A Song of Salt and Smoke
I rewrote the last chapter of this story, so if you're just tuning into chapter 2 after years away, I invite you to reread chapter 1. In summary, the changes are Steffon becoming Aegon the Albino and Cersei being a better mother.
Some of you might complain that the juiciest part of this chapter is telling and not showing, but it's meant to be Cersei telling and showing her relationship with her son. There's not going to be anymore formative chapters with the two of them, so I want to reiterate their close bond early on.
Chapter 2 – The Lioness & Her Cub
Most days, and most nights, watching him was what she loved to do most in the world.
Yet as her perfect, precious boy sobbed into her shoulder, she felt nothing but hate for the man responsible. The same man responsible for most of her woes.
Aegon was no crybaby. He hadn't cried on his name day, and there had been few enough instances in the years since. Cersei had scarce been prouder in her life than the day he had broken his arm chasing after Myrcella, walked all the way back to her rooms before showing his pain. Such a thing made his tears now all the harder to bear. Normally, she would wipe them away and remind him that lions never cry.
But tonight the guilt she felt at the former lessons and an even greater pride for her son held them at bay.
There was no mistaking that this was partly her fault, even if that did little to quell her rage at the man responsible, but still, her son would not be crying now if she had only cautioned him that there are times when even lions must be subtle.
"Hush now, little cub," she soothed as she rubbed her hand on his back as he hiccoughed trying to catch his breath between the sobs, "it's all right now, I've got you."
Aegon pulled back from her and wiped his eyes, those sparkling eyes that usually shone so bright now were red and puffy as he cried, "I di-didn't me-mean t-to!" he stuttered out before pushing his head back into the crook of her neck.
Almost perfect. Perhaps it was the weight on his shoulders, or the fire raging in his belly to be free, but he would oft trip over his words. Thankfully, he seldom spoke in whole sentences to avoid the humiliation. Only those closest to him, his family and his tutors, had ever heard him speak more than a single word at a time. Much better to limit his speech in favour of gestures, it even made him seem all the more regal at times. Tonight, with his blood boiling did he finally untie his tongue and speak without stumbling. Shouting more than speech, but still...
Only when he roared did he show the lion she knew him to be.
She had reveled in that feeling that evening, if only that had been the end of it and the spark had not been trampled on that night.
Robert would pay for this, for much else besides, but for this, he would pay in blood. Not even the king would hurt her cub.
"It's not your fault, my sweet, you did nothing wrong," she consoled, and it was the truth, "you need must simply learn to pick your battles."
Little arms wrapped around her and little hands clutched at her, so she held him tighter in turn.
"My brave little lion." she cooed into his ear.
She recalled Aunt Genna once telling Cersei of the day her father announced the surprising betrothal to her Frey husband. How all present had known it to be a horrible match that entailed her aunt marrying an oaf of her own, and far from a king, a second son of a lesser house, seven years her senior. Only Cersei's father, a boy of ten had spoken against it.
It was that memory that made her so proud of her son who she now knew for a certainty, was every bit the lion, for he had done the same, and younger still.
Robert had drank heavily again, as he did most nights when he wasn't off hunting or whoring, and in his stupor, had pulled a serving girl onto his lap and planted his head in her bosoms, in front of the entire court, flaunting his infidelity for all to see and disgracing his queen. Of course, she had cared only so much of how brazen he was in the display without heed that he was openly humiliating her.
She'd meant to take Jaime and give her husband horns on their marital bed. Cersei was content to part with a paltry few coins and see that the girl got lost on her way home. But it had hurt to see the looks on her children's faces to see the man they thought their father behave as such. Even Robert, fool that he was, ought to have known better. Her admonition had not stopped him, no, it had become something of a sick game between them of what each would do to spite the other. Her words to spare the children had been listened to only enough to be taken as a challenge, and with one hand to drink, he reached a hand up the girl's skirts to make her squeal.
No one had dared question it. For who dared question the king in his keep? Especially a king as wroth as Robert with a belly full of strongwine. His Hand had not, nor his brothers, the Lord Commander or the High Septon, the Master of Whisperers or the Grand Maester. All the king's knights and all the king's men had been as chivalrous as the silent sisters.
Not even Jaime, not that she wanted him to suffer for Robert's follies. But still, all in the hall had kept their mouths shut and pretended not to see.
All except one young boy, her little lion cub.
Aegon had climbed the table, and marching along the feast trays and dinner plates, had shouted down the king in her name. Shocking all those who knew him well, as he screamed without a single hitch.
