Chapter 11 - Lions Revenge Arc
AegonAegon spun around the arena, thrusting his spear into straw dummies. One by one, he spiked them through, each one earning its name.
"Edmure", stab, "Cersei", slash, "Rhaegar", he hesitated on that strike. Did he want Rhaegar dead? Even just his dummy? Twelve years his senior, Aegon barely knew his brother, but he knew the legend of him. During the Lion's Folly, he led the troops alongside Father. When nearly all hope was lost for the Royalists when the whole of the Riverlands and Westerlands rallied together with the help of the Golden Company, Rhaeger risked his own life as a gamble. He led them between a river and a wood and ambushed the majority of Tywins force. The winning of that battle, The Battle of the Trident, is what won the war.
And what was Aegon doing while Rhaegar warred, Viserys gave advice, Daeron played the role of the dutiful brother, and Jaeheryes studied? Aegon stayed in the Capital with the women and children "to keep order and stability", Rhaegar had said.
He thrust his spear into the dummy, "not Rhaegar," he sighed; he knew the real reason Rhaegar kept him away from the fight.
"Kepa. Kepa!" a small voice called out. Aegon spun around his green and silver spear still in his hands. The silver-haired youth threw herself into her father's arms, and Aegon dropped the spear.
"Good morning, my girl", Aegon said in High Valyrain. His bastard daughter, Aerea, looked up at him with huge purple eyes. She was a tumble of sticky limbs and a never-ending voice. She kissed her father on the cheek and showed him her small notebook bound in green leather.
"Look, Father. I have been charting Wildfyres growth. Today he ate a whole chicken, but not before I told the stableman he had to roast it completely. Wildfyres flames are not yet strong enough to cook a whole foul. And look, he's already tripled in size since when he hatched. And look here, a secondary colour has appeared. His major colour, emerald green, is now being accented by the lighter green of his membranes, but the small horns on his head? They look gold, and some of his scales are becoming an off-go-" she pointed to drawings of his small dragonling. The pictures were uncanny; her artwork was beyond detailed. It was like he was looking at Wildfyre but in charcoal sketches, right down to the extra spikes that had started to emerge from his back.
"My girl, these are beautiful. Are you sure you are not a master painter in disguise of my girl's body?" he joked and poked her chest. Aerea giggled and showed him more of her notes. She had written everything about his Wildfyre, down to even…
"Have you written about his shiting?" Aegon looked at his bastard, his blue eyes meeting her of pure amethyst. She nodded, a serious look on her twelve-year-old face.
"They smell like sulphur. I think it is something to do with the stomach lining of the dragons. I was reading one of Maester-Uncle Jaeheryes tomes from his things-" Aerea said, but the last words didn't reach Aegons ears.
He didn't want to think about Jaeheryes or people going through his private belongings. He stood up and let the girl out of his embrace. Aegon took a deep breath and tried to steady his head. It wasn't her fault he was dead, it was not her fault she had gone through his things, they technically belonged to the Citadel but were free to study, and it wasn't her fault Aegon saw too much of Jaeheryes in Aerea, right down to their smile and fire in their eyes when they learnt something new. He twirled his spear and thought about his time in Dorne as a boy, when he was fostered with the Martells, to his good friend Oberyn and their late nights under the Dornish sands.
"Come Aerea, why dont you show me Wildfyres shit," he said calmly, offering his hand to his girl.
Five Moons Ago
Aegon looked down from the Box. His mouth hung a jar. Next to him, Margery held his arm to steady him. Small scaly creatures peeled off the body of his little sister and crawled on the sand floor of the Arena. Shaena, Maegella and Aerea knelt before Daenerys, checking her over. Aerea reached out for the smallest of the animals, one of pink and red, and it snapped at her. She recoiled at stared at it, head tilting.
The crowds in the high stands of the Arean were dumbfounded; some threw shoes, hats, anything at the small beasts. Many called for the Gods above to save them, that they were all now cursed for witnessing black magic. Aegon heard someone start a hymn.
