Disclaimer: I do not own A Song of Ice and Fire.
Another dragon, another wolf, another stag
Chapter 36: Elia
"Talking"
"Thinking"
(Location: King's Landing)
Elia awoke and did not see Lyanna's shade in the bed next to her. For the first time, she wasn't saddened by that. No, today, she was joyful. Today was the day Rhaenys and Daemon would finally marry. Today, Lyanna's son would come back to them fully.
As she had hoped, over the month he had been with them, Daemon thawed. She had seen him walk often with Rhaenys and Daenerys too. He had also sparred with his brother and talked to him too. But what Elia felt was the greatest thing was that Daemon was on good terms with his father. She had seen them talking to each other and never once did it look like a king speaking to his subject. It had progressed from an unsure child talking to an adult to something more, something warmer.
The only thing that Daemon had held onto was that his name was Jon. Elia knew that he held onto it like it was a precious thing. In a way, she could see how it was for him. She could only hope that in time, he would forget that name. She would always call him Daemon. It was the name his parents all agreed on.
She dressed for the day and joined her husband for breakfast. "Good morning, Elia," Rhaegar said when she came into his chambers.
"Good morning, Rhaegar," she said back, greeting him with a kiss. Breakfast had been laid for two. The servants had long since known that the queen ate breakfast with the king. She had heard some wonder why they don't share the same bed if they share breakfast. The truth was the thought had come to them both but they couldn't. It always felt like someone was missing from their bed when they did that.
"Have you seen Rhaenys yet?" he asked her as she sat down.
She shook her head. "No, not yet," she said as she reached for a blood orange. "I will after this. She was nervous last night."
He smiled. "As nervous as you were at our wedding, I'm sure."
She smiled back at him. She was hardly nervous at their wedding. If anything, he had been the one more nervous. "Has Aegon recovered from last night's revelries?" Her son had taken his brother for a night of drinking, something of a sendoff for Daemon. It was apparently since they all came back quite drunk.
"He has. But he has been complaining about a headache from all the drinking he did." He paused in cutting his egg. "Varys came with news from the Riverlands."
She paused too. For an entire month they had waited for Robb Stark to come marching down to King's Landing. But even for an army that he commanded, he moved slowly. The lords and ladies of the court mocked the boy for his pace, calling him the Slow Wolf. But both Rhaegar and Elia had a feeling that there was a plan. They didn't know what it was but all they could do was prepare.
"What is the news?" she asked him.
He smiled. When he smiled, she knew that it wasn't grim news. "The Stark boy left his rear unguarded. Lord Lannister was able to march on Riverrun. Edmure Tully surrendered the hostages without the need for a siege."
"Then he's lost his threat against the other houses." It meant they would be able to deploy their forces alongside the crown's army. This seemingly one-sided war suddenly turned its tables, all thanks to a foolish mistake. "He's surrounded."
Rhaegar nodded. "Not only that, but he's turned around and rushing back to Riverrun. If he makes the same mistake again, we will have him."
"It will be another victory at the Trident." He fell silent at that. Elia knew why. Her husband never talked about the Battle of the Trident. She had never known what happened that day between him and Robert Baratheon. It forced her to relay on the words of other people. She had heard some say that he had faced the rebel stag in combat and slew him. But others, more critical of the king, said that he held back when Robert went looking for him and allowed archers to shoot him down.
She didn't know what to make of these tales so she assumed that somehow both had happened. How it happened, she didn't know. She had never asked him. If he wished to keep it private, she respected his decision. "I'm sorry," she told him. "That was a wrong comparison."
He shook his head. "No," he said, "that's not it. I don't relish the idea of hunting down boys who thought they knew war."
Elia understood him. It sounded distasteful to her too. "What will do you with them once they are captured?"
His answer was swift. "If they bend the knee, I will forgive them. I can understand where they stand. They came for their friend, thinking that he had been held prisoner. I cannot fault them for that."
They finished breakfast and went their separate ways. They would meet again at the Great Sept for the wedding ceremony. Right now, Elia had to go make sure her daughter wasn't going around in a tizzy. She reached Rhaenys's chambers and knocked on the door. "Who is it?" her daughter called out.
