Wife of the Wolf, Husband of the Sun
Chapter Twenty-Two.
Elia sighed happily as the warm afternoon sun of King's Landing warmed her skin and the air was filled with sweet scent flowers as she and her husband and her nieces sat around a table in the middle of the gardens. She had missed the warmth so much despite how much she had grown to love the north.
It gladdened her to see that Ned had seemed to grown used, at the very least he did not seem as through he was going to collapse at any rate, to the soft heat of King's Landing, it was a good sign that maybe in time he would be able to handle the scorching heat of Dorne and he would be able to see her homeland.
She also had to admit that the brief image that passed through her mind of Eddard, dressed in the clothes of her homeland, with an open boiled leather vest that would show his chest and the dark curls of hair with a few beads of sweat slipping down...
Perhaps it was a good idea that Eddard didn't come back to Dorne with her, she might not ever let him get out of her bed ever again.
With a small smile she reached out and picked up a glass of arbor gold and began to sip at it, the wine had been chilled and she didn't not think she would able to stop drinking it at that moment, she hadn't been this relaxed in a long time. Arbor gold was made by House Redwyne who were loyal vassals of house Tyrell who the Martells had something of a...complicated relationship, still the wine was worth the tiny betrayal. She would only have the one glass however, she had heard that a glass too many could hurt a child and she would rather die then harm the one that grew within her in any way.
As she put the glass back down on the table she had to fight to stop herself from giggling as she looked at Obara, the poor dear looked so uncomfortable dressed in a soft green silk dress with Myrish Lace decorating her middle and the sleeves of her dress, the poor thing looked like a little boy that had been forced to dress as a girl and her face was as dark and heavy as a storm.
Her younger sisters thankfully both looked far more comfortable in dresses of their own, Nymeria's was black and dark orange with her arms laid bare and with a small version of the speared sun of House Martell stitched on the front of her dress with orange thread, Tyene's dress was almost the complete opposite of her sister's, pale white with her arms and shoulders completely covered and a blue sash around her missed. It suited her however, with her long flaxen hair and pale skin.
Oberyn was currently away from the table, he had decided to go and find her a far more comfortable chair than the one she currently sat in despite the fact that it was completely comfortable and if she closed her eyes it might be possible for her to fall asleep in but Oberyn would not hear of it. He had been like this ever since he had found out she was pregnant and thus had charged them with the care of his daughters until he returned with this promised throne.
At the moment the youngest sand snake was staring up at her new uncle with wide eyes, disbelief held in inch of her gaze. "You truly have no oranges in the north?" She asked, her voice was high and full of disbelief. If not for the fact that had been taught better manners, mostly by her and Doran, she would mostly likely call her new uncle a liar.
If Ned was offended by Tyene's tone then he did not show it, in fact he seemed to be amused as he stared down at the little girl with a soft smile. "No, I'm afraid not. It is far too cold for oranges to grow in the north. Though I have tried them before, when I was fostered in the Eyrie when I was younger, Lord Arryn had a few crates of them brought up to the High Hall."
"Did you like them?" Tyene asked sweetly.
"Well, I only got to try one and it made my mouth tingle and I thought it to be a little sour at first, sadly before I got to try another one my friend threw an orange at someone's face and before my foster father could say anything about orange were flying through the hall." Ned revelled and he smiled as Tyene giggled loudly at her uncle's story.
"So there are no oranges in the north, what of mangos? pomegranates? Do you have any of those?" Nymeria asked and then sighed when Ned shook his head. "Forgive me but I do not think I would wish to visit the north, it sounds so cold."
"It can seem that way at times." Ned confessed but again he did not at all seem insulted and once again Elia was surprised, not by much as by now she knew her husband well and she loved him all the more but it was still always pleasant to see. Some lords would not even speak a word to a bastard let alone allow one to speak out against their own homeland but Ned spoke to her as he would any other child.
