Haven't I Given Enough? (Always The Fool) - Aemond Targaryen

6: Hightower Green of War

A lock clicked into place.

Harlys was accustomed to waking to the sound of Corinne blowing into the room in the mornings, preparing to get her ready for the day. But as she groggily opened one eye, her handmaiden was nowhere to be seen. Her rooms were empty, the picked-at plate of bread and cheeses from the night before still sitting on her bedside table. Morning light streamed in through the windows, the curtains half drawn shut. By all accounts, Harlys knew she should have been woken and dressed, informed by Corinne which stuffy court member was requesting her presence for breakfast.

But a lock had been set.

Quickly, she jumped from bed, barely registering the cold floor on her bare feet. She rushed to her doors that led to the corridor and tugged—

Locked.

"Darvyn!" Harlys called, slamming her fist against the door. Her guard had to be outside her door, he had to know what was going on. Something had gone down in the time she retired to her rooms for the night and when she woke up. "I demand to know what is happening!"

Dangerous to make demands, a lesson she had learned amongst the smoke and fire of Harrenhal.

She drew away from the door when it became clear that she was not going to receive a response. Darvyn—if he was even still stationed there—must have gotten orders to not answer to her.

She paced to the window and threw open her curtains, light finally flooding the entirety of her room. Looking down at King's Landing and the parts of the Red Keep that she could see, nothing seemed amiss. But this wasn't normal. This shouldn't be happening.

Darvyn was sworn to protect her, which meant he was bound to follow her orders. No one in the Keep could sway him to disobey her, nor could anyone give him orders to harm her. No one, except—the queen.

So Alicent had a hand in this, whatever this was.

Harlys stepped away from her window and scrubbed her hands over her face, struggling to think of something that may explain the queen's behavior. She could slip undetected from her rooms and search through the Keep until she found her answers, but whoever locked her in may very well come to check on her. And if Alicent knew about the secret tunnels in the walls, then that would be an advantage she would lose.

That is, assuming Aemond had not already given up her escape route to his mother.

No, Harlys decided, it was best to wait until she was sent for. Because they would send for her. She was locked in her rooms, not the dungeons. If she was truly in danger, if the queen meant to have her head, then she would not be left to her own devices in her quarters.

Pacing the length of her rooms, Harlys resigned herself to waiting.

—

Hours passed and Harlys heard not a sound.

She frequented between listening at the doors and at her windows so often, she was certain she would wear a path in the floor. There was no sound, save for the occasional clank of armor from the guard posted at her door shuffling around or the footfalls of servants scurrying through the Keep, trying not to draw attention to themselves.

She had just sat down on the edge of her bed to rethink her choice on using the tunnels in the walls when she heard the arguing.

Not quite shouting, but rather an intimidatingly even tone that made most worry. Harlys recognized the voice berating the guards posted at her door immediately.

"We are under orders from the queen. This door is to remain locked until she arrives." An unfamiliar guard spoke, the slight bite of uncertainty in his tone. Not Darvyn, then. And he had confirmed her suspicions about Alicent's hand in everything.