"The blood of Lucerys will be repaid tenfold. A brother for a brother."
In which Daenys Velaryon, the oldest child of Rhaenyra Targaryen and Laenor Velaryon, must come to terms with the fact that the man she loves has committed an unforgivable crime...
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"Where there is love, there is pain."
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The night draped its cloak over Shipbreaker Bay, stars twinkling above as if they were winking secrets to each other. Daenys had not even uttered the command, but Silverwing had known that Storm's End would be their first destination. Below them, the sea stretched out like a vast expanse of liquid glass, its surface reflecting the starlight in shimmering ripples.
Under different circumstances, Daenys would have marvelled at the tranquillity of the scene beneath her, but right now, the peacefulness of the bay only served to stoke the flames of her fury. It was calm, much too calm, and still, she could not see a single damned thing.
As she scanned the soft lapping waters below, Daenys squinted, straining her right eye in a futile attempt to find something, anything that might offer a glimmer of hope, but it was too little too late.
Lucerys Velaryon was gone forever, and if she thought she would simply come across his floating form in the sea, days after he had passed, she would be the greatest fool in all of the Seven Kingdoms. Logic dictated that the search was futile, but what was logic in the face of love? What candle could logic hold in the face of devotion so unwavering?
Too little, too late.
The adrenaline that had fueled her flight was beginning to wane, leaving her feeling dizzy and disoriented. There was blood in her mouth, blood hardening in a crimson shell over her skin and under her fingernails. It was in her nose when she breathed and if she tried hard enough she could have drowned in it.
Perhaps she deserved to.
Despite realizing the futility of it, Daenys urged her dragon to circle Shipbreaker's Bay once more. In a more lucid state, she might have wondered if anyone saw her, for a beast of Silverwing's size would not be missed, especially flying this close to the surface, but nothing mattered anymore, certainly not the gawking eyes of some stranger who stayed awake at such an hour to watch the skies.
She shivered as the cold air whipped through her unbound hair, icy fingers reaching through her nightgown to freeze the very breath in her lungs before it escaped. Nonetheless, she could feel a scream building in her chest, the terrible kind that went on and on and never stopped until you ran out of a voice to give it. The kind that didn't stop until you were dead.
Or someone else was.
As she dug her heels into Silverwing's side once more, the dragon bristled with indignation, a silent protest against the fruitless circling. The princess could feel the tension in the creature's muscles, a silent communication of dissent. For a moment, it hovered in the air, its massive wings beating against the night sky, before decisively veering in the opposite direction.
