was coming, first he would come to feel angry and irritable as he was now but soon that burning rage would give way to a deep melancholy that was like to last for days. Perhaps it is good that Alerie isn't here, she won't have to suffer me…

The king looked down at his son with a look of concern. "Shall I send for the Maester?"

He gave the slightest on nods and felt himself shrink into his chair, as if he could make himself small enough to avoid his misery. Aegon turned to leave but Aemon reached out and stopped his father up. "How did my good-brother and his wife die?" he asked weakly.

"It was a fire."

ADDAM

Addam hated Dorne. He hated the hot sun that bore down on him and the rough waters that shook his ship violently. He hated that he had to share said ship with pirates and cutthroats and most of all he hated the Serpent for forcing him and his men to attack peasants.

He had argued at length with the man-if he could be called a man- and it had yielded no results. The pirate lord had laughed at his protests and none too gently reminded him that the king had given specific orders to harass the Dornish coastline and the white cloak had swallowed that bitter medicine and continued on, leading his own men, men of the Gold Company, to attack all the keeps and strategically vulnerable locations and cut down all of the peasant militia but had specifically commanded his men to spare the women and children. Let the snake be angry, I'll not let his evil soil the rest of us…

Of a night they would stay in the dispossessed homes of the smallfolk they had killed or driven away before moving on to the next village come the morning. The Serpent and his pirates had taken to keeping the women as bedwarmers and if it was quiet enough the night air would carry the lamentations of the Dornish women. The sound cut into Addam's soul like a pick axe.

They were slowly but surely working their way closer to Sunspear every day, leaving only a trail of dismembered corpses and defiled innocents in their wake. Progress was halted however, when a local band of militia dug in deep and began to fortify their village before the Blackfyre forces even arrived and using a mostly destroyed stone keep as defensive point. Addam was content to let them be and just move on but the pirate lord wouldn't have it.

"We'll burn them out. Set fires all around the village and let them choke on the ashes of their homes." His maroon eyes danced about madly.

"They're just frightened peasants; we'd just be wasting time and effort trying to kill them when we could be striking at the heart of the Dornish army in Sunspear."

The pirate shot Addam a dark look. "Your king gave command to me did he not? I say we leave a message for all of Dorne to see."

"They have done nothing wrong!" growled the knight.

"Oh? Was it not the Dornish who helped support the Targaryens over the Blackfyres?" he chuckled. "This people are enemies of the king."

Addam could no longer contain his fury at that and shouted loud enough so that all of those nearby could hear. "THEY ARE INNOCENT! The ancestors of these people helped the ancestors of our king's enemy, they have made no offense to the king himself and undeserving of your barbarism!"

The Serpent merely frowned at that and took a step forward. "Your King ordered me to hurt Aegon, and by hurting these people I hurt Aegon. When his small council give him news of Dorne I want them to tremble in terror at the horror of what's become the Dornish under Aegon's watch, and if you don't like that then you can go fuck yourself. Now get out of my sight."

Addam stared back at the man unflinching before turning to his serjeants. "Back to the ships, we're leaving Lord Rapist here to butcher the smallfolk while we fight people who can actually fight back."

The men looked to Addam and then to the carnage around them and quickly hurried off to inform the men of the Golden Company their orders and within an hour all two hundred men under Addams command were back on their ship and sailing towards Sunspear. Everything the Serpent had told him was churning in his mind and the white cloak began to wonder how Maelys could allow such a man to do those things. He needs to defeat the Targaryen usurpers; we're at war he told himself, trying to urge himself on despite the doubts that had taken root in his mind.

He was shaken from his troubles by Humfrey Strickland who looked up him with an urgent expression on his pudgy face. "Ser Addam, you must come see this." He urged before shoving a myrish glass into the knight's hands and pointing out on the starboard side.

Addam could vaguely make out a shape in the distance which was slowly growing larger by the moment as it moved closer. A ship, but the Dornish have no naval power? He tried to make out the markings of the vessel and could only conclude that it was no warship. He took another look at the mast and finally recognized the sigil.

Hightower.