"My Lord." Aegon heard someone call out to him.
"What happened?" He groggily asked, barely opening his eyes. Aegon could feel Rhae's breath on his chest and her hand on his torso as the nude, nubile body of his sister was pressed tightly against his. Rhaenys had tired him the night before, but he had been all to welcoming for this tiredness as it was equal to greater pleasure.
"King Argilac Durrandon has replied to the raven, My Lord. He has sent a box with a note." The man, who he recognised Maester Hugor, said.
Argilac Durrandon had offered him the hand of his daughter, Princess Argella, with a dowry of lands east from Gods Eye, from the Trident to Blackwater Rush. He had paid the raven no mind as he was content with Visenya and Rhaenys and the lands Argilac had offered had belonged to House Hoare for a generation, but he did have a dream of uniting Westeros which he had shared with his brother and sisters. For that dream Rhaenys had offered a suggestion and thus, Aegon replied with a counter-offer to King Argilac Durrandon.
The offer was that their half-brother, Orys Baratheon, would marry Princess Argella, the dowry would be the given lands in his terms plus Massey's Hook, lands south of Blackwater to the Wendwater river and the headwater's to the Mander. In return they would support Argilac against Harren the Black.
When the time came and they launched their conquest of Westeros, Argilac would die on the battlefield, an honourable death, or he would die in his bed and Orys would become the next Lord of the Stormlands, with the name and the power of the Stormlords to fight for them. It seemed that Rhaenys' ploy had worked.
"I will look at them tomorrow Maester." Aegon said, as he felt Rhaenys move against him, her nipples rubbing on his chest. It made him a bit hard, but he closed his eyes and inhaled the sweet, spicy scent of her hair. It would do him no good to get aroused right now.
"My Lord, I think you should look at them now." The way the Maester stressed on now, made it look very important.
Aegon opened his eyes and slowly untangled his body from Rhaenys. He threw the thin covers off their bodies and got off the bed and draped them back on her smooth skin, as he plopped his naked arse on the corner of the bed.
"Tell someone to prepare the solar. I will meet you there Maester." Aegon said, as he yawned. He stretched his hands behind his back, popping his bones, as he got up from the bed and went to the water bowl. He cupped his hands and splashed the water on his face to remove the sleep in his eyes and then dried it with a towel. He went to their closet, picked out a black nightgown and wore it and then wore his slippers.
Aegon opened the black doors of the Lord's room and walked down the hallway which was illuminated by torches. The windows were open and cold air was blowing inside with loud cracks of thunder. A storm was brewing, Aegon could feel it in his bones.
Aegon reached his solar at the far end of his hall where Maester Hugor was standing with a box and a scroll in his hands. "Is the solar ready?" He asked.
"Yes, My Lord." The Maester said.
Aegon opened the doors and entered the solar. The hearth was blazing with fire and a portrait of Gaemon and Daenys Targaryen decked in reds and blacks, graced the black walls of the solar. The table was made of ironwood of the North and so were the chairs. Aegon sat comfortable on the Lord's chair and motioned for the Maester to sit on one of the other ones.
"What did King Argilac send that you want me to see so urgently, Maester?" Aegon asked.
"This, My Lord." Hugor said, placing the box and the raven scroll in front of him. Aegon first picked up the raven scroll and unfurled it. There was only one sentence written on it.
'These are the only hands your bastard shall receive.'
Aegon didn't understand the message so he picked the box and opened it. Inside were two hands severed at the wrist. Aegon grit his teeth. That thrice-damned arrogant fool had not only rejected his offer but had also tortured his envoy judging from the jagged cut.
"Where is the man who brought this?" Aegon asked.
"Left, My Lord. I did not check this till I got back to my chambers, but by that time the man had already left." Hugor replied.
"How did he come?"
"By ship, My Lord."
"Did you see the ship's sails?"
"No, My Lord, but perhaps the men at the docks have."
"Alright, Maester. You can go." Aegon said. The Maester bowed and slowly left the room, the door closing with a soft click.
Aegon meanwhile, stared at hands. They had a perfect plan to overthrow Argilac Durrandon for the beginning of their conquest and gain the loyalty of the Lords of the Stormlands, but the old fool had to throw a wrench in his plan to peacefully take his kingdom.
A deep sigh left his lips. There was nothing Aegon could do right now, except think on the matter, so he snuffed the hearth out and and opened the gates of his solar. The storm seemed to have taken life outside the black walls of Dragonstone.
Aegon entered his room to find his bed empty. "Rhae." He called out. He heard no response. There was only one other place that Rhaenys could be. Visenya's chambers in the Sea Dragon Tower.
