Thousands of smallfolk streamed out the Kingslanding city gates, carrying their children and worldly possessions on their backs, to seek safety in the countryside. Others dug pits and tunnels under their hovels, dark dank holes where they hoped to hide whilst the city burned. Rioting broke out in Flea Bottom. When the sails of the Sea Snake's ships were seen to the east in Blackwater Bay, making for the river, the bells of every sept in the city began to ring, and mobs surged through the streets, looting as they went. Dozens died before the gold cloaks could restore the peace.
With both Prince Daeron and his dragon Tessarion absent in the Riverlands and King Aegon himself burned, bedridden, and lost in poppy dreams, it fell to his mother, the Queen Dowager, to see to the city's defenses.
Queen Alicent rose to the challenge, closing the gates of the castle and city, sending the gold cloaks to the walls, and dispatching riders on swift horses to find Prince Daeron and fetch him back. As well, she commanded Grand Maester Orwyle to send ravens to "all our leal lords," summoning them to the defense of their true king.
When Orwyle hastened back to his chambers, however, he found four gold cloaks waiting for him. One man muffled his cries as the others beat and bound him. With a bag pulled over his head, the Grand Maester was escorted down to the black cells.
Queen Alicent's riders got no farther than the gates, where more gold cloaks took them into custody. Unbeknownst to Her Grace, the seven captains commanding the gates, chosen for their loyalty to King Aegon, had been imprisoned or murdered the moment Caraxes appeared in the sky above the Red Keep, for the rank and file of the City Watch still loved Daemon Targaryen, the Prince of the City who had commanded them of old.
Queen Alicent's brother Ser Gwayne Hightower, second in command of the gold cloaks, rushed to the stables, intending to sound the warning; he was seized, disarmed, and dragged before his commander, Luthor Largent. When Hightower denounced him as a turncloak, Ser Luthor laughed. "Daemon gave us these cloaks," he said, "and they're gold no matter how you turn them." Then he drove his sword through Ser Gwayne's belly and ordered the city gates opened to the men pouring off the Sea Snake's ships.
For all the vaunted strength of its walls, King's Landing fell in less than a day. A short, bloody fight was waged at the River Gate, where thirteen Hightower knights and a hundred men-at-arms drove off the gold cloaks and held out for eight hours against attacks from both within and without the city, but their heroics were in vain, for Rhaenyra's soldiers poured in through the other six gates unmolested.
The sight of the black Queens dragons in the sky above took the heart out of the opposition, and the King Aegon's remaining loyalists hid or fled or bent the knee.
One by one the dragons made their descent. Sheepstealer lighted atop Visenya's Hill, Prince Daemon circled the towers of the Red Keep before bringing Caraxes down in the outer ward. Only when he was certain that the defenders would offer him no harm did he signal for his wife the queen to descend upon Syrax. Addam Velaryon remained aloft, flying Seasmoke around the city walls, the beat of his dragon's wide leathern wings a caution to those below that any defiance would be met with fire.
Upon seeing that resistance was hopeless, the Dowager Queen Alicent emerged from Maegor's Holdfast with her father, Ser Otto Hightower; Ser Tyland Lannister; and Lord Jasper Wylde the Ironrod. Lord Larys Strong was not with them. The master of whisperers had somehow contrived to disappear.
Queen Alicent attempted to treat with her stepdaughter. "Let us together summon a great council, as the Old King did in days of old." said the Dowager Queen, "And lay the matter of succession before the lords of the realm."
But Queen Rhaenra rejected the proposal with scorn. "Do you mistake me for Mushroom?" she asked. "We both know how this council would rule." Then she bade her stepmother choose: yield or burn.
Bowing her head in defeat, Queen Alicent surrendered the keys to the castle and ordered her knights and men-at-arms to lay down their swords. "The city is yours, Princess," She said, "But you will not hold it long. The rats play when the cat is gone, but Queen Elia will return for her seat and her revenge, with fire and blood."
Rhaenyra's men found her rival's wife, the mad Queen Helena, locked in her bedchamber, but when they broke down the doors of the king's apartments, they discovered only "His bed, empty, and his chamberpot, full." Aegon II had fled. So had his children, the six-year-old Princess Jaehaera and two-year-old Prince Maelor, along with Willis Fell and Rickard Thorne of the Kingsguard. Not even the Dowager Queen seemed to know where they had gone, and Luthor Largent swore none had passed through the city gates.
Even as Kings Landing fell to Rhaenyra and her dragons, Aemond and Cregan were advancing on Harrenhal, whilst the Stark host under Cassian Beckett swept Eastward.
Once more the Starks prevailed, cutting down the river men as they fled, though at the cost of Cassian Beckett being slain in the heat of battle. When the eastward host resumed its march to Harrenhal, it was under the aged Lord Hansel Beckett in his son Cassians place.
After nineteen days on the march Cregan and his men reached Harrenhal and found the castle gates open, with Prince Daemon and all his people gone. Prince Aemond had kept Vhagar with the main column throughout the march, thinking that his uncle might attempt to attack them on Caraxes. He reached Harrenhal a day after Cregan and that night celebrated a great victory; Daemon and his 'River scum' had fled rather than face his wroth, Aemond proclaimed.