"Gentle Mother, fond of mercy-" many voices joined the song. Some people, mostly men, called for weapons and tried to jump over the guardrails.
"Guards, protect the Princesses", Aegons voice carried over the ruckus. He looked over to his brother, seeking his guidance. Rhaegar had taken a few steps back, away from the front. He held his head in his hands, wide-eyed with disbelief. Aegon took a deep breath and lept over the front of the Box. His boots hit the ground with a thud, so he rolled on the floor to dispel the chock, like he had been taught as a boy. He yelled for his spear; Harlad appeared by his side and placed the long wood pole, tipped with iron, into his hand.
"Form a circle around the Princesses!" he commanded. Guards tried their best to keep the peasant and scared high borns alike from storming the centre of the Arena and the women.
"Hold steady, men. Do not break ranks. Do not kill, disarm and detain", Aegon added. Harlad, his trusted captain of the guard, repeated his order. To his surprise, none of the crowd tried to push close. After the initial shock, curiosity took over. Some still tried to go through, to slay a beast or perhaps in a bloodlust, but were quickly arrested. When Aegon looked over his shoulder to see why they had stopped, he nearly dropped his spear. Two of the tiny creatures, one of pure black with small ram-like horns and one of pure silver with dazzling blue wings and eyes, flew in small circles above them.
They sang, chirping, as a cat chirps at prey it knows it cannot reach. One of the others, one of pure white with rainbow membranes, spat a small ball of smoke into the air. Aerea giggled.
His girl, he thought in disbelief. She was a part of this. She had placed the eggs on the pyres. She had joined Shaena and Maegella in their song. And Daenerys, she was alive? He had watched her die; her heart had stopped. He held Aerea back while she sobbed for her.
"Harlad, get everyone out of here. Start getting the guards to help move the visitors out of Dragon Garden. Tell them their luggage will follow, but they must leave the castle. Clear out the western stable and prepare it…with small chains. And tell the butchers... to standby", Aegon tried to steady his breath. This was his time; he could prove to Rhaegar that he was not a disappointment to the family.
Rhaegar and the rest of his family descended from the Box as guards cleared the crowds from the Arena. They hesitantly gathered around the gathering in the centre, where Dany sat, still covered in…
"Dragons", Rhaegar said definitively. Aegon suppressed a laugh; it was almost comical to him.
"Of course, they're fucking dragons" Aegon lowered his spear. Rhaegar knelt on the floor and held a hand to another of the hatchlings, one of black and yellow. It snapped at his fingers with ebony teeth.
"The gods gave back what they took. Seven dragons have died so that seven dragons could be born. Just as I had predicted, family", Maegella said, rising. All eyes fell to her stomach. Flat, like she had never been with a child.
"Maegella, wha-", Dareon started. Maegella smiled and felt her womb.
"The gods needed their last due. I merely offered one to them". A cold feeling pricked Aegons neck. Offered? The word swam around his head…
"What are we going to do with them? There are only seven. Not enough for us all" Focus shifted to the young Aegon, with silver hair and brown eyes. Rhaenys loomed over him, a nearly full head taller than her betrothed. Aegon once again surprised a laugh.
"They cannot be given or bought, cousin. They will choose" Aerea stood and spoke with all the knowledge of the world in her head. Aegon the younger scoffed, but a voice agreed, small and weak.
"The dragons must choose who they bond to. It is not our choice…I have seen it happen…when I... While I was", Dany tried to stand but fell back to her feet. Noticing her clothes had burnt away, she tried to cover herself; Aegon took off his long cloak and covered her with it; she was alight with heat. Rhaegar nodded and pursed his lips until a screech broke the tense silence. From behind Daeneyres, a snake-like purple and black hatchling wriggled out. Unlike the others, which each bosted two wings and two legs under their bodies, some with horns or spikes and all with small heads, this one was different. Its body was far larger than the others, it had two black wings with purple membranes, and its head was shaped like a dog with a muzzle, connected to its body with a long and winding neck. Two horns of purple protruded from its skull in opposite directions, and smaller secondary wings connected its long winding tail to its legs. It looked wrong, and its call sounded like a baby crying. It leapt into the air and failed to sustain flight, smashing into the sand before Maegella's feet.