Aegon went down the stairs to the gallery and and crossed it. He had played with Rhae over here, admiring their ancestors, the brave and beautiful Dragonriders of Valyria. He especially admired Daenys, who had ridden Balerion like he did.
He passed through the inner and middle walls of the Stone Drum into the Sea Dragon Tower. He climbed up the narrow and twisting turnpike stairs of the tower to the first floor of the Tower. He passed his mother's chambers and the empty chambers, to the third and last chamber on the floor.
Like the castle itself, the doors too were made of hard, black ebony, with Dragons carved into the wood. Aegon opened the door and walked in the room. It was quite smaller than the Lord's Chambers, and was spartan looking, unlike his richly decorated ones.
On the bed, amidst the silken black sheets were Rhae and Visenya, both nude, their faces inches apart and their legs crossing over the others like husband and wife. Both looked very peaceful and Aegon did not want to disturb them, so he walked up to his sisters.
Both of them were slim, but Visenya was much more toned and had hardened muscles because of her sword training. Their faces were also a bit different, but only if someone noticed them closely. Rhaenys' lips were thinner than Visenya's and she was shorter with a much more plumper arse. Visenya on the other hand had much fuller lips, even though she didn't kiss as well as Rhaenys, and her face was much sharper with her breasts being bigger.
Going over to Rhaenys, Aegon tenderly kissed her forehead, enough for her to not awaken. He had half a mind to do the same to Visenya, but he knew that she didn't like to be treated gently like a swooning maiden. She was a warrior and a dragonrider. A warrior who had beaten more men into the ground than he had and a Dragonrider who had bonded with Vaghar at the young age of fifteen. So he caressed her cheek before leaving.
Aegon opened the door and walked back out into the night to his chambers, so he could armour himself and take Balerion off to find the man who had sent him the hands of his envoy.
Rhaenys walked to the topmost chamber of the Stone Drum Tower. It was a round chamber with four tall windows in the four directions and bare black walls and a dragon shaped hearth, as it was in all of them rooms of Dragonstone. The light from the windows kept the chamber alit, but it had torch holders and candelabras on the walls, so people could be there on a night.
In the middle of the chamber was a fifty feet long table, carved in the shape of Westeros with a high seat raised in place of where Dragonstone would be. Visenya was already there, sitting on the seat beside the high seat along with Orys who was sitting on the seat on Aegon's right. Lords Daemon Velaryon, Crispian Celtigar, Joshua Bar Emmon, Tristifer Massey were also present, whispering amongst themselves, sitting on the edge of the Western Kingdoms.
"My Lady, do you know why have we been summoned by Lord Aegon?" Lord Daemon asked. No doubt the other lords had told him to as he was their cousin, with her mother being his older aunt, and was close to them.
"I am afraid I too have been kept in the dark, cousin. Hopefully my husband will come soon and tell us." Rhaenys lied. She knew exactly why Aegon had council right now. He wanted to reveal to his bannermen his plan to conquer Westeros and set it in motion.
"Sister." Rhaenys said, as she pressed a sweet kiss on her lips. It was only fitting, after all they had made love to each other today morning like man and wife in a sense. The things Vis had done with her fingers made her want to forget Aegon's cock for a moment.
Rhaenys had heard that the Dornish women often partook in such licentiousness and looked forward to the day when she could learn a few more things and please her tense sister in the bed like Visenya had her. An unbidden image of her, Aegon and Visenya tangled in a sweaty embrace, making love entered her mind, soaking her nether regions.
When they broke away, Visenya had an uncharacteristic blush set in her face and Rhaenys went and sat down on her seat beside Visenya's.
Silence pervaded the room for minutes and minutes, until Aegon entered the room. He was dressed in a black doublet and leather jerkin like Visenya, and had Blackfyre clipped to his waist. His short silver-gold hair was swept to the side and his purple eyes were cold and hard as he set Blackfyre by his side and sat on the high seat.
Behind him entered Maester Hugor with a wooden box in his hands and placed it in the middle of the table.
"Open the box, Maester." Aegon commanded.
The Maester opened the box and she immediately covered her nose with her hand, like some of the other lords. She knew what was in there. Aegon had called and told what had happened to her, Orys and Visenya. The severed hands of the envoy they had sent to Argilac with the counter proposal.
"My Lords," Aegon began standing up from his seat, "you are not aware of the game that is being played around us right now. Harren the Black has created a massive seat in the Riverlands called Harrenhal." Aegon said, pointing at a place on the banks of the God's Eye. He wants to conquer more land-"
Lord Bar Emmon started muttering about ironborn and the filth they were.
