Wife of the Wolf, Husband of the Sun

Chapter Ninety-Three

The wheelhouse jutted violenty and Elia very nearly went tumbling out of her seat, her hand coming up to rest protectively against the bump of her belly. She breathed deep and rested back in her seat, allowing her eyes to fall closed as she tried to catch her breath while at the same time rubbing circles over her belly, trying to sooth the babe who was now kicking up a storm.

Lady Catelyn smiled at her as her son kicked his legs back and forth while he babbled to himself, nonsense words but they were so sweet to hear. Jon looked like a Stark, the agreement made by Lord Hoster and Lord Rickard also named him as one even if he would be taken out of the line of succesion to Winterfell, the name only a small prize to ensure to the rest of the world that Jon was not a bastard and that Cat did not bare any shame. "Are you well, Princess Elia? I remember well what it was like to bear a child who seems to view your insides as their own grounds to kick as much as they please to."

There was no irritation in her words and when she had finished she bent her head to press a kiss to the top of Jon's head. The gesture and the words brought a smile to Elia's face, though to anyone with even the slighest of perception would be able to see that it was tinged with sadness as memories came rushing back to her.

How long ago had it been now? It certainly seem like an entirely different life since she had been travelling to Winterfell all the way from Sunspear, on the way to take as her husband a Northman that she had only ever seen at a glance across feast halls and before she had arrived in the North had probably only ever spoken perhaps five words to, with her dearest friend and her baby daughter in her lap.

Gods, she did miss Ashara. She had tried not to, she even tried to hate her for a very long time after all had been said and done and yet she had never been able to manage it. Everytime she had tried, her mind just took her back to the hazy days at the Water Gardens when the sun had shone so brightly and yet never burned and the oranges were always just ripe and were so sweet to the taste.

Ashara had always been so bold, even for a Dornish girl. Not as bold as Oberyn, of course, but then very few people were. All the same she was bolder than Elia had ever been, sneaking into places that she should not have been and jumping into the pools and starting water fights with anyone foolhardy enough to challenge her.

Once, she had climbed up the highest tree in the Water Gardens and threw three overly ripe blood oranges down at her brother, and when Arthur Dayne tried to climb and capture her to perform vegence for ruining his silk doublet Ashara had only laughed and leapt from tree to tree like one of the monkeys from the Summer Islands, her laughter like a song.

Even when she had fell and broke her arm and both Elia and Ashara's mother had scolded her for it, that had done nothing to dissaude her and once her arm was healed up again she had climbed. It was impossible to deal with her, and it was impossible for Elia to live without her as well. Ashara had been the sister that Elia had never had.

And Lauryn had been as much a niece to her as any of the girls that Oberyn had one by one brought back to Dorne, Elia had loved her as soon as she had looked at her and she had been so happy when she had realised that Ashara would be bringing her to the North with them. But now, Elia didn't even know where either of them were.

Across the sea, more than like and beyond her reach. She tried her hardest not to sigh in sadness out loud, if only to stop Catelyn from asking her what was wrong. When it came to Ashara, Elia did not expect to get much sympathy from Cat and it wasn't as though Elia could truly blame her for that.

"I am well enough, thank you for asking Lady Catelyn." Elia spoke, painting a gentle smile on her face and hoping that it looked real enough as the babe finally settled underneath her palm. "And I remember it well from the last time, I simply think that they wish to be out of me and meet the world at last." Poor little thing, to be born into a world where blood and fire and steel and smoke was the order of the day.

King Aerys might indeed be dead, but that did not mean that all the fighting was done. It would take time for word to reach all corners of Westeros and until then it would not be safe to travel the roads without guards. And travel they needed to do. Lady Catelyn herself had come down from the Vale into the Riverlands and back to the castle she had been born in with three hundred knights to see her safely there, having taken the journey at the command of her Lord Father.

Five days after she had arrived word had reached Riverrun that the Mad King was dead there had been great cheer, Elia had almost been able to taste it in the air. Grown men cheered, serving maids dropped whatever it was that they were in the middle and danced in the middle of the courtyard and the corridors of the castle. The death of the king, in their minds, meant the end of the war.

Of course, it was never so simply as that but even Elia had not been able to hold back a smile when the word had reached her ears. It did not mean that the war had come to an end, but it did mean that the end was more in sight than it had been for so very long.

