c26: Crisis Approaching
Standing on a stool, the boy leaned against the windowsill, the salty sea breeze blowing in his face as he breathed in the faint smell of burnt blood carried across the waters of Blackwater Bay. His silver-gold curls brushed against his fair forehead, a trait common among the dragonlords of House Targaryen.
Tonight was destined to be a sleepless night.
The distant bells of Dragonstone had stopped ringing, but the boy's inner turmoil remained unabated.
He hated this feeling of leaving his fate in the hands of others, for this naval battle directly determined his life or death.
If the Dragonstone fleet was defeated, he, his mother, and Renée would have nowhere to escape, no matter where they hid.
After all, Dragonstone was only so big.
The island fortress built by the Valyrian ancestors of the Targaryens stood alone in the Narrow Sea, its steep cliffs and black volcanic stone walls making escape almost impossible once the surrounding waters were controlled by the enemy fleet.
The sea was like a cage, imprisoning them here, with no room for escape.
Viserys decided that after this was over, if the Dragonstone fleet could repel the invading enemy, he would do something to change his situation.
For example...
to persuade his mother to abandon Dragonstone and lead the fleet across the Narrow Sea to the Free Cities on the Eastern Continent, far beyond the reach of the new regime that had risen in Westeros.
However, Viserys also knew that doing so would be extremely difficult, after all, Dragonstone held immense historical significance for the Targaryens. It had been their ancestral seat ever since the days before Aegon's Conquest, the fortress from which the dragons first flew to conquer the Seven Kingdoms.
Although he had been crowned Viserys Targaryen III after the fall of the capital, he was still very young, and even the title of "king" was merely a hollow formality. The few guards stationed at the castle gates respected the royal bloodline, but in truth none of them would take the commands of a small child seriously.
A seven-year-old "king" who had lost the Iron Throne and was now hiding on Dragonstone had absolutely no real authority; even ordering a servant to fetch water often required his mother's approval.
On Dragonstone, apart from the fleet commander and the loyal knights who still served the fallen dynasty, it was Queen Ryra whose words truly carried weight, while Sir William was one of the few knights who still obeyed the royal family without hesitation.
As Viserys was lost in thought, he suddenly seemed to remember something.
Ever since their escape six months earlier, when they were ambushed by forces connected to the powerful House Lannister, Ryra had developed the habit of having nightmares.
The little girl would often wake in the middle of the night trembling and crying from frightening dreams, and she would run through the corridor to Viserys's room seeking comfort.
The two children's rooms were very close together. Ryra's bedroom was right next to Viserys's chamber, and only by holding her older "brother" tightly, the brown-haired little girl would slowly calm down and fall asleep again.
Both of them were, in truth, unfortunate children; Ryra had also lost her parents during the chaos that followed the rebellion against Aerys II Targaryen and the fall of the Targaryen dynasty.
Tonight, however, because of the many sudden events that had occurred, Viserys had completely forgotten about her.
First, the old maester of Dragonstone had passed away from illness earlier in the evening, drawing his final breath in the quiet tower chamber.
Then the mysterious fleet suddenly appeared in the surrounding waters, and the alarm bells of the castle rang loudly across the island as the ships began fighting in the dark sea.
With so many chaotic thoughts filling his mind, Viserys momentarily forgot about Renesas.
Normally, the loud tolling of the bells outside the castle would have awakened Renesas long ago, their echoes carrying through the stone halls of Dragonstone and startling anyone asleep.
However, there was still no sound coming from Renesas's bedroom.
Still asleep?
Viserys slightly turned his head, leaning out of the castle window and peering into Renesas's bedroom next door.
Below him was a cliff tens of meters deep, with waves from the Narrow Sea crashing violently against the jagged black rocks below the walls of Dragonstone.
Viserys had grown bolder during these past months, no longer worrying too much about the danger of falling.
However, when he looked out the window, Renesas's bedroom was completely dark, without a single candle or torch burning inside.
"Looks like she really hasn't woken up properly…"
"That's strange."
His silver-gold hair fluttered in the sea wind, the boy blinked, pondered for a moment, then withdrew his outstretched body back into the chamber.
