Another dragon, another wolf, another stag

by Deus Swiftblade

They had heard of the tourney at Harrenhal. They had heard of the rebellion that followed. They had heard of the defeated stag and the threatening wolf. They had thought that was just the past and was no concern of theirs. But the gods seem to enjoy watching the same play being preformed again, just with different mummers and at a different place.

33. Chapter 33

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

Another dragon, another wolf, another stag

Chapter 33: Rhaella

"Talking"

"Thinking"

(Location: King's Landing)

The entire court was waiting when the herald banged his staff. "His royal Highness, Prince Viserys Targaryen," he announced. The doors opened and Rhaella watched her son stride through them. Already she could tell that there would be trouble.

There was a sword at his side. It was a plain thing, no gilded gold on the hilt or art on the cross-guard. She knew that the North preferred plainer things for their weapons, seeing that making them pretty would be foolish. But there was something else about that sword that made her uneasy. The way he held it in his grip, how he walked through to the throne, the set look on his face. They all told her one thing. "My son has come for battle."

"Viserys, welcome home," Rhaegar said, sitting upon the Iron Throne. "We did not expect you here." It wasn't very true since they received word from Varys that he had been coming from the kingsroad.

"Hello, Rhaegar," said his brother. "I would say that is good to be home, but I did not come for the pleasantries."

The court muttered amongst themselves. Rhaella felt nervous as she stood beside the Iron Throne along with Dany. She looked down at the alcoves and saw the Martells standing there. Both Oberyn and Arianne glared at her son. Quentyn was more concerned looking at her grandchildren, or rather just one of them.

She followed his gaze subtly. Daemon looked most uncomfortable standing beside his brother and sister. He was clad in the black and red of their house, more black than red. In this way he complimented his brother, who wore more red than black. He kept his eyes down away from the court. He was unused to being at the forefront.

Her eldest looked concerned. He leaned forward on the Iron Throne carefully. "If you are not here for the pleasantries, what are you here for, Viserys?"

"I come with a demand from Robb Stark."

He frowned sternly. "A demand?" he repeated, a tone of anger coating his voice. "What kind of demand does Lord Stark's heir want from his king?"

"One you can easily give him. His demand is simple: he wants his brother back."

The court was silent and Daemon's eyes shined with a sudden hope. Rhaegar did not react like the court, with stunned surprise. He saw the hope in Daemon's eyes and looked sad at them. But the sadness vanished when he looked at Viserys. "What brother does Robb Stark talk about?"

Viserys scowled. "You know damn well which brother he's talking about, Rhaegar."

He shook his head. "I'm afraid I do not." Rhaella could already see what her son was planning to do. She knew that both Viserys and Daemon weren't going to like it. "I have no brother of Robb Stark."

"Then what do you call him?" he asked, pointing his finger right at Daemon. All the eyes in the room followed the finger to look at him.

Daemon looked even more uncomfortable but he stepped forward. "How is everyone, Prince Viserys?" he asked.

"They are well, Jon. But they wish you were with them back in Winterfell."

Daemon smiled and Rhaella heard every young maiden in the court sigh with longing. She couldn't blame them. There was just something about that smile that caught the eye. She remembered that Daemon's mother had the same smile back in Harrenhal only she smiled much more often.

"I see who you refer to now, Viserys," said Rhaegar. "You speak of your nephew, my son, Daemon."

"No, I speak of Jon Snow, Robb Stark's brother."

"Such a person does not exist. He was a lie to hide Daemon from his true family." Daemon looked up at him with a gaped jaw, eyes wide in shocked horror.

Viserys didn't believe a word he said. "Is that the tale you're spinning, brother?"

"It is the truth."

"Just like your 'truth' that Jon is Lyanna's son. All I see is a son of Eddard Stark standing before me."

Rhaegar frowned. It made him look more stern and kingly. "I know what a son of my wife looks like, Viserys. Surely you can say the same." The court was stunned by his words. They must've always assumed that Daemon was a royal bastard. But if Rhaegar truly married Lyanna (she assumed with Elia's blessing, for now she also assumed that her gooddaughter loved the Stark girl too), it made Daemon a trueborn son.