The raven that had brought the news had also brought with it a command from Lord Hoster, both his daughters were to journey to King's Landing as soon as they received the missive. There had been nothing in the letter about Elia herself journeying with them to the capital, but there had been nothing in it that requested she stay within Riverrun.

Even if it had, Elia would have disobeyed it. Ned was at the city and she needed to see him now that the worst of the fighting was done, she needed to see with her own eyes that he was unharmed. And she wanted him to be there when she did finally give birth, it wouldn't be too far away now after all and it still stung deep within her that Ned had not been there when she had brought Mors and Torrhen into the world, even knowing that the blame for that could not be laid at either of their feet.

No, the man who could be blamed for that was dead now. He had been killed like a dog, by a man who was sworn to protect him. By the son of the man who had once been his Hand of the King, a dear friend. It was a sad end, and if it had happened to anyone else then Elia might have felt sorrow for them, but this was Aerys of the House Targaryen, the Second of his Name, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, King of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men and the Protector of the Realm. The man who had forced her away from her husband all in the name of some sick joke against Tywin Lannister, a man who burned women and children and holy men alive for no crimes.

Elia hoped that he was suffering in the worst of the Seven Hells right now. Hate was such an easy word to throw about, children spoke about hating their siblings when they did something as simple as taking their toys, women screamed that they hated their husbands as the pain ripped through them as they laboured to bring their children into the world.

But Elia knew that they knew nothing of true hate, because what she felt for Aerys of House Targaryen was nothing but hate. She did not like it, and yet she did not think that she could let it go. She did not think that she could forgive him even if she wished to, and she did not wish to. She wanted to hate him, it was nothing less than he deserved.

She did have to wonder what had become of Ser Jaime, it had been a long time in truth since her thoughts had last turned to him. He had seen her safely home, he had been there when her children had been born and now he was a kingslayer. An oathbreaker. It was not a thing that many would ever be able to find themselves to forgive, to break such sacred oaths and to commit such a treachery.

Elia however, thought that she might yet be able to. Someone needed to put an end to the King sooner or later, at least now it was finally done. She wondered if Lord Tywin had managed to play a part in the former King's death, if he had managed to somehow to get instructions to his son while he was in the Red Keep to put an end to Aerys.

She somewhat doubted it, considering that he had not been pleased when she had requested that Jaime see her back to the North, having his golden heir curse his own name by such a way by commiting two of what so many saw as the greatest evils that any man could ever commit did not seem like something that Lord Tywin would want his son to have other his head. Elia would certainly not want her sons to have to live with it.

But then, she was not Lord Tywin. Who knew what sort of plans he had created inside his head to come out on top of all of this, certainly abandoning Rhaegar had not been above him in order to ensure his own survival and the survival of his house. Who was to say that sacrificing his own son was beyond him? Certainly how he had shoved poor Tyrion away in a dark corner for most of his life at Casterly Rock.

Elia was drawn out of her musings on the matter when Lysa Tully let out another long suffering sigh, which had to be at least the twentieth time of the day. It was odd to think that she would miss the days when Lysa avoided all of them by simply staying in her room, but a few days being stuck with her in the wheelhouse and she was craving for them once again.

She had hoped that Catelyn might have been able to reach through to her sister when she had arrived, but it seemed that she kepts her walls up just as much to her as she had done to the rest of them. Her mood had not been improved by her Father's summons to say the least. But it seemed that even with her rage against the entire world and everyone in it, she would still not bring herself to disobey Hoster Tully.

Elia cleared her throat. "And you, Lady Lysa, are you well? I for one am certain that I would like nothing more than to stretch my legs, it shouldn't be long now till we reach the capital, I am certain that I recognise some of these hills and trees now, I don't think that it should be any more than an hour, at the very most."

Lysa simply glowered at her and turned her head away from her to look back out the window. Catelyn looked at her sister with disapproval in her eyes before she turned her attention back to her son.

Thankfully, Elia had not been lying when she had said that she did not think that they were far from King's Landing, in fact it was less that an hour later that the walls of the city came into view of the wheelhouse, and along with them the vast field of tents that spread out from the city in every direction. Elia frowned as glanced around at the armies that had camped outside the city walls through the wheelhouse window.

