Silverwing was mostly content to sunbathe with widespread wings that glimmered like her namesake of silver with darker, gray patina shadows. Dreamfyre was much more attentive however, near constantly clucking and snapping jaws and shifting around. It was giving her mixed feelings on her behavior, because while the signs were there of a potentially agitated dragon, there weren't any of the warning vocalizations or indications of bordering dragon fire.
She had caught her mother's dragon observing them closely more than once, though when she turned her own attention to the she-dragon, Dreamfyre would find something else to be doing.
Looking across the yard at her, a thought began to nag at the back of her mind.
It could be dangerous…
There were few things that could be said with near certainty as far as dragons went. Some infallible rules which were taught to her where dragons were concerned.
One of the very first ones was that while a dragon might accept, with their rider's assistance, a potential second passenger or two, under no condition would a dragon accept another dragon rider alone, while their own still lived. Not even Aegon the Conqueror had dared try to ride either of his wives' dragons. Nor did any one of them ever attempt to climb Balerion's back.
She wasn't even sure if there had been a case where a dragon rider present had been able to take another dragon rider atop their own dragon's back.
I'm not trying that though.
Aerea took a few careful steps across the distance of the lawn toward the central stone walkway that split it into two sides. Balerion took up the entire left hand, approaching from the south, and Silverwing claimed the northeast corner of the right side of the divider, with Dreamfyre the southeast.
She watched Dreamfyre closely as she stepped onto the stone.
The blued scales of her mother's dragon cast the light bright where they turned lighter and lighter toward her underbelly. Dreamfyre's head turned just barely toward her when she took a step on the grass in the yard that was on the dragon's own side.
This should be fine. If I'm careful. Just stay a fair distance.
Nervousness made her hands shake a little.
The great weight of Balerion in the yard behind her shifted and she heard the low thud of his weight shifting around. Dreamfyre's head turned fully to face her, icy-blue eyes gone to fix on a place above her head, behind her, and she knew with certainty he was there. Felt the heat of his breath as he drew his head nearer down where she was, potentially drawn by the feeling.
The surge of warmth calmed her slightly.
This is far enough. Surely.
She stopped in the grass, only twice Dreamfyre's reach probably, and far closer to her corner than she would have stepped when she came in the yard before. Where she was already might have been considered provocative when the dragon was agitated and her rider was not near.
Tolerances varied wildly by mood, satiation, and prior experience with a person. All of those, she was in good shape for, mostly. The charred over corners of the yard in every direction, where they left the food for the dragons told her they'd already eaten plenty. She'd been around Dreamfyre before getting her own dragon, though. Her mother had taken her upon her dragon's back long ago.
What felt like forever ago, really.
Standing tall and watching Dreamfyre she waited for a few seconds in silence.
The she-dragon looked back at her with slit-pupils, the forward facing of her head invoking something quietly concerning in that predatory way that having two eyes so focused would. She didn't move though, forcing herself to stand still as she could.
Movement in the corner of her eye on the left side distracted her, and she had to fight to keep her gaze on Dreamfyre's as Silverwing began to shift, sitting up. Whether her attention was drawn by the interaction, or it was just her waking up from a nap, she didn't know.
Aerea lifted her finger, and pointed it into Dreamfyre's corner.
The blued-silver scales of Dreamfyre's head turned with her attention slowly to the corner. Smoke trickled up and rose from her nostrils in a cursory warning that she might have taken to heart, typically.
"Yol." Aerea whispered.
Dreamfyre's head jerked the tiniest bit upward, neck curled back upon herself. The she-dragon rumbled out a repetitious low clucking sound that sounded like it came from nearly her belly, turning her attention to the corner.
"Yol." The wash of hot air and light made her flinch, as abruptly, the word and explosion of heat came from a direction she wasn't expecting.
Silverwing breathed yellow fire in a surging gout of heat in a line along the gray and red stone of the inner keep wall, blackening it and charring it immediately.
Aerea stumbled back, scared, and Balerion's wing slammed down into the dirt and grass of the inner yard between her and Silverwing forming a wall of membranous scale thick enough that swords couldn't have pierced it. It proved unnecessary, as the white-and-gray scaled dragon stopped breathing fire a moment later, and looking around its edge, she watched as Silverwing trumpeted hard and loud, lifting her wings and spreading them wide as she reared.
Dreamfyre's attention was fully on the other dragon for the display, and for a moment she worried that it might be taken as aggression.
Aerea lifted her hand up and looked up at where Balerion was looking down at her and pressed her palm out toward him flat, pushing at his wing ineffectively.
"Back!" She called up to him in High Valyrian.