"But it is never that bad, Winterfell can be quite warm in fact. It can carry hot spring water all around it through pipes built in the walls, like veins carry blood around a man. There are some rooms in Winterfell that are actually too hot for me, you never have to be cold there if you do not wish to be." Eddard spoke as he did his voice started to sound far away and Elia knew that he was thinking of being back in Winterfell and Elia could not blame him, even now there were times at Winterfell when she found herself longing for Sunspear, or splashing her feet in one of the pools of the Water Gardens.
It was natural, to want for home. Though now, those times were starting to become fewer and fewer and here in King's Landing, when she thought of home she didn't think of the crystal blue pools of the Water Gardens or the sandy walls of Sunspear, she thought of grey towers that stretched into the grey sky, fires blazing in stone heaths and the sounds steel hitting against steel in the training yard, watching snow gently fall to the ground and watching workers from the kitchen harvesting food from the glass gardens and listening to whatever ancient tale that Old Nan decided to spin that day as she knitted, if she closed her eyes then Elia could almost hear the click-clack of her knitting needles.
It was not only Ned that had a faraway look on his face now, Nymeria was clearly trying to picture the ancient castle of the first men as well and she sighed gently. "I think that I would like to see that, one day."
"I don't." Obara spat out as she tore into the apple she was holding with ferocity of a tiger, chunks of apple and spittle flying everywhere and Elia had to resist the urge to sigh. She knew that she should have rebuked her manners but she knew that it would be a fool's errand so she decided to not even try, she truly loved all of her nieces but Obara could be so difficult.
She tried not to smile as the sudden thought that her niece reminded her somewhat of a long dark haired maid in the north, she was fairly certain that her Lord Husband saw the resemblance in temperament if not in appearance as well.
"And why is that?" Ned asked gently, no heat in his tone, no anger or accusation. Simple curiosity as to why the little snake would not want to see his home that he loved so much.
"Nowhere is better than Sunspear, it is the seat of House Martell. Those who sit the throne are the blood of the Warrior Queen Nymeria and Lord Mors Martell, I have the blood of a queen. Why would I ever want to see any distant castle in some kingdom far away?" Obara asked as she threw the apple that was little more than a core over her shoulder.
Ned didn't say anything for a moment, simply held her gaze. "Winterfell isn't just some castle, it is the seat of House Stark and the Starks themselves are the blood of Kings of Winter, do you know of them?"
She did not, the problem with Dorne and the North being so far apart from each other was that the two kingdoms didn't know much of one another and while there was always a septa or a maester at both Sunspear and the Water gardens Obara almost never attended any lessons beyond learning her letters and numbers, on everything else she relied on her father and he truly only taught her ways on how to defend herself and how to kill a man.
Obara shook her head in response to the man in front of her, he had been the only one of Oberyn's daughters that as of yet had not seemed to warn to her Aunt's new husband. "The kings of winter ruled the North when the seven kingdoms were still the seven kingdoms, and every single one of them had been Starks and the first was Bran the builder, he built the wall and Winterfell."
Then the three girls sat enrapture of all the stories that Eddard told, Nym and Tyene seemed more interested at first but before too long Obara was clearing paying attention to the stories of the old kings of the north as well, her favourite seemed to be about another King named Bran, who had burned all the navel power off the north in grief of his beloved father, it worried Elia more than a little bit that Obara could relate to such a man, what would she do if something ever happened to Oberyn?
A part of her feared for the world if that ever happened.
As Ned was focused on telling the girls stories and the girls were focused on listening, only Elia truly heard the approaching footsteps but she though nothing off it, it was just Oberyn finally coming back with her promised throne but when she turned her head to look at her brother the smile fell from her lips, not due to disappointment at who she saw but simply that she was surprised at who it was.
It had been a long time since she had ever seen Jamie Lannister, he had been more a boy than a man when she had last scene him, but it was easy for her to tell that it was him, tall and golden, golden hair with green eyes that were flecked with gold. Some said that in certain lights, the Lannisters even seemed to be made of gold and she could certainly see that.
She wasn't surprised to see him in King's Landing, Oberyns letter had mentioned that the Lannister heir was here, had come with his sister when she came to join her soon to be husband who would make her a princess but she was more than a little surprised to find him approaching her, they honestly had no reason to speak with one another. "Ser Jamie, how pleasant to see you again after all this time." She said pleasantly, there was no reason for her to not welcome him either.
