CHAPTER 6

( Kings Landing)

THE STATE OF THINGS

Bitter feuds fuelled by Rhaegar's folly

Contaminate the good hearts of the Westorosi.

Provoking thoughts of war and ill feeling -

upon a landscape still reeling

From Rhaegar's first folly.

Rhaegar imitates history one again

Absconding with his daughter

Back to the dragon's den.

Summoning his armies to prevent new slaughter.

Tywin - that old veteran - demands justice for his grandson.

Which Rhaegar is loath to give.

Pride wounded - reputation undone.

He decree's that: 'no Stark shall live.'

Robb Stark and his father have separated from state.

There is a King of Winter once more.

Ned will not leave Lyarra to her mother's fate.

The North will march to war.

LYARRA SNOW

Everything had been blurry for some time. I had drifted in and out of sweet repose, catching scenes and conversations not meant for my eyes. I had no idea who was speaking, or who they were speaking too, however I could not mistake the tone, the people around me were angry, furious!

"You're not fit to govern a pigsty Rhaegar, let alone the North."

"Treason! Treason!"

"Your honour is a shield, a lie, your conscience is as black as mine. Blacker by comparison."

"Give me my daughter back."

"A daughter for a daughter, a sister for a sister."

"You locked her up in a tower!"

"How (sob) could (sob) you?!"

"Haedar! Haedar! Go to sleep. Your eyes are not meant for this."

"So beautiful. So, lovely. But sleep."

"You kept her from her rightful family. Her rightful place. A princess forced to live a life of bastardy. I'd laugh if it weren't so tragic."

"She needs sleep. Be quiet."

"She had a family. And it's better to be a bastard in the north, than a princess in the red keep."

"She would've been safe."

Laughter.

"You've known her - what? - five minutes, and you almost bloody killed her."

"It - It was - Why was she in the tourney anyway?"

"Don't turn this on me dragon!"

"Touch her again and I'll kill you all."

"Treason! Treason! Treason!"

I woke to a gentle rocking and a splitting headache. Then a new pain supplanted the old one. My side! It felt like I'd been skewered. My eyes took in my surroundings. The ceiling was odd - it was moving and shaking - it was a compound of wood and iron.

The wooden ceiling was carved into a very pleasing pattern of celestial swirls and curves. And at the centre were three dragons coiled around one-another.

Dragons ... Three dragons ... Targaryen's used to have dragons ... Targaryen's ... TARGARYENS!

It all came back to me, the tourney, the hunt, the pain. I tried to sit, crying out as my side screamed in protest.

"Woah, woah, easy there sweet girl. Not so much, so soon, yes?" I heard a voice say. Based off the drawl, I knew the voice to be Dornish.

It was none other than the Queen.

"Queen Elia!" I exclaimed.

ELIA

"Just Elia, sweet girl. Or Mother, if you like?" I said. It was best if we dispensed with titles sooner, rather than later, my girl needed to see me as a human being, not a title, not a rank. I lowered her head back to her pillow.

"I don't have a mother, your grace."

I know that shouldn't hurt, but it did. My girl was looking at me, with a mixture of fear and hate. There was a silent accusation in those wide purple eyes 'what have you done to me' they said.

"Elia it is then." I managed to say.

"Where am I, your grace?" I chose to ignore her disobedience, if she took after her mother in personality as well as looks, it would take a while to tame her.

"In a wheelhouse, a mile or two from Kings-landing."

"Kings-Landing!" She shouted, bolting upright, her surprise overcoming her stubborn propriety. I leant over to push her back down. I tried to give her a comforting kiss, like I did with Rhaenys and Lyanna, but she flinched, as though I was about to hit her.

What had Stark told her about us, to make her so skittish?

"My Father, Robb, where are they? What have you done to them?"

"You don't have to call that man Father anymore, Visenya, you're ours now and your real Father is outside." Rhaenys said. Emerging from the corner. She had been silent for this whole exchange. I wanted to keep her presence quiet, as to not overwhelm Visenya. But my older daughter had inherited her father's instinct for patience.

