"If I wanted to kill you, you'd already be dead."
Tyrion handed him a cup of wine and said, "Have a drink. Once you've cooled down, we can talk properly."
Kevan gave his nephew a long, searching look. He neither took the wine nor paid any attention to the restrained White Knight. Instead, he strode to Pycelle's side to check on him.
"What did you do to him?"
"He drank a cup of poppy milk and fell asleep," Tyrion shrugged, setting the wine back on the table.
"Never in my darkest nightmares did I imagine you would commit patricide. Not even in my most dreadful dreams would such a scene occur."
Kevan straightened, looming over Tyrion, his expression complex.
"Well, that's a scene I've imagined plenty of times. Not against my father, but against my dear sister.
Perhaps there are ghosts in the Red Keep. At that moment, I must have been possessed by the spirits of the Mad King, Rhaegar, the Princess of Dorne, Princess Rhaella, and countless other Targaryen specters. I lost control of myself," Tyrion mocked.
"What are you trying to say? That you want to confess to me?" Kevan asked coldly.
"Confess to you? What good would that do? The High Sparrow might commune with the Mother, but can you?" The dwarf sneered.
"Then why did you come to me?"
Tyrion dropped the mockery from his face and said seriously, "For House Lannister."
"For House Lannister, you should never have killed my brother your father!" Kevan snapped.
"Uncle, I carry the Dragon Queen's mission, and my time is short. If we keep circling back to this same topic, nothing will be accomplished today," Tyrion sighed.
Kevan narrowed his eyes and studied the dwarf. Green helm, green armor, green cloak he looked rather impressive and full of vigor.
Especially the roaring lion sigil emblazoned on his chest the Lannister crest. Kevan's expression eased a little. This nephew had committed every possible crime kingslaying, kinslaying, patricide yet at the very least, he had not forgotten his Lannister blood.
The Regent dragged over a chair, sat opposite the dwarf, and asked coolly, "How did you get in here?"
"Heh. You should be asking how I got out last time." Tyrion winked, a grin spreading across his face again.
Kevan's expression hardened. "Could it be… the secret passages truly connect the entire Red Keep?"
The hidden passage in the Tower of the Hand leading outside the castle had already been discovered after Tywin's death. But Cersei had burned the tower to ruins with wildfire.
Tyrion shook his head. "The passageways are too complex. I don't know where they lead. But one thing is clear Varys knows.
Uncle, you made a foolish and deadly mistake. You knew an untrustworthy man had control of the Red Keep's secret passages, and you did nothing.
Today, I slipped in from outside the city straight into the rookery, coerced Pycelle, and had him summon you here.
Tomorrow, someone else could do the very same thing.
Do you really believe Varys bears you or House Lannister any goodwill?"
The truth of it left Kevan unable to refute. He sighed. "I did send men to explore the tunnels. But as you say, they're too vast, too complex. Seven or eight men died, and still we couldn't map them out."
"If we cannot control them, yet the enemy can so easily use them, then destroy them," Tyrion said flatly.
"Destroy them?" Kevan started, incredulous at first. But as he thought it over, he realized how foolish he had been.
The old lion gave a weary sigh. "You're right. Anything dangerous that we cannot control should be destroyed."
"But the tunnels are massive, and they run beneath the Red Keep. How could it be done without harming the foundations? Filling them with earth would require too great an effort." Kevan frowned.
"Heh…" Tyrion grinned strangely and lowered his voice. "How does a hunter hunt? You could station men within and set hundreds of traps. That should catch the fat rat lurking in the dark."
"You mean…" Kevan glanced sidelong at the bearded man restraining the White Knight, then dropped his voice so only he and Tyrion could hear.
"Varys is still beneath the Red Keep?"
"If he didn't go to Slaver's Bay, then he's in King's Landing. And sooner or later, he'll make his move against you. As the Dragon Queen says, every enemy of House Lannister delights in watching Cersei perform her clown show upon the Iron Throne.
You are the pillar of the Iron Throne and of House Lannister. That makes you the first target for every foe. That is why I risked coming here today," Tyrion said firmly.
Kevan remained unmoved by his nephew's flattery. He had always been clear about his own role. He only asked, puzzled, "Didn't Varys save you?"
"He used both Jaime and me."
Tyrion's twisted face darkened, his mismatched eyes flashing with venom and regret. Through clenched teeth, he growled, "I am guilty, I do not deny it. But it was Varys who set the trap. He created the conditions that led me to kill my father."
"Did he hand you the crossbow? Did he press your finger against the trigger?"
Kevan's eyes grew cold, his distaste plain at Tyrion's excuses.
"Forget it." Tyrion waved his hand and sighed. "Since the Mother has shown herself, I am ready for the seventh level of hell, to be reunited with my father.
I only want to remind you right now, you are in great danger. Varys, Cersei, the Starks they all want you dead, and they have the means to do it easily."
For a fleeting moment, Kevan was touched. But his face remained expressionless as he said, "I command ten thousand Westermen."
"Heh. Good thing you didn't say, 'I am Regent, I have the White Knights.'" Tyrion jerked his chin toward the White Knight in the corner of the room, grinning as he spoke.