Her cub was not a boy prone to outbursts or talking back to his parents, but it seemed he had her temper. For when he reached his father, he pulled the wench by her hair from his arms, commanded her to flee, and overturned a goblet of wine over Robert's crown, sat atop a drenched head.
Her brave little lion. To think she ever feared bearing Robert a son when he was still every bit hers.
Robert had been less than impressed, never a man to be cowed, and too much of a beast to be chastened by his son, he had screamed back, said terrible things, and made horrible threats. Even as Robert lifted her boy from the table and promised him he would forge a Maester's chain or take holy vows before he would have his crown, even as Robert called her a frigid bitch and swore he would beat her cub bloody, still Aegon shouted back.
Her cub had sworn to the Gods above that he would sooner be a crippled brother of the Night's Watch too before he let his father disgrace her.
Cersei would have killed her husband and damned the consequences, but Robert was stronger than an ox and barely more clever, she could not help but fear for her son. Thank the Mother above, even Robert knew better than to strike her son. Instead, he'd been plucked up by the Kingsguard and sent to the black cells, to 'teach him a lesson'. Even this had not silenced her boy who had been dragged off kicking and screaming, declaring to the king that he was neither afraid of him nor the dark.
By then, she had been dragged out of the hall as Robert commanded the court to flee. She only knew the rest of the spectacle having drawn it out of those who'd stayed.
The last challenge had been the straw that broken the beast's back. He would not strike his own son, but he was not above striking a boy, and in the end, he was not man enough to do even that. Ordering instead that Aegon be brought back, and watch as Meryn Trant beat his whipping boy, Pate.
Aegon was already a lion among men, and as such, cared little for the company of children. For the most part. Her cub cared deeply for the boy who'd been given the responsibility of bearing his punishments. He was everything a king should be and was too just to let such a thing go unrewarded.
Had Robert started with the beating from the start, Aegon more likely than not would have stayed his tongue for the sake of his friend. But it seemed that her cub had not only her temper but his father's stubbornness. Instead of shirking away from the sight of the young boy being beaten, he cursed his father and made threats of his own as the tears streamed down his face at the sight. Neither backed down, with each word, the angrier the other got. Aegon swore he would leave Westeros and never return, Robert swore he'd be locked in the Maidenvault till the end of his days. Aegon swore he would have Robert's head, Robert swore he would rend the flesh from Pate's bones.
Trant... had always been obedient.
While embarrassing his queen and threatening her son could be taken in silence, finally what passes for men in this city did something. Selmy had stopped Trant short of killing the boy, Jon Arryn had dragged Robert away, while Mandon Moore saw her son to his cell.
Pate had not been beaten to death.
His wounds had festered, Pycelle had needed to take an arm. The boy and his family fled the capital in fear. Without a maester, there was doubt if the boy would even survive. She only hoped that Aegon was still too young to realize as much.
Robert, sober and guilty, had let Aegon out in the morning and commanded the boy's weight in gold to be sent to the boy's family. The Hand had seen to it the gold found its way to the orphanage, as a gift from the queen, instead of chasing after ghosts.
From morning to night, Aegon had stayed at the boy's side in Pycelle's chambers, apologizing and promising. From dusk to dawn, in the Sept, atoning and praying.
Now, he was in her arms, crying bitter tears for the loss of his friend and she hadn't the heart to tell him that lions don't cry.
The poor boy was inconsolable. She'd already ordered that arrangements be made for her and the children to visit the West, that would cheer him up she was certain, but in the meantime, she struggled to calm him.
Yes, Robert would pay dearly for this.
"Oh, little cub, it pains me to see you hurt so."
She'd held off on playing on his love for her so that he could let it out, but now she'd come to fear he was hurting himself. Her cub did his best and managed to hold back his tears from pouring down his cheeks and to take deep, shuddering breaths.
Cersei ran her fingers through his hair and wondered yet again how the apple had fallen so far from the tree.
"How about a story?" she asked, knowing that he loved to hear them.
Aegon nodded his head into her shoulder, "The one about the mother lion and her cub?" he nodded again.
"Deep in the bowels of the Kingswood, lived a lioness and her cub, and the lioness loved her cub more than she loved the sun in the sky and the green of the trees, more than all the other lions and all the other cubs, more than everything and everything else."
Her boy finally stopped breathing so heavily, and she was able to relax enough to carry on at a faster pace.
"Together they lived in the wood, in a great cave that sparkled with gold. They were all alone but they were the happiest creatures in the forest because they had each other, and that was more than enough." Aegon pulled away enough to watch her tell the story, she gave him her warmest smile and wiped the tears from their faces. Cersei managed to turn him around and pull her close to him, nestling her head against his, hoping that he would finally get some sleep.
