Midnight Blades [Aemond Targaryen x female!reader]

Part 8

"Try to distract me as much as you please," you growled across the table to where your husband sat, "but I will see my soldiers one way or another."

You no longer had an appetite to break your fast and pushed the platter of cold carved meat away. Aemond dragged the plate to himself and piled it high onto a fresh loaf of bread and you couldn't fathom where he put it all.

"If I were trying to distract you, we would be in our chambers otherwise engaged in far more erotic activities instead of arguing. This is hardly an enjoyable part of my morning, no matter how often we repeat it."

"Then escort me to the camp and we shall be done with this argument once and for all," you countered, his lips pressing in a firm line and his knife threatening to bend under his grip. "The King is your brother, can you not petition for your wife?"

Aemond's hand slammed the table, embedding the knife deep into the grain. "What my brother would ask in return for such a favour is not something I could give him."

"What..." your words trailed off as you caught the haunted look in his eye. "Oh."

"The people may believe I am the monster within these walls, but my mother and father protected Aegon from any such scrutiny."

Resisting the urge to press for more information, you mulled over what he had already given you as you nibbled on a cracker. After another helping of cold cuts, Aemond rose and narrowed his eye at the untouched food on your plate but kept his comments to himself, not wishing to invite himself to another argument so soon.

"If you are not distracting me in the Keep, what is your plan for me today?" you asked as he pulled your chair out and offered his hand.

"My sister has found herself without a companion for her walk through the gardens."

You could surmise it was because the court ladies found the Queen quite strange and used any excuse to avoid the daily walks. It didn't help that the Queen often stopped to collect all manner of strange creatures to converse with along the way.

Aemond parted ways with an amused smirk and a sarcastic bow outside Helaena's receiving room, the door doing nothing to dampen the loud cries of spoiled children fighting within. The guards seemed immune to the noise or at least accustomed to hearing it each day and you clenched your fist from giving their prince a vulgar gesture as he left.

You would much rather spend the day training with him, or at least watching him spar with Ser Criston before retiring for the afternoon in the library. But, the opportunity to be alone with the Queen did have its own merits and you were planning to use it to your advantage.

"Look at the pretty sparrow," Helaena drawled softly as she stared at the large Weirwood tree. "She's building her nest." You narrowed your eyes trying to spot the small bird but with the thick red leaves kept the branches from your sight. "Her children will fly too."

You rolled your eyes at the obvious statement and plucked a blade of grass from where you sat. Wishing the sun to descend faster, you tried a different strategy and hoped to prompt a useful foretelling from the soothsayer. "As fascinating as bird life is, what news have you from the worms?"

Helaena frowned and the half dazed look in her eyes cleared with a shake of her head. "Worms can't talk."

"Of course not," you muttered to yourself before noticing her cheeks turning pink. "It may be time to retire, your grace, Solaris is quite fierce today."

"You mustn't mention the false gods here," Helaena whispered as she looked around the empty garden before something she spied stole her fluttering attention. Darting off with a billow of her skirts, the Queen sashayed across the path, dancing to a song only she could hear and you hefted yourself from the ground to follow. Perhaps Ser Negan was correct.