"Of course I know what a son of yours looks like, my king," Viserys told him. "I see him standing right there." He pointed right at Aegon.

The crown prince saw the finger pointing at him. "I don't think I'm the son my father's talking about, Uncle."

"You are the only son of Rhaegar I recognize."

Rhaella frowned at his words. "That was uncalled for, Viserys." He did not need to deny what Daemon was in front of the entire court. It was cruel, to say the least. But when she looked at Daemon, she did not him hurt or saddened by his uncle's words. In fact, he looked glad.

"Enough of this," Rhaegar declared. "Why is Robb Stark or Eddard Stark not here themselves to tell me this? I would hear from their mouths."

She watched one of her sons look at the other like he was the greatest fool he had ever seen. "The last time a Stark came to King's Landing to bring back one of their own, one was burned to death, the second was strangled trying to free his father. Now, will you let me take Jon Snow back to his brother, where he belongs?"

"I have already said that Jon Snow does not exist," he declared for all to hear. "If Lord Stark or his heir is in fear of coming to the capital, they need be so. In fact, I welcome them and offer them my personal pledge of safe conduct."

Viserys's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Why would you welcome them to King's Landing if you claim that they took your so-called son and hid him in Winterfell?"

"Even they did such a thing to this family, Daemon is still their cousin and he did live with them. They raised him right. For that, I thank them and welcome them to attend his wedding."

"Wedding?" he repeated.

The king nodded once. "Yes. In a month's time, Daemon shall marry Rhaenys."

"What!?" shouted both Daemon and, surprisingly, Aegon. Both sons looked at their father while the court started talking amongst themselves about the news. Rhaella saw that Rhaenys looked happy, as if she was glad that the news was finally out and everyone had heard it. She looked at Daemon, expecting him to have that same happiness. But he stared at their father with a growing sense of horror and shock. Aegon, oddly enough, just looked absolutely furious.

Viserys didn't say anything to that. He looked up at his brother, trying to decipher the hidden meaning of his words. "Is that all you have to say on the matter, brother?" he asked.

"It has long been decided. Their marriage will heal what broken blood there is between House Stark and House Martell."

"I see. Then I will go back to Robb Stark and tell him that. And then we will march onto King's Landing with the might of the North at our back to rescue Jon Snow."

Rhaella was stunned by that proclamation. And she wasn't alone. Everyone in the court stared at Viserys with absolute shock. He had all but outright declared outright war on his brother, the king. The Dance of the Dragons loomed in Rhaella's mind. Would it happen again? "No, Viserys," she silently told her son. He could not let it happen again.

Rhaegar was as horrified as she was. But he was also furious. "You would march to war against your own blood, Viserys?" he asked.

"If it is to right a wrong, yes I would," Viserys said defiantly. He looked at Daemon. "The Pack hasn't forgotten you, Jon. They won't leave you here."

Daemon's eyes sored with hope. Rhaella remembered the Pack at Riverrun and thought that declaration lip service. She had rarely seen the Pack and Daemon together. They were more concerned about being around Robb Stark.

Someone started guffawing in the court. "The might of the North?" repeated Lord Mace Tyrell, moving to the front so he could stand before the Iron Throne. "As I recall, the might of the North is only good for sweeping ironmen back out to the sea. My king, let us join forces and run these wolves back to their dens and ensure they stay there!"

Men from the Reach cheered their lord's suggestion, as did many a young knight eager for combat. But then Viserys spoke again. "You run the risk of your sons' lives if you do that, my lord."

The cheering died instantly. "What did you say, Prince Viserys?" Mace asked him, a look of horror growing on his face. It was a look that was matched by the ones on his remaining son and only daughter, standing close to him.

"I said that you run the risks of your sons' lives if you march against the North." He turned his head to look at the court and all the lords standing there. "The same goes for your heir, Lord Arryn, your brother, Lord Baratheon, and your brother and cousins, Princess Martell. Robb Stark waits for me at Riverrun."

