Disclaimer: I do not own A Song of Ice and Fire.
Another dragon, another wolf, another stag
Chapter 31: Daenerys
"Talking"
"Thinking"
(Location: King's Landing)
Daenerys knew what the court thought of her. They thought her odd, if they were feeling polite, and mad, when they weren't. The truth of it was that she didn't know if she was mad or not. She had read that her ancestors had dreams that seemed to prophetic but she didn't dream such things. What she had instead, she guessed it could be called a sort of intuition. She could feel things about people, knowing something about themselves that they didn't want known. She didn't show this skill openly but sometimes it just…slipped out.
And there was the fact that she could see people who weren't really there. There were many ghosts that lived in the Red Keep, many of whom were her own family. But the one that was the most curious was the one she loved above all else. It was a ghost of someone not a part of her family, at least not initially. Dany didn't know how to address her until she saw the wolves gathered around the hem of her dress, trailing after her when she left. From then on, she called her the wolf lady.
The wolf lady was one of the ghosts that chose to spoke rarely. Dany saw her more often watching silently. She was most often found wherever Rhaegar and Elia were, watching them. Dany could never see her eyes when she was near her brother and his wife, not without making it obvious. She feared to ask why the wolf lady did that because she feared the ghost would stop talking to her.
When she rode back to the Red Keep from Riverrun, knowing that Lord Stark's bastard son was in fact her nephew, she had not seen the wolf lady. No matter where she looked, there was no sign of the ghost or the wolves that were always close. It was like she had just vanished. Why would she vanish like that? "Is it because she really is Lyanna Stark?" Dany wondered to herself as she walked down the corridor. The thought did have its consideration but it made little sense. Lyanna Stark's ashes were taken back to Winterfell by her brother. There was nothing that could possibly tie her to the Red Keep.
"Or maybe there is," she realized. "Maybe it is love that has kept her in the Red Keep?" If what Rhaegar and Elia said was true, they had both loved Lyanna and she loved them back. Maybe she was still here because her love for them was that strong. But if it was so, why would she vanish from sight once Daemon was here?
Still, she had spent no time with Daemon. It was time she corrected that. That was why she was heading towards Daemon's rooms. She had heard that Prince Quentyn was able to get her nephew out of his rooms while others had failed to even get him to consider the idea. Perhaps now that he had gone out, he could be persuaded to do it again or talk to people.
That had been the place as she approached the door leading into his chambers. But as she reached out for the handle, she heard voices on the other side. It made her pause. "That's strange," she thought to herself. Daemon was supposed to be alone in his chambers. Ser Barristan stood guard outside the door so she looked to him for answers. "Ser, who is inside with Daemon?"
"Mya Stone, princess," he answered her. "She went in not ten minutes ago with his lunch."
"And she hasn't left yet?"
He shook his head. "No, princess," he said.
Ser Jaime smirked. "Well," he said behind her. "I wonder what the prince is doing to her. Perhaps we should wait and find out?"
"Ser Jaime," Ser Barristan said in reprimand, "Do not speak of such things in front of the princess."
She didn't like how they talked about her like she wasn't there. "There is a simple way to find out," she declared, opening the door and walking through. She found Daemon and Mya sitting at the table, the food lying between them uneaten. They were talking to each other, speaking like they were friends. Daemon was even smiling somewhat.
They stopped when they saw her come through the door. "Your Highness," Mya said, coming to her feet. Daemon did the same and bowed his head too. But he did not say anything.
"Hello Mya, Daemon," she told the both of them. "I did not expect you here, Mya."
"I came to bring lunch, princess."
"And you stayed."
She didn't say anything but Daemon did. "I wanted to talk to someone," he said shortly. It could almost be considered rude.
Mya looked at him for a moment and then at her. "Princess Daenerys, may we speak for a moment?"
This was curious. But she nodded. Rhaenys's handmaiden walked away from the table to the door. Dany leaned in close when she reached her. "What do you need, Mya?" she asked.
"Have you come to try and get him out of these rooms, your Highness?" Mya asked back.
"Well, yes."
"Don't call him Daemon. If you do that, he will not leave the room."
But that was his actual name. Did she think that he wanted to be called the name Lord Stark gave him? Dany would've protested but she looked at Daemon. He was watching her, judging her. "He thinks I'm like the others." She was not. She wanted to know who he was. "Very well," she told Mya.