He picked up the short sword from the windowsill, jumped down from the small stool, and quickly walked toward the bedroom door.
Creak—
Viserys pushed open his bedroom door.
Sure enough, two fully armed guards stood outside in the corridor, wearing ringmail armor over leather jerkins with longswords hanging at their waists, the red-and-black dragon sigil of House Targaryen stitched upon their cloaks.
Viserys tried to go out, but was stopped by the two guards.
"Your Highness."
The two guards looked at the young king with wry smiles. Although he had been hastily crowned after the fall of King's Landing, neither Viserys nor anyone else truly took the title seriously in this desperate situation.
The guards hadn't even changed the way they addressed him, still calling Viserys "Your Highness" rather than "Your Grace," the title normally used for a reigning king of the Seven Kingdoms seated upon the Iron Throne.
And now, they had not expected Sir William to be right; His Highness truly wasn't the type to remain quietly indoors and would inevitably try to sneak out and investigate something on a night like this.
However, this time, they were indeed mistaken.
Viserys spread his hands slightly, a hint of helplessness appearing on his face, then pointed toward Renis's bedroom next door and said,
"I'm just going to see Renis, of course I won't run around."
The silver-haired boy's explanation was perfectly reasonable; after all, the close relationship between the two children was a fact known by almost everyone living inside the castle.
Renis always liked to cling to Viserys. Even when he practiced simple sword drills in the courtyard under the guidance of Sir William, the little girl would sit quietly beneath the shade of a tree nearby, watching him with bright eyes.
Moreover, Renis often made small "slips of the tongue," calling Viserys "brother." Only after being scolded several times by Queen Leila did she reluctantly change to calling him "uncle," though the little girl's face would still be filled with reluctance whenever she said it.
Indeed, for a child, there was no deeper reason for this behavior, and it certainly had nothing to do with the complicated etiquette and bloodline traditions of the great houses of Westeros.
In Renis's simple mind, Viserys was only a little older than she was; they were practically the same age.
Yet for reasons she could not understand, he was considered an entire generation above her, which made her slightly dissatisfied. So she deliberately called Viserys "brother," though Viserys himself never cared much about such formalities.
"Since you're looking for Her Highness the Princess…"
The two guards exchanged glances, hesitating slightly before finally nodding.
After all, Renis's bedroom was only a few steps away, right next to Viserys's chamber. The young king was not attempting to leave the castle or wander down the corridors alone, so refusing such a simple request would appear unnecessarily rigid.
"Alright then."
The metallic clang of armor scraping against each other echoed softly in the quiet hallway.
The two guards, one hand resting on the pommel of his sword, nodded and stepped aside to clear the path.
"Thank you."
Viserys nodded in return. Then, just as he passed between them, he suddenly remembered something.
He paused slightly in front of Renis's bedroom door; from this angle, the guards behind him could only see his back.
Then the boy raised his head slightly and asked in a seemingly casual tone,
"So… does Mother also have guards protecting her?"
So much had already happened tonight, and the naval battle outside the island fortress was still raging fiercely.
If the fleet defending Dragonstone were defeated, then none of them neither the queen nor the children would have any hope of escape.
However, Viserys had just realized another troubling possibility.
If the entire Dragonstone fleet had sailed out to engage the enemy ships, wouldn't that mean the coastline of the island itself was now almost completely undefended?
Under the cover of darkness, even a small boat could potentially approach the rocky shore without being noticed.
Because of its barren volcanic terrain, Dragonstone had only a tiny fishing village near its harbor, and the lord of the island could barely raise a proper garrison of soldiers.
The only real defensive force on the entire island consisted of the few dozen guards stationed within the castle itself, and the fortress was so vast with towers, stairways, and winding stone corridors that those men could never watch every corner at once.
Hearing the young prince's question, the two guards hesitated briefly. They had not thought as deeply about the situation as Viserys had, but they still nodded with confidence.
"Of course!"
"Her Majesty the Queen is also protected by guards."
However, just as the three of them were speaking,
thud—
a bowstring suddenly snapped in the darkness of the corridor, and an arrow shot out of the shadows.
.....