Horror filled Rhaella as she realized what her son was saying. The Northern army had come to Riverrun and took all of those who stayed behind hostage. That was their insurance against the rest of Westeros. "A Stark coming alone to King's Landing is liable to die. A Stark coming to King's Landing with an army is a great and terrible thing," she thought to herself when she realized that this had happened before. Cregan Stark had come to King's Landing at the end of the Dance and reigned as Hand to Aegon III for a day, a time that was now called the Hour of the Wolf. Again, she saw history repeating itself.

"And what does Lord Stark say about this?" asked the king. "Does he support his heir's actions?"

"Lord Stark knows Robb is at Riverrun." It was not an answer, not an actual one. It told them nothing of the Warden of the North.

Daenerys stepped forward from Rhaella's side and walked up to Viserys. The whole court watched her as she went to him. She took him by the hand and looked up at him. "Don't do this, brother," she told him. "Don't split this family apart. We are all here, once more. This should be cause for celebration."

He reached out and touched her cheek tenderly. "I wish that it was so, Dany. But we are now in a war. I have no choice." He looked past her up the Iron Throne, to their brother. "Are you going to put me in irons and throw me into the black cells, brother?" There was a challenge to his voice. He wanted Rhaegar to do it. Why, Rhaella didn't know. She didn't want any of this to happen.

"No," said Rhaegar, shaking his head. The court and the Small Council looked at him with shock. He ignored them. "They will most likely name this moment as one of my great follies whether I am victorious in this war or defeated. But I will not throw you into the dungeons. You are my brother, Viserys. You may have been raised amongst the wolves like Daemon, but you are both dragons, both of the blood. You are my family and I will not you, not until I am forced." He paused and declared regally, "But you will not stay here. You have until night falls to say goodbye and leave. After that, we will meet each other upon on the battlefield."

"Thank you for that kindness, Rhaegar. That gives me time to take care of my other business." He turned and walked to the Martells. "Your Highnesses, I ask you to meet me and my lady mother in one hour's time in the godswood." They were shocked to hear him ask such a thing. He didn't stop there. "There are things that need to be told."

---

An hour later, Rhaella stood beside Viserys before the heart tree. Sandor stood behind them, his hand grip tight over his sword. When the Martells finally arrived, she saw that both Oberyn's and Arianne's eyes were hard. Quentyn's were more cautious. "Good day to you, Prince Oberyn, Princess Arianne, and Prince Quentyn," Viserys greeted them.

"Why are we here?" Arianne asked without preamble. "Why did you want to talk here?"

"So the gods can hear my words and know them to be true."

Oberyn scoffed mockingly at that. "The gods?" he said. "Have you truly become a Northerner?"

He shrugged. "I found them to be simpler than the Seven. If you wish to judge me based on whom I worship, than I am proud to be a Northerner."

"A savage people who hold loved ones hostage so we cannot act against them," Arianne said with a nasty bite to her voice. Her face was equally as nasty. But Rhaella knew it wasn't just because of what the Northerners supposedly did. It was also because of what happened at Riverrun.

Viserys looked at her steadily. "Princess, every side to a war does that," he said, sounding like a maester teaching a slow child. "And they are being treated with every hospitality and courtesy."

Prince Quentyn looked serious and calm. Rhaella could see his father in him when he behaved so. "Is this what we came out here to discuss?" he asked.

Viserys became serious, his mouth losing the hint of the smile he wore. "No, it is not," he said to them all. "I asked you to meet me here so you could know the true reason why I refused to be betrothed to Princess Arianne."

She glared hatefully at him when she was mentioned. "You made it perfectly clear why you didn't want to marry me."

"That was a reason, not the reason. I stand by what I said, Princess. If you look at other men and hunger for them now, how will I know that you will stay faithful to me if we were married?" He stopped himself before he said anything else. It was a visible reaction. Rhaella watched her son pull back the anger like a wolf stopping itself from snarling. "I did not come here to tell you that. You already know it."

"Then what did you come here to tell me?"

"That I am mad."