They walked back to him. "Is everything well?" he asked, looking more at Mya than her.
"Yes."
Dany sat down beside her and looked at him. "Hello, Jon," she said, reminding herself to call him that. She still thought of him as Daemon. "How are you?"
He regarded with that same judging look from before. "I am well, your Highness."
"That's good." She didn't know why but the air suddenly felt awkward around them. She guess that it was because she had come into the room with a purpose and now she was trying to achieve a different purpose. It could make anyone awkward.
"Princess Daenerys, if I may be blunt?" he asked her, wanting her permission for something.
She gestured him to continue. "Go ahead."
"What in seven hells are you doing in here?"
She was taken aback by the bluntness of the question, even though she welcomed it. She was used to people taking a subtle or long approach to asking her a question, trying to get through her guard and get her unawares. His straightforward asking caught her more easily than the other questions she had answered or evaded in the Red Keep. It was new and a breath of fresh air to her.
But it was also a question she did not answer right away. The simple reason was that she didn't know how to answer it. She had come to the room to pull him out of it, to take him around the Red Keep, make him more of the family. But that was looking more and more like a very bad idea. If she couldn't do that, then what she was doing here? She realized she would have to shrink her idea of what to do. "I came to talk to you, Jon," she finally told him.
"Why?" he asked. He couldn't have sounded more suspicious if he tried.
She was more ready to answer that question. "We barely spoke at Riverrun. Now that we are here together in the Red Keep, we should know each other." It was a different answer from what she was originally going to say. It seemed like Mya had the right idea to talk to him like he wasn't a part of the family.
"Very well," he finally said. "What do you wish to speak about?"
Now that was a question she had to trend carefully about. She could not ask him how he found the Red Keep because it would show her true intention. She could not ask him about Winterfell for it would be too late. No, her questions were suddenly quite short. She couldn't look to Mya. He would see it and know that what came next out of her mouth would be false. Perhaps if she asked about his family in Winterfell, that would be better.
She opened her mouth and the door smashed open. They all turn to see who it was. "Shagga?" said Daemon in surprise, coming to his feet.
The Vale clansman stomped through the door, ignoring the Kingsguard outside. Dany looked quickly at them. They didn't look injured. Shagga must've just pushed through them. "You," he said, pointing at Daemon. "Shagga was told you were a bloodied warrior. Was Shagga told falsely?"
He was rude and uncaring that ladies were in his presence. But Daemon did not tell him to leave. He stood against the clansman. "You were not told falsely. I am a bloodied warrior."
"If you are a bloodied warrior, why are you not with the boys given to you? Why are you not training them to be back brothers like you promise them?"
His eyes widened. "Tommen and Ned are here in the Red Keep?"
Dany didn't think she would ever get over the fact that a boy like Tommen would ever consider a boy from the Mountains of the Moon to be a friend. The number of times he had been to the Red Keep she had found him to be a sweet boy. That seemed to be changing now if he was with a clan child. "He won't be that sweet boy anymore."
Shagga nodded. "Aye, they are here. They have been waiting for you. If you do not teach them, than Shagga son of Dolf will consider you bloodied no more."
Dany didn't know what that was supposed to mean and a quick look at Mya showed that she didn't know what it meant. She guessed it was supposed to be an insult but it didn't sound like much of an insult to her. But she saw Daemon's back go stiff. "You are right, Chief Shagga. I was wrong. Where are they waiting?"
"The field of training," he answered.
Her nephew nodded in thanks. "I will attend to them." Without another word, he walked out the chamber door and out of sight. Shagga followed him out and Ser Barristan followed the both of them.
Dany wasted no time standing up. "Ser Jaime," she called out to the knight. "We will follow them."
"We?" asked Mya, sounding only a little surprised.
"Yes." She walked out of the room and after them. She didn't look back but she knew that Mya would be following her.
They followed Daemon at a pace that kept them away from him so he wouldn't notice. At a few points, he and Shagga vanished from the sight but they quickly came back into sight. They followed the wide berth given to Daemon and Shagga Dany saw how people watched in fascination the new prince and the savage clansman walked together with ease. They had never seen such a thing before and she knew that there would be rumors plenty following this.