Her words drew the attention of her husband and her nieces who turned to face the man, she couldn't see it do to the fact that her back was to her husband but she was fairly certain that could feel him frowning heavily. "Is there anything that we can do for you? Why don't you take a seat? It's my brother's but I am sure that he will not mind, he went to go and find another chair anyway." Elia offered as she gestured at the empty chair.
"Thank you for your kindness Princess Elia but I don't think I will, I only wanted to come and say hello as it has been a while since we saw one another." Jamie said with a smirk as his gaze turned from Elia to her husband. "Well, this must only be Lord Eddard himself. A pleasure to meet you my lord."
"A pleasure as well Ser Jamie." From the tone of Ned's voice it was clearly no great pleasure but Ser Jamie didn't say anything, merely kept that smirk on his handsome face, he was beautiful no one could deny that.
"Well, I should be on my way. I promised my sister that I would join her for dinner and it would not do to offend our future princess, by your leave Princess." Jamie said and Elia nodded, Jamie turned on his heel and walked away from the table.
As soon as Jamie was far enough away Elia turned back in her chair so she was facing Ned, her husband was frowning gently and had not taken his eyes away from Jamie and didn't until he was out of sight and then turned his head to look at Elia. "Why would he come over here to talk to us?"
"It might be as he said, he simply wanted to say hello but I don't know." Elia admitted with a sigh as she brought up her hand to run her fingers through her inky black curls. "You can be sure with people in King's Landing, it's nest of vipers."
"Papa's a viper!" Tyene pointed out and neither Ned or Elia could stop themselves from smiling at the little girl's declaration.
"He is little one, but vipers are dangerous. Your father is dangerous but he would never hurt us, you know that. The vipers here are different, they might not look it at first but they are extremely dangerous to us." Elia said as she reached out and stroked her long hair, she didn't want to scare the girl but she was smart enough to understand that the world was full of monsters that did not look like monsters.
Tyene was silent from then, her eyes narrowed in concentration.
From then the table was mostly silent, Tyene did not speak unless a question was asked to her and her sisters only spoke to one another, quietly so that Elia and Ned could not hear what they were saying and Elia and Ned said nothing to one another, simply held their hands and allowed the tightening of their grip and glances of their eyes to say everything that was needed.
The silence was broken after a few more moments when there was the sound of more footsteps approaching, they were more gentle than Ser Jamie's and they were too little to be Oberyn's either, everyone at the table turned to look at who was approaching the table, a woman with streaks of grey among her long blond hair and was dressed in a simply black gown with the only decoration being a small silver necklace. "Princess Elia, I bring an invitation from the Queen. She would ask that you come and join her for tea."
Elia blinked heavily and looked back at Ned and then at her nieces, all of them looked as surprised as she did before she turned back to the woman and offered her a gentle smile. "I would be more than happy to keep the queen company, could you please give me just a moment?" The lady bobbed her head down for a moment before walking a few steps away, not leaving but simply giving them enough room to speak in private.
"I can not deny a queen's summon, I have to go and see what she wants." Elia said as she stood from her chair. "You stay here and wait for Oberyn to return, I will be back shortly."
Ned's face was heavy and dark, he did not seem happy with this but he knew that invitation had not extended to him and he could hardly impose himself on to the queen. He stood from her chair and pressed a kiss to her cheek and rested his hand on the small swell on her stomach, she was only just barely beginning to show, if you didn't know she was pregnant than no one would ever suspect that she was pregnant. "Be careful, and hurry back."
"I will." Elia said with a gentle smile before she kissed his lips and stepped away from him, she turned and followed the woman back towards the keep.
The woman did not say anything to her on their short journey and did not decide to press her on, if she did not wish to speak then there was no reason to force conversation. It did not take them long to reach the queens rooms, not the ones in Maegor's Holdfast but the ones in the Maidenvault, it saddened her that the queen needed to flee here for any semblance of peace.
Memories of her visits to Dorne came to her mind once again Elia could only sigh gently, her heart broke for the queen.