"It's Mother, Rhaenys. I'm coming in." She opened the door and walked in. Balerion the cat snoozed in the sun's light but she wasn't concerned about that. Her daughter wore a dress that was as white as a Dornish beach, leaving her shoulders bare except for two straps. Seamstresses worked on her, finishing the last touches. But it was clear about one thing. "You're beautiful," she told her daughter.
"Of course she is," Rhaella said from where she sat close to the window. She watched with happiness and pride. "She is a Targaryen."
"People who first see me wouldn't say that, Grandmother," Rhaenys told her.
She waved it off. "Then they are fools. Yes, you have your mother's skin and her hair. Those are the obvious facts. But if someone were to look more closely at you, they would see the dragon in you. When I look you, dearest child, I see my mother's eyes, my father's gentle smile, and my grandmother's face. It is the same with Daemon. Even before I heard the tale of his birth, one look at him and I knew he was a dragon."
"How?" she asked. One of the seamstresses threaded a ribbon of a different orange through the skirts of her dress. It was bright and gleamed when light shined on it. It made the dress more attentive to the eye.
"I looked at his face and knew that I had seen it before, on my grandfather. Oh, Daemon might have the same coloring and long face of the Starks, but he has Aegon V's face."
She looked over at her mother. "Is everything ready, Mother?" she asked. There was an edge to her voice. It almost sounded impatient but there was a nervousness to it as well.
Elia smiled at her. "It is, Rhaenys. Do you want this day to end so quickly?" she asked with a slight smile.
"Well, yes and no. I'm excited but also nervous."
That sounded so familiar. "Don't worry. I felt the same way when I married your father. By the end of the day, I was happy that the day was done but I had wished the night would have gone forever."
"Mother!" she said, her cheeks going red.
"Did I say anything that was not true?"
"I would say that Daemon will know what to do at the end of the night," Rhaella remarked, "but I think it would be safe to say that we've all heard of his behavior on the matter."
Rhaenys turned those red cheeks on her. "Grandmother, you make it sound like he has does something scandalous." Elia smiled at that. It wasn't that Daemon chased skirts. Everyone who met him was astounded by how chaste he was. Of course when she heard about how he was given a whore for free and he declined, she almost laughed.
"Do you have my maiden cloak?" she asked her daughter. It was the same cloak to her wedding.
She nodded and gesture to the table. "It's there."
Elia looked to the table and saw something else there too. It was a second cloak, one she hadn't seen before. She saw a white wolf on a plane of grey, nestled within a grove of winter roses. "What's this?" she asked.
Her daughter looked at it and recognized it. "Oh, I was working on that before you gave me your cloak."
"Who is it for?"
She hesitated for a moment. "Daemon," she answered. "I thought that since, he was coming back to our family, it would be right for him to shed his cloak for a new one." She looked at her mother and grandmother. "Seems a bit silly, doesn't it?"
Elia thought differently. "Why should it be silly?"
"Mother, the groom does not shed his cloak. He gives his bride his own."
That may be, but her daughter was no dullard. "True, but what you said is also true, Rhaenys. You are right. There should be a way for us to tell the Seven Kingdoms just who your brother truly is." She looked at the cloak again. "This seems to be the perfect way to do it."
"The Faith will object," Rhaella said. "They don't like it when people change what is known. But," she added, "I will talk to the High Septon. I'm sure he will be able to understand."
Rhaenys smiled at her. "Thank you, Grandmother. Has there been any word of the Starks coming to the wedding?" The air stilled around them but they didn't let that stop them.
Elia shook her head. "No, they're not coming."
"I see. I hoped that Daemon could have some comfort from seeing them today."
She understood what her daughter wanted. Having one's family at a wedding was important. But no one would want the Starks at this wedding, not after Robb Stark had done to their heirs. Besides, it would be too late.
She left once she was sure that her daughter was calm. The rest of the morning was spent ensuring that the wedding feast would be ready, the guests would sit in their proper places, and the weddings gifts were ready to be given. She dealt with those and an amount of other tiny details, right alongside Rhaegar.