"Lord Bar Emmon, kindly shut up or I will do it for you." Visenya said, glaring at the Lord.
Rhaenys saw Aegon smirk at this.
" As I was saying," Aegon said, "he wants to conquer more land, so he seeks to attack the Stormlands. In response to this threat King Argilac sent me an offer of marriage. Her daughter to me with the lands from the Trident to the Blackwater Rush as dowry amongst other things. I countered with an offer of my own. My brother Orys to his daughter with an extra addition of lands, since the lands he named as dowry have belonged to the ironborn for a generation. This was Argilac's answer, My Lords. The hands of my envoy."
"My Lord, we should answer this with a response from our own. This is completely unacceptable." Lord Celtigar shouted, his green eyes blazing in fury.
The corners of her mouth twitched. She and Visenya had a somewhat same response to this. Visenya had told Aegon to go and burn Storm's End to the ground with them and Rhaenys agreed to this plan, until Aegon had chided both of them, saying that they needed to think calmly.
"And what do you suppose to do. March with an army." Lord Massey scoffed. "Argilac can field twice, maybe even thrice, the men we can. It will be suicide."
"We have dragons." Lord Celtigar said.
Lord Massey opened his mouth for a retort, but Aegon held up his and both arguing lords silenced.
"My Lords, I must say I have not told you the whole truth. This painted table," Aegon said, roaming a hand on it, "is not for decorative purposes. It was created for a purpose. A purpose to conquer Westeros."
It was Maester Hugor who first spoke in the deafening silence. "My Lord, I must caution against this. The Seven Kingdoms can field armies and fleets, larger than our own."
It is true, Rhaenys thought, but we have dragons.
"It is not up for debate, Maester." Visenya said, glaring at the man. There was no love lost between the two of them.
"My Lady, the Maester speaks correctly. I have heard that the Reach can field around a hundred thousand men and we should not forget about the Western Kingdom. We do not have enough men to even form a proper attack on them." Lord Bar Emmon said.
"Which is why we will be taking the Kingdoms one by one, leaving them less of a chance to unify against us." Orys said. Her brother had a sharp mind for battle and war.
"My brother speaks true." Rhaenys spoke for the first time. "We had a plan to have Orys married to Argella and when the time came and we fought against Harren Hoare, Argilac would die, leaving Orys in-charge and two kingdoms on our side, so that can mount an attack on the rest."
"But, as we know that plan has been killed, so we have another plan." Visenya continued. "We plan to initiate an attack with Storm Kingdom. We also aim to gain the loyalty from the Lords of the Crackclaw Point. I have heard they can field around a thousand foot and half as many horse, Lord Celtigar."
"Yes, My Lady." Lord Celtigar said. He was the closest lord to Crackclaw point.
"My Lord, I must ask, why have you come up with this plan to conquer the western continent?" Lord Daemon asked.
"Because when I look at the map, I see seven squabbling kingdoms, warring with each other to conquer and add more land to their name. I intend to rectify that and Argilac has given me that opportunity" Aegon said.
"We set sail in a moon, My Lords. Ready you men and your fleets. In one moon I plan to set foot in Westeros, over here." Aegon said, pointing at the mouth of the Blackwater Bay.
"Maester, write to every king and major lord of the Seven Kingdoms. Write exactly this, 'From this day forth there shall be but one King. All those who bend the knee to Aegon Targaryen will keep their lands and titles. Those who take up arms against him, will be thrown down, humbled and destroyed.'"
King Argilac Durrandon had lived a long and prosperous life of seventy years. He had inherited his Kingdom from his father, King Arlan V, at the young age of fifteen and had fought and commanded in his first war not long after against the Dornish. He sat on the ebony throne of their ancestors by his blood, but he had cemented his throne with Dornish blood on their family's longsword, Stormbreaker.
His Kingdom was at peace, with the obvious frequent raids from the disgusting ironborn and dornish, and he had rarely lost his calm, but today her father was angry.
Pure rage was written on his face, as he glowered over the people in his court as he read the scroll that had been sent to him, by the newly minted King Aegon Targaryen.
Argella knew that her father had bartered her to the Lord of Dragonstone as a third wife to war against Harren Hoare and his ironborn to reclaim what her great-grandfather King Arrec had lost. Argella had been angry at her father and a few days later an envoy had come Dragonstone. Her father assumed that the Lord had accepted his offer, but Aegon Targaryen had refused the offer and instead offered the hand of his bastard brother.
