Wife of the Wolf, Husband of the Sun
Chapter Fifty-Two
"Once, a very long time ago. A humble knight with a humble name was wandering the Red Mountains of Dorne, hoping to find some holdfast where he might swear his sword. He would sleep in caves and under the few trees that grew there, breaking his fast on the lemons and figs that grew on them in the morning and would stare up at the star filled sky at night. On those nights, he saw a thousand, thousand different colours that men would have no names for, and for some to this day they still would not."
"But one night, no different that any other night, as the man lay himself on the warm ground and waited for sleep to claim him. He saw a star falling through the night sky, it was a sliver light that blazed through the sky and seemed to leave a trail that would never fade. As the knight watched it fall through the night sky, he knew that he had to follow it. To the end of the world and beyond, if that was what was required."
"Thankfully, he didn't quite have to go that far. The star had landed on an island in the middle of the mouth of the great river Torentine, burning in the middle of a great pit. It's flames were silver and the smoke was clear. In the smoke and the light, a woman appeared. Her hair was a wildfire and her eyes were moonstones, from her breast she pulled out a greatsword and gestured for the knight to kneel."
"Once the man had knelt before her, the lady of the light pressed the sword blade to both of his shoulders. The steel of the blade cut through his cloth and leather and bite into his skin, and yet he had never know a sweeter kiss from a maid. As the sun rose, the lady of light decreed that knight the Sword of the Morning and she faded away with the Dawn, but not before she charged him with building a seat and becoming the greatest knight of them at all."
"And then, hundreds of days and hundreds of nights he laboured. He built a great castle of white stone, with a long tower that overlooked the sea, to see all enemies who could come and threaten Dorne, those who would kill it's men, burn it's castles and keeps and holdfasts. Soon they named themselves kings, only forsaking the title when Nymeria landed. And to this day, Starfall still stands and the same sword that the lady of light produced from her breast continued to be passed down through the ages, not to the eldest son, but to whoever proved themselves the equal of that first knight, worthy of the title of the Sword of the Morning."
"Could I be the sword of the morning Mama?" Lauryn asked as she stared up at her with her soft grey eyes, her cloth princess doll held tightly in her little arms. "Can I defend all of Dorne?"
Ashara smiled down at her, her little girl had brought her more joy than she knew that she had any right too. She reached out to push one of her curls back behind her ear. "You can go back to Dorne one day my love, you can live at Starfall. Perhaps my big brother will allow you to serve in his garrison, you can learn to use a sword and a spear if that's what you wish but only a knight can be the Sword of the Morning and you can't be a knight."
"Why not?" The little girl sounded so offended and when Ashara let out a little laugh at the tone, it only seemed to make Lauryn grow more annoyed with her. "I could be a knight! I can learn how to use a sword, and the horse master said that when I am little bit bigger I can learn how to ride a pony. I could be a better knight than anyone."
"I'm sure that you could my love, but only men can be knights. I know it isn't fair but that is the way it has always been and likely the way it will always be." How many men would accept a female knight? How many little boys would dream of following a female knight? How many boys would consent to squire for a woman? How many wouldn't try to take advantage? Ashara knew how cruel the world could be.
Lauryn looked upset still but didn't ask any more questions as she played with her doll, she looked a bit tired than she did before she had done and Ashara wasn't at all surprised. The story had always knocked her down when she was a babe in her cradle before she was old enough to ask any questions about it. Of course, it had been the same with her according to her brothers.
Every Dayne, either from Starfall or High Hermitage, had been told that story when they were still at breast. How much truth there was in it was a different matter entirely, without a doubt the first Daynes settled on the island in the mouth of the Torentine and there they began to build the great castle that Starfall would become and there was certainly a falling star.
But she some how doubted that Dawn had been pulled out of the breast of a maiden made out of starlight, everyone knew that Dawn had been made from the stars but only from a metal that had been pulled from the falling star. The idea of a maid who swore a humble knight to service simply came about a great deal later on after the tale had been told so many times over.
And yet, she couldn't deny that she had always loved the story. She still loved it in truth, even now. When she had been a little girl and Arthur had been younger they had always played the Sword of the Morning and the Star Maiden, when Arnold had been younger and not yet begun his training to become the Lord of Starfall he would play as well as the Crimson Knight.