It wasn't until midday started to pass, close to the wedding that she went to Daemon's chambers. Ser Arthur and Ser Oswell stood outside his door. "Your Grace," said Ser Arthur.
"Ser Arthur, Ser Oswell," she said to them both. "Is Daemon inside?"
"He hasn't left since he got back last night."
Oswell laughed. "I would be surprised if he had, considering how he, Prince Quentyn, and that Tarly came back over the drawbridge last night. They had to hold each other to stay up and be ushered by Ser Daemon Sand."
"Oh dear," Elia said, concerned. "I do hope that Daemon is alright. It is his wedding day. It wouldn't do to not have the groom be there."
"He'll be fine, your Grace," Arthur assured her. "After working on that little song of his this past month, I'm sure he wants to sing it perfectly tonight." He smiled and she smiled with him. Rhaenys had convinced Daemon to sing a song he had worked on for years now at the wedding feast. She had never heard him sing but she had heard Rhaenys describe his singing. She was interested to hear, to hear just how much he was like his father.
"May I go in?"
"Of course, your Grace," Oswell said, putting a hand on the door. "Just be gentle with him."
He pushed the door open and she walked in. The room was empty, as she thought it might be. She saw some parchment on the table. She looked over and saw it was a song, the one Daemon had been writing. She smiled. She looked forward to hearing it.
"Daemon?" she called out, heading for the bedroom door. She knocked on it but there was no answer. "Daemon, are you in there?" There was still no response. "Daemon, you can't sleep the day away. It's your wedding. I'm coming in." She opened the door and walked inside.
There was a lump in the bed, big enough to be man-size. It confirmed what she thought. "Gods be good, just how much did he drink last night?" she asked herself. If he was still asleep, he would wake up hungover and that would not do. "Daemon, you must wake up. You would not want to keep everyone waiting."
There was still no response. She sighed and reached down, pulling back the blankets. She dropped them as she stared at the bed in surprise. The lump turned out to be a mound of pillows. Daemon wasn't in the bed. She turned and quickly checked the rest of the chambers but there was no sign of him, anywhere.
"Where is he?" she asked, trying not to panic. "Ser Arthur! Ser Oswell!" she called out to them. They came quickly, their hands on their swords. "Are you sure that no one came in or out of these rooms the last night?"
"Of course, your Grace," Arthur told her, sounding a little confused.
"Then where is Daemon?"
They looked at each other, confused. "Your Grace?" asked Oswell.
"Search the room, sers. He's isn't here!"
They did as they were told and found the same thing she did. Daemon was gone. "How can this be?" Oswell demanded.
Elia was furious. It matched Arthur's own expression. "How do you think this happened, Oswell?" he asked his brother knight. "There must be a secret passage in this room somewhere."
It had to be true and the queen cursed Maegor the Cruel for building the Red Keep so. Why were there so many tunnels and secret passages in this place? "Send for more men and find it," she told the both of them.
"Yes, your Grace," Arthur replied. He paused and then asked, "What about the wedding?"
She had almost forgotten about that. It was soon upon them. "I will delay it if I can. Find Daemon," she told them once more.
Ser Oswell went for the door. "I shall tell the king."
"No," Elia said instantly. "I will tell him." She left through the door before they could object.
The wedding ended being canceled outright. She was sure that it was confusing to all the people who had come to King's Landing. But they had no choice in the matter. Daemon was still missing. The men who searched his room found out how he was able to disappear. The center stone of the parlor room could be pulled up and reveal a spiraling staircase. Men had been sent down into to find where it would go.
The afternoon sun peered through the Small Council chambers when Ser Gerold found the royal family there. He came forward, passing a look off at the Hound standing at the wall behind Rhaella and Daenerys, and bent the knee. "King Rhaegar, I come with a report," he said.
Everyone sat a little straighter in their seats at that. Elia looked over at her daughter. Rhaenys was doing her best to remain in control of herself but she could see the confusion and sadness in her eyes. She was still wearing her wedding dress but held her cat in her lap. "Report, Lord Commander," Rhaegar commanded the Kingsguard. Jon Connington, sat close by.