Argella had been angry that day and so had her father. A bastard. She had been offered a bastard for marriage and the Lord of Dragonstone had also asked for even more lands from her father. Over the next few days her rage had simmered down as her father had cut off the hands of the envoy to send it back to Aegon Targaryen. Yet as her father read the letter she felt it come back up in force.
Many courtiers and lords, not only of their Kingdom, but also others, called her father King Argilac the Arrogant, but now it seemed as if someone else as arrogant, if not more, as her father had come.
Aegon Targaryen had named himself King of Westeros and had asked the Seven Kings of Westeros to bow down before him or be destroyed. Argella gave out a chuckle. No king would ever give up his crown. They would, just like her father would, fight against the Targaryens.
"My Lord, what should we do?" A cousin of Lord Selmy asked her father.
"What should we do!" Her father thundered, his blue eyes alight with fury. "We will fight against the damned Targaryens and send them back to their shitty island and then we will do the same against the Ironborn. House Durrandon has always prevailed, ever since the time of Durran Godsgrief. Blood of the Gods flows in our veins. We will not bow down to these weak shits."
"Aye! Aye!" The men shouted after her father.
"Maester." King Argilac shouted.
"Your Grace." The Maester of Storm's End said, stepping forward. He had come a moon ago, a replacement from the citadel for Maester Walys.
"Send ravens to Houses Tarth and Estermont and command them to raise their sails. An attack is possible from the Velaryon fleet. To Houses, Buckler, Errol and Fell, tell them to use guerrilla raids on any army that tries to breach into my lands through the Wendwater. To the rest, tell them to send the men. It seems we have another war to fight, now against foreign invaders." King Argilac ordered.
It was a sound strategy. A fleet to protect from the Targaryen navy, guerrilla raids to kill their army before they even reached the main army commanded by her father.
"Yes, Your Grace." The Maester said, bowing deeply after which he scurried off to the rookery at the top of the castle.
"It is said that Aegon Targaryen has two wives, both his sisters." A man from the Blackwater Rush said, addressing his father, King Harren Hoare, King of the Isles and the Rivers. His father had received a raven from the Aegon Targaryen to submit to him or be destroyed, and this man was from the Blackwater Rush, claiming that he knew bits and pieces about Aegon Targaryen.
"Both his sisters. Disgusting." The King spat on the ground. Incest was unacceptable even to his countrymen who loved to rape and reave like he did. "What kind of man fucks his own sister." Harren shouted.
"He is Valyrian, Your Grace. They wed brother to sister in Valyria." The man said.
"This is all that Valyria is now worth." His father fetched his cock out from his breeches and pissed in front of his entire court. "We are Ironborn, and in the coming years my line shall rule all of Westeros and these Valyrians will be lying on the ground."
"Your Grace, they say that the Valyrians have Dragons." The man said.
"Have looked at my seat. Harrenhal can be claimed by no man that is how big it is. I have no care about those Dragons or those fucking Valyrians. What I do care about is seizing the Arrogant's home. Storm's End. They say it is second to my castle, which is why it should be fucking mine."
"AYE! AYE!" Rang out in the Great Hall of Harrenhal.
"Your Grace some action against them would be advisable." Vickon said, his voice loud enough to cut through the shouts of other men.
"My son tells me that some action is useful. Fine then. Attack the Crackclaw Point and take it in our name. What is dead may never die!" His father shouted and Vickon smiled.
"BUT RISES AGAIN HARDER AND STRONGER!" Vickon shouted alongside the men shouted and then he slinked out of the Great Hall. He had been given a job to conquer and pillage the Crackclaw, and he would be well prepared.
Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken, that is what Dorne was. No man had ever been able to conquer it without insider help and no man ever would, yet Nymror did his duty and read the letter from the would be conqueror, Aegon Targaryen to his mother Meria Martell, Princess of Dorne.
His daughter, Deria scoffed at this.
"Do nothing." His mother said, in her soft voice. "Nymeria fled form Mother Rohyne from the Valyrians and now they come again to subjugate us. But this time we have the deserts of Dorne to our side. Let the Dragons come, we will push them back like every other foreign force."
Nymror nodded and gave the scroll back to the Maester, sitting down beside Deria.
Gawen entered his father's solar to see that his brother Edmund was already there with his father, King Mern IX Gardener.
"Had fun with your dornish pet?" His father grumpily said.
Gawen glared at his father. "Half-Dornish. She has a Peake mother." He said, sitting down on the chair beside Edmund. "And it is not as if I am doing something wrong. Many lords keep paramours."