She saw Rhaenys walk from stairs nearby. "Dany?" she called out questioningly, "Mya?"
She didn't say anything as she walked past her niece. "You'd best follow, your Highness," she heard Mya said from behind.
"What's happening?"
"There's really no time to explain."
Dany entered the training yard from above. It was the better place to watch. She looked down and saw Ned and Tommen already in front of Jon, clamoring for his attention. He pushed them back so they wouldn't crowd him. He did not raise his voice as he spoke so she did not know what it was he said. They quickly went to the weapon racks, drawing swords. Daemon went to a different rack and took a single sword, not two.
She was a little disappointed by the sight of the single sword. It seemed in spite of the name his brother gave him Daemon would not wield two swords unless the situation demanded it. But she wouldn't chastise him for it. It would be unseemly and it wasn't her place to do so. She watched them go back to their place in the yard, ignoring all those who would look at them. Rhaenys and Mya stood by her. One look told her that her niece was just as interested in what happened next, perhaps even more so.
Daemon stood against the two boys, his sword held in a defensive position. Tommen and Ned attacked him, their swords swinging down from above. He blocked them both with ease. His sword pushed through them and making them stumbled back. He lowered his sword back to the starting position.
"What's he doing?" Dany asked. "Should he attack them?" She wasn't so naïve as to think that he would fight like he was in war. But she did think that he would attack them so they could learn how to wield their swords in proper defense. But he stayed still.
The two boys attacked again, swing the same strike. He blocked and pushed them back, falling into the first position. This repeated three more times before Tommen whispered in Ned's ear. They stepped away from each other and came at Daemon from different sides, still swinging from above.
Daemon blocked them again. He pushed them away and said, "Is that it?" They looked more determined and swung again.
"What is he doing?" Rhaenys asked.
Dany couldn't tell her. What she was watching was nothing like any training she had seen before. When she had passed the yard before and watched, the sparring was always evenly matched. It would go back and forth, perhaps with one side having a small advantage over the other. But what was happening down below was clearly one-sided. Daemon made no effort to attack them but it was clear that he was holding back greatly.
Still, she had no idea what was going on. "Ser Jaime, can you tell us?" she asked him.
"I would say that it's a clear case of him tormenting the boys, if he was trying to hit them," Ser Jaime told her. "But it's not that so I can't say it is. All I can say is that he is training them but it's not like any kind of training I've seen."
"Hmm," Mya said, frowning down at the yard.
The three of them looked at her. "What do you mean, Mya?" Rhaenys asked her.
"Shagga did say that he was training them to be back brothers. Maybe this is something that has to do with that?"
It sounded plausible to Dany. She looked back at Ser Jaime but he was already looking intently at the yard, Daemon and the boys he was teaching. His emerald eyes were focused hard and they watched every small detail. "Yes, yes, I see it," he said, mostly to himself.
"See what, Ser Jaime?" asked Rhaenys.
He pulled his eyes away and looked at them again. "He's showing them how to fight in unison with the other."
"In unison?" said Mya questioningly.
Dany knew that if it was the bastard alone who asked him, Ser Jaime would not give her an answer. It wasn't because of her status, but rather because he would think that because she was a woman and a maid, she had no business asking such questions. And it wasn't because he thought her beneath such things either. He would refuse to answer because he felt that she should be kept away from such things, to be protected a little longer. Despite what people might think of him, and in spite of what he might say Ser Jaime did his best to be a true knight.
But she wasn't alone on the rampart. "What do you mean, Ser Jaime?" Dany asked him. If she asked him, he couldn't stay silent.
"Watch how he moves his sword," he told the three of them. "He coaxes the boys to find the supposed weak spots."
"Supposed?" said Rhaenys.
"Spots?" asked Mya.
"Yes. He feigns weak spots for them to attack, showing them how to block in the same moment. Since there are more than one spot, he wants them to find them and utilize them. Throughout all of this, he is having them fight together so they know how to work with each other in a real fight."
"The definition of a back brother, or so I've been told," Rhaegar said as he came up from behind them. Aegon walked beside him.
They were all surprised by their appearance. The sounds of the yard muffled their footsteps and the armor of Ser Gerold and Ser Arthur. "Father," Rhaenys said to him.
He greeted her with a smile. "Hello, Rhaenys, Dany, Ser Jaime," he greeted them all, save for Mya.
