Disclaimer: I do not own A Song of Ice and Fire.

Another dragon, another wolf, another stag

Chapter 5: Rhaella

"Talking"

"Thinking"

(Location: Riverrun)

The Dowager Queen sat in her chair sipping the goblet of wine before her. It was a weak vintage from the Arbor, strong enough to give her the taste but not so strong she would be impaired. She and her daughter were in her rooms, waiting. Sandor stood by the door and Daenerys sat at the table with her. They were waiting for Viserys to come and join them.

Someone knocked on the door, getting her attention as well as Sandor. He reached for the door with one hand and the other going for the hilt of his sword. "Who is it?" he demanded in that rasp that was his voice.

"Prince Viserys, here to see my mother and sister," his voice spoke from the other side, so different from the voice she had known when he was a child. He was a man now and had a man's voice.

Sandor opened the door just enough to look through the crack, the door creaking as he moved it. "You look like a Targaryen."

"Thank you for telling me. Might I come in?"

"Sandor, open the door," Rhaella told him. He did just that and Viserys walked in. But then a tall woman dressed in men's clothing walked in behind him.

"Who the fuck are you?" Sandor demanded. He began to draw the sword out of the scabbard.

"I the fuck am Osha," she retorted. "Now put that sword of yours away. I come in peace."

"Viserys, what is the meaning of this?" Rhaella asked her son.

"My apologies, Mother," he said. "But she followed me up here. Said she wanted to meet the family all the kneelers bow to."

"Can you not just send her on her way, Viserys?"

To that he chuckled and for a moment, Rhaella felt like she was hearing her dead husband once more, back when he hadn't descended into madness. "Braver men then I have tried to stop Osha from doing what she want. None of them ever succeeded," he explained.

The wilding scoffed and then looked at her directly. Never had someone been so bold as to look Rhaella directly in the eyes, save for her family. "So, you're the kneeler queen," she stated shortly.

"I am the Dowager Queen, if that is what you mean."

"Huh? What does that mean?"

"It means she is not the ruling queen, just the mother of the king," Viserys told her.

"So where's the kneeler king then? I'd thought he'd be here."

"That was what I had been thinking." He turned his gaze to his mother. "Where is Rhaegar? The rest of the royal family is here and yet, he isn't?"

"Rhaegar and Elia are their way here," she told her son. "They stayed behind to finish a few things. They will be here at Riverrun presently." She wondered if she should tell her son the news. Rhaegar had informed her long before they had decided to attend the tourney. "Viserys, you should know that your brother has found you a betrothal."

He froze momentarily as he sat down in the chair at the table. "I…see," he finally said. He reached for the decanter of water and poured himself a cup. "And who is my supposedly betrothed?"

"The Princess Arianne of Dorne," Daenerys told him. She had learned the same time Rhaella had. "That's way she and her family are here."

He looked at her and smiled briefly. "Thank you for that, Dany."

"At least ya won't have to worry about how long you'll have to run when you steal her," Osha told him.

He looked at her. "We don't do that here in the south, Osha."

She snorted. "Aye, you kneelers and your betrothals," she said, making it sound like it was something that should be gotten rid of.

"What do you mean by stealing?" Daenerys asked the wilding, her eyes and voice curious.

"With the free folk, if a man wants a woman, he has to steal one from a different tribe," she answered, sounding like she had said those words many times before.

Both mother and daughter were shocked to hear such words. "That is barbaric!" the queen mother declared in horror. "Can the women do nothing about it?"

"Aye, they can. If they don't want to be stolen, they fight back." She made it sound so simple.

"Mother, might we speak of something else?" Viserys asked her. "Like for instance, who is he?" He turned slightly and pointed at Sandor standing by the door.

"He is Sandor Clegane, Daenerys's and mine sworn shield."

"Why does the Dowager Queen need a common knight to be her sworn shield when the Kingsguard are there to protect her?"

"I'm not a knight," Sandor growled out from where he stood. "You would do well to remember that, little man."

Her son whipped his head around to look at him. "Watch what you say. I am the blood of the dragon," he hissed in reply. But the Hound wasn't impressed by his words.

"Viserys, please," Rhaella said to him, making him turn his head back to look at her. "Sandor has my trust for I know that he is honest and will protect me and Daenerys for as long as we live." There was another reason he was her sworn shield. After Aerys had died, she did not trust the Kingsguard anymore. They had all stood in silence as her brother had murdered and burned the people he was to be king of and when he came to visit her. How could she trust them when they just stood by in silence?

