The Green Flame

Chapter 22. The Black Queen

It had been days since Rhaenyra had seen her father. Every time she tried, Otto or his lackeys would stop her from going close to Viserys' chamber, saying that the King had ordered no one to disturb his peace or that he was asleep.

After five days, Rhaenyra had made a plan to see her father. One night, she waited until Otto had left to break the door down and see her father had been rotting. Gasping as she saw flies buzzing around his decomposing carcass, she screamed.

"Guards! Maesters! It's the King!"

Kingsguard members and the Grand Maester rushed into the room and saw the King's condition. Rhaenyra sank to the floor, clutching her pregnant belly, when Harwin caught her and pulled her against his chest, his wife burying her face as he saw what was happening.

Viserys had been dead and rotting for four days.

The Maester had insisted Harwin take Rhaenyra to rest from the trauma while he gets the body prepared for the funeral rites befitting a King.

Inside his chamber, Otto had held onto the letter he had received from Alicent.

'My dear Father, I write to you this evening to inform you that we are well. My husband has declared himself Viserys' heir and coronated in Dragonstone. He wears Aegon's crown and bequeathed Blackfyre to Aegon, and even gifted me a beautiful crown and crowned me his Queen. To help strengthen Daemon's claim, we must call our banners and arrange marriages. Helaena is pleased to marry Prince Qyle as they have expressed a fondness for one another after they met on the day of the petition. Aemond demands he marries Alyssa, which means we have to betroth Daeron to a daughter of a Great House to gain momentum support. I remember Viserys had something written and stored somewhere when Daemon and I were in the room to see him.

I pray to the Seven that you are well, your daughter, Alicent Hightower, Queen Consort of the Seven Kingdoms, the Stepstones and the Narrow Sea, wife of King Daemon Targaryen the First.'

His daughter was a Queen.

His grandchildren would sit on the Throne.
Daemon had a better claim.

He was a male. He had legitimate children. He had three sons and three daughters. Two of his sons married their twin sisters in the queer custom of Targaryen marrying Targaryen. Marrying Helaena to a Prince of Dorne would bring Dorne into the war as a supporter of his claim. He had grown from the homicidal whoremonger who refused to touch his first wife to a less homicidal man devoted to his marriage to Alicent.

Rhaenyra was a woman who birthed three bastards and told the world they were Laenor Velaryon's when they were indeed Harwin Strong's. She had shown nothing but contempt towards Alicent, had received no punishment for her actions or disciplined her sons when Luke took Aemond's eye.

Yes, Otto knew who was the better candidate for the Iron Throne, and by supporting the unquestionable heir, his blood would sit on the Throne as Kings and Queens.

House Hightower's blood would be mixed with House Targaryen's, fathering the future Kings and Queens.

In Rhaenys' chambers, the Queen Who Never Was woke up and found Rhaenyra sitting across from her bed, staring at her older cousin.

Rhaenyra was wearing black, with a yellow dragon embroidered to look like it was lying on her chest. She wore a scowl on her face, and her white hair was down with a few braids.

"Why didn't you want Jace to marry Baela?" Rhaenyra asked.

Rhaenys groaned. Just seconds ago, she was peacefully asleep and now woken and questioned about her choices for her granddaughter.

"Baela is already betrothed," Rhaenys replied.

Rhaenyra's venomous tone seeped out as she spat. "That is a lie, and it is treasonous to lie to your Queen."