RHAENYRA

She'd first taken Laenor to explore the passages a fortnight after their wedding. The night before they'd decided it was time to try for an heir, and it had not gone well, to say the least. She could hardly blame him; in fact, she was worried he blamed her . But he never seemed to resent her role in Joffrey's death. Because Laenor is a good, honourable man. A rare enough thing .

"Can I show you something?" she'd asked him. He'd made no response but followed her to the secret exit on the wall. She opened it and the first flicker of excitement since their wedding had passed over his face.

"Where does it go?"

"Everywhere, I think. I don't know many routes though. We're going to have to explore and map them."

Laenor's face was lighting up with the promise of adventure. She decided to make good right away. "Come," she said as she took took his hand and led him all the way to the skull of Balerion. "It even leads outside!"

"Does Cole know about this?" he'd asked when they'd reached the promised exit.

"No."

He smiled. "How did you find this?"

"Daemon." Who else?

He nodded, apparently thinking the same. "You know he trawls around Driftmark now, circling about my sister. My father seems pleased; he's been trying to escape the match he made for her and Daemon is just the type who… would be willing to help."

She held felt affection for Laenor, but that did not quell the bit of jealousy from learning that Daemon would soon carry another girl away from a betrothal.

"And your mother?" she'd asked.

"My mother has never liked Daemon; she doesn't trust him. Especially… why he's now unattached."

"She did nott want our match either, from what I've heard."

"She wants to keep her family safe."

Rhaenys, who always chose the option of protecting her family over furthering her power, had somehow lost the most. And while Rhaenyra hates to admit it, much of it was a result of her children marrying into her family. And now here she is, leading Rhaenys on an escape through the tunnels, over a dispute she had never wanted any part of. Guilt rises within her, knowing what she'd cost the Queen-Who-Never-Was by refusing to do what she had done: let her claim die.

She is not surprised that these thoughts fill the head of Princess Rhaenys as well, in the silence as they prowl the tunnels. She'd given her a torch to hold and she can easily make out her shaking her head.

"I aligned myself with you because it was the best course of action to protect my family. Now that the King is dead, how does it protect anyone?"

Guilt does not mean Rhaenyra appreciates her bitterness either. Not while Rhaenys's resentment predates the cause of her guilt. "What in the Seven Hells is your problem, Rhaenys?"

"You know my problem."

"And is this how Alicent meant to win you to her cause?" Rhaenys does not try to deny it, nor look ashamed. "And what was your response?"

"The word of my house is not fickle. Ever to your benefit."

"I am surprised, I'd thought you two would get along quite well."

"We are both mothers, I suppose."

" We are both mothers. Yet that has not bonded us. But I've been thinking," of anything else she could think of to distract her from what she could not handle. "You and Alicent, you may have been raised with different expectations, but you're cut from the same cloth. It's why I was even worried when I asked to see you."

"And what might that be." Rhaenys tries to stop for effect, for Rhaenyra keeps walking, and she has no choice but to follow.

"You do not hate me for what you think I took. You hate me for what I have."

"I will grant you benefit of presuming your condition and the situation at hand have so considerably damaged your reasoning. Surely you would not attribute my well-founded grievances to something so petty as jealousy . What of your insults, your endangerment, your crimes? "

"Whatever you think I did does not speak for your resentment, strengthened it perhaps, but it was always there."

"Resentment at what then?"

"At your own circumstance. Of the opportunities the realm has robbed you of. And rather than direct it where it's due, you direct it at me ." Although, to be fair, they are from from the only two to do so.

"And you think Alicent envies you being heir?"

"No. You both resent my good fortune to have lived a life surrounded by men who would protect me rather than ignore or exploit me." Alright, there'd been a little exploitation.

" Indulge you, more accurately."

"Alicent, that my father did not raise me to a standard that would see me grateful to be sold off like a mare, cooperative in the duties of a whore." Rhaenys looks uncomfortable and Rhaenyra pushes past it, "And you, that my father lived long to assert my claim."

"Were you not with child I would strike you — Queen or no."

"Why do you think I'm constantly with child? I have no greater love than speaking out of turn."

"You certainly have the arrogance of a queen."

"And you of a Baratheon." Or a Durrandan. What happened to the Storm Queen... Alicent had called it romantic.

"Rhaenyra."

"No," she says, and refuses to look back. "Not until we're away. If Alicent is so desperate to not be the one to tell me, I want it to be her, should we fall back into their hands.

"I do not think we've left their hands yet."

Fair enough.

And then she does turn to Rhaenys as they walk. "Tell me only this, my husband and sons they are so desperate to lure, do they live?"

"Your sons may yet live. All of them. Daemon will be killed immediately."

"Then I know enough. We need to get a message to Dragonstone. They cannot be lured." She doesn't allow herself to speculate beyond this. She knows Alicent well enough to limit her fate to only a few options. None of them enthuse her.

Neither does their newest obstacle. Rhaenyra stops.

"Fuck." The path she'd been leading them down was barred. She tries the gate: locked, as she'd feared.

"Is there a way around?"

"Getting around undetected is one thing. Getting out is another. There are unlocked routes, but they're too well known; we'll be discovered immediately. Laenor never locked this before though." Rhaenys stiffens at the mention of her son, and any camaraderie they might have had escaped them.

But a mother will take any chance to learn more about their lost child, apparently. "Laenor knew these tunnels too?"

"Of course, he had a ring whole of keys. But they would be on Dragonstone, as are Daemon's."

"What about yours?"

"I kept one hidden, but it will not lead us out."

Rhaenys gives her a withering look. "I'm surprised a knight of Ser Harwin's gallantry would impose the effort of the journey upon a lady, rather than assume it himself."

Rhaenyra is caught between forming a response and forming a denial, which unfortunately results in her standing wordlessly with her mouth open.

Rhaenys continues. "I suppose the Tower of the Hand offers more privacy than a royal apartment full of ch—"

"Harwin hid his keys in the tower," Rhaenyra remembers.

Rhaenys groans, no doubt anticipating the detour she's about to propose.

"They should still be there. His father remained Hand; he had no reason to take them. Were he to visit he would still stay in the same room. He would visit as the son of the hand, not a gold cloak. "

"Should?"

"Do you have any better options?"

"Than skulking about the Red Keep like rodents from a rat-catcher? Sadly, no."

"If it comforts you, it may be to our benefit to run into a rat-catcher. Many have old ties to my husband and they'd likely take our side, for a price."

They reach the spot where Rhaenyra would hide her key to the tower gate; it's mercifully still there, and still unlocks the gate to the steps. They drop their voices from low to whisper on their ascent. "Does Otto know about this entrance to his quarters? Will there be guards?"

"No." Of this Rhaenyra is certain. "Daemon used to spy on his meetings; he was none the wiser."

"My, you certainly have intimate knowledge of these tunnels."

Rhaenyra ignores her and they climb the rest of the way in silence. Eventually, they can make out the light coming through the grate, and Rhaenyra motions for Rhaenys to leave the torch behind. They creep forward to determine if it's safe to exit.

It's not, they discover. Because the light is joined by noise.

Otto is awake, and Alicent is with him.