Dany looked past him, trying to see if the wolf lady was near. But there was no sight of her. She brought her attention back to her brother. "Have you come from the Small Council, brother?" she asked.
A grimace passed through his face, the same as Ser Gerold. "I have."
She noticed the grimace and was concerned. "Is everything alright?"
"It's nothing that you need to be concerned about, Dany."
Aegon looked like he disagreed. "They should know, Father. It's not something that we'll be able to keep quiet for long."
"There is nothing to keep quiet, Aegon."
"That is what's worrying me." Rhaegar smiled at him proudly, as if he had applied a lesson that he had learned in his studies.
Rhaenys took her gaze off the yard and looked at the king. "Father, has something happened?" she asked with concern in her voice.
He did not raise his voice when he answered her. "We have had no kind of word from the North."
"…Isn't that good?"
Aegon frowned harder. "We should've had something from him by now, a raven or a letter demanding his son back. But nothing, we've gotten absolutely nothing from him." He looked at his father. "We still could've sent a raven ourselves, explaining the situation."
Rhaegar shook his head. "No, I will not do that. I lost Viserys to Ned Stark the last time I wrote a letter to him. The Seven Kingdoms will go to war most assuredly if I wrote him another one."
Dany thought that was a little over-exaggerated. She knew the story about her brother's letter to Lord Stark (she didn't think there was a person of the court who hadn't heard that story). But that had been at the beginning of his reign. It was fourteen years since then. Surely he would be more skilled with the quill.
"Is there any word from the Tullys?" asked Rhaenys.
He shook his head. "They have not heard anything from Lady Stark."
"I don't think Lady Stark would tell them anything," Aegon said, looking down at Daemon training the boys. "She's a Stark now, not a Tully."
His sister looked at him. "You forget the Tully words, brother. Family, Duty, Honor," she recited with ease. "If the North was preparing something, she would surely send a raven to her family in Riverrun, to warn them about what was to come."
"What about the Vale?" Dany asked, bringing the eyes onto her. They must've thought that the Vale of Arryn would take action. Ned Stark had fostered at the Eyrie under Jon Arryn. "Are they preparing for action?"
Aegon shook his head. "Lord Arryn had spent the last hour promising us that he would not have the Vale take action against the crown if war broke out. In truth, I think he was more concerned about his heir being out of sight than rising in rebellion again."
That rang true to her. Ever since Lysa Tully committed suicide after repeated stillbirths (and the death of her rumored lover, Petyr Baelish, for attempting to defraud the Vale), Lord Arryn had taken Harry Hardying into the Eyrie and barely allowed him to leave. Supposedly, their coming to Riverrun was the first time the Arryn heir had left the Vale. Now, he was staying at Riverrun with other assorted young nobles, enjoying after-tournament pleasures hosted by Edmure Tully.
She saw how her brother fell silent as he looked down at Daemon, training Tommen and Ned. She saw the love in his eyes. He looked down at his second son with as much love as he had for his first. Dany didn't see anything wrong with that. But what she did find wrong was the fact that he was still up here and not down there.
She leaned in close to her brother and said, "Have you talked to him?"
He didn't look at her even though he knew who she was talking about. "No."
She wanted to tell him that he should but it would've been wrong for her to say. "Why?" she asked instead.
He looked down at Daemon with mournful eyes. "He still thinks he is a prisoner here."
"Convince him that he's not then." It was just as simple as that. "You were never hesitant about the prophecy."
He turned his gaze on her and his eyes were purple fire. But the fire extinguished itself fast. He breathed in and out before he said, "Don't ever bring that up again, Dany. Please. That has been one of my greatest mistakes."
She saw the pain on his face. She knew that if he could go back in time, he would prevent himself from being engulfed in the prophecy. His obsession with it had been part of why he took Lady Lyanna away. He blamed himself for letting her die and supposedly their child with her. Since the end of the war, not a single word of the prophecy was mentioned near the king. That was made plain after he drove out the Red Priestess from King's Landing after she came with words full of the prophecy.
But there was one thing about it all different now. The child that was supposed to be dead was now down below, very much alive. He was her nephew and he had to be treated like he was family. "Go talk to him, Rhaegar," she urged her eldest brother. "Go be the father to him you are to Aegon and Rhaenys."