"I will set traps in the secret passage to make sure Varys never returns. Your sister also married Euron yesterday. Tomorrow I'll arrange for her to leave King's Landing. Aside from that reckless wife of yours, are there any Starks still alive?" Kevan said slowly.
"Don't underestimate Varys! He's not alone. Illyrio of Pentos supports him, and all the funds he uses to train his little birds come from the spice merchants."
As for Varys and Illyrio, Tyrion would never feel the slightest loyalty.
Without hesitation, he revealed Aegon's secret.
"This is terrifying! What are they trying to do?"
Kevan's face froze in shock, and cold sweat broke out across his back.
With a cold sneer, Tyrion dropped an even bigger bombshell: "I can't be certain about Aegon's mother, but I am ninety percent sure he is Illyrio's son.
They want to use the Targaryen name as a pretext to usurp the Iron Throne.
That fat fool is far too arrogant. Does he really think he and Varys are the only clever men in this world?
When I was in Pentos, he even showed me a life-sized statue of himself as a young man and a portrait of his wife, Serra.
Unfortunately for him, I also saw Prince Rhaegar and Princess Elia with my own eyes.
Back on the Rhoyne, I had already begun to doubt Young Aegon's identity."
When they first met, Young Aegon had even dyed his hair blue to disguise himself. Even Clinton, Ashara, and the others called him only by an alias. Everything had been kept from Tyrion.
So which leap was greater: from being a sellsword's son to Rhaegar's son Aegon, or from Prince Aegon to a false prince?Clearly, the former to the latter was like solving a quadratic equation compared to simple addition and subtraction.
If Tyrion could solve the harder middle-school math problem, why would he make a mistake on an elementary one?Besides, what business were the Targaryens' sordid affairs to a Lannister like him?
He only wanted to borrow strength for vengeance or perhaps for redemption.
That was why he had buried the secret deep in his heart without hesitation, even helping Aegon strengthen the claim that he was Rhaegar and Elia's son.
But when it came to his uncle, he decided to hide nothing.
"Seven above…" Kevan was horrified, his face pale, his body trembling.
"This, I… this situation is beyond me. It should have been your father's to handle. You should never have killed him." His thoughts were in chaos, his words incoherent.
Tyrion rubbed his temples wearily and sighed. "My father's already roasting in the Seven Hells. Let's not disturb him, shall we?"
Kevan glared at his nephew. "If you doubted Aegon, why did you still urge him to fight for the Iron Throne?"
"I want revenge. If a demon could help me, I'd swear loyalty to it. Besides, Prince Aegon is a decent man. My fondness for him far exceeds anything I ever felt for Joffrey or Tommen," Tyrion replied matter-of-factly.
"You killed Joffrey, killed Tywin. You are the root of every evil! Who else do you seek vengeance upon?"
"Ah, I don't even know… After killing Father, I hated heaven, earth, Cersei. I wished the entire realm of Westeros would be slaughtered by the White Walkers including you and Jaime." Tyrion stared at his uncle.
Kevan did not scold him, only sighed helplessly. "Perhaps Tywin was too harsh on you."
He somewhat understood the boy's state of mind back then. A child with love in his heart, cast into such a fate love would only deepen his pain.
Only hatred could sustain him.
"And now?" asked the Regent.
"Now?" Tyrion shrugged and smiled. "Uncle, do you know? I've become a dragon knight, a wyvern rider. The Dragon Queen gave me one, and I named her Tessa."
"A wyvern? Daenerys went to the Sothoryos rainforest to tame wyverns?"
Kevan frowned. He felt no joy for his nephew, only deeper worry.
"That's for you to find out. All the high lords of the alliance know, but don't ask me. I'm the Queen's knight now!"
Before his uncle could speak again, Tyrion continued: "Tessa gave me a new life. My wish now is simply to live freely, while the Lannisters of Casterly Rock survive the Dragon Queen's flames of vengeance.
If I can give Littlefinger his due retribution, I will be satisfied.
If Cersei truly goes to the Iron Islands, lets the salty, damp wind crack her delicate face until she becomes a wrinkled old crone, then I'll forgive the harm she did me.
But alas, I know her too well. The adoration of the crowd is the sustenance she lives on, and unfettered power is the air she breathes.
Just as fish cannot live without water, Cersei will never leave King's Landing, her grand stage!So these days, Uncle, you must be careful. Don't spend time with her in the Queen Dowager's palace, especially when Euron is there.
You must guard against her with the same vigilance you would show the Dragon Queen."
"I am her uncle! I exhaust myself, give my heart and soul, only to guard her son's realm!" Kevan said sternly.
"You think reasoning with my sister will work?" Tyrion sneered.
"Why seek vengeance against Littlefinger?" Kevan changed the subject.
The Regent still refused to believe his niece would harm him. He thought Tyrion's prejudice against Cersei was simply too great.
"He instigated the feud between lions and wolves. Joffrey's murder was plotted by him and the old rose. And Sansa he was the one who stole her away," Tyrion said, his face twisted.
"Sansa is in the Vale? You're in Slaver's Bay. How would you know such a secret?" Kevan frowned.
"The Dragon Queen told me. She has seen right through Littlefinger."
(End of chapter)
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