Balerion rumbled faintly, but at her command pulled back, tearing up grass as he went and giving her room to step back toward the stone path that divided the center of the yard. As she stepped back onto the stone, she noticed that the blast of heat hadn't been enough on its own to do serious damage to the wall. There was some melted stone, running down its surface in rivulets like glowing droplets of red blood, other sections coagulated black of cooling liquid rock, but it wasn't deep into the stone anywhere.
Silverwing had just scored a char mark along its surface mostly. For her part in nearly making her need a change of clothes, the silvery-bright dragon was practically preening, chest puffed and wings in full extension over a large portion of her divided yard. Her tail flicked along the grass, flattening it as she settled in again.
She's proud. She was hiding that she was watching me.
Much better than Dreamfyre had at least. But there was something far more important occurring.
They can all learn it.
Her mother and her aunt had been wondering if that was possible, and one of the benefits of leaving the dragons around each other had been in the vague hope that they might try what Balerion had done.
I did it.
She'd spread the knowledge from Balerion to Silverwing, at least.
"Uhlg." The harsh sound that rumbled up out of Dreamfyre's throat as the blue dragon turned toward her corner echoed across the yard, interrupting her thoughts. No fire came, even though the dragon opened her mouth.
She said it wrong.
Aerea knew it as soon as she heard it. The way it was spoken wasn't quite right.
But she tried.
"Dreamfyre!" She shouted across the yard from the stone walkway.
The she-dragon knew her own name and turned one eye her way.
"Yol!" She shouted at her, excitedly. "YOHL!"
The blue-silver dragon observed her for a moment longer, and then turned back to the charred corner, opening her mouth.
Dreamfyre didn't try to speak the word of magic again, but all the same the dragon's jaws opened and she began to make different sounds, rumbles and grumbles and grumbling clucks dragged out into the beginnings of open vowel sounds.
She'd heard such attempts before from Balerion back on Dragonstone and while she hadn't known what they were then, she saw them for what they were, now.
It's like baby talk. They haven't made the sounds before, so they need to figure them out.
As soon as that thought occurred, she settled her attention on where Silverwing was still sitting, eyeslits slivered up.
She must have practiced… before this. I noticed Dreamfyre was watching us, but I thought Silverwing was sleeping.
The realization was enough to bring her nerves back. Silverwing had probably been practicing for days to get the sounds right, unnoticed. For all she'd spent the afternoons meeting with Balerion with the intent to spread the ability at her mother and aunt's suggestion, if it was possible at all, who knows how long they might have gone without knowing Silverwing did understand if she hadn't shown off.
It was one thing to know dragons were obviously dangerous and more intelligent than believed. It was another thing to realize they were capable of deception, even in a rudimentary way.
"You're a very clever girl." Aerea called out to Silverwing, encouragingly. She doubted the content of the message got through, but maybe the tone would at least.
Either way she was going to pay even closer attention to the dragons she was around, after that unsubtle lesson. While dragons were typically quite clear about their feelings on something, she wouldn't be treating that so certainly any further.
Lesson learned.
Aerea glanced at Silverwing again, and then gave the dragon an encouraging smile as she looked back at her, turning to hurry up the stones back toward the connecting row of alternating pathed walls that led to the inner gate and moat.
Maybe I should start translating Valyrian commands for Balerion…
That was probably a good idea. After she told her mom and aunt what had happened.
It was another piece of the puzzle figured out, but it didn't offer any further clarity as to the underlying truth.
It wasn't something specific to his age.
Rhaena placed aside her fork and watched her sister Alysanne, where she sat atop the Iron Throne looking almost enshrined in its gargantuan malevolence. They'd spoken already about Aerea's discovery, and the fact that the dragons were capable of learning words beyond what had already been displayed.
It hadn't been hard for Aerea to get Balerion to repeat her name aloud for them, and she and her sister both had seen the mark of fire that Silverwing had left on the stone. By Aerea's recounting, the flames were yellow-red. It repeated a trend for that word which meant fire according to Aerea. Balerion's flames had always been black dominantly and roiled with a crimson red buried beneath. Silverwing's flames had always been blue, with white intermittent, much as Dreamfyre's were the inverse, white with blue.
When they had each spoken the word for fire, their flames had been yellow-red.
Rhaena watched the still light of the candle on the table in front of her, as the rest of the small council around her continued to eat and speak about their business. Their conversations were low, and careful, because they'd already heard what was happening.
It's finally being announced.
They were worried.
She wasn't.
Alysanne rose up slowly from the throne to her feet, and lifted a hand. Conversations began to die down in the packed hall, and Rhaena watched keenly as different lords small and great settled in interestedly.
"All quiet for Her Grace the Queen!" Lord Commander Samgood of the Kingsguard shouted over the hall, in his raspy voice. With his call, the rest that had yet to notice her rise took notice and then they too fell quiet.
