The King of Winters

Chapter 58

"You were sent to Winterfell to guard the prince, weren't you?" Aurane Waters spoke up for the first time. "Yet here you stand and our prince is at the Wall with the Night's Watch."

"You don't know what it's like there, my lord," the messenger was saying. "You were not there. The beast was close to his side, as big as a horse. It wouldn't let anyone near him."

"Gods save us," Varys swore.

"The prince told us to take the bones back, my king," the messenger said. "Only a few of the men I brought from the north are still with me. The others quietly got away."

"Curse them all." the Hand of the King sounded more angry than surprised. "We need to get prince Jaehaerys back."

Rhaegar pressed his temple with his fingers. He need to bring Jaehaerys back from the Wall but not before this new Stark king is dealt with. The boy is posing a threat as much as his father did.

"Your work here is done," Rhaegar told the messenger. "I'll have the steward provide you meat and mead. You may leave."

The man looked up and bowed hesitantly and took his leave. 

There was a deep silence in the room after he left. 

"How could it happen?" Mace Tyrell asked again, breaking the silence. "Prince Jaehaerys gone, a dragon lost . . . this is a catastrophe!"

By then Rhaegar had enough of him. "I am sure we are all grateful to you for pointing out the obvious, Lord Tyrell," he said. "The question is, what shall we do about it?"

As always Tyrell had no answer to it. "Good," the king said, "I expected that."

"Beg your pardon, your grace," Grand Maester Pylos broke in. The young master was trembling, his face as pale as snow. "If I may, there was a raven earlier this day with this letter. See here." He took the rolled parchment and gave it to him.

Rhaegar examined the roll of parchment sealed with hard grey wax bearing the direwolf insignia. Stark, he knew at once. He crushed the seal open with his thumb and flattened the parchment and read.

To Rhaegar Targaryen

You killed my father and my mother and destroyed my family. You hurt my people did us harm although we had not done you any previous injury. You tried to eradicate my family and now I'm coming to get my justice for your crimes against mine.

You gave support to the tyrants who had done my people harm, and put my people to blade. You killed my father through treachery and took pleasure in it.

Know that any chance for peace my father wanted with you ended right in that moment you made your toast at Starfall. To get my justice for all your crimes, I am therefore leading an expedition against you, to pay this long lost debt.

Approach me therefore as the lord of the seven kingdoms to settle this once and for all. If you are afraid of suffering harm at my hands by coming in person, send some of your friends to do your fight for you. If you want to say anything to save yourself, let me know in proper terms or I shall take steps to deal with you as a criminal. On the other hand, if you wish to keep your throne, then stand and fight for it; but do not run away, for wherever you may hide yourself be sure I shall seek you out.

It was signed,

Andrew Stark,

Lord of Winterfell and King in the North.

For a moment Rhaegar's eyes fogged over the words and he saw the pair of grey eyes he had seen once in Braavos moonturns before. He could not say whether it was because of fear or of surprise. So Slynt is dead too. One less lackey for me to deal with. This is the one who had come so close to killing him at the gutters of Braavos. He could feel those cold eyes in these words.

"My lord?" Jon Connington called, when he had been staring at the letter for too long.

Rhaegar extended the letter to his Hand and bid him to read. Rhaegar did not miss Jon's eyes going wide open as the eyes of the lord hand skimmed over the contents of the letter.