Kapitel 40: 40

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112 AC

Kingslanding

Daeron Nymeros Martell

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"Are you going to miss them?" Rhaenyra asks as she twirls some of my hair with her finger as we lay in bed.

"Yes and no, I will miss them being close but I will not miss their recent... interests." I can honestly not wait for my parents to hop on a ship and sail back to Sunspear, Lewyn will be escorting them and their fleet on the way back with Tyraxes.

We have not started the war with the Triarch but it would be foolish to not think they have heard of the engagement of my siblings and my own marriage. Dorne is obviously leaning heavily now toward Westeros interests and that means leaning away from the Free Cities. They are not complete fools, they know with our interests turning away from them that there is a good chance we will be coming to break their control of the shipping lanes. Better safe than sorry, Tyraxes would be able to sink any fleet so long as Lewyn is not struck with a projectile from his back.

"I have not been separated from my parents, the farthest I have been from them is on Syrax and I always fly back." I turn my head and kiss her forehead as she snuggles against me.

"I love my parents but I also love to explore, it's why when we went to Dragonstone I was more excited than homesick. I do worry for Myriah though, she was the first to fly off and went straight to Sunspear from Dragonstone so she has never truly been alone. When I leave to head over to Braavos I will be worried about her the most." Rhaenyra jerks my hair with her fingers intertwined in it and gives me a pout of her lip.

"Worried more for your sister than your wife?" She sounds more amused than offended but I think she is actually still bothered by my words.

"Trust me the less I think about my wife the better, I might just say 'fuck it' and leave the fleet to get attacked to come to be with you again." Her mock upset flies off and she is back to smiling and twirling my hair as if it was never even there.

"I suppose that makes sense, but you need not worry for your sister since I will be accompanying her. She is going to be my official lady in waiting until the time comes for her to get married and I will ensure she is not wasting away. She even came up with the idea for us to fly down to Sunspear together, she wants to show me around herself." I smile seeing that they are getting along, it is hard to judge how Myriah feels about Rhaenyra at times.

Sometimes she looks upset when I leave to spend time with my wife and other times she laughs along with her. And I know my sister's real and fake laugh, she is laughing along and it's genuine and that means she likes Rhaenyra enough to be 'real' around her.

"That's good, I am glad you are befriending her but if you do decide to fly down to Dorne avoid the Narrow Sea. It is unknown if you will stumble upon a ship or ships with Scorpions mounted as they hunt for dragons. I am sure the ships the Triarchy use will be outfitted with as many as they can fit on the deck. I am not concerned for the bigger dragons like Tyraxes and Gaelithox, but Syrax and Shrykos I am concerned about." I feel I should not need to say this but then I get a vivid reminder of the bolt flying through Rhaegal's neck in the Tv show.

"I will keep that in mind..." I will make sure to tell Myriah as well, I am unsure if they will even make the flight but I want them to be extra careful. "Tell me about your time on Dragonstone, you never have told me what happened in full." Her leg that is slung over my legs slides up and down as she kisses my shoulder trying to pull the story out of me.

"Alright, I guess it is not that big of a deal if you know..." I think it's time I casually mention the paintings in the cave, I never went back to see them again but I know they were different from the show.

They were in a cave higher on the Dragonmont and not on the beach, it was also a cave full of bones that were also not seen in the show. When I think about it I can almost see that Gaelithox was guarding the cave, maybe he is the reason no Targaryens have seen the paintings. It would make sense but was it by chance or was there something more involved, that is what is really concerning me.

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112 AC

Kingslanding

Rhaenyra Targaryen

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The story started lighthearted and fun, his siblings and him going on an adventure to claim dragons. Given it could be seen as 'stealing' to some people but I am not one of them, even more so now that those very dragons got me, my husband, in one way or another. So the adventure he went on not only got him one of the biggest dragons alive but also a Princess as a wife, I wonder if he heard that before he left how he would react.

But when he gets to the parts where he finds Vermithor and Silverwing and the big bronze dragon gets territorial on him I find my heart pounding. He left them alone while remembering where their cave was as Silverwing was his last resort if he could find no other dragon. I can not see him riding Silverwing, I could perhaps see him on Vermithor but definitely not the old she-dragon. Gaelithox is perfect for my husband though, it just seems like the right fit for him.