But she could see that her son still had trouble believing her. "Where did you find him? In a gutter?" he asked.

"More of a shithole," Sandor said with a harsh bark of a laugh.

"Sandor, your home is quite lovely," Daenerys said to him, smiling at him. It was a smile that would've made men weak in the knees and pledge their eternal service to her daughter.

But their sworn shield would have not of it. "No, it's not, little dragon." He had started calling her that not long after he had started his service to them.

"He came into my service at the tourney at Lannisport that celebrated the defeat of the ironmen," Rhaella told her son.

"The Greyjoy Rebellion," he said to himself. "Yes, I remember that. I was by Lord Stark's side as he sailed for the islands."

"What? You rode to war?"

"I think I sailed more than I rode," he said in jest. Daenerys giggled at it while the wilding woman just laughed out loud. It was a loud laugh that bounced off the walls of the room but did not echo.

"Why had you gone to war? You were only a boy."

His eyes hardened at those words for a moment. But then they soften and he said, "I was a boy old enough to know what war was, Mother. That was Lord Stark's decision to bring me along. I stayed by his side throughout the entire fighting."

"Did you kill anyone?" his sister asked him. Her voice didn't have any morbid fascination when she asked the question, just a curiosity.

"…Aye," he answered, drinking the water in his cup. For a moment, Rhaella wondered if he would prefer to drink the wine rather than the water. Did Lord Stark fight from the front when they landed on Pyke? Did he send her son into battle unprepared?

But even though she wanted to voice those questions, she knew that he would not want it. But there was something else she wanted to know. "Viserys, perhaps you can tell me something," she said to him. Outside the window, she heard the birds chirping their songs.

"What is it?" he asked back.

"How could the Northern fleet have sailed south so quickly after the ironmen rebelled? And how could they have sailed from the north? They would have to have to sail around Dorne to come up from the south." There had been many theories about how it was accomplished but most had put it down to either the luck of the gods or "Northern secrecy."

"Lord Stark had commanded all northern lords who commanded ships to bring them to the west coast. Lord Manderly brought his fleet across the land to do so."

"That's impossible," Sandor said. "Something like that would take months."

"Aye, it did."

It came to Rhaella. "Then that means Lord Stark began this long before the ironmen rebelled." Her son nodded in acknowledgement to her words. "But why would he do that? The rebellion happened so suddenly."

"Only to the south," Viserys replied. "A year before the rebellion, Balon Greyjoy sent Lord Stark a letter. It suggested that the Iron Islands and the North rebel against the Targaryens, going so far to offer helping him in becoming King in the North for aiding them."

Her breath left her almost as soon as she heard those words. The North had been given the opportunity to rebel against her son and they would've gladly done so, she just knew it. But instead, they had attacked the ironmen. "Why did Lord Stark refuse his offer?"

"I asked him the same question as we sailed for Pyke. He told that he doesn't trust my brother but he can trust that the ironmen will cling to their Old Way as stubbornly as they could, which meant they would be the enemy of the North."

"He sounds like a true northern lord," Daenerys spoke out, even though she had never met a northern lord before this tourney. While her son and the wilding looked at her oddly, Rhaella did not. Her daughter was prone to say such odd things at times. It did not mean she was mad by any stretch, just that she had odd moments.

"Yes, he is. There are days when I wish he was my father." He looked at his mother as he spoke those words. "But I have seen his anger and I have no wish to make him angry. It's like the freezing cold in the middle of winter."

"Can't be that fucking scary," Sandor said with a snort.

"Do you know Lord Stark?" he asked the Hound.

"No."

"Then don't speak of what you don't know. His anger sent the North to attack the ironmen and brought me to Winterfell."

"What do you mean by that, Viserys?" Rhaella asked him. She knew why he had been sent to Winterfell. It was to foster peace between the North and the rest of Westeros.

"Lord Stark told me that when he returned north, he was content to just be the Lord of Winterfell. It was only when Rhaegar sent him the message that congratulated him in fulfilling his duty as Warden of the North that enraged him to such an extent that he threatened to match Rhaegar's crown with his own."

