The King of Winters

Chapter-101

Lyanna

Ser Lewyn Martell and Ser Oswell Whent had served House Targaryen valiantly all their lives. They had been famed knights of the Kingsguard long before she came to King's Landing, when Lyanna was still a girl in the north, hardened veterans of half a dozen clashes by the time she wed Rhaegar. They had seen her as a girl, their King's wife and mother to his children. And now they has seen me become a traitor as well.

Her husband had sent them off to deal with her as he often did with his problems, so it fell to the knights to hold her in her tower until the King found his courage to come deal with her. She had known her folly to be uncovered the moment they had come calling upon her chambers. Lyanna could still remember their faces, as the two men stood and looked at her, both in their shining white armours. None of them ever spoke a word and only waited for her to speak, to deny and scream and curse at them. She had not given them that though, making it hard for them to bind her in chains. Instead both men wearily escorted her out of Maegor's Holdfast in a slow march out into the tower at the far end of the castle overlooking the bay, all the while servants paused whatever they were doing to look at the fall and disgrace of another queen.

They had escorted her half a hundred times before. But never once had she felt so unsafe in their presence. Now she could feel the cold off their pale, deathly armours shrouding her. The corridors past Maegor's Holdfast was crowded with lords and ladies and knights and squires and servants who had come to see what was happening, whispering to themselves. But as her march made its way through the crowd a sudden silence fell and half a hundred eyes turned to follow her as she made her way down the bridge, past the place where she had crossed a dozen times before. Lyanna swept by them, looking neither right nor left. Her feet slapped against the cold marble floor. She could feel the eyes. She could feel a hundred gazes on her, all the servants had come out to see a queen brought low.

None dared step in the way of her path or talked loud enough to be heard, most probably in fear of not earning the King's ire without knowing what was really happening.

"You shall stay here as long as the King requires of you, my lady," Ser Lewyn Martell said at last when they arrived. Lady... Lyanna thought, Lady, not a queen, never a queen. Did he want this to happen? After what happened to his niece because of me. "He has asked us to keep you in this tower until he comes to meet you."

"We will be here to keep you safe, my lady," said Oswell Whent.

To make sure I am kept in this room, Lyanna thought. "I must thank you for the courtesy you have shown me," Lyanna said firmly. "I understand what I had done and it is treasonous. It was mine own act and mine alone, and I must answer for it. If you should put me in irons, then so be it. I will not struggle nor would I ask of you to show me any further courtesy. You have more than enough reason to treat me as you would one of the traitors that litter the King's realm."

"There would be no need for any fetters," Ser Lewyn said, caught in surprise. The dent on his armour which had been made by her nephew's spearhead in Braavos winked at her.

Ser Oswell Whent was more blunt. "The King requires you to be confined to this chambers until he comes to see you. By then at least you shall be kept under guard here."

"Confined, yes," Lyanna said. "Confined to a tower cell, that would serve to pay for my greatest mistake." Just like a maiden held captive from the stories.

Oswell Whent considered her comment for a moment, doubting her readiness to be a prisoner. "Very well. You shall lack no comfort nor courtesy, but freedom of the castle is denied for. As long as you remain in the chambers until the King arrives there shall not be any need for fetters."