The Snow Princess - Aemond Targaryen

Forty Three

Life was a blurry haze for Alyarra Stark, endorsed by too much milk of the poppy. She did not care, anything to make her forget her misery. To make her forget her best friend was murdered by the Crown that her husband was off defending.

Alyarra stared at nothing as some servants dressed her for another day of mourning. She could hear Baelon crying in the other room, and she wanted to go to him but she could not. She was physically and emotionally weak at that point in time. She could not hold her babe, she could barely hold herself up.

The servants urged her to eat. But she only hummed, too tired to form a coherent sentence. Then a knock came to the door and in was Benjamin. Her lifeline for the passing days. He had a reassuring smile on his face, and he was speaking of her nutrition and how she needed to eat the porridge that was made for her but she was not listening.

"Love... please eat something."  Nobody ever called her that seldom for Aemond. Her husband. She remembered her husband. The man she swore to love until the end of her times. And she would. She would love him until it killed her, and soon it would. She was sure she was set to die soon.

Then Benjamin sighed, and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "There has been sightings of Vhagar over King's Landing sky, and a cavalcade with our banners is arriving..." Benjamin informed dubiously, and that got Alyarra's attention almost instantly. Her husband.

She said nothing, her mind still a bit drowsy from the poppy milk she had taken the night before. She stood from her bed and walked. Benjamin followed closely by as she walked down to the courtyard. She wanted her husband. She wanted to know he was okay, even when their marriage was so strained and ruined.

Alyarra got there in time to see knights carrying in a burnt body on a stretcher. She gasped, the first sound she had made in the entire day, and her hands trembled as she tried to gauge the identity of the person. Not Aemond, please not Aemond. And it was not Aemond, because he rode in on a horse shortly later, wearing his brother's crown.

Alyarra's eyes contorted in confusion, and then she realized the writhing body in the stretcher was Aegon. Served him right.

She swallowed as she watched her husband dismount his horse and walk to her. He looked smug, proud of himself. Surely it was a victory, he would not look so pleased if it were not. "Alyarra..." He whispered as he got to her and engulfed her in a tight hug. The girl remained stoic for a few seconds, and then she hugged him back though not with the same force as he did her.

"What happened?" She whispered into his chest, pulling away from him and looking up to his crowned head. King. Her husband was King? Was she the Queen now? Was Baelon the heir of the Seven Kingdoms? Gods she hoped not. That throne had taken too much from her, she would not allow it to take her son too.

"My brother was badly injured at Rook's Rest... but twas a victory for our cause because Rhaenys and her traitor dragon are dead." Aemond told her with a proud smile. And Alyarra was happy, not for the victory but because Aegon was badly injured. She hoped he died and was sent to the Seven Hells for what he did to Catherryn.

"And you are King?" Alyarra mumbled in a question. "Prince Regent and Protector of the Realm until my brother is well again." Aemond stated, looking down at his wife with a proud smile. He was beaming, of course. It was all he ever wanted, to be the King. To rule the Kingdoms. It was what he prepared for all of his life.

Aemond did not notice her broken figure when he got off his horse. He was too smug and proud of himself to notice her, but now staring down at his wife he noticed. And he frowned in sheer worry. Her cheeks were hollowed in, her undereyes black, and her once sparkling eyes dead. Just two weeks had passed, and she had gone through a great physical change. She had lost pounds.