Lion banners fluttered in the breeze alongside falcon, wolf, trout and speared sun. Even in the wheelhouse, Elia was certain that she could feel the tension in the air. They had been very fortunate that it did not seem that there had been an incident yet, but she did have to wonder how long that luck would manage to hold, not long ago the men in these armies had been killing one another and now they were camping so close to one another, it would not surprise her if there had not been one or two incidents all ready.

The wheelhouse trundled through the city gates and the sights within the wall did little to improve her mood, smashed in doors and burned down buildings and the sounds of crows cawing in the distance, fighting over a meal no doubt. War it seemed did not leave anyone untouched by it's brutallity in the end, she wondered how many would never be able to recover from it.

But there was recovery to be seen, if you looked for it. There were stalls with fresh food being sold, fruit and vegetables and fish caught from the harbor. There were not many people walking between the stalls, she imagined that most of them were still too terrified to come out of their homes after their city had endured such a brutal sacking, but there were people there and Elia could not stop a smile from crossing on her face when she heard a woman in a brown dress complain to the fishwife about the quality of the catch, as two little children clung to her skirts.

It just seemed so normal, like a conversation that would happen any other day when the city was alive and all the people were alive and out of their homes and perhaps it made her a fool but it gave her hope that perhaps things would truly get better, the city had the chance to rebuild, if the Highborn supported the lowborn in doing so.

Renly's regents and his hand would need to do so, she hoped that they would at least. She was certain that Ned would insist on it, but she knew her husband and she knew that he wanted to go home. So did she, but the sight of the city in such a state touched something deep inside of her. And if she knew her husband, and how he held duty, if the rest of the regents asked him to stay then Elia did not think that Ned would deny them.

And Elia wasn't certain if she would want him to.

The rest of the journey up to the Red Keep did not take long and it was undertaken in silence and Elia was left alone with her own thoughts. Many of them surprised her, many of them she did not like. Her fingers began to tap against her belly again and again, trying to drum out her thoughts turning them over again and again in her mind.

The wheelhouse finally came to a stop into the Red Keep's courtyard when it trundled through the castle gates and the door to it was opened gently, allowing the pale sunlight to flood into the carriage. A hand was held out and Elia took it first and was helped out from the wheelhouse into the castle courtyard and the fresh air.

Oberyn smiled at her as he let go of her hand, he looked a great deal better than he had done since he had finally managed to get out of that bed and yet Elia would have still perferred for him to have remained at Riverrun for just a little while longer, just to make certain that he was fully recovered from his wounds as to her eyes he still looked a little to pale, each breath seemed to take a little too much effort.

But her brother would not be told and he had insisted that he ride with them to the city, and none of the men who had rode with them had voiced any concern about him all through out their journey and Elia had insisted to all of them that they tell her if it seemed that her brother was lagging behind or that he seemed to be taking a turn for the worse.

Oberyn's pride might not forgive her, but it was not his pride that she cared about. Only his life. Thankfully, it seemed that her brother had recovered enough and none of the men had come forward to her at any of the times they had stopped to voice any concern about him so perhaps in the end she was simply worrying about nothing.

But he was her little brother, she was always meant to worry for him. She had never known a day when she hadn't.

Lady Catelyn was the next to be helped out of the wheelhouse with her son in her arms and as her sister was being helped out, a smile spread across her face at she soon caught sight of Ser Elbert Arryn walking across the courtyard towards them. The heir to the Vale took his wife into his arms and kissed her deeply as the babe in her arms tugged at his doublet.

Elbert let out a chuckle, the sort of chuckle that men gave when they saw children do something so utterly adorable. He took Jon from his mother's arms and pressed a kiss to the boy's forehead. "Now then, how are you my little lord?" Ser Elbert asked the boy who began to babble at him the same sort of nonsense that in the wheelhouse he had been saying to his Mother, every now and then the knight nodded at the boy and made a noise of contemplation as though the young one had said something of deep importance and great insight.

It was a heartwarming sight, Elia was not sure she knew many men who would be so willing to raise a child of his wife's who was not his own blood as well as be so open and full of affection for them. Elia was glad that Catelyn had this, it was nothing less than she deserved considering everything that had happened to her up until now.

Elia started to feel like she was intruding on a moment that had nothing to do with her and so she began to walk over to Maegor's Holdfast with Oberyn following behind her, the drawbridge was down and a man with the falcon of House Arryn stitched over his breast was guarding the other side of it. The man nodded at them and allowed them to pass.

