The Kraken and the Lion

Chapter 36

by Technomad

Asha Greyjoy Lannister

Asha had never seen a city so transported with joy. The entire population had apparently spilled out into the streets, screaming and cheering for the heroes of the great sea battle. The bells of the Great Sept, and the lesser septs, were pealing out a joyous tintinnabulation.

As acting admiral-in-charge, Asha stayed aboard the Black Wind, standing straight and tall on the quarterdeck at the rear as crew after crew debarked, to be swept up in the celebration. She wouldn't have minded joining the fun herself, but she knew that she had to live up to her new role.

The only thing that quelled the cheering and the music was when the bodies of the slain were brought ashore. The crowds fell silent, bowing their heads in respect as the dead were reverently taken down the gangplanks by their crewmates, on stretchers and wrapped with sailcloth. Asha shook her head slightly. The Ironborn tradition of burial at sea struck her as far more sensible and appropriate, but she knew she had to bow to mainlander custom.

She looked down at her husband. Tyrion looked as though he could hardly believe what he saw. Under his breath, she heard him mutter: "I always wanted people to cheer for me, the way they did for my brother."

Asha suddenly thought of her good-brother, and a chill went down her spine. Leaning down so that only Tyrion would hear, she whispered "I know someone who won't be happy about this!" Tyrion stiffened. He had clearly remembered what she had.

Tyrion Lannister

At the thought of how Jaime would react to the news that Cersei was dead, desolation entered Tyrion's soul. Growing up, Jaime was the only person in his whole immediate family who was so much as decent to him. His father made it clear that he'd have preferred Tyrion dead, while Cersei would have happily made that happen, but Jaime had always stood like a rock between Tyrion and the rest of his hateful family.

"Oh, sweet Seven," he muttered, "you're right! The second we can, we've got to go find Jaime!" Tyrion thought that his brother would not want to survive their sister, and he cursed the necessity that made him and his wife the centers of attention.

Finally the soi-disant Dragon Queen was marched off the Aegon the Conqueror in the middle of a dozen heavily-armed Ironborn guards, who were under orders to kill her if her dragons put in an appearance. Tyrion peered up into the sky, and thought he saw three specks, flying far above. As long as the dragons stayed far away, Tyrion was willing to let things be. He wondered just how much control Daenerys had over her "offspring."

Coming last, as befit a commander, Asha finally made her stately way down the gangplank to stand again on the quays at Kings Landing. Just ahead of her, Tyrion paced, his head held high as the crowd cheered and chanted his and Asha's names.

They were met by a contingent of the Kingsguard. "By command of the Hand of the King, you are requested and required to present yourselves before the Iron Throne and report your victory to King Tommen and his Hand."

"Ah, yes, we mustn't disappoint my father, must we?" Tyrion muttered. To the Kingsguard, he said, in a louder voice: "Lead on! We have won a mighty victory, and the King must be apprised of it at once!" With the Kingsguard around them, Tyrion and Asha marched up to the Red Keep, while Kings Landing celebrated the victory and mourned those lost to bring it about.

Asha Greyjoy Lannister

Asha was reminded of the aftermath of the Battle of the Blackwater. This time, though, she and Tyrion were the main heroes of the hour, instead of just two among many. They were also married now, and she was holding Tyrion's hand. As they entered the throne room, hidden trumpets sounded a triumphant fanfare, and they found themselves walking between ranks of soldiers, who raised their weapons in salute as they passed.

When they got to the foot of the Iron Throne, Asha knelt to the King, with Tyrion beside her. Looking up, she saw that Tommen looked very composed; more composed than she would have expected from a little boy who had lost his mother.

"You may rise, Aunt Asha, Uncle Tyrion," Tommen said, his high voice echoing in the huge, silent room. "We hear that you won a great victory. We would hear of it from your own lips."

"By your command," Tyrion replied. He went on: "Since my lady wife was actually in command, with your Majesty's permission, I'll ask her to explain what happened."

As a daughter of an anciently royal House, Asha was used to speaking in public. As the captain of the Black Wind, she was used to thinking on her feet. "With your permission, your Majesty, I'll begin, although I cannot claim credit for the plan that won us the battle. That plan was due to inspirations of my late nuncle, King Euron of the Iron Islands, and my lord husband. We set out from Kings Landing in two squadrons…"

When she had finished her description of the battle, Tywin stepped forward. "Well done, Tyrion and Asha. Well done, indeed! If it were not for the loss of the King of the Iron Isles and the Queen Dowager, we would command a feast. As things stand, though, the court shall go into mourning until obsequies for the King and Queen Dowager are over." He looked at Asha and Tyrion, and raised one eyebrow. "You may repair to your quarters. I am sure that you are eager to see your children."

Asha and Tyrion both bowed. As they backed away, Asha said "Our children were why we fought, more than anything else, my lord Hand."

"Your priorities are in order, Lady Asha." With that, the Hand turned from them, visibly taking up other business. Asha and Tyrion seized the opportunity to do as they were told. Asha felt that she couldn't see her babies soon enough.

