Wife of the Wolf, Husband of the Sun

Chapter Ninety-One

There was a heaviness in the air at court that Cersei had never felt before, to be sure life at the court of King Aerys had never been pleasant at the best of times but it had never been like this. Such a sheer lack of any hope, ladies wept into the squares of fabric that they kept tucked up into their sleeves as their lords stared stoically ahead, their eyes showing how dead they were on the inside.

Word had arrived the night before on the wings of a raven, and it seemed the old wives tale was true. Dark wings would always bring dark words, Prince Rhaegar of the House Targaryen, the heir to the Iron Throne, beloved to the high and low alike, her own Lord Husband, was dead. And with his death it seemed, all of their fates were sealed.

Cersei had thought that it would bring her more satisfaction to finally have Rhaegar dead for the betrayal and the shame that he had caused her and she would be lying if she said that there had not been the slightest undercurrent of sweetness in the news for her but even that had soon be stolen away from her when she had realized that in his dying, it meant that the rebels had won.

And if the rebels had won, then they had lost.

Oh, no one spoke the words allowed of course. And from the outside it would seem like the war was a long way from over, the King still sat the Iron Throne after all and he still had at least one heir that was still alive, mayhaps two if the babe in Queen Rhaella's belly was born alive and that both of them were safely tucked away in Dragonstone and out of the hands of the rebels as well as they could be while under the protection of the majority of the royal fleet.

But no one held any hope that Aerys would be able to hold the throne, he was not his son. He had ruled the court with fear and even the slightest hint of defiance was meet with trial that always end the way that the King wished it to and then they would be fed to the flames that had been stoked by his pyromancers. No, in the Red Keep the Mad King was as much a god as any of them were ever like to see.

But the thought of the king who was too afraid to have his hair and beard cut because it would mean blades in his presence leading an army into battle was almost too funny to think about. A fine jest indeed. The gods did so seem to enjoy making jests with all of them, so perhaps the king would lead the armies himself and with a bit of luck he would fall off of his horse and break his neck.

A soft coo from the cradle that she had ordered moved from the nursery into her chambers drew her attention away from the window and to it, when she came into the babe's view he let out happy noise and grabbed at her, his little hands brushing against the golden locks of her hair that fell into the cradle as she bent his head.

This one was a Targaryen to the bone, where as Rhaenys could almost be mistaken for a Lannister until one looked at her eyes, no one could make the same mistake when it came to Aemon. He had come into the world with a head full of silver hair and it had not taken long for light blue eyes that he had been born with to change into the violet colour that looked more like his grandmother's than his father's shade.

Once, to know that she had born her perfect prince such a son would have filled her with joy and pride in equal measure but now after all of the shame and the fear Cersei could not help but feel disappointed that he did not look more like her as his sister did.

Still, while he may have favoured his Father in looks the same could be said for him in temperment. Before the Queen had been sent away to Dragonstone with her son she had told her once that Rhaegar had been solemn even as a babe and that it was rare for him to cry or even to make any noise at all, it had apprently unsettled some of her ladies at the time who thought that something had been wrong with him.

In the end, they had been right.

But this one was not solemn, he giggled and gurgled and smiled at her with a mouth lacking teeth and despite everything sometimes Cersei could not help but find herself smiling back at him, the babe was hers before anyone else's and his Father was dead and so he was hers and hers alone. She bent her head and pressed a kiss to his forehead as the babe cooed at her.

A knock came at her chamber door then, she palaced the babe back in his crib and walked over to the door. When she pulled it open to see that it was Jaime, she nearly cried but held the tears back. A lion did not weep. Her twin looked awful, pale and the darkness around his eyes spoke the amount of sleep that he had been having, or the lack of it. His skin was paler than normal and being so close to him meant that she was able to fully smell the stench of smoke and burning flesh.

But even so, that did not stop her wrapping her arms around him and taking comfort in the strength of his hold, she did not think that she had ever felt more safe when Jaime's arms were around her. There was a small jab in her shoulder as Jaime rested his head on her shoulder and Cersei brought up her hand to run her fingers through his hair.

She did not know how long they stood there together like that, it could have been mere moments or it could have been a thousand moon turns but all that Cersei knew was that it had not been long enough. One of them pulled away from the other, and she could not say who it had been that had pulled away first.

"Has there been any word from Father yet?" A part of her was fearful of the answer, since the day that the first raven had arrived. You would hope that they could all agree on what exactly happened but the ravens from the castles that were still loyal to the Iron Throne that had reached them all told them different fates when it came to her Lord Father.