"During the night, the little cub would get frightened, because while he and his mother lived alone, they were not the only ones who lived in the forest and the other beasts scared him, because they were jealous of the lions' happiness and wanted nothing more to take it from them. These evil beasts scared the cub since they were so big and he was so small, since they were so many and they were so few. He would hear them all night, howling and growling, moaning and groaning, and the little cub was afraid because he was worried he could not protect their cave and his mother from the evil beasts."
Cersei imagined she was a queen in truth with no need for a husband for a crown. They were back at Casterly Rock as the sun set on the sea, all alone. That this moment would be one to last forever.
"But the lioness told her cub, you are a lion my son, and you must not be afraid. One day, you will be king and then all the beasts of the forest will bow to you. All the stags will bow and all the bears will bow, the wolves of the north and the foxes of the south, all the birds in the sky, and the fish in the rivers. They will all come to you my little lion, to rest a crown upon your head. You will be king, because you are a lion, my cub, and there are none greater than you in all the forest and all the forests of the world."
Her cub looked at her with those shining eyes, as she tried to reassure him, that one day it would just be them, alone atop the world.
"And the cub asked, will I be strong and fierce like my father?"
"Yes, said the mother, you will be strong and fierce just like your father. You will be stronger and fiercer than any beast in the forest, for you are a lion, my cub."
He'd relaxed in her arms, and she hoped sweet dreams had finally claimed him.
She wished she could hold him like this always, but this business and Robert's ever-growing need for gold had made her finally accept her father's invitation, his order in truth though she would not heed it as such.
When she and her children visited the West, Aegon would not be returning with them. He was to foster with Lord Tywin. Robert had been told by Pycelle that a 'change of scenery' would cure Aegon of his stammer; which was plain to all meant that Tywin would succeed when all else had failed, and see him become a great man alongside it. Robert had been no more convinced by that than she'd been but had come around when he learned that the richest man in the Kingdoms had made Aegon's fostering part of any deal for any future loans of Lannister gold.
She would no more allow her father to buy her son than she would her husband sell him, but if the alternative was for her boy to stay in Robert's shadow, in this cesspit of a city, the Rock seemed like the only alternative. The only real one, Robert's dour brother Stannis would not have her boy die of damp on Dragonstone.
Besides, Aegon should spend time at Casterly Rock. After all, it would be his one day. All Seven Kingdoms one day… but the Rock especially. Her father would tear it to the ground before it went to that creature, and Jaime was a knight of the Kingsguard. Aegon would inherit the Rock as her son, to rule as a second seat as Robert did with Storm's End. The Rock would likely one day be ruled by a brother of his if ever she had another son, or one of Aegon's, mayhaps even Myrcella, but it would pass through her firstborn first.
That must be why Father wanted him.
But it was still so soon. Too soon.
Aegon was still so young, years younger than Jaime had been when father sent him to Crakehall. He ought to spend years more here with her. She could threaten to throw herself from a tower if they took him away from her, like Ashara Dayne had done. But doing so would only rob her of her children forever, and Robert would likely call her bluff if even to see her dead.
There would need to be visits, a great many. She could have it so that when she was not visiting her home, her son could be visiting her. It was not as if her husband would miss her company, but father would not like it…
Damn them all.
Squeezing her boy, she savored this moment for as long as she could and fought the urge to follow her son into the land of dreams herself.
When it seemed she had nearly lost, she heard her son speak, perhaps even in his sleep, "I doh-don't want t-to be like fa-father."
Cersei smiled, kissed the back of his head, and told him, "Weren't you listening, my sweet, you are a lion. You will be whatever you wish to be."
"L-like you." Aegon would often do that. Speak just enough for those to take his meaning. She knew he did not mean that she was whatever she wanted, he was nowhere near as simple to believe that. He'd meant he wanted to be like her – a lion. That made her heart hurt at the thought of losing him.
"You will be, my cub," she assured and decided to take solace in that. She had sworn her son would not be his father, what better way to accomplish that than to send him to the lion's den?
Yes, her cub would grow in the west, and become a better man than his father, hers, and even Jaime. Lord Tywin would see what he bought when he sold her, and Robert would rue the day he sent his son away, just as he would for daring to lay with her. In spilling his seed inside her, he had sewn his destruction. He had given her the key to her vengeance.
"You will be the greatest lion there's ever been, my son," promised Cersei, "I'll see to that."
Next chapter will be with Tyrion, Jaime, and Aegon at Casterly Rock.
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