When they arrived in their quarters, their babies were waiting for them. Little Balon and Joanna were sitting on their nurses' laps, giving their parents huge gummy grins and waving their arms in welcome. Asha thought she saw something, and looked more closely. Her dark eyes went wide.

"Tyrion, look!" She pointed at the babies. "It looks like they're beginning to get teeth!" Tyrion's mouth fell open, as he looked at their children. He bent down for a closer look.

"Sure enough, they are!" His smile could have lit the room. "They're growing up!"

"Babies do that!" one of the nurses agreed. "Would you like to hold them?"

"Would we?" Before long, Asha and Tyrion were sitting side-by-side, cuddling their babies close. Asha thought that she would burst with happiness. Little Balon crowed with pleasure to see his mother, waving his arms and smiling at her.

A knock sounded at the door. "Enter!" called Asha. The door opened, and Jaime walked in.

Tyrion Lannister

When Tyrion saw his brother's face, he felt sick inside. Jaime hadn't looked that bad after losing his hand. The look on his face...Tyrion would have given anything to make that look go away. Jaime was staring out at nothing, or as though he were staring into the worst of the seven hells. Those who had only seen him as the arrogant, tourney-winning knight in gold armor would have been shocked.

"Jaime! Please come in!" Jaime did as he was bid, walking like a sleepwalker over to a chair near where Tyrion and Asha were sitting. As he sat down, Brienne of Tarth appeared at the door.

"May I come in, too?" She looked very shy, but the way she was looking at the babies betrayed her thoughts. Tyrion could tell that she desperately wanted to see the babies, but didn't know how to ask.

"Of course! You've been a good friend to my brother. We Lannisters always pay our debts, you know. You're more than welcome!" With that assurance, Brienne came in, staring at the babies with huge eyes. She sat down by Jaime, who budged over to make room for her.

"Would you like to hold them? They love their Uncle Jaime!" said Asha. In her lap, Balon reached for Jaime, letting out a squeal of pleasure to see the uncle who doted on him shamelessly. His sister, in Tyrion's lap, made happy noises and waved her arms around, not wanting to miss out on some uncle-cuddling.

When Jaime was holding the babies on his lap, the frozen shock he'd been broke, and he gave way to tears. Brienne stared at him, then reached out, shyly putting an arm around his shoulder as he shook with unaccustomed sobs. Tyrion felt as though his own heart would break. He didn't mourn Cersei himself. Years of her hateful behavior toward him had long since burned any love he might have felt for his elder sister out of his heart. But he did love Jaime, and he hated to see Jaime in such distress.

Balon and Joanna didn't know what was wrong, but they knew something was troubling their Uncle Jaime. They both hugged him as hard as they could, making him cry even harder. Tyrion didn't quite know what to do, but he put his hand on Jaime's arm.

When he was able to control himself, Jaime whispered: "I can't believe she's gone. How did it happen? How did she get into the battle? Why did she go?"

Asha answered: "She was killed by 'Queen' Daenerys herself, Jaime. She went along with King Euron. You must have heard about the way those two felt about each other."

"Euron was killed by an arrow as his ship, the Silence, approached the Aegon the Conqueror. That was the enemy flagship, and Daenerys was in command of her fleet from there. We'd managed to throw the enemy fleet into severe disarray with those fire-bolts we were shooting at them."

"From what I was told, my nuncle died instantly. An arrow caught him in the forehead, at just the right angle. He probably never knew what hit him. Cersei was standing right beside him, and when she saw he was dead, she took over command of his squadron of the fleet. There wasn't time to transfer command. She led the attack on the Aegon the Conqueror." Asha smiled rather ruefully. "You know I never liked her. But, having fought her myself, I know one thing about her. Whatever her other failings, she was no coward."

"We Lannisters seem to be severely short of cowards in our family," Jaime muttered. "What did she do?"

"Do? Nothing but lead the Silence's crew boarding the Aegon!" Tyrion shook his head, still hardly able to believe what he had seen. "We'd already boarded, and we were hard-pressed...those damned Unsullied have no give-up in them at all, and while the Dothraki were out of their usual element, they knew what to do with those arakhs and bows they were carrying...when all of a sudden, who should come clambering up the other side but Cersei, at the head of Euron's crew!"

"You should have seen her, Jaime!" Asha's eyes glowed as she remembered that moment. "She was like one of the Targaryen warrior queens! She was in armor and had a spiked war-club. She and Euron's crew tore into the enemy, taking them from the back before they could figure out what to do."

"She was screaming like a banshee! I didn't know that Euron was dead then, so I had no idea of what had got into her. I think she was taking out her grief for Euron, and Joffrey, on the enemy. For that matter, I think she was working out a lot of anger at Robert, too. Cersei always resented and disliked having to put up with the restrictions placed on noble women, and this was a chance to get back." Tyrion shook his head. "I always knew she was angry at the world."

"She was," Jaime said, his voice low. "She never understood why it was that I got glory and applause, while she was stuck with gowns, childbirth and moon-blood. When we were small, before she flowered, she would sometimes dress up in my clothes and enjoy the fact that nobody could tell us apart. She was heartbroken when she didn't get a sword when I was presented with my first one."