There were easily six hundred people gathered, and the connecting rows of tables and seating sent them nearly to the Great Hall's end. Despite that, she knew the hall was capable of sitting half that again if they were going to pack it full without tables for feasts. Not everyone ate as the Queen's direct guest, however.
"I hope you have all enjoyed these feasts in honor of my late husband, good lords and ladies, triarchs and archons, magisters and merchant princes, and all of you who I very well have come to enjoy your company besides, whose titles elude me in this moment." Alysanne called to the hall with a perfected smile. The heavy gold crown atop her head glittered with the different jewels representing the Seven, made all the more standout by additional candles in her near vicinity aside sconces.
People thumped their tables and as it built up down the hall in approval, it echoed around riotously until Alysanne lifted her hand again.
"It is my pleasure to affirm what you all likely know, but tomorrow marks the first of the small tournaments, which shall continue until we have those few who have earned their place among gracious and noble lords of my Seven Kingdoms." Alysanne continued, projecting her voice as loud as she might that it carried to the end of the hall.
Many lifted drinks to her, and others smiled. Some were flattered, and some were disinterested.
Rhaena's attention was on the near table where the lords of the Great Houses that had gathered were all sitting as important guests. With more than a moon's notice by then most had already made the journey.
Lord Bertrand Tyrell was already well in his drink, his wife Lady Wendyl on his right and looking displeased even as she did her best to curtail a man that wouldn't be. Next to them, the Lord Rogar Baratheon sat, accompanied wisely by no woman. On the other side of him, the Lord Paramount of the Riverlands, Prentys Tully sat with his wife Lady Lucinda, one of the "Wise Women" that had been sent by her mother and the small council to Dragonstone during her sister and brother's minority with varying purpose. Near her, the young Lord Rodrik Arryn sat, accompanied by his lady mother who was acting as Regent in his minority.
On her other side, Lord Lyman Lannister of Casterly Rock sat, alongside his wife Lady Jocasta. It was an unfortunate circumstance that the passing of her eyes over their area caused her to make eye contact with him. The Lord Lannister gave her a familiar smile and gentle inclination of his head in recognition, cup ever so slightly lifted.
So as not to potentially upset him, she returned the gesture in only the slightest way, curling the corner of her lip in a performative suggestion of approval she didn't feel, before turning her attention to her sister again. She doubted he'd forgotten her abrupt departure after his wife's askance, but she'd play the game all the same.
"There shall be all manner of entertainment, and know my guests, that for this moon, all of you shall know the bounty of the Seven Kingdoms, in no small part due to the generous contributions of our very own Lord Tyrell, Lord Tully, and Lord Arryn to the feasts you all shall enjoy." Alysanne called down the hall.
There were many minor lords in the hall, and with the chance to espouse their own lands through the cheer of their own lieges, they lifted their drinks and cheered. It was a cry that echoed hard and long through the hall.
The young Lord Arryn actually looked down into his lap, fiddling with his hands, and smiling to himself under the recognition. His mother and acting Regent quickly reached out and drew two fingers under his chin to draw his attention back upward and fix his reaction, and Rhaena smiled in spite of herself.
While the rest of the lords of the Great Houses spoken of didn't act so blatantly in their approval, there were gracious nods abound.
"In that way, my small council and I have thought long and hard-"
Some more than others.
"-about the state of the Kingdom, and as your first regnant Queen, I have considered ways in which I might express my own authority with grace for the Seven."
Rhaena found her eyes wandering faces, some of them turning more confused, a little concerned, while others were simply interested, if stoic. Her eyes caught upon the Dornish group that her sister had welcomed despite the calls for action from some of the other lords. The Lady Martell that was the sister of the Prince of Dorne was murmuring something into the Lady Tolland's ear, lost in the quiet hush that dropped as Alysanne kept going. They had chosen, rather obviously, to be seated among the foreign powers.
"My women's courts have been an important part of my life, and the improvement of the livelihoods of our people." Alysanne continued, projecting her voice. The hall had grown more hushed as fewer and fewer people knew the direction things were turning. "In light of my ascension to the Iron Throne I have decided to act again. As of today, it was written into law what shall be called the Lady's Laws."
That had the lords looking distinctly uncertain, and the hall grew much quieter. On the other hand, her sister had the noble ladies' attention, from the lowest in the back to the Lady Regent acting in her son Lord Arryn's stead.
"There are many details upon which you may all pour over at your leisures, but I shall summarize the greatest importance of which you may find." Alysanne proclaimed, with a smile that was unshakable in the face of the hesitance that had struck half of the hall into silence. "In any circumstance wherein a lady rises to head of her house, so shall she be recognized as I have been by the Seven, and given a proportional exemption, a gratitude, of tax expected by the Iron Throne for a period of five years. Further, for every lady in a household, married in or otherwise, so shall be a standard value of tax forgiven flat."
