It's been six months since Viserys rejected Cerys, and during that time she's been called the Queen Who Never Was so many times that she's lost count. But the most offensive thing is that her father laughed at her with them. He said, "Cutting out tongues will not change the essence. Let them talk."
Viserys didn't even try to protect his daughter and that was the worst thing about this situation. After all, ignoring ridicule, he encouraged them. But in addition, as if this were not enough, the man appointed Cerys as his cupbearer.
From heir to the throne to cupbearer of the King. People were making fun of her, she heard it. As soon as they saw her, they started laughing. But as soon as the princess pulled out their nails in a fit of anger, the laughter behind her stopped. Now, when she walked through the corridors, they called her a Mad Bitch, but in any case it was better than the previous nickname. At least that's what Cerys thought.
"Ser Ryam was a strong Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. But he was ill for some time. He passed in peace, I hope?" Viserys asked, taking a sip of wine from his cup.
"Yes, Your Grace. He was found to have passed gently in his sleep. His remains are being prepared by the Silent Sisters."
"Your Grace. My lords. The Kingsguard must soon be restored to its full complement of seven. With the help of the Hand, I've invited a number of fine candidates to court. All have passed fair trials."
The doors opened, admitting Corlys Velaryon into the room. Rhaenyra tried to whisper something to her sister, but she carefully pretended to be busy laying papers on the table. She turned her body a little to better hear what the conversation was about.
"Four ships have now been lost. The last one was flying my banner. The Stepstones have now grown into a conflagration, yet you sit here and dither about court business."
"If you have anything to discuss, Lord Corlys—" The man began.
"I want to know what is to be done about my ships and my men."
"The Crown will compensate you for your ship and crew, and make an offering to the men's families." Otto answered.
"I don't want compensation." Corlys spat, turning to the King. "I want to seize the Stepstones by force and burn out this Crabfeeder!"
"I'm not ready to start a war with the Free Cities." Cerys rolled her eyes at her father's remark.
He never knew how to do this. To be a King.
"These pirates are not the Free Cities!"
"Who do you think provides them with their ships and tender?"
"In all of its history, my lord, the Seven Kingdoms have never entered open war with the Free Cities."
"If Aegon thought the same, you wouldn't be sitting in that chair right now, you pompous turkey." The girl muttered, but it seems her indignation was too loud because everyone was staring at her.
"Cerys," Her father said, trying not to burn with shame. "I think you should apologize."
The princess turned her gaze to the lord whom she had insulted.
"The War at the Stepstones is important, father. We have no right to weakness and mistakes. People are dying. Hundreds and thousands, while you, my lord, cannot decide what to eat for breakfast."
"I don't remember asking for your opinion on this." Viserys reminded her with a mocking tone in his voice.
Cerys pursed her lips, hesitantly turning away. She had something to say, but decided to leave it on the tip of her tongue.
"But in some ways my daughter is right." He agreed. "I've sent envoys to Pentos and Volantis to see if we might find common cause. Ships and men are at the ready. The Stepstones will be settled in time."
The princess thought for a long time whether she should speak, but still the opportunity to prove herself prevailed.
"You have dragonriders, father." Corlys and Rhaenyra looked at her with interest. "I am the rider of the largest dragon in all the Seven Kingdoms, and Syrax is almost the size of Caraxes. Send us."
"It's not that simple, Cerys."
"Is it?" She scoffed. "In my opinion, when your opponents have two dragons, and you only have a pile of ashes who were once your advisors, the outcome of the battle is obvious." Noticing that no one objected, Cerys continued. "You will show strength. Remind people that they should not play with us. We can take ours, with fire and blood."
"You think... very outside the box, Cerys." Viserys tried to tactfully silence her.
"No, I think like a conqueror." The princess seemed completely unaware of the disapproving gaze directed at her. "We are Targaryens. We have power in our hands that has not been equaled since the days of Old Valyria, we must use it."
The room fell into silence and this was enough for Cerys to understand that no one would listen to her.