How long had it been since she had been in Maegor's Holdfast? A very long time ago it seemed, everything about her life before the war had started seemed like it had happened a lifetime ago. And for some reason, she had the sense that no matter what happened going forward that nothing would ever be like it was before the war.

"My Prince, My Princess." A voice called to them from further up the corridor they were walking through it. The woman who it belonged to approached them, a smile on her beautiful face that was not marred at all by the long cut that ran down her cheek. Nymeria Toland was dressed in a man's doublet and a man's trousers with a sword belt tied tightly around her waist. "It's very good to see the both of you, I am glad to see that you are recovered Prince Oberyn. My men told me that they saw you be wounded, no news was able to reach us and so we thought you might have left this world."

Oberyn scoffed, but it was one filled with humor instead of scorn. "Please my Lady, no northerner will ever be my end. If I am ever to die, it will be at the end of a Dornish blade. I will have it no other way."

Elia stepped forward and took hold of Nymeria's hands, for all that she had lead her own men and fought with a blade her hands were still soft. "And we are glad to see that you are well, my Lady. We were most concerned for you, cut off from the Riverlands as you were. Though we are certain that the efforts of yourself and your men in your raiding is in no small part to thank for our victory."

"You are very generous, Princess." Lady Toland spoke, her thumb running over Elia's knuckles breifly. "I did what little that I could, if the truth is to be told. Aerys might have seen fit to hide behind his walls but I saw no need to make him think that he was any safer there, a few fields burned here and there meant less food for him here in the Red Keep."

Elia was almost tempted to remind her that it also meant less food for the people in the city below who had commited no crime, but she did not do so. If for nothing else, she had no ground with which to stand on in order to rebuke Lady Torland. Elia had brought the Ironborn into this war after all. How many fields had they burned? How many children had they murdered? How many women had they raped?

Elia did not like to think about it.

"I must give praise to your husband, Princess Elia." Nymeria's words brought her out of her thoughts. "He was not alone in it of course, Jon Arryn and Hoster Tully were here to aid him in doing so but he has given great effort in aiding the poor wretchs of this city and to help them rebulid from Lord Tywin's brutallity. It is a remarkable thing."

"Ned is a remarkable man, my Lady. More importantly than that, he is a very good one. And a man that I am proud beyond any measure to call my husband." Elia's heart longed for him now more than it ever had done before. "I would now beg your leave my Lady, I would like to see him as soon as is possible."

"Of course, my Princess. I did not mean to dely you, though I hope that you will come and see me in the days to come for us to have a proper conversation." And with a final nod to the both of them, Lady Nymeria was gone almost as quickly as she appeared and Elia and Oberyn continued on their way.

When the Red Keep had been taken, it seemed that all commands had been coming out of the King's solar and so that was their final destination. It did not take the two of them long to find their way there. Two men, both with a direwolf stiched over their breasts, announces to her that Ned was in there and Elia turned to face her brother. "I'd like to see him on my own. Oberyn, whatever you go and do in the meantime please do not cause a fight or get yourself in any other trouble, you aren't fully recovered yet."

"Dear sister, you worry for me far too much." He sighed, putting on a murmer's show of making it a long suffering one. "What would I do without you?"

"You'll never have to find out." Elia said with a small smile.

"How fortunate I am then." Oberyn said with a smile of his own and then leaned in to press a kiss to her cheek and then walked down the corridor and away while Elia walked over to the door of the royal solar and the older of the two guards, one she had more than once seen on the walls of Winterfell, nodded at her and then turned to opened the door enough and poked his head inside.

After a moment he pulled his head out and turned back to face her. "Lord Eddard asks for you to come in, Princess Elia." He then opened the door for her and Elia stepped inside.

As soon as she was inside, Ned hurried over to her and took hold of her face and kissed her deeply and Elia kissed just as deeply back. She was not certain how long they stood together, but she did know that when Ned did finally pull away from her that her chest ached from needing air and so she was quick to supply it with such.

After a moment, she laid her head against Ned's chest and let out a low breath. Ned was the first to pull away but his hand came up to cradle her cheek tenderly. "You are going to be the death of me woman, why are you here?" His other hand came up to rest on her swollen belly. "You should have remained within Riverrun, it is not yet safe to travel the roads. You could have been set upon by bandits or run afoul of a group of soliders and taken hostage, not all know that Aerys is dead and many will not even care about that."