West of Harrenhal, fighting continued in the riverlands as the Stark host slogged onward. The age and infirmity of their commander, Lord Hansel, had slowed their march to a crawl, but as they neared the western shores of the Gods Eye, they found a huge new army athwart their path. Richard the Reckless and his army of Eagle soldiers from the Eeyrie who joined with House Frey, commanded by Oliver Frey.
The Eeyrie soldiers numbered two thousand, Frey commanded two hundred knights and thrice as many foot. And scarce had Lord Hansel halted to confront the foe in front of him when more enemies appeared to the south, such being Longleaf the Wolfslayer and a raggedband of survivors from the earlier battles. Hansel hesitated to move against either, for fear of the other falling on his rear. Instead he put his back to the lake, dug in, and sent ravens to the Consort Aemond at Harrenhal, begging his aid. Though a dozen birds took wing, not one ever reached the King consort; Red Robb Rivers, said to be the finest archer in all of Westeros, took them down on the wing.
More Eeyrie men turned up the next day and with their numbers thrice the size of Hansel's own, Oliver and Richards men agreed that the time had come to attack. "Best make an end to these Wolves before the dragons come," said Richard the Reckless.
The bloodiest land battle of the Dance of the Dragons began the nextday, with the rising of the sun. In the annals of the Citadel it is know as the Battle by the Lakeshore, but to those men who lived to tell of it, it was always the Fishfeed. Attacked from three sides, the Northmen were driven back foot by foot into the waters of the Gods Eye. Hundreds died there, cut downwhilst fighting in the reeds; hundreds more drowned as they tried to flee. By nightfall two thousand men were dead, amongst them many notables, including Lord Oliver Frey and Lord Hansel Beckett. The Stark host was almost completely shattered and slaughtered, More than two thirds of the men who had ridden for Queen Elia were dead orwounded.
Meanwhile on Dorne, Elia was regaining her strength, with the aid of Ser Willem Lannister who had stayed behind from the battles to stand as her protector, the only man anointed to Elia's Queensguard. With each day that passed Elia would eat more, and managed to walk around and swing a spear better than the last. Prince Qoren had also sent his finest healer to supply her with a fresh brew of herbs to help in regaining her muscle.
After a weeks passing, Elia had grown back enough strength to finely wield her spear and ride her dragons again. It was with this returned strength, that Elia was determined to rejoin the fight, having felt lost and useless after Jacaerys death, which she still mourned everyday.
At Harrenhal, Aemond Targaryen and Cregan Stark debated how best to answer the Black Queen's attacks. Though Black Harren's seat was too strong to be taken by storm, and the riverlords dared not lay siege for fear of Vhagar and Grey Ghost, the king's men were running short of food and fodder, and losing men and horses to hunger and sickness. Only blackened fields and burned villages remained within sight of the castles massive walls, and those foraging parties that ventured farther did not return. Cregan urged a withdrawal to the North, where Elia's support was strongest, but the King consort refused, saying "Only a craven runs from traitors."
The loss of the eastward Stark host and their commander Cassian Beckett had enraged Aemond, and when word of the Fishfeed reached Harrenhal, the King Consort had almost strangled the squire who delivered the news. Only the intercession of one of the wet nurses now turned prisoner, Alys Rivers had saved the boy's life. With Prince Daemon having fled, Aemond favoured an immediate attack upon King's Landing. None of the Black Queens dragons were a match for Vhagar, he insisted.
Cregan called that folly, "One against six is a fight for fools." He declared, "Send a raven to Queen Elia, asking for the aid of her dragons and Dorne's forces. Allow Rhaenyra's army to march south into our ambush, with the remaining strength of the Stark men joined alongside Dorne's cavalry, and then the might of Elia's three dragons, there is surely no way we could lose." He said.
Aemond declared Cregans advice a 'Cravens Course' and opposed the idea, though he would remain in Harrenhal a while longer as he planned strategy. Amidst the rivalry between the Targaryen Consort and the Stark Lord, both deathly loyal to their Queen's claim, Alys Rivers had been busy at brewing her potions which she intended on slipping in Aemond's drink to win his affection. She knew simple seduction would not work on Aemond, as he was too fiercely loyal to Elia to ever betray in the matters of war and politics, however, having not bedded his wife in quite some time had caused the King Consort to grow... agitated.
It is said that Alys Rivers was the most attractive of all the maids and prisoners inside Harrenhal, and Aemond seemed to favour her highest, despite being twice or perhaps even thrice his age, for she was a witch, and did not look a day over twenty.
It's known through history that Aemond loved one woman only, Queen Elia, and would always love her until the day he'd die, but he was a man deep in battle, away from the woman he loved, and he lusted for a prize for his fantastic victory. So he took the Alys River's as a bed mate, unbeknownst to his faithful wife who surely would not take well to the news, given she was to find out.
Authors Note: Things are really starting to go down.. 🤭🤭