"Perhaps," said the Hand. "there's some better use for the Princess's talents, Your Grace?"
"Why don't you and Rhaenyra arrange a screening of applicants for a place in the guard?" Her father suggested, but Cerys only placed the bowl on the table with a clang.
"I don't need the protection of some guard. I have Moonborn." She spat out as she left the room.
The girl was late for her meeting with Alicent, who suggested meeting in the Sept. And yet, she was offended that they didn't even want to listen to her. These men were weak and naive, like children, and still had much more power in their shriveled hands than she or any other woman. To be born a girl was already insulting.
They were just vessels. And even when they are told that they are special, like Cerys, like Rhaenyra was told, they are still just a vessel from which they take and take, and they end up completely empty and alone.
"Men are too foolish and arrogant." The princess said as she entered the building, soaked to the skin due to the rain.
"Of course they are, they're men." The frown left Cerys' face and she smiled, as did Alicent. "What's happened?"
"They kicked me out. So be it. They'll still call me back when it's time to fill their fucking cups with wine, because their fragile egos won't allow them to pour the wine themselves." She took off her cloak, resting her face in her hands. "I know these people and I know what they are talking about when they send me away."
"Don't worry about the affairs of lords and kings, princess." Alicent reassured her.
"My mother died less than six months ago, and they are already trying to marry my father again to a new woman." Cerys sighed sadly, approaching the statue.
"Is it bad if the King marries again?" Otto's daughter quietly asked, as if by chance. But she seemed to sense lies in the air.
"You don't go to my father's chambers, do you, Alicent?"
"Of course no." The girl answered and was convincing enough for the princess to stop asking questions.
Alicent walked over to the candles, lit one of them, and then extinguished it. Noticing that Cerys did not do the same, she asked, "Kneel with me."
"I don't pray to the gods anymore." The Hightower girl managed to capture much more than just disappointment in her response. It was something so deep that Alicent herself felt sad.
"Not for me, but for them."
Cerys sighed and stood next to her. She simply stared at the fire for a few seconds, remembering the smell of the burning corpses of her mother, brother and son, and then closed her eyes. The girl knew that everything she said would remain only between her and the gods; this was some relief, an opportunity to speak out.
I hate you. You took absolutely everything from me. I don't see any point in living anymore. I lost myself in this stream of anger and resentment. I don't dream or wish anymore because what's the point if you take it away from me anyway? Cerys didn't even notice how her eyes became wet. You have such enormous power and still condemn people to suffering, guilty and pure in soul; old people and babies. If you still exist and are listening to me now, I want you to know how much I despise you all.
"Hey," Alicent gently touched her shoulder and only at that moment did the girl realize that she had been crying.
"I just want to be loved." Cerys's lips trembled. "This is all I ever wanted, the only thing I wished for my name day and prayed to the gods, but they didn't seem to hear my prayers."
"But I love you." Alicent said and she turned to her. Only after that did she understand exactly what she had said. "And I– I mean Rhaenyra loves you too, just like your father, I'm sure he just doesn't show it."
Cerys smiled, placing a hand on the back of her hand.
"Thank you."
The Oldtown girl did her best to keep her voice from faltering as she answered, "Always happy to help." It seemed to Alicent that the princess sitting next to her could hear how fast her heart was beating and how painful it was in her chest.
***
After meeting the Hand's daughter, Cerys had to attend a family dinner, most of which her sister and father remained silent. It was like watching strangers having a meal and having to pretend to be the perfect family.
"Cerys, when do you plan to return north?" Viserys decided to break the silence. "Your people are waiting for you..."
"I trusted Cregan with my people, he won't let me down." The girl answered, taking a sip of wine. Her whole appearance showed how much she did not want to be here.
"But still..."
"I will stay in King's Landing for as long as I see fit, father. Or perhaps you are not happy with my company?"
Rhaenyra looked up at him and Viserys had to smile.
"Of course I'm happy, you can stay with us as long as you wish, we are sincerely glad and enjoy your presence."