"The passageway goes deep, my king, down to the dungeons," he began.
That wasn't what Elia wanted to hear. "Where does it go?" she demanded.
"It divided into two tunnels. One has led out to the city itself, close to the Dragon gate."
"The other?" asked Rhaegar.
"To a beachhead underneath the Keep's walls, it's unseen from above."
"Is it big enough to hold a ship out of sight of the walls?"
He shook his head. "No. It is barely big enough to row a boat through."
That wasn't comforting enough. Elia knew it and so did her husband. "Thank you, Ser Gerold. Continue your search," the king commanded.
The White Bull bowed his head and left the chambers. As soon as the door closed, Elia looked at her husband. "Do you think he was taken through the city or to a ship?" she asked.
"The city," he replied, sounding certain. "With all the people coming into the city, no one would notice a few people going out."
"But why?" asked the Hand of the King. "Why would he leave?" He frowned at the table.
Aegon looked at him. "Lord Connington, you're assuming that our brother left willingly. He could've been kidnapped."
Elia turned her attention to the Hand. He had never liked her and she considered him to be glory-hungry and reckless. But that had been when they were younger. Now, he was an able Hand, always diligent and tireless in his work. He still didn't like her and it was clearly obvious to all that he didn't think highly of Daemon either.
He looked at her son. "My prince, it is plausible that…Prince Daemon was kidnapped. But I believe it is far more likely that he ran."
"But why?" asked Aegon.
"He wanted to go home," Rhaenys said quietly. All eyes turned to her. She was still stroking Balerion. "I asked him once if he had the chance to leave if he would stay or go. He told me that we both knew the answer." A bitter smile crossed her lips. "I guess we do now."
"No," said her father. "I do not believe that. Daemon was accepting us as his family. You saw it, Rhaenys, and you did too, Aegon. He was not so cold to us all, so distant. If he truly had wanted to leave, why would he wait until his wedding day to do it?"
Elia remembered their discussion over breakfast about Robb Stark. They had all been concerned there was some plan he had. What if this was it? "How close was Robb Stark to King's Landing before he could have known of Riverrun's surrender?"
Connington answered her. "He would've been at Antlers."
"What are you thinking, Elia?" Rhaella asked her.
She looked at her and then to the king and the Hand. "What if Robb Stark had been moving slowly on purpose? What if he had been doing it to lull us into a false sense of waiting? What if he's not turned around to go back to Riverrun, but to Winterfell?"
She watched as looks of realization appeared on all their eyes. "Could it really have happened so?" her son asked. "What about the other passage? He could've rowed to a ship."
"What ship would take him?" Rhaella asked him. "All who came to King's Landing knew him to be Daemon Targaryen. To take him away would invite a death sentence upon their heads."
"She's right," Elia agreed. "Robb Stark got close to King's Landing to slip men in and take Daemon. They're riding back to Winterfell now." They were going to lose Daemon again. She couldn't let that happen. She wasn't going to lose Lyanna's son once more.
She looked at Rhaegar and saw he felt the same. "Lord Connington, send word to our forces. We must go after the wolves—"
A roar shook the chamber they sat in, sending them to their feet. It was the sound of a beast they had never heard before. It rattled into their bones and made their hearts lurched. When the roar died away, they heard screams instead. "What was that?" Dany asked, looking at the door.
"I don't know, but it sounded…big," Aegon told her.
The door to the chamber burst open when Ser Lewyn came running in. Ser Jaime was right behind him. Both looked terrified and in awe. "You-your grace," said a breathless Jaime. "You, you need to come outside."
Rhaegar looked at him. "What is it, Ser Jaime?"
"Dr-dra-dra—"
Elia's uncle finished what he couldn't say. "It's a dragon," Lewyn told them. "A fully grown dragon is in the outer yard!"
A pin could've dropped in the silence that followed. It would've been like a thunderstorm. "A dragon?" whispered a stunned Rhaella. "This is not a good jape, sers."
