Winter Is Coming with Fire and Blood

Queen Alyssa, slipped away from Dragonstone with her children, as well as with Dark Sister, Visenya’s Valyrian steel sword. Alyssa and Aenys’s next eldest son after Aegon, Prince Viserys, had been kept at the Red Keep as the king’s squire, however, and he suffered for her flight. // Queen Rhaenyra had imprisoned Lord Corlys for helping his grandson, Ser Addam Velaryon, escape arrest when he was accused of treason.

Every child knows that the Targaryens have always danced too close to madness. Your father was not the first. King Jaehaerys once told me that madness and greatness are two sides of the same coin. Every time a new Targaryen is born, he said, the gods toss the coin in the air and the world holds its breath to see how it will land.

❝I think we should attack from three sides. Grey Worm, your Unsullied shall strike at them from right and left, while my kos lead my horse in wedge for a thrust through their center. Slave soldiers will never stand before mounted Dothraki.❞ She smiled. ❝To be sure, I am only a young girl and know little of war. What do you think, my lords?❞

❝I think you are Rhaegar Targaryen’s sister,❞ Ser Jorah said with a rueful half smile.

❝By now the lion surely has the dragon’s scent,“ said one of the Coles, ❝but Cersei’s attentions will be fixed upon Meereen and this other queen. She knows nothing of our prince. Once we land and raise our banners, many and more will flock to join us.❞ ❝Some,” allowed Homeless Harry, ❝not many. Rhaegar’s sister has dragons. Rhaegar’s son does not. We do not have the strength to take the realm without Daenerys and her army. Her Unsullied.❞

The old fellow made a face. ❝Prince Viserys weren’t the only dragon, were he? Are we sure they killed Prince Rhaegar’s son? A babe, he was.❞ ❝Wasn’t there some princess too?❞ asked a whore. ❝Two,❞ said the old fellow. ❝One was Rhaegar’s daughter, t'other was his sister.❞ ❝Daena,“ said the riverman. ❝That was the sister. Daena of Dragonstone. Or was it Daera?❞ ❝Daenerys,❞ Davos said. ❝She was named for the Daenerys who wed the Prince of Dorne during the reign of Daeron the Second. I don’t know what became of her.❞

❝I was seven when Elia died. They say I held her daughter Rhaenys once, when I was too young to remember. Aegon will be a stranger to me, whether true or false.❞ The princess paused. ❝We looked for Rhaegar’s sister, not his son.❞

Ser Barristan went to one knee before her. ❝My queen, your realm has need of you. You are not wanted here, but in Westeros men will flock to your banners by the thousands, great lords and noble knights. ‘She is come,’ they will shout to one another, in glad voices.  ‘Prince Rhaegar’s sister has come home at last.’ ❞

❝No,❞ said Alleras. ❝It was Prince Rhaegar’s young son Aegon whose head was dashed against the wall by the Lion of Lannister’s brave men. We speak of Rhaegar’s sister, born on Dragonstone before its fall. The one they called Daenerys.❞ ❝The Stormborn. I recall her now.❞ Mollander lifted his tankard high, sloshing the cider that remained. ❝Here’s to her!❞ He gulped, slammed his empty tankard down, belched, and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. ❝Where’s Rosey? Our rightful queen deserves another round of cider, wouldn’t you say?❞

❝Your brother Rhaegar was the last dragon, and he died on the Trident. Viserys is less than the shadow of a snake.❞

❝Even as a child, your brother Viserys oft seemed to be his father’s son, in ways that Rhaegar never did.❞

❝You are your brother’s sister, in truth.❞ ❝Viserys?❞ Dany did not understand. ❝No,❞ he answered. ❝Rhaegar.❞ He galloped off.

Despite the power Dany gains once she becomes khaleesi, her power is still limited. She can only do what she wants if Drogo allows her, and sometimes even has to resort to “pillow tricks” in order to convince him.

“Take his horse,” Dany commanded Ser Jorah. Viserys gaped at her. He could not believe what he was hearing; nor could Dany quite believe what she was saying. Yet the words came. “Let my brother walk behind us back to the khalasar.” Among the Dothraki, the man who does not ride was no man at all, the lowest of the low, without honor or pride. “Let everyone see him as he is.”

“Make them stop,” she commanded Ser Jorah.

“Khaleesi?” The knight sounded perplexed.

“You heard my words,” she said. “Stop them.” She spoke to her khas in the harsh accents of Dothraki. “Jhogo, Quaro, you will aid Ser Jorah. I want no rape.”

[…]  “Princess,” he said, “you have a gentle heart, but you do not understand. This is how it has always been. Those men have shed blood for the khal. Now they claim their reward.”

 […]  “I will not have her harmed,” Dany said. “I claim her. Do as I command you, or Khal Drogo will know the reason why.”

“You will be my khalasar,” she told them. “I see the faces of slaves. I free you. Take off your collars. Go if you wish, no one shall harm you. If you stay, it will be as brothers and sisters, husbands and wives.” The black eyes watched her, wary, expressionless. “I see the children, women, the wrinkled faces of the aged. I was a child yesterday. Today I am a woman. Tomorrow I will be old. To each of you I say, give me your hands and your hearts, and there will always be a place for you.”

There are no more dragons, Dany thought, staring at her brother, though she did not dare say it aloud. Yet that night she dreamt of one. Viserys was hitting her, hurting her. She was naked, clumsy with fear. She ran from him, but her body seemed thick and ungainly. He struck her again. She stumbled and fell. “You woke the dragon,” he screamed as he kicked her. “You woke the dragon, you woke the dragon.” Her thighs were slick with blood. She closed her eyes and whimpered. As if in answer, there was a hideous rippingsound and the crackling of some great fire. When she looked again, Viserys was gone, great columns of flame rose all around, and in the midst of them was a dragon. It turned its great head slowly. When its molten eyes found her, she woke, shaking and covered with a fine sheen of sweat. She had never been so afraid …

King Jaehaerys once told me that madness and greatness are two sides of the same coin. Every time a new Targaryen is born, he said, the gods toss the coin in the air and the world holds its breath to see how it will land.