"Good." His daughter grinned, popping a piece of bread into her mouth.
"Ser Harrold provided a fine field of tourney knights." Rhaenyra decided to change the topic.
"Oh?" Cerys didn't express the same surprise as her father, instead simply humming.
"But in questioning them, I discovered that Ser Criston was the only man among them with true battle experience."
"He'll make a fine knight of the Kingsguard." The man praised.
"What do you think, Cerys?" She looked at her sister, knowing that she was still angry with her.
"I think the duck was under-salted." The princess answered, throwing her napkin on the table. She pushed back her chair, getting up from the table.
"Where are you going?"
"I don't know." Cerys shrugged. "Where the cook's taste buds haven't given up yet?" She suggested, a hint of amusement in her voice.
The corridors changed one and another until the princess finally noticed something that might interest her.
"Hello, Laena." The girl jumped out of surprise and Cerys smiled at her. "Do you mind keeping me company?" She gestured towards the giant garden ahead.
And while the King's firstborn looked at the bizarre creations that their gardeners had made, the girl looked at her intently, as if she were a statue, a work of art.
"Aren't you scared of flying on the Moonborn?"
Cerys gave her a short, amused look before answering.
"Other people will probably call me mad, but this is the best feeling in the world. Flying on a dragon's back and being able to touch the clouds is incomparable."
"Is it true that he is bigger than Vhagar?"
"Perhaps. If I see her, I'll let you know."
"Do you know where she nests?" Laena asked, causing Cerys to laugh quietly.
"Are you always this curious?" She turned away, thinking she was being too intrusive. "It is generally believed that she found refuge somewhere on the coast of the Narrow Sea."
"The workers at Spicetown report hearing her song at times." The girl Velaryon was glad that they answered her and did not reproach her at all for her excessive obsession with dragons. "They say it is a sad thing."
"I guess even dragons get lonely." Cerys agreed and raised her head to the sky, hearing a dragon roar there. The Moonborn landed next to them, growling quietly, thinking that Laena might be a threat. But the girl did not notice this, completely fascinated by his beauty and size. Noticing the sparkle in her eyes, the princess suggested, "You can come closer if you want."
Laena's eyes lit up even more with happiness. The excitement that visited her threatened to burst out into the open.
Cerys approached her dragon and only then called the Velaryon child to her. She placed Laena's hand against his white muzzle, noting with pleasure how excited Rhaenys' daughter was. A man approached them, whom the girl had seen for the first time, reasonably assuming that this was their new knight. He looked with undisguised horror in his eyes as she calmly stood next to the dragon. No one could understand why the fact that Cerys is smaller than the eye of her beast does not frighten her at all.
"Princess, the Lord Hand has convened a council on an urgent matter and your father requires your presence."
"Why?"
"I don't know exactly, Princess." Cole answered stammeringly.
Cerys lowered her gaze to Laena and she nodded with understanding, but a little disappointment was still present in her eyes.
She came when the conversation had already begun and the Dragonkeepers were reporting to the King.
"It occurred in the blackness of night, my lords. during the Hour of the Bat. The thief eluded our pursuit."
"How is it possible that a dragon's egg was stolen out from beneath more than fifty Dragonkeepers?" Viserys asked a question.
"It was Prince Daemon who was the culprit, Your Grace."
"Daemon?" Cerys couldn't believe her ears. She looked at her father, who looked just as confused as she was.
"The Prince left a missive, which I believe might explain." Otto nodded to the master to begin reading.
"It is the pleasure of Daemon Targaryen, the Prince of Dragonstone and rightful heir to the Iron Throne," Cerys noticed out of the corner of her eye how tense her sister was. "To announce that he is to take a second wife in the tradition of Old Valyria. She is to assume the title Lady Mysaria of Dragonstone. Her Grace is with child and is to have a dragon's egg placed in the babe's cradle in the custom of House Targaryen. The Prince has invited you to his wedding, Your Grace. It is in two days' time."
"Gods be good... " muttered one of the lords.