That was a different version of the story and not one that Ashara would ever tell her daughter, it was a grimmer version of it and often was the one that most little boys wanted to hear it as it was full of blood and long battles and maids in need of a rescue. In that version, the Crimson Knight was born from a second star the fell not long after the first star did so.
He stood at eight feet tall and his armour was cherry red from the heat, smoke as black as pitch rising up from it as he stood there with a sword that was as black as the night sky. He never lifted his helm, and from inside of it a red light like the fires of the worst of the Seven Hells emanated. His greaves were barbed and his gauntlets shaped like claws.
In that version, the Crimson Knight absconded with the lady of the light and took her over the mountains to a large and dark fortress which had dominated the mountains of Northern Dorne for as long as the mountains had stood, it had long been abandoned and no one had ever known as to what house it had belonged to if it ever had. But if you asked anyone who had explored it, they would all tell you the same thing.
There was the feeling that you did not belong there, and in the dark of the night you could hear ghastly moans from deep within the cellars, moans that would compel anyone to venture down into the dark depths and the misery that they suffered from. But if you did go down into them, you would find nothing but darkness, rats and a chill waiting for you.
The knight who had followed the falling star that far would not abandoned the lady of starlight and thus followed them over the high passes until he himself arrived at the foot of the fort, from outside he could hear the cries and screams and laments of the poor lady as she was made to suffer a thousand humiliations and indignities. A resurgence of resolve filled him then and the knight swore to the gods that he would not leave without the lady of light.
He marched around the castle and yet there was no weak point for him to exploit, no crack which he could slip into. It would take a mighty host to lay siege on to the castle, something that the knight did not have. There were some holdfasts and castles close to the dark fort of course but the knight was humble and did not know any of the lords by name and none would raise a host for a knight who had come to them, swearing that a knight and a maid had fallen from the sky in the heart of stars, then he would be turned away and be accused of having addled wits and that would be the best outcome.
With a cry of frustration, the knight drew back his sword and swung it into the pitch black stone of the wall. To the knight's amazement, the blade didn't shatter into a thousand pieces and instead, a crack formed in the wall. It was small and he almost couldn't see it, but it was there. He swung his sword again and again like it was a war hammer and the crack grew and grew.
For how long he stood there, swinging his sword, no man could say but soon enough the wall gave way to him, a large enough fissure that he could slip through having formed in front of him. He had entered the crack, half crawling and half walking, the damp air inside taking away the warm heat from the outside.
The knight soon found himself in the dark cellars of the fort, a thousand ghastly moans waiting for him deeper in the darkness. And yet, a fair maid like no other awaited him and thus he steeled himself against whatever dangers he might face and pressed on. As he moved through the darkness he could feel someone moving with him, as if someone was following him, or moving towards him. In the total darkness, it was hard to tell. But there was something there with him, which ever direction the tunnel took, no matter how fast he walked, he could feel it with him.
Soon enough, as he kept walking, he came to the stone steps and slowly began to climb them to the main hall of the keep, it was as large as it was bare with the only decorations seeming to be the silk of the spider webs high up in the corners. There was a raised dais but with no great seat or table set up, it was bare but as he had approached, he could sense something. Like something should have been there.
As he stepped away from the dias, he could hear noise. It almost sounded like music and cheering, he walked down the length of the hall to the great doors at the end and pushed them open, both of them screaming in protest. Across from the keep, there was another hall. A large column of smoke was drifting into the air, but there was no hint of roasting meat in the air.
The knight pushed the doors open and walked in, on either side of the hall were long trestle tables with hundreds of men sitting on either side, they were caught in some sort of half a life, neither dead nor living. A ragged red slash on all of their throats, almost as mocking as the smiles on their faces and their eyes were black and empty as a grave pit.
