Her wedding to King Aegon-which ended with the new couple riding their silver and golden dragons above the city-did, despite its pains, benefit Alysanne Targaryen. As Queen, she had more autonomy and the ability to move around the palace and determine her own schedule. The Red Keep had been her childhood home and, aside from Aegon, she knew its layout better than anyone else in King's Landing. The Princess was able to use her knowledge to listen in on small council meetings and smuggle letters to Rhaenyra's remaining supporters in the city. In the weeks following their marriage, she was also able to convince King Aegon to trust her beyond what was wise. Aegon Targaryen II had always believed that his sister Alysanne had been a gift to him from the gods, a perfect wife and a perfect queen. He did not question her quick change of heart after being captured, he thought she was simply becoming the queen she was always meant to be.
The Lord Hand and Dowager Queen, however, were highly suspicious of the young woman. Alysanne had always been a kind and pleasant child, but in order to be pleasant, one had to understand the wants and needs of others. Being practiced in politeness set a young lady up nicely for learning the art of manipulation. King Aegon's mother and grandsire did what they could to discourage him from trusting his new bride and made sure she was always been carefully observed by their spies. This made Alysanne's own spy work significantly more difficult. So, she spent more and more time with her husband, encouraging his affection and bolstering his already significant ego. Aegon was king, who were his mother and grandsire to tell him what to do? Hadn't they placed him on the throne because they believed in him, because it was his birthright?
Encouraging Aegon to take further leadership of his council and army had rippling effects. The Queen was indeed more able to send out her messages after Aegon had forbidden anyone from spying on his wives, but she had taken things too far. King Aegon dismissed Ser Otto Hightower from his position as lord Hand, as he feared that his grandsire was growing too powerful, and instead gave the position to the head of his Kingsguard, Ser Criston Cole. Criston Cole was a knight from a small house who had nowhere near the education or experience in ruling of his predecessor, who had served three kings. He was, however, bloodthirsty and eager to make a name for his rather unimportant family. Rhaenyra's forces would suffer cruel deaths under his orders for years to come.
Queen Alysanne Targaryen II did not realize the repercussions her advice to Aegon would have and was shocked to hear that he had dismissed his grandsire. She was quick in sending news of the king's new appointment to Dragonstone and Harrenhal, believing it an advantageous change. Ser Otto Hightower had been the brains behind Aegon's claim years before the king had even been born. It was he who had first sent a young Alicent Hightower into King Viserys I's chambers to befriend and seduce him. Without him at the head, King Aegon's council lacked key organizational and strategic skills. Queen Rhaenyra's side, which held the support of experienced generals like Prince Daemon Targaryen and Lord Corlys Velaryon, would have an advantage intellectually. If they plotted wisely, they may be able to trick or bait Aegon into a fight where they held the advantage as Alysanne had once attempted to do. The king's impulses would no longer be checked by his grandsire.
Rhaenyra's side of the war also saw experience replaced with youth upon the death of Lord Grover Tully and the installment of his named heir, Ser Walter Tully, as Lord Paramount of the Trident. Queen Alysanne quietly grieved that she could not be present at Lord Grover's funeral to support her beloved first husband, but was careful to keep guard her emotions. King Aegon was a jealous man and any implication that Alysanne missed her lord husband could have well led to his death.
It was not long after the appointment of Ser Criston Cole that Queen Alysanne II found herself sending a second pair of urgent messages to her sister and the new Lord Tully. She had fallen pregnant with King Aegon's child and would be under close watch in the coming days and therefore less able to communicate.
The king rejoiced at the news that his favored wife was with child, ordering feasts be thrown throughout the city, even in Fleabottom. His first wife, Queen Helaena, spent many hours with her elder sister, assuring her that birth was only half as horrible as she had expected and narrating her two labors in great detail to Queen Alysanne. Her first pregnancy had resulted in twins, whom she had named Jaehaerys and Jaehaera. Though the labor had been quite painful, the queen figured that she had gotten two children for the work of one and it was, therefore, an excellent deal.
As Queen Alysanne's pregnancy developed, the king spent more and more time alone, contrary to expectations. When the queen did see her husband, he talked more often of their shared future than not. The queen found herself quite unnerved by these speeches and not merely because she still clung to hope that she might one day return to Riverrun, but because of Aegon's tone. He was serious and reflective, two traits she did not typically associate with the king.
She learned the cause of his melancholy when she neared the end of her term. Like her, King Aegon had learned a lesson from their father's failures. Successions could not be left arbitrary. If a competitor for the throne existed, support would rise around them. When Queen Alysanne gave birth, the child would become a competitor to his line with Helaena as he had become one to Rhaenyra. He would not allow for infighting in the next generation. The choice was clear. He tolerated Queen Helaena but he loved Alysanne and he had always believed that their love was a special one, a gift from the gods to strengthen the Targaryen line. So, once Queen Alysanne's pregnancy had become advanced enough that miscarriage was unlikely, King Aegon hired two assassins, one a former city watchman capable of violence and the other a palace rat catcher who would be able to navigate Maegor's Holdfast, and sent them for his own children. All three were killed before help could arrive. Prince Jaehaerys and his twin Jaehaera were six years old. Their brother Prince Maelor was merely two. The two assassins were killed in their attempt to escape and thus, were never able to confirm who had hired them. The belief that it was King Aegon stems rather from one of Queen Alysanne's letters which claims he confessed the whole matter to her, hoping it would prove his dedication to her and their coming child.