She lent over and picked up the hatchling. It hissed, and Maegella hissed back, her black-purple eyes meeting the voids of darkness from the dragon's gaze. They stared at each other for a moment; Aegon readied his spear when the long serpentine neck lunged at Maegalas face for it to nuzzle into her pale neck. Black against white, but purple marrying them together. Maegella had always loved the colour purple, to the point of obsession as children; they would make fun of her for it. But.. had she only been seeing fragments of what was to come?
"This one. I feel my son inside it. His soul is in this one…he wants his mother" The snake-like dragon curled its talons around Maegella's neck and perched on her like a necklace. It began to chirp in its deformed way, contented.
"Everyone spread out. Let the dragons go to whom they choose", Rhaegar commanded. All those with dragon blood slowly stepped into a loose circle with Dany in the middle, still too weak to stand. Margery covered her in her black and green shawl as Daeneryres shivered on the floor.
Aegon was finally able to get a good look at the six remaining hatchlings. The pure black, the green, the yellow with black accents, the pure silver with sapphire eyes, the pink and red and the white with colours of the rainbow. They all varied in size, but unlike Maegella's, they shared a common shape and sound.
The silver slowly walked over to Aegon the younger and sniffed his hand. The boy leant over and tried to pick it up, but the silver shot a small ball of smoke at his hands; Aegon recoiled in pain. Rhaenys looked at it with curiosity, but the dragonling paid her no heed. It walked past them to their father and tried to scale his leg.
While that happened, the white flew to Viserys' head and nearly knocked him over with force. The pink and red, the most delicate looking of the hatchlings, began to walk to Aegon, only to be pushed out of the way by another. The hatchling of dark and light green, like the colours of the Tyrells, his wife's house, bowled into the pink and before him.
The small creature looked up at him with dazzling golden eyes like liquid metal. It had small pricks of gold dotting its face and body; it was a medium size like that of a common house cat. He felt a pulling inside him, a tug, an urge he couldn't describe. It was like a click had been made in his mind and like a fog that had been clouding his life, which he had never even seen before, had lifted. The colours seemed brighter, the sounds of the world were sharper, and the smell of the air was sweeter.
"She yours, Father", he heard a voice call. Aegon looked up from his transfixed gaze on the small creature. She leapt into the air, and Aegon held out his arms. The creature was light and hot to the touch. She pressed her face against his cheek, like how Aerea would kiss him.
"I can feel her heart…in my own", he whispered in High Valyrain. Aerea held his hand and nodded as she understood his feelings. He looked up, the yellow and black and sat on Shaena's feet. The pink and red had perched itself upon Dareons shoulder.
And the largest of them all, the huge one of pure black, black eyes and rams horns, clung to Daenerys on the floor, protecting her.
"Seven dragons for seven dragons. One for each of the dragons of the wise", Maegella said softly, stroking her snake. Aegon looked at his siblings in disbelief. The Targaryens had dragons once more.
But at what cost? He thought, looking at the ash and smoke of the pyres.
Aerea pulled his hand through the stables. Wildfyre was now the size of a greyhound, his favourite breed of dog. The green dragon was unchained, her metal collar open on the dirt below.
"Aerea. I told you. She has to stay on the chain; she could hurt people" Aegon went to pick up the metal link but stopped. Wildfyre looked at him, her eyes full of intelligence and knowledge. She almost whispered to him, telling him she did not want the collar on her neck.
"She does not like it, Father. She won't fly away. Her home is here. You are here. She wants to spend time with you", Aerea added. He had a feeling she wasn't just speaking about the dragonling. Wildfyre blew smoke from her nostrils, annoyed at something. She narrowed her golden eyes.