"I had you married to the only daughter of Lord Manfred Hightower, who is also my most powerful bannerman, so you could sire children off her and ensure their complete loyalty and now we need it more than anything else." King Mern grunted. "Instead you have one son that too a bastard from your dalliance with the half-breed."
"You should have married me to a septa, and even she would have been more proactive in bed. Instead I am stuck with a wife, who doesn't want to fuck, devoting herself completely to the gods. So, how do I get children on her?" Gawen shot back.
His marriage and lack of trueborn children had always been a sore spot for his father, when his brother Edmund, who was a good ten years older than him, already had two sons, both squires to his father's bannermen.
"And what is this about needing their loyalty now more than ever?" Gawen questioned.
"An upstart has started calling himself King of Westeros and commands father to swear fealty to him, lest our house be destroyed. His name is Aegon Targaryen and he comes from an island called Dragonstone in the Blackwater bay." Edmund said.
Gawen scoffed. "And you're concerned about this. I doubt this man can meet the might of the Reach."
"No man starts calling himself King if they don't have the men. This man has challenged not one, but all seven kingdoms and their armies." His father said.
"Which will be his undoing." Gawen said. "We will meet this upstart out in the field, our armies will crush his, and I will personally kill this upstart to end his foolish conquest." This would be his glory, surpassing everyone else's.
"Let us see the events unfold, but still, call the banners. Good men are needed to defend this kingdom from would be conquerors" King Mern said, and Gawen smiled. He could see himself being lauded as the Hero of Reach in front of his very eyes.
Loren gulped down the Arbor Gold in his cup and poured himself another cup.
"Father, what should we do?" His son and heir, Lancel, asked. Loren had called to meet him as soon as he had read the letter.
Loren laughed. Quite hard too. This was the most amusing scroll he had read in all his life. "Paying heed to this scroll means we think that the man can actually defeat us. House Lannister controls one of the strongest and most well equipped military force. Not only that we have numerous bullions in our vaults, whose wealth is only matched by Mern Gardner. This pretender will break before he can even face us in battle." He said.
"It is said that this man has dragons under his control. Great beasts. Two were even spotted in Lannisport and people say that one of them could swallow an aurochs whole." Lancel said.
"I doubt these 'great beasts' of yours can do any damage to us. We will see how this goes on. Mayhap's, King Mern will face against these beasts and once he has fought them off we will start by taking his land for our and extend our Kingdom." Loren said. As he gulped down the Arbor Gold.
Yes, yes. This plan would work. Others would be weakened by this Aegon Targaryen and then he could swoop in and fell the others. He would do what no other King of the Rock ever could, he would conquer the Reach.
Brandon brought the mug to his lips and he drank the strong black beer, looking outside the window of his brother's solar. The moon lit the snow up, making it look like silver. He wondered if it would light him up as well, as he was also a Snow.
The courtyard was abandoned and people were already in their beds with their wives or whores. He had a whore waiting for him too in his bed, a redhead. Kissed-by-Fire, as the mountain clans called those people.
Brandon had been kissing her big, freckled teats, when his nephew, Rickard, had disturbed him, barging into his room.
He was sorry after Brandon had punched the boy in his gut for doing that. Then Rickard had wheezed out that his brother, Torrhen, had called him to his solar. He had left the whore, telling her that he would soon come back and they would resume, and had dragged his nephew with him.
Bear, his direwolf was on his heels the whole time. Bear was longer than a horse and was as tall as one, with dark-brown fur and bright green eyes. He had named him Bear, when he was a child of two, after the symbol of his mother's house. House Mormont.
"What should we do?" Torrhen asked him and Brandon looked back the scroll. King Aegon Targaryen, King of Westeros, demanding their submission.
"We should fight father. Let us garrison Moat Cailin. No southern army will be able to cross it." Brandon, his nephew, said.
"Aye." Rickard, Benjen and Jon, said adding their voice.
"We don't know anything about the enemy, but in any case you should call the banners and fortify Moat Cailin." Brandon, finally said. "We should then march south and find out the enemy's strength. If the overpower us we hold them off at Cailin, if they don't, we destroy their force in the field."
Torrhen gave a sharp nod. "We'll do that, then. I'll tell the Maester to send ravens to the Dustin's and Manderly's to fortify Moat Cailin with 300 archers. Jynessa will tell the Reeds to bleed any army which tries to cross the swapms." Torrhen said.
Brandon smirked at Torrhen. They would see what this Aegon Targaryen was made of.