Dragonstone
When she left for King's Landing, Alysanne had thought there was no returning to Dragonstone, the only place in the world where she finally felt at home. A part of her thought she was never going to ride a dragon ever again once she was wed to someone who she hates with a passion and who hates her with the same intensity in turn. She thought herself to be imprisoned in the Red Keep for the rest of her life, a bird in a golden cage, expected to breed dragonriders for the rest of her life. Nothing more and nothing less.
She had never ridden a dragon bigger than Sitharax before, and if she did, there was only the affirmation of her mother that she rode Syrax while she was still carrying her and Jacaerys in her belly. Vhagar ruled the skies and was aware of it. Ofttimes, she would not obey Aemond's commands. Maesters from the Citadel claimed dragons were akin to their riders, but not Vhagar, Alysanne had thought as much. Queen Visenya Targaryen's dragon carries with her an age of nearing fifty and one-hundred, a dragon who has seen many a war from Aegon's Conquest to the War Of A Hundred Candles. It had wisdom and pride, both of which most humans are not able to attain without reaching old age.
"Why did you bring me here, Aemond?" Alysanne asked him after they had climbed off of the humongous dragon. "This isn't like you."
"What do you mean?"
"You're being good." She said quickly.
Taking off his black leather gloves, he walks over to her and his eyebrows creased in curiosity. "I am good to my family. It matters to me very much, even if it is hard to believe. I protect those I love and find ways to make them happy."
"But not my brothers and I."
"You started it with the pig." His voice deepened.
The Pink Dread!
The laughter of frolicking boys remains crystal clear, hidden from the back of her mind.
Alysanne doesn't know what he's talking until her mind brings her back at the Dragonpit several years ago, when they were still in the process of forming a bond with their dragons, and Aemond was always sulking from afar because he was dragonbane.
"I had no part in that, nor for any of the antics my brothers and yours had done to you." Alysanne said, remembering. "But remember, Aegon made fun of you as well?"
Aloof, Aemond turns to the Valyrian architecture situated on top of the steaming island. The castle towers were shaped by Valyrian magic to look like dragons to make the castle look fearsome, and they placed a thousand gargoyles upon the walls.
"He remains to make fun of me." He said after a long time. "It is normal among brothers, you should know. You have brothers yourselves."
The topic of brothers causes Alysanne to think about Jacaerys and Lucerys before they left the feast. Her mother said they are to return to Dragonstone after what happened at the supper, and it was their decision to leave. Jacaerys always swore he would protect and never leave her alone, yet why did he act the way he did, not once have they spoke a word to each other since his dance with Helaena.
"I couldn't help but notice the way your brothers looked at you." Aemond said as if he just read her mind. She gives him a surprised look which says it all. His menacing smirk returns, ridding him of his aloof demeanor. "You've switched sides now, Alysanne. You've married the worst person in the world, to them, and they assume you can no longer be trusted, which is why from this day forth, you are their enemy."
The brunette shakes her head. "You're wrong. We will talk through ravens, I'm certain of it. Mother said that they will. And they are my brothers, not yours. I know them better, and I know that they will never leave me to fend for myself."
"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.