She swooped over to Visenya and plastered her with kisses, as though she were a girl again. I had to forcibly remove her from Visenya, before she opened the girls wound again. But Rhaenys was loathe to part with her shiny new sister, and clung on to her, as though she was a raft in a great sea.

Visenya looked entirely miffed and a little embarrassed. A blush crept up on her cheeks and she was determined to look anywhere but at Rhaenys. She tried to liberate her hand from her sisters to no result, Rhaenys was a dragon, and her claws were impenetrable.

"What are you? - I'm Lyarra - My real father? - Who? - What?" She burbled out. I sighed; it was going to be a long talk.

RHAENYS

Despite telling my sister about a thousand times, her pretty mind could not believe it.

"There must be some mistake."

"No, Haedar, do you think we would save you from your home, if we weren't sure?" I laughed at the notion. But Visenya remained stubborn. It was very cute. I wanted to tickle and kiss her sour expression right off her gorgeous face.

"I think ... I think you're in denial, you want your sister to be secretly alive so much, you found the first girl with purple eyes, and convinced yourself she was your Visenya. But I am a bastard, I made my peace with that. You should too. My name is Lyarra Snow and I want to go home."

"You're going home. The Red Keep is your home." Mother said.

"So, I am your prisoner then."

She tugged her hand from mine and rolled over in her bed. Oh, how I wanted to climb in with her. I would share a bed with her anon. I had no need of bedwarmer now I had her.

I would need to claim her quick though, lest Daenerys get their first. Hmph Daenerys.

She was my aunt, and though she was younger than I was, she acted like she was senior. She had the same taste in the opposite sex as I did, and had bedded more maids and noble ladies than Uncle Viserys, Aegon and Father combined.

I remember the time she tried to bed me. She asked if I wanted to share the bed with her, one cold night, like we used to when we were small. I agreed, thinking the proposition was innocent. I woke up in the middle of the night, with the smaller girl on top of me, kissing me, almost chewing my lip off, I wrestled her off me and tried to return the favour. It was a stalemate. I left her room within ten minutes, neither of us getting the better of each other, so we competed in different ways. By trying to bed the most beautiful ladies of the court.

Visenya would be the crown jewel of her collection.

I had to claim her first. Make her love me. I needed father to marry us, as soon as possible. The marriage announcement for Aegon and I, had been postponed by recent events. The realm needed stability. Heirs. Now was a great time for a royal marriage.

RHAEGAR

I was exhausted, weary with it all. Travel always eradicated my energy, and this had been the worst journey of my life. Every mile of riding was gruelling, but I couldn't show it, the royal mask had to be firmly in place, lest I turn our hasty march into a rout.

If the riding wasn't taxing enough, the news the outriders and ravens brought me, were harrowing and migraine inducing.

"Renly Baratheon had called his banners."

"Tywin Lannister had called his banners."

"The North was in open rebellion."

"Half the Riverland's had declared for the Starks."

"Tywin was planning a second 'Rains of Castamere."

Then there was Visenya, every night, I feared would be her last. We had plied her with Dream Wine and Milk of the Poppy to keep her pliable and unconscious. However, like her namesake, and her mother, she was a fierce spirit, and fought the effects.

I didn't want her to hear the screaming match between, her uncle and I, but I'm sure she heard some it, in her more lucid moments. The last thing I wanted to do was stress her out, she needed rest, and peace. Yet, my daughter would not find any. I'm still not sure how we smuggled her out of the north!

When we arrived at Kings-landing Visenya made a run at me, which was impressive given her condition, naively, I thought she wanted to hug me, to embrace her father and new family, she didn't. She hit me, cursed me, then begged me to take her home.

I ordered the guards to give her more Milk of the Poppy and to take her to her rooms. She continued her begging, which just hurt me more than any punches she could throw. At last, she was drugged into a stupor, and was carried off to her new quarters.

I had no time for my quarters and the comfort of a feather bed. The small council were waiting.