"We're not japing," Ser Jaime told her. He sounded completely serious.
It couldn't be true but it was too ludicrous for them to say no. They all left the chambers and walked quickly to the outer yard. But as they stepped outside, they all came to a stop. Elia didn't have to look at her family to see their shocked faces. She had one too. "This…this is not possible," she breathed out.
"It must be," Rhaegar told her.
"Am I dreaming?" asked Aegon.
Rhaenys barely shook her head. "No, brother, you're not dreaming."
Neither was Elia. Like the Kingsguard had said, there was a dragon in the yard. But to say that would be like say that the Red Keep rested at the edge of the Blackwater Bay. It would not fully describe the idea. The yard could barely hold the dragon. It swung its head around, looking for something. But what, she didn't know.
"Oh, oh my," said Daenerys suddenly. The dragon swung its head to look to her, inching it close until it could smell her. But she was not afraid. "It's you, isn't it?"
She reached out her hand. "Dany!" shouted Aegon. He reached out to pull her away.
She looked at him with a puzzled look. "Why would you do that? She knows me."
He put down his hand but eyed the dragon cautiously. "Knows you? How could you know a dragon?"
"I didn't know her as a dragon but as the wolf lady."
"Wolf lady?" thought Elia. What could she mean by that? The queen knew that Daenerys saw ghosts around the Red Keep but she never spoke about them to the living, not unless she was pressed. And since everyone already found her to be a bit odd, they tried not to ask about who she saw. So she didn't know about any kind of wolf lady. The only wolf lady Elia knew was…
She froze as she looked at the dragon once more. She saw how blue its scales were, just like the egg she and Rhaegar had gifted to their love. But those eyes, they weren't blue. They were grey, the grey of a fine mist. She knew those eyes. They belonged on the woman she loved. "Lyanna?" she dared to ask.
"What?" said Rhaegar. He looked at her just as the dragon did.
She looked at her goodsister. "Is it her, Dany? Is it Lyanna?"
Dany nodded. "It is her, although I've never seen her like this."
She didn't care about that. She thought that Lyanna had died. But if this was her, truly her…there was a chance to say things that needed to be said. "Lyanna, it's Elia," she said, reaching out to touch her. "It's Elia and Rhaegar. We miss—"
The dragon bared its teeth and snarled at her. Its snarl emerged from the depth of its stomach and washed over her. Fear settled into her and made her take a step back. Rhaegar stepped towards them both and the dragon turned the snarl at him. Elia was stunned. She could hear hatred and anger in that snarl. If it was Lyanna in there, she wouldn't hesitate to kill them. Why?
The snarl died away as the dragon turned from them. It did not snarl at Aegon or Rhaenys but it did stare at them with hostility, the same with Rhaella. The only one who didn't receive such treatment was Dany. "Oh, so that's way you were always there," the girl said to the dragon. She turned to look at them. "I think that it would be best if I only talked to her."
Rhaegar looked at her. "Are you sure it is Lyanna, Dany?"
"Yes, it is her." She looked at her brother. "And she doesn't like you or Elia very much."
Elia was stunned by that declaration. "But why?" she asked.
"Where has she been?" asked Rhaella asked. "Why has she come to King's Landing now?"
"We all know that answer, Mother," said Rhaegar. He was about to speak but stopped himself. "Dany, tell her."
His sister nodded. "Daemon's not here," she told the dragon. "He's gone. We don't know where." That wasn't true. They knew where he was going. Why didn't Dany say that?
The dragon did not respond the way Elia thought. It simply lifted its wings and flew into the air. They all watched as it flew to the city, to Rhaenys's Hill. Soon, word would spread throughout the Seven Kingdoms and beyond. The Targaryens had a dragon once more. And yet, it did not taste sweet to Elia. She looked at her husband and saw he felt the same. They had a dragon again but would its loyalty stay with them?
End
Author's note: Thank you for all the reviews you've sent me.
Well, that certainly didn't turn out the way they expected.
And now, what comes next. Remember what I said about your predictions and arguments: feed me.
I'll see you all next chapter!