"It was close, I won't lie to you I was getting tired of being on Dragonstone and avoiding running into patrolling guards or being spotted by them. Those damn caves are scattered around all over the Dragonmont and I was letting my inner mountain goat out as I climbed around." I smile and try to imagine him climbing around on the Dragonmont in search of a dragon. "Then I found a cave, it felt like every other cave I entered and I kept my wits about me until I got blindsided by something I was not expecting." I stop playing with his hair and look up to see him looking at me with an odd look in his eyes.

"What did you see?" I am not sure why but whatever he found has him on edge.

"I found carvings on the wall, I did not look at them for long because that was where Gaelithox was and he was eager to burn me out of his cave. But the carvings I saw were telling a story from what I could see." My eyes widen as my interest builds up and I urge him on as his hand grips my rear. "The carvings showed men of varying sizes and shapes uniting to do battle with men with blue eyes. The men of various sizes won and beat back the blue-eyed men and then they built a wall. After they built the wall it showed the men with blue eyes attacking the wall and that is the last of what I saw... but I also saw dragons flying above the wall as the blue-eyed men attacked." I go still as I turn his words around in my mind and I get an odd feeling I know something about this.

"Why was that the last you saw? Was there more to the carvings?" He shakes his head as he pulls me tighter against his side.

"As I said, Gaelithox was not impressed with me being in his cave and that is all I saw but I never forgot it. I could not get it out of my mind and eventually, I, humored the idea it was the wall in the far north. I looked into anything I could and it was mainly the stories of Eldric Shadowchaser and stories of the 'others' before the wall was built. Not much is known about that time but I could make some assumptions on what it all meant if I assume the carvings are about that time and the wall I saw on the carvings is the ice wall up north." I feel my heart clench as this starts to sound more and more like what my Father told me before naming me his heir.

A cold wind gusting in from the distance North, and with it, absolute darkness will come with it.

"What do you think it means?" I ask with a weak voice as I look away from him and lay my head on his chest.

His heart is racing but I have found over the last nights sleeping together it is always racing and I like to listen to it. I close my eyes as I try not to let anything slip, it is a secret that is to be passed from 'King to Heir' since Aegon the Conqueror. I do not want to lie to Daeron and I also need to keep the secret.

"I think the people of various sizes were three separate races and the blue-eyed was a fourth, they made sure to show the difference in size for a reason along with the blue eyes. I doubt the reason was that they had kids fighting along with the adults or they just had pretty blue eyes. The old stories I found are mainly from the North but they tell of a race of people called the 'others' and how they wielded razor-thin swords and rode ice spiders. They apparently also could raise the dead as their slaves and they were called 'wights' and they hunted down the first men and children of the forest. The stories tell that first men and the children of the forest along with giants united to fight them and eventually won and brought about the end of the Long Night. Most of the stories are just runes carved into rock and passed word of mouth but the stories got me thinking..." I feel a chill as I think about this and the prophecy.

Daenys the Dreamer saw in a dream the end of Valyria and my House left to survive on Dragonstone and avoided the Doom. Aegon left a prophecy about a cold wind blowing from the North and 'absolute darkness' riding with those cold winds. Why does absolute darkness sound so similar to the Long Night and it also happened in the North where the wall was built.

"Hey, are you alright?" Daeron asks as he moves his around around to grab my face and lift it to meet his eyes.

"Can you show me these... carvings?" I do not want to believe it, my father's words about Aegon passing a prophecy down are not something I wanted to hear.

But if this is something to do with Aegons prophecy then I want to look more into it and find out. I am sure if I can see it for myself I will get a better feel for it and I can decide from there if it is related. But now that I know about it, I do not think I will be able to rest easy until I put my mind at ease by seeing it for myself.

"Sure, we can fly over whenever you want and I will take you to the right cave. I wanted to go back anyway to check if I could recover some of the dragon bone in the cave to make some bows." I shake my head at his interest in making some kind of weapon but I accept as he steals away my lips in a sweet kiss that calms my heart.

His insistent hands pawing at my ass as he explores my mouth with his tongue pushes away my worries but does not get rid of them. I break the kiss and slide across his body as I fully mount him and look down at him and his fiery gaze on my breasts.

"I want to go tomorrow, I know your family is leaving soon but this is important to me." He sits up which causes me to slide back onto his manhood and his arms embrace me.

"Then we will fly to Dragonstone in the morning, I am sure no matter what it is that is bothering you, we can handle it." My heart jumps at the sureness in his words and I bite my bottom lip before nodding.

We can handle it, but I am hoping there is nothing to handle at all if I am honest with myself. Being Queen will be hard enough without the 'end of men' approaching on the not-far horizon.