They stood in front of the door and the woman reached out her hand and rapped her knuckles against the door and called out. "Your Grace, the Princess Elia is here to see you."
"Please show her in." The high and gentle voice called out and the woman opened the door, both Elia and the woman stepped into the room beyond.
The room was beautiful, that was the first thing that struck her. The celling was high and carved from the same red stone as the rest of the Red Keep but as the warm afternoon sun streamed in from the large open balcony, it painted the stone a lighter pink and the room was permeated with a dozen sweet scents.
These scents came from hundreds upon hundreds of flowers, lilacs and daisies and tulips, chrysanthemums from the reach and dozens and dozens of roses, red as blood and white as snow and gold as the symbol of House Tyrell but what truly struck her were just the few glimpses of blue roses that she saw.
Blue winter roses were actually quite common in the North, there were dozens in the glass gardens and all around Winterfell and she had been stricken by the sight of them, she had wondered why she had never seen anything like them before but it did not take her long to find the answer.
Apparently winter roses did not grow well in the south, If they did grow at all, then the warmth of the south would burn their petals black.
But these petals were still as blue as frost, they were alive and thriving.
But the room and the flowers nothing compared to the room's occupant, Rhaella Targaryen was a great beauty with her long beautiful silver hair that looked like spun silk flowing down to the bottom of her back and beautiful violet eyes like small amethysts. She smiled gently and rose from her chair. "Thank you Minisa, you may leave us now." She spoke gently but she looked every inch a queen.
The woman with grey in her hair nodded and walked to the door, when she had left and closed it behind her Rhaella walked forward and held out her arms to Elia. "You've grown so much my dear, hopefully you are not to big to offer me a hug."
Elia returned her smile and stepped over to her and allowed herself to be pulled into an embrace, circling her arms around Rhaella's back and closing her eyes for a moment, if she tried very hard then she could almost imagine that it was her mother holding her in that moment, her nose could smell the faintest hints of her scent, citrus and lavender.
"You're even more beautiful than your mother was." Rhaella whispered into her hair but Elia knew that it was not true at all, she was not the most beautiful woman in the world, if fact she was not the most beautiful woman in Dorne either, she knew that she was not ugly but she would never be a great beauty that would have songs written about her.
Her mother had been, before any of them had been born her mother had been the sole ruling Princess of Dorne hundreds upon hundreds of suitors came to her, they would never rule Dorne as inheritance worked different in Dorne, they had come to her because they wanted to marry a beautiful princess and she was so beautiful.
Even after all of her children had been born her beauty had not faded, her hair became streaked with grey and lines stretched across her face but these did not diminish her beauty, if anything it had simply enhanced it.
She used to wish that she would've been half as lovely as her, she still did.
"Thank you, your grace. You are so very kind." Elia said with a gentle smile before Rhaella pulled away from her and sat back down at the table, when Rhaella gave her permission to sit she sat in a chair that was placed across from her. "Forgive me for asking your grace but I do have to wonder why you summoned me? I wasn't even sure you were aware that I was here."
"Rhaegar told me that you were here." She supposed that she should have expected that, Rhaegar always told his mother everything. "And in truth I wanted to speak with you...and offer an apology."
Elia blinked heavily. "An apology? Your grace I do not need an apology, you have done nothing to wrong me." As soon as she said that the queen let out a little sigh but Elia barely heard it, she thought it might have simply been a small flow of wind at first.
"Perhaps I do not owe you an apology but my husband does, of course he will never do that and so it falls to me." Rhaella explained before she sighed again and shook her head. "I asked him not to put you aside, I begged him not to but he would not listen to me. I told him that the Dornishmen would not take it well and that it would be an insult to your mother's memory as she had arranged the match but he simply said that he was the king and his decision was final."
"Aerys has never been a kind man." The queen continued. "He was not a good brother to me and he has never been a good husband, I begged my father to not marry me to him, I begged him not to marry me to him, I dropped to my knees and pleaded, even then I knew what Aerys was, but like his son my father would not be swayed. He believed that a prince who would save all the world would come from our line."