"I still don't see why Tywin and Renly declaring war on the North is a bad thing? It breaks up the Stark/Baratheon/Tully alliance. And the north is in open rebellion, so we will need every army we can muster. This is in opportunity to unify the realm." Said my Hand, the ever faithful, if a little cantankerous, Jon Connington.

There was wisdom in his words. And the other members saw the merits at once. Grandmaester Pycelle was nodding sagely, Mace Tyrell (the master of coin) nodded too with all his three chins. And even Varys was tittering in his approval.

"He speaks the truth, your grace, don't make enemies out of friends." Said Aurane Waters, the master of ships.

I looked at the Lord Commander of the Kings-guard, Sir Gerold Hightower, to see if he had found the flaw in the plan. He was frowning, his mind not made up. My mother the Dowager Queen, said nothing too.

That wasn't unusual, she would remain quiet, until everyone had left, and then inform me of her opinion, and on any dissent among the small council. She was in truth my second spy master.

Lastly, I looked at Aegon, he looked as haggard as I felt, I had given him the title of Master of Laws, as practice for when he ascended the throne. He was frowning too.

"What say you, Aegon?" I said.

"If we go to war with the Starks, the realm will bleed. The north is too well defended. And I don't think Princess Visenya will warm to us, if we kill, who she perceives as her real family."

I smiled my son was smarter than I was at that age. Good, the realm needed a smart king, the Gods knows they don't have one now.

"Well said." Said Mace Tyrell, forgetting his earlier allegiance to my Hand. The man's opinion blew to and fro like the wind.

"If we invade the north, through the neck, we will have a hard time of it. But if we invade via the sea, provided of course Greyjoy doesn't join the rebellion, then we can attack the north at Whiteharbor, cutting of their mane supply route. And if we blockade the neck, not attack it, then we cut off all supply routes." Said Connington reasonably.

"We starve them out ... genius but simple."

"What about the Starks. What do we do with them?" Said Lord Varys in that unctuous tone of his.

"The usurpers dogs must be put down. And we give Winterfell and the Wardenship to another Northern lord, a loyal lord. Roose Bolton perhaps?" Countered Connington.

"There must always be a Stark in Winterfell." I muttered, more to myself than the council. It was something Lyanna used to say.

"The Lords of the North, are loyal to the Starks, fanatical even, they won't accept another family." Aegon said, catching my train of thought and expounding upon it.

"Then marry one of the Stark girls, to the new Warden." Proposed Aurane, holding his head up high, did he want to be the new Warden?

"My sister won't like us killing her family." Argued Aegon again. They were going in circles.

"Your new sister won't spread her legs for you, no matter what you do." Laughed Aurane.

Aegon seethed. His chair scraping as he stood up.

"ENOUGH! Everyone, out. Aegon, Mother, remain."

They all did as they bid, bowing as they left. Before Aurane could leave, I caught him by the wrist. "If you ever talk that way about my daughter again, I will take your tongue, and you cock, and send you to join the silents sisters. Understand?"

Aurane gulped, and I glared at him a little longer before releasing him. When Aurane left, my mother finally spoke:

"We can't kill the Starks."

"I never had any intention of doing so." I replied.

"Your plan?"

"Lord Tywin cares about his legacy, not Joffrey per se. I plan to dismiss Sir Jamie from the Kings-guard, and send him back to his father, in exchange for his dead grandson. Without Tywin, Renly will do nothing but complain, as he owes a mountain of gold to Tywin, and if Tywin won't back him, his fury will be neutered."

My Mother nodded. Giving me a thin smile of approval.

"And how will we deal with the Starks?" Aegon said anxiously.

"I don't know. Mother ... any ideas?"

"Gather your army's and wait. Call a meeting between us and the Starks, the Vale can mediate. By then passions will have been doused a little, and reason may prevail."

"And if talking gets us nowhere?" I said.

"War. Lord Eddard must be removed, alive, and his son - the young wolf - can either bend the knee in exchange for his father, or we capture him too, and send them off to the nights watch, and make the young Starks the new wardens, under a southern stewardship."

"Brilliant!" Was all I could say.

"Of course it is, I thought of it, now excuse me, I have a new granddaughter to meet!"