Elia knew that all of that was true, that if she had truly wanted to be safe then it would have been better for her to remain within Riverrun but it hadn't been about being safe, it had been about wanting to see her husband again as soon as possible. So, she simply shrugged her shoulders at him. "I was well guarded all of the way, and Lord Hoster certainly seemed to view the road as enough to safely travel as he has summoned his daughters here. Speaking of Lord Tully, where is he?"

"In the tower of the Hand." Ned said, a soft frown spreading across his face. "He took it for his own almost as soon as he had arrived in the city, I suppose that it was promised to him in the end but he demanded that it be given to him before any other matters could be settled, and there was a great deal to do both within the city and beyond."

"You've done well with the city, from what little that I have seen. Lady Toland asked that I send you her admiration on that front." Her husband flushed red then and Elia couldn't help but smile at that. "Lord Tywin is responsible for the need to help the city rebuild for what little that I have been able to gather since coming into the Red Keep, where is he?"

"He was moved to chambers within Maegor's Holdfast when Lord Hoster took the tower for his own." Ned kept hold of her hand and lead her over to the desk and gestured for her to sit down and once she had done he took the seat on the other side of the desk, pushing a plate of bread and cheese over to her and Elia helped her to a thin slice of it.

"If I could would have taken his head for his crimes here if I could, I am not so much a fool as to think that a sacking of a city is not a part of war, that I might have to do that myself. But the wanton cruelty was unneeded, he may not have ordered that but he did little to stop it. And King's Landing opened their gates for him, they thought that he had come to save them. And he shoved his sword through their throats and burned their homes to the ground."

"But, his army waits outside the walls and if I take his head then they will attack, it will be a slaughter and blood with run through the streets once again." Ned frowned and then picked up his cup from the desk which by the smell Elia could tell was filled with ale. "I would call it quite a clever stroke, but it is not. It is devious and cruel and cowardly, before anything else."

It was devious and cruel and cowardly, but that did not prevent it from being quite clever as well. All the same, Elia hated to see her husband suffer so and she rose from her chair and walked around the desk to put her arms around him, pressing a kiss to him. "Is there anything that I can do in order to cheer you my Lord? Anything at all?"

"Having you here is more than enough, Lord Hoster is more concerned with dealing with the lords and ensuring his power in the future court of King Renly it seems to me rather then helping to build the peace and Jon left the city not more than two days ago to ensure the surrender of the nearby castles and holdfasts. There is a great deal to do."

"And you will see it done, and I will be here to help you." Elia kissed him again and let out a little breath of surprise as he picked her up and adjusted her so that she was in his lap and kissed her even deeper than before.

The first knock at the door they ignored but it was clear soon enough that whoever it was, was not about to go away. Ned growled and helped her to stand up before walking over to the door and while she could not see it the look on his face it must have been terrible indeed considering that the messanger seemed to shake in his presence. "Pardon, my Lord. Lord Tully wishes to see you in the Tower of the Hand as soon as possible."

Ned sighed and sent the messanger on his way before turning to face here. "I'm sorry, it seems that I've been summoned and Lord Hoster I imagine will not take kindly to me keeping him waiting, he seems to think that he is Lord Hand already even though the little king has not yet been crowned and Storm's End is still under siege, which needs to be dealt with soon enough. I may have to deal with it myself, in truth."

Her husband sighed again and rubbed at his eyes. "Will you be all right on your own?"

"Of course." Elia said with what she hoped was a comforting smile, it must have worked as the one that she recived from Ned was small but it was also full of gratitude and with that he left her in the solar and Elia sat back down in the chair behind the desk, tapping her fingers against the arm rests for a few long moments as she thought on what to do next.

Eventually, an idea came to her. She rose from the chair and walked out of the solar and asked one of the guards to help her. Soon enough, she knew where she was going.

There were guards on the door, but they were northmen, men of Winterfell and they did not bar her way. She opened the door and walked inside. "I think that we should talk."

Jaime and Cersei Lannister stared at her for a long moment, Cersei's stare soon enough turned to a glare and she stormed over to the other side of the room. Jaime kept looking at her and then finally spoke. "You should sit down then."

End of chapter Ninety-Three

Another chapter done and dusted and next chapter will be a POV from the Lannister twin, but which one do you think? Well, we will see. And, Hoster Tully is making his moves.

Anywho, I hope you enjoyed and please consider leaving a review and a favourite. With much love,

DiscordantSymphony