She remembered that message. Rhaegar had written the letter soon after he had ascended the Iron Throne, claiming it would be the first step to peace. But now she knew it was the letter that had almost continued the war. "I am truly sorry for what happened to you, Viserys."

"I do not blame you, Mother," he said to her, his voice soft as he spoke. "There's only one person I blame for what happened."

His name was on their lips and yet, neither of them said the name. "Let us go outside for a walk," Daenerys suggested brightly. "We cannot stay inside all day long."

"Yes, that sounds like an excellent idea," Rhaella agreed to her daughter's idea. "Come, let us go."

"What's so great about what's outside?" Osha asked as they all stood up from the table.

"The warmth?" asked Viserys in an amused tone.

"…Aye, good point there," she finally conceded.

"Do you not have warmth beyond the Wall?" Daenerys asked her as they walked through the door and out of the room. The songs of the birds fell into silence as they left and then came as they walked past windows.

"Aye, we have warmth and we make sure we never lose it. But it ain't nothing like…this." She gestured out the window they passed, where the sun shined on it. "You kneelers have it easy."

"That is a falsehood," Rhaella told her. "We have it just as hard as the wildings do."

"I doubt that," she said with snort.

She was willing to argue that but she didn't wish to bring up her past. But there was another question she wanted to know the question to. "How old are you?"

"Old enough," she replied. "Why?"

"Were you a part of the army the King beyond the Wall had marshalled to challenge the Wall?" As she asked the question, both of her children turned their gaze to her as well. Daenerys she understood but Viserys too? It seemed that he did not ask that question of her. The only one who did look interested was the Hound.

"Barely old enough for that," she answered. "I was still learning how to fight when that happened. But I've heard the stories."

"What kind of stories?" Daenerys asked her.

"The stories about how Lord Stark and his army appeared at the Night's Watch's side when the free folk marched upon the Wall, how they charged out and met the free folk, how Lord Stark dueled the King beyond the Wall in single combat and took his life and head when he was victorious. Those kinds of stories," she added as an afterthought.

There was no reply to that, not from her or her children. How could they respond to such a question? No one in the south had ever really considered the battle the North fought against the wildings. They thought of it as the reason they did not join the rebels and left it at that. "Did the northerners make that much of a difference?" Rhaella asked Osha.

She shrugged her shoulders. "I wasn't there. But I've been told that if they hadn't been there, us free folk might've finally got past the Wall."

That was a chilling, one she did not wish to think on. As they walked on towards nowhere in particular, they heard someone approaching their direction. That person soon revealed themselves to be Elia Sand, one of the younger Sand Snakes. "Your Grace, you Highnesses," she said with barely a bowed head.

"Hello, Elia," Daenerys said to her.

"What are you doing?"

"We're just walking."

"Then I'll accompany you." She fell into their group before anyone could say anything.

"Elia, where are you!?" another voice called out. Mere seconds afterwards, Jocelyn Sand appeared in sight.

"I am here with the Dowager Queen and her children," the younger Sand said with more than a hint of smugness in her voice. "There's no need for you to look after me. You can go back to whatever it was you were doing."

"Your own cousin asked me to keep an eye on you," Jocelyn said to her.

"There's no need for that now. You can go back to your own family now." Like the smugness, there was more than a hint of an insult in her voice at that. Rhaella knew of Ashara Dayne's bastard daughter and how she was sent North after her mother had recovered from some sickness. That was enough to earn the Sand Snake's distaste, it seemed.

Jocelyn stared at her for a long moment. Then she saw the wilding amongst them. "Osha, if you would…?" she asked, leaving it hanging.

Everyone else was confused, until Osha nodded and struck Elia on the head. "Ow!" she yelped, almost falling to the ground from the blow.

"Listen, you little brat," Jocelyn told her. "I don't care if you like me or not. But your cousin asked me to keep an eye on you and that's what I intend to do. Don't try hiding behind the royal family to get away from me." She turned her head to look at the royal family and bowed it. "Forgive me for making such a scene."

Before Rhaella could speak, Viserys did. "There's nothing to apologize for, Jocelyn," he told her easily. He was comfortable speaking with her. Then he turned to the wilding. "Good hit, Osha."

"It was easy," she said in reply. Elia turned her head to look at them, her eyes glistening with silent tears. Whether it was from pain of the blow or the betrayal of trust she thought she had with them, Rhaella did not know.