The entire godswood felt suffocating in its silent at that moment. As she looked at her son, Rhaella only felt horror and fear. "No," she thought to herself. "Please no, not him. Not my son." She could still remember Aerys and the madness that had sunk into him. Viserys didn't have that same look of madness. But he sounded so sure about what he said, it made her afraid.

She saw how Oberyn looked her son over with a new eye. Gone was the angry father who would mock anyone that his ire. Now it was the Red Viper who stood before them, eyeing his target so he could protect his family. "If you are mad," he finally said, "you have done a good deal of hiding it."

"Not hiding, suppressing it," Viserys told him. "But I am mad, Prince Oberyn. My father's madness runs through my blood, as does his voice." He reached up and touched his head. "I can hear him in here, his voice just one of many. They whisper to me, wanting me to look at everyone as if they were an enemy come to kill me. They urge me to stop them before they can do anything. And there is one thing they keep repeating again and again: burn them all." His voice changed slightly at those words, a rasp of a madden man. She thought of Aerys. He had that same rasp. And there was that gleam in the eyes. He had it and now her son had it too.

Viserys closed his eyes and breathed deeply. It looked like he was trying to stop the voices right then and there. He opened them and the gleam was gone. "I felt my madness when I was sparring in Winterfell, learning alongside Robb, showing him what to do. But I was beaten too many times by the master-at-arms, Ser Cassel, and the voices demanded that I show him that a dragon should be mocked.

"I…I don't know what happened exactly, but the next thing I remembered was Robb screaming for me to stop and the guards pulling me off Ser Cassel. My hands had been around his throat and he gasped for air. I saw how the guards looked at me, like some crazed beast. The voices whispered that I should burn them all. They were overpowering, scaring me. Before I could fall for their orders again, I ran. I ran to the only safety I knew, my rooms.

"I hid there, afraid of what would become of me. I did not leave for three days. But it proved to be far worse than I thought. Alone, the voices grew louder and louder, becoming more vocal with each passing minute. They screamed for me to show everyone how they belonged underneath my feet. I tried to block them out, but they just screamed louder. I thought that I would be forever cursed to hear those voices scream.

He paused and a smile, a warm caring one, came onto his face. In that moment, he looked like the Aerys Rhaella wished had lived, the young man that wasn't consumed by madness. "As night fell, the door to my room opened. I expected Lord Stark or his wife to walk through that door, to bring judgement down upon me. Instead, it was Sansa, a girl of seven years. She walked in and asked me if I was coming to supper. When I didn't say anything, she asked if I was alright.

"Somehow, her voice broke through the ones in my head. I could think clearly again. And I knew that I didn't want Sansa anywhere near me. I told her to go, to leave me be. She was confused and asked me again if I was alright. I told that I wasn't and I thought that I was becoming that I didn't want to be. I didn't want her to see what could happen. But she just smiled brightly, walked over to me, and gave me a hug. 'That's okay,' she said, 'I still love you.'

"The voices died away completely when she said those words. Not only that, but they stay silent whenever I am close to Sansa, close enough to hold her hand in mine. She is the balm that calms my madness, the ice that cools my fire." He looked hard at Arianne, eyes full of wrathful fury. "And you threatened to take that away from me."

The severity of his words now hung them all like a heavy storm cloud. For a long moment, Oberyn and Arianne didn't say anything. Rhaella was nervous about what would come next. Would they rage and argue the point? She looked to Prince Quentyn and again saw his father in him. She hoped that if things turned worse, he would be able to calm his sister and his uncle. She looked again at her son and saw just how much he looked like his father in that moment. He was angry, but it wasn't the anger of madness. It was the anger of someone who was insulted and wanted an apology.

"If that is why you refuse the betrothal to my niece," said Oberyn, sounding calm, "Than we apologize for what happened at Riverrun." He still sounded calm and that worried Rhaella. She knew that he could be like a viper, calm one moment and then attacking the next. She waited to see what would happen next.

But he didn't lash out at them. Instead he looked to Arianne. She looked up at him, her face scrunched in a frown. His eyes were hard and unyielding. She couldn't hold his look and so she turned to Viserys. "I ask for your forgiveness, Prince Viserys," she asked him.