"Aegon, my love. You have received ravens, one from King Rhaegar and one from Oberyen in Sunspear. I have not opened them; I thought we could perhaps read them together inside?" Margery, his younger wife, walked into the stables.
The sight of her brought him shame. The past few months, Aegon had spent between the capital with his brother or in the yard, training. He needed to sharpen his skills, the unrest in the West was only growing…
She was dressed in his favourite gown, green and black and gold, the colours of their new house. It was open-sleeved, showing off her slender arms on the warm summer evening. Her soft brown hair was cut short at chin length, the newest hairstyle to mimic Daeneyres' burnt-away regrowth and decorated with flowers and gold.
He had forgotten how beautiful she was. How he made her feel. He had had many lovers in his youth, from highborn to whores, especially in Dorne. But Maergey was the first person he wanted to stay with. He wanted to grow old with her, to raise a small army of dragons with her. He was his Love.
Aegon knew what she wanted. He and Margery had never been ashamed of their attraction for one another and their wants and desires.
When he told her of his past in Dorne, with both men and women, she said she had a similar one in Highgarden, but only hers was a secret. They agreed to be loyal to one another, to not let any more into their bed after their wedding, and to show devotion to one another. Aegon did not mind; Margery did everything he wanted and more.
Her only issue with Aegon was the bastard girl he sired at seventeen and how he treated her equally to his true-born son, Aemond.
Margery offered her hand out to her husband and beckoned him towards her. He placed a small kiss on his bastard-daughters head and told her to watch Wildfyre. He would never mistreat her; he had promised her mother the world; she was all he had left of her.
As he rose, Wildfyre hissed. He turned to the other end of the stables. In walked Maegella, tall, slender with a gaze sharper than Valyrain steel, followed by Isaros. He shuddered at the snake-like beast. It was larger than Wildfyre, and no one could guess the sex of the reptile. It hissed with every twirl of its head. It brought darkness with it. The Stranger. Why did she name her dragon after Death?
"Hello, Brother", she said calmly in Valyrian. Aerea smiled and greeted her aunt and
Isaros by name. Since its hatching, the only other human the Snake liked was Aerea, and the girl had grown fond of it, despite her old hesitance.
Maegella had stayed at Dragon Garden since the Festival five moons ago. She claimed she needed rest to recover from her miscarriage. But Aegon suspected alternate motives that he was too scared to voice to anyone but Margery. His sister scared him.
"Brother, I have received word from Rhaegar. As I am sure, you are to soon find out. The Freys and some other lords have started withdrawing large sums of money from the Bank. The Iron Bank has also informed us that they have received word from the Golden Company and the Second Sons. They are to receive large deposits soon. Rhaegar has commanded that I return to Riverrun and regain control of the region. You are to send loyal troops with me, and the Royal Army is deploying three Centuries to help patrol my lands", Maegella studied Wildfyre.
"Well, you have my blessing to leave at any time, Maegella. I will have Harlad prepare the troops, and they will follow you within a fortnight" Aegon sighed internally; she would finally be leaving.
"That is not why I come here, Aegon. My husband is dead, and I am to look for a new suitor. To further our bloodline and secure the Riverlands for the Targaryen. I am to marry a Bracken, or a Blackwood or some other River Lord. Of course, I shall do as our lord-brother commands, but he has granted me the liberty of my husband this time around.
However, in the meantime, I am without an heir. I would ask that I take Aerea with me to Riverrun. I have spoken to King Rhaegaer, and in turn, he has consulted the Faith and Viserys, and they all agree with my proposal. She shall be made Aerea of House Targaryen, a true Princess of the Blood of the Dragon, and I shall take her as my ward. She will be my heir until I have a child of my own".
Aegon blinked, processing what he had heard. He thought a small sigh of relief escaped Maegery's lips; she knew much of the Dragon Tongue. Aerea looked from her aunt to her father with rapid succession. A huge grin on her lips,
"I would be a Targaryen?" she, the small dragon girl, asked. The snake and the emerald dragons cuddled up to her and cooded, sharing her happiness.