The Crimson Knight was sitting at the table, a large pewter goblet clutched in a mailed hand, overflowing with a wine as red as blood though he made no move to drink from it, how he could was a mystery as he kept his helm on his head. In the light of the torches, his cherry red glow was as black as night and the lady of light, who was sitting next to him with a golden collar wrapped around her delicate throat, golden chains linking it to the golden fetters around her wrists and around her ankles, even with the tears on her cheeks from the great sorrow of captivity she was still the most beautiful thing that any man would be lucky enough to see.
The sight of the cruelty that had been inflicted on the great beauty from the stars filled the knight with a deep rage and he drew his sword and challenged the Crimson Knight to a duel, the victor would be allowed to take the Lady of the Light for his bride. The Crimson Knight laughed, it's laughter was deep and echoed in the helm till it sounded like a demon that had crawled out of the hell, his hall of dead men laughing with him.
Still, the Crimson Knight stood from his seat and with one long, great stride he stood over the table and drew his great sword from the sheath that was slung over his back. The black blade was almost as tall as he is and looked sharp enough to cut through metal plate as though it was nothing. He strode down the length of the hall towards the mortal knight and he raised his blade as the other knight raised his to shield to try and block the blow.
The Crimson Knight let out another laugh and drew black his blade with one hand, like a smaller man would wield a dagger, and swung it down. The blade cut through the shield and came to a stop, wedged into the cut that it had made. The force of the blow had sent shockwaves through his arm, breaking it and causing the knight to lose his footing and falling to the floor.
The knight tried to stand but the pain in his arm was overwhelming and he could feel the bile tickling at the back of his throat. The Crimson Knight placed his armoured boot on the chest and pressed down slightly, the knight felt the bones in his chest cracking and he was able to hold on to enough of his pride to not scream as the monster above him pressed down on his chest.
The knight tried to use his free hand to reach his sword but no matter how hard he tried to get it, tried to stretch his fingers further, the sword came no closer even though it was just a few inches away from his grasp. The hilt of it almost seemed to be mocking him and if it wasn't, the laughter he heard all around him was most certainly doing it.
The monster in the form of a man raised his great sword and with a savage cry he thrust it down and split his breastplate in half, the steel burrowing into his chest. The knight stared at the black steel blade sticking out of his chest, coughed up a mouthful of blood and died. The great hall filled with cheers as the Crimson Knight pulled his sword free and held it high.
But as he turned to go back to his seat, the Lady of Light ran to her fallen knight and held him in her arms. She kissed his brow and wept tears for him as she had never wept for any man and kissed him deep on the lips. The Crimson Knight dragged her away from the body but before they could reach their places back at the table, a gasp went all through out the hall. The wandering knight had stood up, and while no blood was escaping from the wound on his chest, still it remained there.
The Crimson Knight marched over to him and raised his blade, but this time the knight was ready for him. His strength was like no mortal man and thus he dodged and ducked and kept his distance and through out it all, neither knight seemed to tire. With a cry of frustration, the Crimson Knight raised his great sword and swung it down with all of his strength, meaning to split the mortal knight's head in half with a single blow.
The wandering knight had dodged, and had taken his opening. Driving his sword through a gap in his armour where the shoulder guard met the breast plate. The knight gave the titan not a moment to recover as he drew his blade back once again and shoved it through the eye slight of his helm. The knight let out a great bellow, equal parts rage and pain and fear and turned to dust.
And then his hall turned to dust, his host of the dammed, his walls and his stables and his wells and cellars and dungeons and where once a great fortress had stood, now only a mound of fine black dust stood, the knight one side and the Lady of Light on the other. The Lady's chains had turned to dust as well, though the gold that had bound her had turned to the same black dust that that walls had done.
All that remained, was the Crimson Knight's great sword. The Lady of Light picked it up with a strength that no mortal woman had ever possessed. She claimed that the blood that had stained it was that of one of the greatest heroes that she had ever know, she placed a kiss to the dark steel and it turned into the brightest silver that any man had ever seen.
From then on the story turned out much the same, she named the knight The sword of the morning, she left when Dawn came and the knight returned to the island to build Starfall. But this version had always been a favourite of the squires and pages and stable boys, there were battles and quests and sorcery and all the things that little boys loved.