Rhaella waited for her son to demand more than that. But he only nodded. "I accept."

She breathed in relief. "You should be ashamed of yourself, Rhaella," she told herself. "This is your son." He was not Aerys. He was trying to hold his madness.

He turned to leave and she turned with him. Sandor stood at the ready to follow them. Before they left, Arianne spoke out. "I would have loved you."

Viserys froze in place. He turned back and looked hard at you. "I don't think you would," he said bitingly. "I don't think you even know what love is."

Anger flashed in her eyes. "I do know what love is!"

"No, you don't. All you know is passion and sex. That's not all love is."

"And you do?"

"Arianne!" snapped Oberyn.

Viserys looked defiantly at her. "I do know what love is. Love is a fire in the middle of winter."

Rhaella looked at him and tried to figure out what he meant by that. She wasn't the only one who was. "Pray tell, Prince Viserys," said Quentyn, "what does that mean?"

"It's something that I learned in the North. There, a fire keeps you warm in the throes of winter. It keeps you fed when it cooks the food you bring it. You keep it all for yourself so you won't feel the cold. To love is to allow someone to come and share that fire's warmth with you. It requires trust, trust in the person that they won't steal the fire or ruin it. You'd be willing to share that fire, through all the cold winter nights, with that person for the rest of your life. That is what love is."

As she listened to her son describe love, Rhaella was proud for him. There was a touch of the poet inside of him. To her great surprise, Oberyn nodded in agreement. "He's right," the Red Viper said. "The Orphans of the Greenblood have something similar. To them, love is water in the desert. You only share it with someone you trust completely and utterly."

Viserys nodded in agreement. "Yes, that rings true. You know it too, Prince Oberyn." A smile appeared on his face. "You're in love with your lady Ellaria. I'm surprised you're not married to her."

To Rhaella's surprise, and to the surprise of his niece and nephew, Oberyn laughed. "I find that I don't need to tie myself down like that, Prince. There are plenty of people out in the world. Why should I keep myself to one, especially when that one shares my…appetites?" The way he paused when he said that last word, he was probably trying to find one that wasn't so foul.

"That's not love, Prince Oberyn," Viserys declared. "That's passion. What you and Lady Ellaria have, that is love. Some of the clans I've met in the North, they would called the two of you husband and wife and left it at that."

"Would they now?"

"They have something similar. I think there's a ceremony but I've been led to believe that if a man and a woman live together as husband and wife, they're considered to be."

"I see. I think that I misjudged you, Prince Viserys."

"I have been what I was raised, Prince Oberyn," he replied. He was not insulting the man. Rhaella heard it in his voice. He was speaking the truth as he saw it.

This time when they left, the Martells said nothing that stopped them. Rhaella walked through the godswood with her son at her side. "Is that really what happened, Viserys?" she asked him. "Is what you said the truth?"

"Yes, Mother," he told her, sadness coating his voice. "I'm sorry. I am mad."

"Not that. I don't care about that." It was a small lie but she wasn't going to let that be a concern. "I mean what you said about Sansa Stark. Do you love her?"

He nodded. "I do. She is the balm to my madness. With her, I can be at peace. It's because I love that I would stay in the North with her. I don't want to take her down to the south, where the game would take hold of us both."

Her son sounded adamant about his desire. She looked at him once more and saw just how Northern he looked. She found that it suited him well. "Lord Stark raised you well," she declared. "I wish I could tell him that myself."

Viserys looked at her with a cautious eye. It hurt to see her own son look at her like that. "You wouldn't want to say anything else to him?" he asked.

He didn't say what those things would be. He didn't have to. She knew. But that didn't matter. "You would be first of my concerns when it comes to Eddard Stark," she declared.

Viserys didn't say anything right away. He looked back, at the heart tree. "He was not the only one."

She was sure that other men in Winterfell had taught her son to be the man she saw before her. But there was something in the way he said those words. "What do you mean?"

"Sometimes, I think that I have more than our family's madness, Mother. I think that I also have our perchance for dreams."