Neither did she care. "You're not my child. You're not my family. I owe you no loyalty," she thought to herself. She didn't care for the attitude of the elder Sand Snakes and it was clear that was rubbing off on the younger generation. Steps would have to be taken to bring them to heel. Perhaps a word with Elia will change that.

"Where are we going?" Jocelyn asked.

"Nowhere in particular," Daenerys told her. "We were just walking for the air."

"Then let us walk."

They kept on walking, although Elia kept sending Jocelyn foul looks that she chose to ignore. "Tell me something, Jocelyn," Rhaella said, getting her attention (and her surprise). "Who is the man my granddaughter and her friends will be playing for this tournament?"

"Your Grace?" she said, surprised even more than before.

"Come now, girl. I have ears and I have eyes. There's no need to hide it from me."

"They're playing for Ser Daemon Sand, your Grace," Elia Sand told her. "It is a good choice, if I do say so."

"No one asked you, Elia," Jocelyn said, her voice cracking like a whip. "And it's only the Dornish ladies who are playing for Ser Daemon. Their hope to make him the man to play for will not happen."

"You do not know that."

"And you do?" She did not say anything in reply. "I thought not."

"Then who is it?" Rhaella asked, bringing their attention back to her.

"It is…my brother." The bastard was hesitant to say the words, which meant something.

She knew of the game and yet, she was hesitant to name her brother. Rhaella had met ladies who had been proud that their brothers had been chosen and would announce it for all to hear. For her to be hesitant, it must mean something. "You are not glad that your brother has been selected?"

"Aye, I might've. If it was Robb," she said.

Those were confusing, until the wilding snorted and her son looked at her with surprise. "Jon?" he said. "They're playing for Jon?"

"It would seem so."

"What exactly are they playing for him, anyway?" Osha asked them both.

They shared a look before Viserys looked her straight to the face and said, "They're going to try and steal him."

Recognition dawned on her face at those words. "Ah, that makes much more sense."

"Elia, why are you mad?" Daenerys asked the younger Sand bastard.

"Is there any particularly any reason after we're playing that we are playing for a bastard and a northern at that?" she asked.

"Rhaenys was the one who suggested it," Jocelyn said. "She said it would be different from when the game was last played, giving it a sense of freshness."

"And why would she say that?" the other bastard with demanded.

"How should I know? I'm not privy to all of her secrets and thoughts."

The sounds of a harp being played began to echo in the hallway. They stopped and looked around, trying to find its origins. It was coming from a door not that far away from them. Rhaella listened to it for a moment. It was not her son playing and neither was it any of the bards or singers she was aware of in King's Landing.

"Is that Dom?" her son asked.

"I believe it is," Jocelyn replied. There was a faint blush to her cheeks and her voice had become a little breathless. Appearently, she fancied this boy that they were talking about.

"Who's Dom?" Daenerys asked.

"Sssh," the wilding told her. "You'll want to keep quiet now, m'lady. If you spook him, he'll run."

"What?"

"Hush." She turned her ear to the sound of the music and followed it to the door. They went after her, coming to a stop outside the door where the music came from. The music from the harp came in starts and stops. But Rhaella did not think that it was the mark of an inexperienced player but rather someone who was figuring out a new song.

The wilding opened the door ever so slightly so that only she could see inside. "Aye, that be him." He started to play again and so they listened to him strum the strings of the harp and sing a song.

Love me one more time,
Make this night last forever,
For on the morrow, I leave for battle-

I may survive,
And I shall return to you,

He stopped again. "He's frowning," Osha told them all.

"Hm, that note doesn't sound right," he said barely loud. They all heard the sound of a quill scratching against parchment.

It went on for a couple of more seconds before Rhaella put her foot down. "We will leave him be," she declared. "It is obvious to the eye that he is working. We should not interrupt him in his work.

"No, that's for Torrhen and Morgan to do," Viserys said lightly as they walked away from the door. The music began to play again, following them down the hall. Its stops and starts began to grate on Rhaella's nerves when they finally faded from hearing.

Their walking through the halls soon began to attract the attention of the servants and the others. They created a path through the halls by stepping to the walls, bowing their heads to the Dowager Queen and her children.

The bastards and the wilding left them at some point, leaving her family with only Sandor for protection. Rhaella felt more protected because of that. Daenerys came to a stop suddenly, making them all stop. "What is it, little dragon?" Sandor asked her, his hand going to his sword.