"Who is Lady Mysaria?" Corlys asked a reasonable question.
"We believe..."
"Daemon's whore." Otto answered. "This is nothing less than sedition."
"My brother wishes to provoke me. To answer is to give him what he wants." The King thought.
"The realm is watching, Your Grace."
"What would you have me do? Send him to the Wall? Perhaps I could put his head on a spike?"
Cerys did not listen to what the lords were saying, only one single question tormented her. "Which egg did Daemon take?" Everyone fell silent and Rhaenyra came closer. "I asked you a question. Why don't you answer me?"
The Dragonkeeper cleared his throat. "The egg was Dreamfyre's, princess. What your sister chose for Prince Baelon's cradle."
"Assemble a detachment, Otto." Viserys gave the order. "I will go to Dragonstone and drag Daemon back to face justice myself."
"My apologies, Your Grace, but I cannot allow it. It's too dangerous. Daemon is without limit."
Cerys quickly walked out of the room, heading to her chambers.
"Where are you going?" Rhaenyra ran out after her.
"Do you really think that twenty guards, Ser Harrold and Otto Hightower can solve this issue? You are the future queen, Rhaenyra, how can you be so naive?" The princess wanted to laugh. Her sister was like the unripe fruit that their father had so carefully passed off as ripe. He did not want Cerys to become his heir so much that he chose a child for this post, whose education, it seems, he did not want to do at all. "No, these idiots will only start another war. I will go to Dragonstone myself and take the egg."
"In that case, I'm going with you."
"Well, you do not." She chuckled, stopping at the door. "Father will put my head on a pike if he finds out."
"If he finds out." Rhaenyra answered.
"Very good." Cerys nodded. "Perhaps Caraxes will eat you and then father will see that he has no choice but to appoint me as his successor."
"I don't understand why you're still so mad at me! A father's choice should not affect our..."
"No, Rhaenyra! That's the thing, you don't understand! You don't know what I went through or how I felt."
"How can I know about it if you don't share it with me?" The girl asked in desperation.
"No! Enough!" She poked her in the chest. "I am the eldest daughter of the King, rider of the most largest creature in the world, my father should have named me heir! It would have been right! I deserve this throne after everything he did to me!"
Confusion is what Cerys felt every time she wondered why her father rejected her.
"My wishes matter! I matter!" She hit her chest, feeling the air in her lungs running out. "But he neglected me, his first-born, all his life! And I'm tired of not being taken into account!" She screamed. "You are not a son and you never will be, Rhaenyra, just like me and yet it was you who our father named as his heir. It's fucking unfair!"
"Why do people need a ruler who cannot have children?" Without realizing her actions, Cerys gave Rhaenyra a resounding slap in the face. She seemed to knock all the air out of herself with this blow.
You are not my sister. The words remained hanging on the tip of her tongue, but she felt that her older sister wanted to say it. Rhaenyra saw it in her eyes.
"I'll go to Dragonstone myself." Cerys said instead. "And you will stay here."
The girl closed the door in front of her sister's nose.
***
Cerys had not flown on a dragon for over a year and now it was exciting to feel what it was like again. But at the same time, it seemed to her that this could open old wounds in her. The last time she was on the back of the Moonborn was not yet in the north, when her stomach was barely convex, to fly would have meant to extinguish the sorrow inspired by the memories.
The white beast, on the contrary, yearned for her touch. The Moonborn was truly a gigantic dragon, he was created for war and battles and Cerys felt some guilt that all he saw was King's Landing and the cold winds of Dreadfort.
The princess pulled leather gloves onto her hands, exhaling with a sigh. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed someone's figure approaching and Cerys turned around. Rhaenyra walked past her calmly, without even glancing in her sister's direction.
"As you see fit." She lowered her head, pressing her lips into a thin line. "But know this, I'm not going to protect you."
But Rhaenyra only continued to pretend that Cerys was not next to her.
It was as if she were invisible.
