Chapitre 14: Chapter 13
23rd Day, 2nd Moon, 111 A.C.
Three days after the meele in the middle of the week was the high point of the tournament, the joust.
For Baelon and Rhaenyra as well as Laena, it wasn't that interesting because the only participant that they were interested in was their Uncle Daemon, who most of the time won anyway.
Still, they were in attendance for the finale, as was expected of them and any other member of the royal family, excluding Aemma, who was resting, or so they thought.
As the speaker announced that Prince Daemon would choose his first opponent, the crowd zommed in on the field below to see a black rider with dragon-themed armor pacing slowly in front of a line of knights from the houses Arryn, Baratheon, Hunter, Lannister, Hightower, and Broom, as well as three hedge knights.
No one was surprised as the Prince chose the son of the Hand of the King as his opponent; some may even say he wanted him to be an enemy in life, not a mere opponent in a joust.
As both participants went to the royal box to request a favor, Gwayne did so from his sister and friend of the Princess Rhaenyra, as was expected of him, but Daemon requested his niece's favor, which didn't go as smoothly as he had planned because of the looks he was getting from Baelon Viserys and Corlys.
But still, Rhaenyra gave her favor to Daemon to not have him embarrassed in front of a thousand Lords and Ladies.
After that, both Gwayne and Daemon took their opposite places on the Tourney Grounds and waited for their squires, or in Daemon's case, a city watchman, to give them their shields. As soon as they had their shields, their horses ran at each other. The only thing keeping them from crashing was the wooden partition in the middle of the field. As their lances crashed in the middle, no one of them could unhorse the other, and so they did it again and again five times.
Daemon seemingly had enough and swung his lance in a way that would incapacitate Hightower's horse by targeting its legs. By doing that, he made sure that Gwayne would fall, and fall he did, but instead of falling from his horse, he fell with his horse, which caused a rumble to go through the spectators.
After a master checked on Otto Hightower's son and assured everyone that he was fine despite a few broken bones, the crowd broke into a loud cheer for Daemon, who at the time couldn't do anything but smirk in the direction of Otto and Alicent.
Baelon would later in his life often wonder if that was the beginning of the war or if his uncle just made an uncalculated move that, in the end, pleased him.
After the first round, the joust's finale was much less chaotic, with the Baratheon losing against the Arryn despite having the favor of the queen, who never was; at least that is what he called her. The three hedge knights were defeated by the Hunter, Lannister, and Broom knights, respectively.
After that, just as Baelon was watching Arryn unhorse his own bannerman, he noticed that his father wasn't there.
He didn't think much of it, because it was not unheard of for the King to be called for some meeting, especially if it wasn't the last round of the joust.
As the time passed, he saw the various knights unhorse each other in an attempt to get the chance to ride against Daemon. Later, Baelon thought about the fact that his father hadn't returned.
Baelon, knowing that it would look bad for his father if he didn't attend the final joust, especially if one of its participants was his own brother, decided to go fetch him himself.
So he excused himself from his sister and Laeena, as well as the other councilors, and went to look for Viserys. After a few minutes of riding Bacvk to the keep, he walked through the corridors to the council chambers, expecting his father to be in a heated discussion with some lord who thought himself to be important.
But instead, he found nothing in there. Confused, he turned around and walked to his father's private solar; maybe he would be able to find him there.
On his way there, he heard the pained cry of what he presumed to be his mother, realizing that his father must be there to help her through her labors.
As he thought about it, it became more obvious: of course, would his father be by his mother's side? For all his obsession with having an heir, Viserys still loved Aemma as he did on the day of their marriage, or so Baelon thought as he made his way towards the birthing chambers of the red keep.
As he came nearer the corridor where his mother lay, he could make out her screams, asking questions about Viserys and what he was doing to her. She sounded frightened and weak, something she never did in any other labor had he heard his mother sound so frightened by speaking his father's name, as if she was hoping for something that wouldn't come, as if Viserys was doing something to her that she couldn't forgive.
Hearing that, Baelon walked faster, or more like he began to run towards the chambers, as he was only a few feet away from the door. He could see the stationed Kingsguard as they looked to him in a look of surprise and relive, but he couldn't think about that look because, as much as he wished that he wouldn't have to hear his mother's cries, he didn't know that not hearing her would be so much worse.
He stormed past the guards and into the room only to see his father crying as he held a small baby in his arms, but before Baelon could breathe a sigh of relief, he looked at his mother, and what he saw there he would never forget.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone