The Realm's Fright

Chapter Twelve

"You simply are unaware of the game, Alysanne." He responded. "Anyhow, I'm starving, and with your mother gone, you are the Princess of Dragonstone as of tonight, so it is your duty to follow the law of hospitality and serve me everything I want."

"The Northmen call it guest right, and I believe the host is not expected to serve you whatever you please. Bread and salt and the surety that you are not slain by the host are the only privileges the guest is given."

His smile turns genuine, reaching his eyes. Warmth spread across her cheeks and she convinces herself to believe the cause to be the saline air of the island, which smells of smoke and brimstone.

"You never fail to remind people you are better off a court fool than a princess." He mocked. "However, need I remind you why we are truly here?"

"The wedding has ended?"

Alysanne's brave facade had cracked at the realization.

"And the bedding has yet to begin." He purred, making a sound Daemon oft did to make her mother smile in delight. The Realm's Delight, Daemon would call her, my-

"My sweet niece." Aemond snaps her out of her thoughts. "Are you going to let us in or do you plan to freeze us both to death?"

He will take me once I walk through those doors. "The latter sounds better, does it?"

"You are afraid to lose your maidenhead, are you not?"

She swallows a stubborn lump in her throat, making her release a frustrated moan. "Of course I am! I don't love you, in fact, I don't feel anything for you but hatred, a hatred which gnaws at my bones whenever you are in my sight and swallows my head whole. Bastard, bastard, bastard, that is all I hear from everyone and everywhere you are and the Seven be damned if you think you've merited to fuck me this eve!"

Vhagar roars, or were it the waves crashing against the coastline? She could not distinguish their differences, for her mind is burning, teeming with the fire that has not been stoke for a long time.

He towers over her, his violet eye widened and set ablaze. "It is your duty." He growled.

"I've done my duty and it is to wed you-"

He grabs her by the wrist and squeezes it rough, making her cry out. "I will have you tonight, Alysanne, whether you like it or not!"

The ground tremors as Vhagar slowly turns around. She watches them closely, and Alysanne has a feeling the she-dragon knows what her rider wants from the brown-haired princess, and the prideful she-dragon is going to let him take what he wants.

No, Alysanne thought. And even if the dragon will kill me after I kill her pompous rider, at least I died defending myself.

She pulls out the thin knife from her sleeve. Holding her breath, she jolts her hand upward and holds it close against his neck, making him lift his chin up, shocked. "As expected of you, you cretin, which is why I came prepared." She hissed at him, regaining her brave facade.

Vhagar begins to growl and lowers her head but it does not touch the ground. A predator in action, Alysanne thought.

Aemond steps back, retreating into the proximity of the colossal prowling beast. Alysanne realized it was a wrong move to let him get near his bonded dragon.

"Lykiri, ladies. There is no need for violence." Aemond said to his she-dragon and the brunette. "It is the day to fulfill our duties. I'm sure you have been trained for this day by your septa. A woman grown is to become a wife and a mother. She is to obey her husband and give him children. It is what you were born for, Alysanne. You have a womb for a reason and it is to do just as that."

"I do have a womb, but I'm also a princess, mind you, not some broodmare!"

"A princess is a broodmare in our world. Do you think I do not acknowledge that? Do you think I do not pity Helaena, my poor sister, whenever the fool Aegon returns to the Keep at night, drunk and loose, and rapes her in her slumber while her children listen in the other room? I acknowledge it, but I am in no power to cease it. It is law of the First Men that a lady is the property of a lord once she takes in his name. A farce made by the Gods, how 'tis I the younger brother who studies history and philosophy, it is I who trains with the sword, who rides the largest dragon in the world, yet I am not the firstborn son and Aegon, who rapes our sister almost every night, is, and therefore I am further away in the line of succession and can never be king and hold the power to abolish the many atrocities my sister and her children have to suffer with everyday. I can only be a prince and like you, I can only shove more descendants down the line of succession, and our family further accumulates. The more dragons, the merrier."

Her mouth hangs dry as she lowers to the ground. Speechless, that is what she was. She could barely think of any words to speak, deeming anything she would say is never going to be worthy of being heard as those he had just said. He let her, through a crack in his shell, see his soul for the first time, yes, that is what it was.

It was when she is walking down the high halls of her mother's seat did it came down upon her like deafening rain. She was going to abide guest right and allow this unpredictable man she wedded to claim her, once and for all.