She didn't like that idea. When it came to Targaryens and dreams, it was never a good thing. Aerys dreamed about much. Towards the end, it was about fire, only fire. Rhaegar had dreams too, until the rebellion shattered them. Now her second son, the one who she was forced to send away, claimed to be the same. "What dreams have you been having?" she forced herself to ask.

"It's not multiple dreams, but a single dream I had once. It happened when I first came to Winterfell and acted like a spoiled little prince." His self-mocking tone showed what he thought about his younger self. "I thought that my name, my position as a prince, would make me better than all the savages I found myself surrounded in."

"Viserys…"

"I was angry, Mother. I was angry at being sent away from all I knew. And I did think myself better than everyone else. Lord Stark did try to teach me to be an honorable man, but I looked down at him for what he tried to do and I refused to listen. I would not even listen to his maester's teachings. One day, I just ran away and hid inside the godswood. I waited there to see if anyone would come looking for me.

"But no one did. It was like they had forgotten that I was alive. I waited but no one would show. When night fell and my stomach begged for food, my pride as a Targaryen would not let me go back and beg for their scraps. I fell asleep in the godswood, against the trunk of the heart tree. There, I dreamed."

She didn't know what would come next from his lips. But she would not stop herself from asking the question. It had to be asked now. "What did you dream of?"

"A different world, a world Robert Baratheon killed Rhaegar at the Trident and took the Iron Throne for himself. The Targaryens were broken and cast out of Westeros. You were dead, Mother, leaving just me and Dany. We were forced to wander Essos, living at the mercy of other people and their generosity.

"But I saw more than that. I saw myself. I saw myself consumed with the madness of our family. I saw myself as prideful but ignorant. I saw myself believing that Westeros would rise for our family even when the fact that we had been outcast since the rebellion showed otherwise. I saw myself put on airs that I did not deserve and act with authority and power that I did not have. People openly mocked me and I did nothing except complain about the lack of respect I thought was rightfully mine. In the end, I died. I died of my stupidity and want of a crown. I got one. A crown of melted gold, poured over my head, all because I was consumed with my madness and foolishness.

"I woke up with a scream and I will swear I felt the burning gold on my head. I could hear all the people laughing at me. It was faint, like a whisper, but I could hear them all the same. I could've passed it off as a feverish dream, yet I saw what I could become. I vowed to never let it happen. I would never become that kind of Viserys. I came out of the godswood to Lord Stark. I asked for his forgiveness for how I behaved to everyone and I asked him to teach me to be strong." He smiled proudly and happily. "He did."

Rhaella didn't know what she should say to all of that. Should she be horrified at what he described? Should she be happy that he didn't turn out like he said he was? Should she be scared that the madness was inside him and there was always the chance that it could break free? She didn't know.

In the end, she settled for one. She was proud. She was proud of her son and what he had become. So she told him, "I'm glad that you are who you are now, Viserys."

"Thank you, Mother." He paused in thought. "Now that I think about it, I did see something else in that dream. But I don't know…" He stopped himself. "Ah, it's best not to worry about it now."

"Worry about what?"

He looked at her. "We should keep an eye on Dany, Mother. I get the feeling that if she ever gets her hands on a dragon she's going to change the world."

That made no sense to her. "Viserys, the dragons are dead. They've been dead for a long time." She had seen her family's obsession with dragons at Summerhall. She didn't want to see it any more.

But her son just smiled. "Perhaps they will come again. Perhaps they are already here and we don't know it yet. One can never be too sure."

End

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

That's what the North has been doing.

Yes Viserys did dream the canon story. I thought it would be a nice touch. Plus it would help scare the crap of Viserys to see what he might end up becoming. As regards to his madness and Sansa helping him keep it contained, look back through the story. You'll notice every time that Viserys is on the verge of losing it, he remembers that Sansa is right there, holding his hand. It calms him down right away.

If you're wondering why Aegon reacted like that when Rhaegar announced the wedding, that'll be covered. It'll also bring what he has going on with both Mya and Margaery to a head.

I'll see you all next chapter!