The comparison scratched her heart unpleasantly. All her life, Viserys treated her this way; her sister was all she had left.
Do not leave me! The princess wanted to fall to her knees and beg her. I beg you, not you! I will change, I swear, I just ask you, don't ignore me.
But Cerys continued to remain silent, piercing Rhaenyra with a doomed look. She was the reason she kept waking up and holding on to this mortal coil. Her struggle with the desire to kill herself was like an abyss, which beckons her with its mystery and mystery. And when she had already stepped down, someone's hands caught her. It was Rhaenyra, always her. She held her, not letting her fall, but now Cerys was afraid that she was left alone. Now her own hands were protecting her.
The fog enveloped the Dragon Stone like a protective dome, preventing outsiders from entering. The princess knew that her dragon was too large to land on the bridge, so she sent Moonborn to Otto's rear, onto a piece of land that could easily accommodate the white beast.
The Gold Cloaks that Daemon commanded fell to the ground in fear as the dragon flew over them. The Targaryen man was the only one left standing, not trembling with fear. He transferred the dragon egg from one hand to the other.
"Welcome to Dragonstone, nieces. You're just in time, our conversation is in full swing."
"All of you, sheathe the steel." Cerys said as she walked towards her uncle.
"Does your father know you're here?"
"I'm saving your life right now, Otto, a little more gratitude in your tone would be nice." She answered without turning around.
"My father named me Princess of Dragonstone. That is my castle you're living in, uncle." Rhaenyra stepped forward, confident that she could convince Daemon to surrender.
"Not until you come of age."
"You have angered your king."
"I don't see why. You both shared a cradle with a dragon, I wish the same for my child."
"Those traditions are for the trueborn children of royalty, not for bastards fathered on a common whore." Cerys Reminded Daemon.
"Lady Mysaria is to be my wife." The princess burst out laughing.
"If you forgot, then I'll remind you. You already have a wife."
"Not one of my choosing."
Caraxes growled, and Cerys noticed how this scared Rhaenyra. She clenched her hands into fists, trying to look convincing, but fear held her by the throat. The girl pulled her sister back so that if something happened, she could take the blow herself. Rhaenyra's fingers grabbed Cerys' hand so tightly that the bones began to ache.
"Ser Criston, take my sister to safety." She nodded.
The girl approached Daemon, ignoring that Rhaenyra was calling her. She lowered her voice, speaking in High Valyrian, "Would you steal the dragon egg that my mother chose for my son?"
"Of course no."
"But you decided to rob my dead brother?" The girl raised her eyebrows.
"You're right, your brother is dead, he doesn't need it."
"Stop playing these games, Daemon." She hissed. "I saved your head from a pike more than once, but you must know when to stop. My brother did not live even five minutes, he was just an innocent baby and I will not allow anyone to dishonor his memory." Poison flowed down Cerys's lips, trying to find a place without armor. "I know that you are angry with my father, but he rejected not only you. If you want to prove your strength, then go ahead, but by stealing Baelon's egg you are only showing everyone your weakness." Daemon loomed over her menacingly, the muscles in his face playing. The guards drew their swords from their sheaths, and the Moonborn roared. "Am I not right?"
The Targaryen man's gaze burned through her, as if trying to incinerate her. Cerys heard that Rhaenyra was trying to approach, but the knights blocked her way, but all the princess was focused on were Daemon's eyes, in which anger and doubt splashed. His hand lay on the scabbard, but he was in no hurry to draw Dark Sister. The man glanced at Otto, and then turned towards the castle. And just when she thought that her words had no effect on him, Daemon threw her a dragon egg, which she barely managed to catch. Rhaenyra was finally allowed through and ran up to her sister.
"What were you thinking, insulting him in front of his own people?"
"How nice it will be to hold a dragon egg in my hands, Rhaenyra." Cerys placed the Dreamfyre egg into her hands. Passing by Otto, her eyes sparkled with evil mockery. She liked to see how angry he was to feel behind, swallowing the dust of those who are ahead. And will always be ahead.