"I think she never forgave life for making her female," Tyrion commented.

Jaime gave his brother a haggard grin. "She saw the golden armor, the tournament victories, the cheering crowds, the glory. What she didn't see were the endless hours of weary practice in the tilt-yard, the bruises and broken bones…"

"The long marches in the rain and snow, the shits from bad food, the saddle sores…" put in Tyrion.

"Having to live with a bunch of teenage boys, on their level," Asha said, with a reminiscent scowl.

"I remember when I started out as a squire," Jaime said. "The biggest bully in the place was Merrett Frey. He terrorized the other squires, and made them miserable." He gave them a sudden wicked grin, looking, for a second, like the godlike young knight he had once been. "He tried his tricks on me, once. Once."

"I take it you put him in his place," Brienne said.

"Oh, I did. Very, very thoroughly. He thought he was tough. I showed him he wasn't." Jaime looked regretful. "Later on, he got hit in the head in a fight, so hard that he couldn't go on to knighthood, and had to go back to the Twins. He was killed by outlaws, a little while ago." He snorted. "No big loss."

"Er...may I see the babies?" asked Brienne. The look of naked longing on her face would have melted a harder heart than Tyrion's. Gently, he detached Joanna from her uncle and handed her over to Brienne, who accepted her gingerly.

"Hold her like this, Brienne," directed Tyrion. "One hand under her rump, and support her back with the other one. That's right. You're doing just fine." Gradually, Brienne relaxed, as she visibly realized that Joanna wasn't made of spun glass. Brienne smiled broadly, and for a second, her face was as beautiful as Cersei's had ever been. Little Joanna was oblivious to the adult byplay, just crowing with glee at getting a new adult to pay attention to her. She reached for Brienne's shirt, pulling at the fabric. Brienne looked at Tyrion, uncertainty in her face.

"Is it time for their feeding?" asked Tyrion. He looked up at the nurses, who were watching all this parental bonding with approval. At their nods, he gently scooped Joanna up, who reacted to losing her new playmate with a look that dripped tragedy, and handed her to her nurse. The nurse accepted her charge, unbuttoning her dress and attaching Joanna to a nipple. Joanna was soon greedily sucking down milk, heedless of the way some of it dribbled down her chin.

Before long, Balon was emulating his sister, and the nurses exchanged smiles with Asha and Tyrion. While Asha preferred to feed her babies herself, her milk had dried up before they were ready to be weaned on to solid food, so they had had to engage nurses. That had also been a precaution before they had set out to battle, in case Asha hadn't made it back.

"It's hard to believe how much they've grown," Tyrion commented.

Asha put her arm around his shoulders, pulling him close. "They do do that, don't they? Before long, Balon'll be wanting his first sword."

"Joanna might want one, too," Jaime put in.

"Wait till they're old enough to want to put to sea!" Asha brushed some of her hair out of her face, leaning back to reminisce. "In the Islands, children as young as ten are often taken out as apprentices on local voyages or fishing trips. By the time they're old enough to marry, any Ironborn can hand, reef and steer, and take command in an emergency."

Tyrion thought about watching as his son and daughter sailed around the Kings Landing harbor, or the one at Lannisport. He could all but hear their happy shouts as their boat's sail filled with wind, heeling before the breeze. He smiled, and then he let out a huge yawn.

"Oh, Tyrion! You've had a really long day! We both need to go to bed!" Asha stood up, and gently pulled on Tyrion's sleeve to get him to stand.

Tyrion caught the grins that Jaime and Brienne were both trying to suppress, and snapped: "To sleep. Nothing else!" Privately, he planned a very intense intimate celebration of the fact that they were both still alive, but at the moment, he was nowhere near up for anything of the sort. He caught Asha's eye, and they exchanged significant glances. "We'll need to talk later."

Asha Greyjoy Lannister

When Asha returned to consciousness, she was in her own bed, with Tyrion beside her, snoring softly. She looked at him, feeling her heart overflow with love. Oh, Tyrion, you have all the warrior spirit of your House, but your body betrays you!

She understood how he felt. Bladder pressure had awakened her, but she was more than ready for some more sleep. Rolling out of bed, she slipped on a night-robe and padded over to the garderobe in one corner of their room. Once she was done, she found she wasn't as sleepy as she had thought, and she sat down to do some thinking. The servants had been cautioned not to disturb them for several hours yet, and dawn was just breaking off in the East.

She couldn't get over the way that Jaime and Brienne had both cooed and doted over her babies. Not that she could blame them. After all, they were the most beautiful and perfect babies in the whole world! But she thought that Jaime needed a wife.

But he's in the Kingsguard...she reminded herself. That said, there was no immutable law of nature that said the Kingsguard had to be unmarried. That was just a law. And what one king could make law, another could annul or modify.

She padded over to her desk, and pulled out a quill, ink and paper. Sitting down, she wrote a note to herself, to remind herself of this idea later on, when she was more rested. Once she was done, she yawned, and headed back to bed, discarding the robe to crawl on in naked and snuggle up to her husband.