It was this very confession that convinced Queen Alysanne Targaryen II that she needed to flee the Red Keep. She had long ago accepted her own suffering, but she could not subject her child to Aegon's near-madness. She would not allow her child to be brought up by the man who had killed their siblings.
She waited for the night after the children's funeral to make her escape. Queen Helaena had become inconsolable after the loss of her beloved children and Alysanne knew that, partially out of guilt, King Aegon would be much more likely to visit her sister's chambers that night than her own.
The funeral and the security precautions enacted after the deaths of the three princelings had left the palace guards exhausted and easy to slip past. Queen Alysanne was already in the dragonpit loosening the chains around Silverwing when she was finally spotted. Guards called for the king and Prince Aemond, unsure if the queen had permission to ride that night and fearing the repercussions if they attempted to stop her. Even if Silverwing didn't burn or claw them, King Aegon would be likely to kill any man who harmed his very pregnant wife. They called for the queen to stop while they waited for the king to arrive, but she did not listen.
Queen Alysanne mounted Silverwing and took off into the cloudy night sky. She was merely weeks away from the end of her pregnancy term at the time and her large belly gave her significant trouble as she rode her silver beast. Dragon saddles were not built for pregnant women and dragons did not always fly smoothly. The Queen emptied the contents of her stomach many times over while Silverwing attempted to fly out of the city. This concerned the dragon greatly. Dragons were, of course, intelligent creatures, if somewhat beholden to their instincts, and they cared for their riders deeply, often seeing them as one of their own. This empathy is perhaps why Silverwing turned back, likely against the wishes of the Queen. Guards who saw the Queen and her dragon in the night sky later described their flight as an erratic one. It was a battle of wills. The queen desperately wanted to flee but her dragon, who loved her deeply, knew that doing so would be dangerous for her rider and the child that grew within her.
Silverwing, unfortunately, did not realize how dangerous it would be to fly a dragon down toward the Red Keep. For years, citizens of King's Landing had feared an invasion by Queen Rhaenyra's dragons. When Silverwing was spotted coming down from the clouds, the palace guards didn't know what to make of it. Was Queen Alysanne leveling an attack? Could there be more dragons behind her?
The Hand of the King, Ser Criston Cole, had been awake consulting with the Master of Coin, Ser Tyland Lannister, when a servant notified him of the Queen's escape and possible attack. The two lords made haste to the keep's outer walls from which countermeasures could be deployed.
In his years as King Aegon's Hand, Ser Otto Hightower had commissioned eight weapons modeled after the Dornish scorpions which had killed Queen Rhaenys Targaryen and her dragon Meraxes. The scorpions much resembled a giant crossbow and could fire large bolts at great distances. King Aegon had initially resisted the installation of these weapons. As a dragonrider, he found them off-putting and he did not see the value in commissioning them. If Rhaenyra and her dragons came to attack King's Landing, King Aegon and his siblings would surely rise to meet them. A launched scorpion bolt would be as likely to hit one of the castle's defenders as not. Still, the Hand convinced him to allow the installation, and the eight scorpions were built.
Ser Criston Cole, despite the claims of his enemies, was not a stupid man nor an impatient one. The son of a steward, he had risen far above what anyone would have reasonably expected from him. He had become the kingmaker, the man who had placed the crown on Aegon's head and set these horrors into motion. It is Ser Criston's obvious resourcefulness and intelligence that leads this historian to doubt the dominant account of the night that Queen Alysanne Targaryen took to the skies.
The known facts of the incident are unfortunately sparse and can be summarized with the following sentences. Ser Criston ordered that the scorpions be manned, in case the Queen did attack, but not to fire until her intentions were confirmed. A bolt was, in fact, fired after Silverwing dove in a swoop toward the castle, only to be pulled upward by her rider. The single bolt, whether it was fired on the Hand's order or simply out of fear by the guard who manned the scorpion, struck Silverwing in the chest and pierced her deeply. The jolt caused the Queen to fall from her saddle onto the rocky coast of Blackwater Bay. She died upon impact and her child was lost as well. King Aegon found his Hand only minutes after his wife's dragon had been hit and beat both Ser Criston and the man who had fired the bolt that brought down Silverwing within an inch of death. Neither man fought back, as to harm their sovereign would be treason. Once he had felled both men, the King ran for Sunfyre and met his brother, Prince Aemond in the dragonpit. The two men flew to the spot where Queen Alysanne had fallen onto the rocks. Silverwing, wounded and dying, had curled herself around her rider and when Alysanne's half-brothers approached to see her body themselves, Silverwing lashed out at them with fangs, claws, and fire. King Aegon was tempted to fight the beast, but his brother convinced him that there were better ways to unleash his anger. The two men returned to the castle and packed for a flight to Harrenhal.