He had fought to the death when word had reached him that Prince Rhaegar had fallen on the field, leading a bloody charge into the forces of the rebels and taking the head of Ned Stark the regent of the boy king before he had died himself. He had bent the knee when Prince Rhaegar had died and now all the strength of the west rode alongside the rebels and they were marching on the capital now to take Aerys from his throne.

Her Father had abandoned her husband and he had fled back to the West to cower beneath Casterly Rock, Her Father had abandoned her husband but only because he could see that the battle could not be won as it was and instead he was now riding with all haste towards Storm's End to join his strength to Mace Tyrell and together they would put an end to the vile rebels.

A hundred different stories it had seemed had come to King's Landing on a hundred pair's of wings, all said something different and the only thing that they could agree on was that her husband was dead.

"No, there has been nothing yet." Jaime spoke softly and Cersei sighed heavily, turning her back on him and moving back over to the window and stared out at it as she was lost in her thoughts and consider what it all meant.

In that moment she hated him, if he had just agreed with her then both she and both of her children would be safe away in Casterly Rock and there would be nothing to fear, nothing what so ever. Now, she was trapped here in the Red Keep and if the King thought that Lord Tywin had betrayed him then no doubt it would be herself and Jaime who would pay the price for it.

When something wet and damp began to roll down her cheek, Cersei brought up her sleeve and roughly rubbed at her cheek and her eyes but no matter how hard she rubbed, no matter how much she hated herself for being so weak, the tears would not stop coming and the fear, the empty bottomless pit of it deep down beneath all of the rage threatened to swallow her up.

A sob burst out of her chest, a ravaged and wrecked thing and then she was lost and the tears kept coming. A heartbeat later and Jaime turned her to face him and Cersei was in his arms again, his lips were pressed to the top of her head and moments later his lips were pressed against hers and he held her hard against him.

She spoke of her fears, as she could only do with him and Jaime swore that he would keep her safe and the children safe and that he would kill anyone who tried to harm her. It did not matter if it was the King, it did not matter if it was Father, it did not matter if it was Ned Stark and every single rebel there ever was. He would kill all of them.

Cersei kissed him until her lungs burned from the lack of air but that did not matter, she simply kissed him all the deeper. At some point, they fell into the bed together and she loved him as best as she ever could. Her claws dug deep into his back as he thrust inside of her her, all the fear and all the rage and everything else fell away and it was just the both of them.

He did not leave her bed, he had been sent to guard her for the night so none would ask where he was, until the morning. The pale morning light shone through the windows and it made his golden hair shine. Cersei ran her fingers through his curls and let her other hand drop to her belly, hoping that his seed would quicken in her.

Rhaegar had not laid with her the last time he had been in the capital, but no one else knew that. If a babe was born from her, everyone would just assume that it was his. And only she and Jaime would knew the truth of it as their perfect babe, with goldern curls and bright emerald eyes would be brought into the world.

Oh yes, she would like that.

Another knock came to the door then, this time it was rapid and urgent and they did not let up. Jaime stirred then and Cersei quickly rose from the bed, grabbing her sleeping gown of green silk and wrapped it around herself. "Quickly now, under the bed." She hissed at him as she fumbled to tie the gown closed.

At least he did not argue with her and once Jaime and his clothes were out of sight, Cersei went to pull the door open with a sharp word on her tongue for disturbing her at so early an hour but something about the look on the girl's face, the hope and relife in her eyes stayed her hand for the moment and Cersei held her tongue, for the moment. "What is it, what do you want?"

"Oh, your Grace! It's wonderful." The girl was a servent in the Red Keep, and was pretty in a common sort of way. She could not remember the last time she had seen anyone that happy in the Red Keep, Cersei remembered that later when all was done. The way the girl had smiled. "Your Father and his armies, they are outside the city gates. He has come to defend the city! We are saved!"

End of Chapter Ninety-One

Another short chapter, the shortest I've written in awhile but I needed to get to the point and I didn't want to make it longer than it had to be. But an important one that I think you will understand why later.

Next chapter, I promise will be a lot longer than this one and I can tell you who the P.O.V will be but I don't think I will because I want you to guess, if you can.

And also oh my god, as of this chapter this story has over two thousand followers and I am so very grateful for that so thank you so much for that.

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With love,

DiscordantSymphony