Though, she would wait till Lauryn was a little older till she told her that one. Her daughter had fallen to asleep while she had been lost in her thoughts and thus she knelt down, carried her over to the cradle though no doubt the time would come when she would soon need a little bed of her own, sat her down in it and placed her cloth doll at the side of her.
The sound of the door opening made her turn around, and while it was not ladylike, Ashara made no effort to hide the groan when she saw Brandon walking into the room. She had asked him, with as much gentleness as she could, to keep away from her and away from Lauryn. Of course, it was difficult when she was in his home and Lauryn was his daughter as well.
It was her own fault, of course. Elia had given her the chance to get away, to go back to Dorne and leave this foolishness behind. They could be back in Starfall by now, she could take Lauryn to the top of the Palestone Sword and watched as the morning sun turned the blue sky the most loveliest pink that the world had ever seen.
And the way Elia had looked at her when she had turned her down, when she had told her that she would stay. She had been so certain that it had been the right decision, or so it had seemed at the time. All she had seen was that her friend, her sister, wanted rid of her to make her own life easier. Or at the very least, at the time, that was how it seemed.
She had been foolish, she hadn't seen the rope that Elia had thrown to her.
It was Catelyn that made her realise how stupid she was being, how selfish. Watching her belly swell, watching her as she hummed and went about her business, claiming that the Mother's gift did not call for idleness. It was seeing how very, very happy she seemed to be while at the same time knowing nothing of what was happening behind her back. That was what had made her mind up for her.
"I asked you to leave me be." She pointed out weakly before she walked over to the window of the nursery, also standing in front of Lauryn's cradle. Whatever else happened, she was not going to let him have her.
"It's a pity this isn't your home, nor can you tell me what to do and you shall not keep my own child from me." There was a dark growl in his voice and for the first time, she remembered that the wolf blood ran wild and hot in Brandon's veins and a wolf was not as like to let any man, and certainly not any woman, tell him what to do. "You're being childish."
The sheer gall made her laugh, though it was a dark and bitter thing. She shook her head. "I am being childish? I am trying to be an adult, this can not be, this will not be. You have a lady wife, and the both of us have shamed her enough. I pray to the Seven every night that they will forgive me for being as foolish and weak as I have, now, you will please leave me Lord Brandon."
She heard Brandon stepping up behind her and she was ready to spin around and smack him if that was what it took to make him go away but before she could move, Brandon wrapped her arms around her waist and rested his hands on her stomach before he began to kiss and nip at her neck, blowing on it as well, the heat of his breath making her shiver. "Do you honestly think that I haven't noticed? My lady wife's belly hasn't been the only one that's been swelling? How long?"
Ashara closed her eyes and felt tears running down her cheeks the shame and the love and the hate and the fear and the desire wrestling inside her for control threatening to destroy her. She exhaled. "I've known for half a moon."
"Well there we are then." He kissed her neck again and they stood there in silence. "I am leaving Winterfell tonight, I am leaving and I am taking you and Lauryn with me even if I have to tie you up, gag you and carry you over my shoulder down to the stables and throw you across my house like you're a tied up sow."
"Catelyn's your wife, she's going to have your child."
"A wife chosen for me, a child I don't want. You are someone I would have married a thousand times over, carrying a child I want and has already given me one." He sounded convincing, did he not understand what he was truly speaking off. She wanted to turn to look at him, to look into his eyes but he held her firm. "We can go, across the Narrow Sea, to someone nowhere will find us. I was never meant to be a Lord, Father was fooling himself by trying to make me one. I'll take up work as a sellsword, I've only ever been good at fighting and fucking. I'll make us enough coin to buy a manse and we will live there for the rest of our days."
She wanted to tell him know, she wanted to scream and curse at him. She wanted to slap him and tell him a selfish fool he was, that had no care for anyone but himself and what he wanted. She wanted to break free of his hold, take Lauryn and flee to Lord Rickard and ask him to arrange a galley from White Harbour to take her to Dorne and have her child in Starfall, surrounded by those that she loved more than anyone in the world.
But Ashara Dayne didn't do any of that, she simply closed her eyes, nodded and fell.
End of Chapter Fifty-Two.
Another chapter down, please leave a follow, a favourite and a review if you enjoyed.
With much love,
DiscordantSymphony