"I thought I heard a wolf."

Viserys looked at her and then at the surrounding area. They were in a corridor that led to the open grounds. They could hear the sounds of people moving, talking, and training from beyond the entrance. But that was it. "I don't hear of the direwolves. Are you sure about that, Dany?"

"Yes, I thought I heard a wolf." Her look became distant. "They protect their own."

"What?"

"The wolves," she told her brother. "When one of their own are threatened, they band together to protect them."

Those words sent a chill up Rhaella's back. They were similar, far too similar for her tastes to her feelings about the Uprising. Her son had taken Lyanna Stark while her brother murdered Lord Stark and his heir, leaving the second son to take control of the North. The North might've risen in rebellion to protect their own but they got nothing for it except for the deaths of the Starks. The only things that benefited them were her son and the fact Rhaegar did not get the girl he had taken.

But her son nodded in agreement. "That they do. I have seen it myself. But how do you know of it?"

"The wolf lady told me."

He looked at her with confusion in his eyes. "The wolf lady?" he repeated.

"It's no one," Rhaella told him. "Daenerys claims to see a ghost in the Red Keep, wandering the halls with hood drawn over her head and wolves following in her wake."

"She's very kind and sweet. She tells me of the things she knew in life," Daenerys said. Viserys continued to look at her. His face showed that he was not sure if he should believe her or not.

Finally, he said, "I once met a ghost in the Red Keep."

"No such thing as ghosts," Sandor rasped from where he stood. His hand was still on the sword.

"I am aware of that, dog. I was a child when I met this ghost. I had awoken early in the morning, too early for the servants to properly attend me. I was hungry I went out of my chambers to find food. I came across the ghost looking out a window. I hadn't seen her before and I was still half asleep. She saw me and smiled. When I began to fall back to sleep, she guided me back to my chambers and left me there. When I woke again, I could not find her. I did not think to look for her. She must've been a servant of the lords in the Keep at the time."

"Can you remember anything about her?" Daenerys asked him.

He shook his head and said, "Just her brown hair and her uncertain eyes."

Her son was right; he did not meet a ghost. Rhaegar had brought Lyanna to the Red Keep for a night before taking her down to Dorne. If Rhaella had to guess, her younger son had met her the night she was there. The question she had was why her eldest had brought her to the Red Keep. Had he suddenly taken leave of his senses? His wife had been there too.

They walked out into the open air and saw men of the Vale training in drills. They stood and watched in silence. Rhaella saw crests that pronounced as Royce, Redfort, Hunter, Waynwood, Tollett, Corbray, and Templeton just to name a few. But one that stood above them all was the moon-and-falcon crest of House Arryn.

She saw Jon Arryn standing at the edge of the yard, watching them all train. Near him was young Harrold. Rhaella had known Jon when he had been younger and she could see the resemblance between the two of them. She had once considered Lord Arryn to be something close to a friend but the Rebellion had quashed any feelings like that.

Someone had taken noticed of them, because all movement in the yard stopped as the men looked at them. "Queen Rhaella, Prince Viserys, Princess Daenerys," Lord Arryn said, bowing his head at them. "Is there something we can aide you with?"

Even though he said those words, the men of the Vale were already grouping together, forming a wall of living flesh between them and their lord and their heir. They had lost many men in the Rebellion, along with Lord Arryn's previous two heirs. They were protective of them now.

"No, there is nothing, Lord Arryn," Rhaella said to him. "We were just passing on." When she looked at the faces of the young men, she could see the hostility they held swimming beneath the surface. She found that she couldn't blame them.

"I see. Good day then."

"Good day." They walked on, leaving the men of the Vale behind them. It was a sad feeling to have so many young men be angry for something that neither she nor her two youngest children had any control over. But she could hope that this tourney would take away some of that anger. Both sides of the Rebellion were here and the young people from the Stormlands had already made friends with the loyalists and it was working on the Vale too. All that was left was the North.

End

Author's note: Thank you for all the reviews you've sent.

That song Domeric was playing was not of my own creation, sorry. I'm not that creative. That was a song by Heather Alexander. If you want a good Celtic song to listen do, she's got some good ones.

Jocelyn's not all that loved down south, although that might be just because of the Sand Snakes. Hmm, I wonder who's responsible for that.

I'll see you all next chapter!