The Crown We Carry

Chapter One - Helaena Was Here

Jacaerys Velaryon lost an almond beneath the king's table.

Years afterward, singers would disagree over the first moment at which the boy who became known as the Golden Prince had shown himself different from other princes.

Some said it had been the first time he mounted Vermax.

Others preferred his first tourney, his first judgment, his first embassy, his first battle.

One particularly tiresome singer would eventually insist it had been obvious from the moment of his birth.

Jacaerys himself, when forced to listen to such nonsense, would complain that infants were rarely capable of displaying political philosophy.

No song would remember the almond.

That was probably for the best.

It bounced once from the edge of his little silver plate, struck his knee, and vanished beneath the long tablecloth.

Jace stared after it.

He liked almonds.

Across the table, Prince Aegon had just succeeded in making Aemond laugh by balancing a grape beneath his nose. Queen Alicent had noticed and was giving both boys the expression that meant they had perhaps three heartbeats remaining before royal displeasure descended upon them.

Jace decided this was an excellent moment not to be noticed.

He slid from his chair.

His mother was speaking to Lord Beesbury about ships.

His father Laenor was listening with the expression he wore whenever numbers became involved: attentive enough to be polite, desperate enough to flee at the first opportunity.

King Viserys was laughing at something Lord Lyonel Strong had said.

No one saw Jace disappear beneath the table.

At least, Jace believed no one did.

The world below a royal feast was very different from the one above it.

Above were jeweled cups, silver plates, velvet sleeves, polished rings and discussions conducted in careful voices.

Below were boots.

Hundreds of boots.

Black boots.

Brown boots.

Ridiculously pointed boots.

One pair belonging to a lord whose feet kept tapping whenever Lord Beesbury discussed tariffs.

Jace crawled carefully between chair legs, searching for his almond.

He found a grape first.

Then something that might once have been bread.

Then a small carved horse he recognized as Joffrey's, though Joffrey was much too young to have brought it there himself and therefore Luke was almost certainly guilty.

No almond.

Jace crawled farther.

A shoe moved suddenly near his hand.

He froze.

The shoe passed.

He continued.

And then he saw Helaena.

She was sitting cross-legged beneath the royal table as though this were the most ordinary place in the world for a princess to spend a feast.

Her pale hair had come partly loose from its braids. Her fine green skirts were gathered around her knees. In one hand she held a tiny wooden box with holes cut into its lid.