Rhaena felt like she could have heard the scratchings of a quill in the front rows, but the back of the hall began to rumble with murmurs.
"This is what I do for you, fair and noble ladies of the Seven Kingdoms. It is my gratitude, and I hope this shall give back to your lord husbands." Alysanne said before hundreds of lords and ladies, foreign and local, gathered side by side.
Rhaena reached out and lifted her cup of wine to take a sip and hide her smile.
A few lords looked utterly ridiculous in their reaction to the offense taken, when they'd been truly denied nothing.
The acting Regent of the Vale of Arryn rose to her feet as Alysanne's words came to a halt. She passed away from her son's side, walking to the edge of the row, even as others did down the length of the hall in a wordless call for question.
Alysanne's smile was gentle, and unshaken still.
"Lady Arryn," she granted, confidently. "you have something you wish to speak?"
"A question, Your Grace."
"Ask it, though I will not waste all of our suppers answering details on it, when I have gone to great pains to see it copied numerous times already so that the specifics may be read in accompaniment or without a maester."
"What of taxes that are not paid to the Iron Throne, Your Grace?" The dark-haired Lady Arryn asked. "All houses will see this honored, even when they give taxes to the Great Houses?"
That seemed to provoke a number of other lords to irrational reaction, the arrows they had been looking to use, to feel a particular way. Lord Bertrand Tyrell rose to his feet abruptly, nearly stumbling at the suggestion.
Serves you well for drinking that much before the dining even truly begins.
She was fairly confident he'd arrived drunk.
"All will see it honored." Alysanne said sharply. "Though we have accounted for this fact naturally. In the event that they are to pay due in tax outside the Crownlands, you may pass that tax gratitude due to your liege lord, wherein they experience the exemption from their own givings to the throne. That is to say, all Great Lords will experience your gratitude in their own taxes, instead. The amounts are detailed in approximate value and gold dragons as well, for anyone's leisure to ask clarification. All of it is detailed."
"So… every single lady across all houses, married or not, has a… tax gratitude, which is an amount not paid to the throne?" Lady Arryn asked. "Passed along until it reaches you?"
"Exactly." Alysanne confirmed, inclining her head once.
The Lady Arryn stood there for a moment longer, almost stunned, but turned slowly all the same to return to her seat. The hushed murmurings had become a chorus of whispers, and then outright conversations broke on all sides. When the woman rejoined her son, she leaned in and whispered something to him, paying no mind to the other lords on either side.
Alysanne answered a few other questions, from lords that rose and fell back to the waves, but soon after stepped down from the Iron Throne itself to take her meal directly with the small council. Aerea joined them not long after, having come freshly bathed to rid herself of the ever present acridness of dragons, and though it was not appropriate by any measure, Rhaena gave her her own chair at the table among the small council.
The act got her a few lifted eyebrows, but no one questioned it overly much.
Aerea wasn't very interested in tax "gratitude", or exemptions, but she was interested in the wild air of the court around them. Once she'd eaten some, she found her way quickly off elsewhere to speak with a number of lordlings and ladies from among the Seven Kingdoms, obviously trying to get her own perspective of it.
I'll have to remember to ask her about what was said later.
"How was that?" Alysanne eventually asked, leaning in close enough that Rhaena could almost feel her breath at her ear.
She was smiling, though she hadn't consciously made the decision.
"You were perfect." Rhaena admitted.
Alysanne let out a faint chortle, and lifted a cup of wine for a gulp that was unbecoming a lady. When she exhaled after, she admitted, "I thought my heart was going to burst from my chest."
"So did I." She looked aside at her sister, the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, and grinned.
"Oh, stop it." Alysanne replied, giving her shoulder a gentle smack.
"As you command, my queen." Rhaena lifted her cup gently in response, taking another sip.
Alysanne rolled her eyes at her, but she felt like that smile grew more genuine.
Which was really all that mattered just then.
Post Notes:
Oh yeah, welcome to front row center seating on ch-ch-ch-changes. Had a lot of people a bit confused with this on the Patreon, so I expect there will be some potentially over here once we get around to it.
As always, I have to thank everyone on Patreon for being supportive(f u damn mice attack). Makes a huge difference for me, even if it's just the cost of a coke at McDonalds or whatever. Shout out to those people continuing to give extra like TAtro, Gear and Cog, Pope Yoda, Robolo42, Blair S, Ceifeiros, Phillip J, Manfred281, Ronin Katarn, Vojtech M, and Lucas G. There's a lot more than that, and I just always wanted to make it a point to give thanks where it's due. All of you help me keep on doing what I do!
Regarding the rest of this, let me know what you thought. Feed your author. Leave a few kind words. Discuss ramifications, you know the deal. You might imagine this chapter has... implications.