"Someone call my name?" Aegon asked, looking down at the both of them.
Rhaegar looked at his son. "No, Aegon, we did not." He stepped away from the railing. "If you all will excuse me," he said.
"Your Grace?" asked Ser Gerold, moving to follow him.
He shook his head. "No, Ser Gerold. Stay here. This is something that I need to do." He walked away, heading for the nearby wooden stairs.
His children watched him go. "What's he doing?" Aegon asked.
"Talking to his son," Dany said, watching her brother going down the stairs. People parted before him as he reached the ground and strode towards the open yard.
Daemon paused in his actions, blocking a strike from the boys. He disengaged and faced Rhaegar, his grey eyes cool and guarded. It was a thing to see them change so fast from being warm and encouraging. He did not walk away from his father. She could not hear what he said, but Dany knew Daemon's words were short.
She felt Aegon come beside her. "You think it's going well?" he asked.
"He's not leaving," she replied, "I would think that's a good sign."
"I guess." He paused and then looked at her. "Did you talk to him much before he came out here, Dany?"
"I didn't but Mya did."
"What?" said both her niece and nephew, swinging their heads to look at Mya.
Dany looked at her too, wondering what she would say. Mya did not panic at their looks. "We talked, that is all," she told the both of them.
"Why would he talk to you?" Rhaenys asked her.
"He likes to believe that our situations are similar. I've told him that I did not want to be here originally either."
Dany remembered what Mya was like when she was first brought to the Red Keep to be Rhaenys's handmaiden. She had not said nor did anything that would've showed how much she hated being there. It was in how she looked when she thought no one was looking. She had looked angry, and sad. But those days had long since passed. She had grown used to living in King's Landing.
Aegon looked suspiciously at her. "Is there another reason, Mya?" he asked. It was a question he shouldn't have asked. It sounded too possessive to the casual ear.
"No,' she said simply, turning her attention back to the yard. Dany followed her gaze and saw her brother and Daemon crossing swords. Panic filled her for a moment as dread things came to her mind. But as she watched them, she saw how they weren't actually fighting. They were sparring.
She didn't know how it started and she cursed herself from taking her gaze off of them. Ned and Tommen were standing apart from them and watched with awed looks, the same as the rest of the yard. Once again, everyone watched as Daemon wielded a sword. She watched fascinated by how the two traded sword strikes. They had the same determined look on their faces, the look that said they needed to win this fight. "How could anyone doubt they are father and son?" she wondered. It seemed so obvious.
The spar continued and no one stopped it. She couldn't tell who would win because they looked so evenly matched. She knew that Daemon had the skill but Rhaegar had the experience. The two canceled each other. She had heard about the spar Daemon had against Ser Arthur. She knew the reason why her nephew lost that spar was because Arthur had both the skill and the experience.
"Who do you think will win?" she heard Aegon ask.
Rhaenys replied, "We'll have to see."
He scoffed. "You say that, but you want it to be Jo…be Daemon." She didn't reply to that.
But neither the father nor the son won. As their swords clashed for the last time, they stepped away from each other. They lowered their swords. The crowd was confused and whispering sprang up all around the yard. Dany could see that Rhaegar said something to Daemon but she couldn't tell what the words were.
Whatever they were, they cause Daemon to have a small look of pride. He looked proud for whatever his father said to him. He didn't say anything in return. Instead he left the yard with Ned and Tommen behind him. But Dany saw the small smile on his lips as he walked away. And she knew that Daemon was becoming closer to them.
End
Author's note: Thank you for all the reviews you've sent me.
Okay, this chapter went a different route than I had initially expected. It was meant more for Daenerys talking to Jon and getting to know him. The Shagga thing came when I realized that I hadn't really shown Jon being a teacher to Tommen and Ned. Once it happened, I just went with it.
And now you know the Northern reaction: there isn't one. That just makes the right people in King's Landing nervous. Rhaegar's nervousness about writing to Lord Stark is not unfounded. As he said, the last time he wrote to Winterfell, he had been confident that it would be the way to peace. Instead, he got a threatened rebellion and giving up his brother. There's also the fact that no one in the south has actually seen the Northmen fight in either Robert's Rebellion or the Greyjoy Rebellion. He has no idea what they could be possible of and that's make him cautious.
I'll see you all next chapter!