"But what has our marriage brought? Two living sons out of half a dozen and no daughters to call my own." Rhaella spat and Elia was surprised at the bitterness and the anger in the Queen's voice, it sounded wrong to be coming from her. The queen's face crumpled and she sighed. "And no promised prince, no third child to complete my father's precious prophecy."
"Aerys slapped me when he saw that I had bored him a second son, he called me the filthiest words you could imagine and screamed at me. He needed a daughter, a son and two daughters like Aegon the conqueror and his sister wives." For a moment there was nothing but sadness behind his violet eyes and they were starting to become wet. "I have feared Aerys many times in my life, I have been angry with him many times in my life and all love I might have had for him had left me long ago but that was the first time that I could truly say that I hated him."
Then the queen, and the room was quiet. Elia reached out and took the queen's hand to try and offer whatever comfort that she could which she was sure was not all that much but still the queen gave her a gentle smile and squeezed her hand.
"You should've been Rhaegar's queen, he needs a wise woman at his side to help him with his duties and Cersei Lannister is many things but wise is not one of them." Rhaella said as she gently leaned down and pressed her lips to the top of Elia's knuckles.
"I'm sure that Lady Lannister has many fine qualities that will make her an excellent queen." None sprung to Elia's mind at the moment but she did not decided to say anything about that.
Rhaella scoffed and shook her head, her long sliver hair seemed to catch the wind flowing into the room and it billowed like a curtain. "Cersei Lannister has all her mother's beauty, in fact she is even more beautiful than Joanna ever was but she has nothing of her grace, nothing of her wit, nothing of her intelligence."
The queen suddenly turned to look at the setting sun, had it been so late when Elia had come here? Had they spent so much time in here?. "The first time I was pregnant after Rhaegar, I prayed that it would be a girl, I prayed to the mother that she would be healthy and live, she didn't. I wanted a daughter so much because I wanted my daughter, and Joanna's daughter and Loreza's daughter to be friends and companions."
"But now...both of my friends are gone and their daughters are women grown and I am unlikely to have a daughter of myself." Rhaella said and then shook her head as she tore her gaze away from the sun and locked her eyes with Elia's. "Forgive me, I did not bring you here to speak of my problems. I wanted to know of you, I am aware that your journeyed with your husband, how is he? Do you like him? Is he kind to you?"
"He is, I do. I do a lot more than like him in fact, I love him." She spoke as she thought of her husband and the queen's eyes filled with happiness for her.
"I am so happy for you my dear, does he like King's Landing? I imagine that it must seem a great deal different to the north after all." Elia nodded and explained that it had taken Ned a few days but it seemed that he was growing more used to everything now but he seemed to be growing a little weary and wished to return home soon.
"I can understand the urge to be sure but I wonder if you might ask your lord husband and your brother if they might consider staying in King's Landing for a few more weeks." When the queen saw the confusion on Elia's face she began to explain. "There is to be a tourney to celebrate their engagement, the ravens bearing invitations were sent out last night but you and your husband could represent house Stark and your brother could represent House Martell, you could all be my guests."
"It...it would be an honour your grace." And it would to be certain and it was not something that she could refuse, you didn't refuse a queen. "I will go and tell my Lord Husband and brother of your invitation."
Rhaella smiled and rose to her feet and Elia followed her. "Thank you Elia." She walked with Elia over to the door and opened it. "I shall see you son my dear." And with that it was over, as soon as Elia stepped out the door was shut behind her and she was alone in the corridors of the Maidenvault.
As she made her way back to her rooms, more than likely Eddard would have taken the girls back to their chambers as the sky was now the colour of a fresh bruise, she couldn't help but think on what had just happened and the letters that Rhaegar had brought to her.
They would stay for the Tourney but as soon as that was done they would be away from here as soon as possible.
End of Chapter Twenty-Two.
Please follow, favourite and review. The next chapter will switch over to Jamie and will be somewhat shorter than this one, constructive criticism is more than welcome.
By the way, if anyone if curious to who I would use for Elia and Ned in this story then it would be Golshifteh Farahani for Elia and Sam Claflin for Ned.