The Maid - Aemond Targaryen

Forty - Don't Leave Me

He could not breathe. How could he breathe? His screams of terror as he rushed down the halls of the Red Keep were a haunting sound. He would call for help as his wife bled out in his arms, as his own life bled out. He could not breathe when he laid his wife down on their bed, and he felt like dying as he watched the Maester and his apprentices rush into the room. He could not feel his own body, no, he felt like he was not even there. He couldn't feel his hands, he couldn't feel the tears that rolled down his face as he watched Elyana lie there lifeless.

"Get the prince out of here!" Orwyle called hysterically as he moved about the bedchamber and got his instruments ready to work on the lady. "Don't you dare touch me!" Aemond growled, pushing the guards backwards.

"My prince this is... it is better you go outside." The maester stated as he cut open Elyana's dress, fully revealing her body and the gash that spread through her stomach. Orwyle hadn't seen anything like it, not since he attended soldiers coming back from war.

"I will not leave her here." Aemond stated, the tears continuing to stream down the good side of his face as he watched his wife. His lifeline, his love, his own life, his sanity... she was laying there without moving. Laying there with his own heart in her hands. The maester did not contest him, and instead began pressing gauze into the open wound. "Where is she?! Where is my girl?!" Lyanna Rotchamsey burst into the chamber.

The woman gasped and fell to her knees when she saw her bloody daughter. "Gods be good! Gods! Please no... not my girl! My girl..." Lyanna cried uncontrollably, violent sobs engulfing the chambers as she watched the maester asses the wound.

"The babe is in distress!" Orwyle called loudly, and Aemond felt as if the weight of the world was crushing him down unto the floor. "Maester... I think she's bleeding out..." One apprentice would say with a shaky breath.

He couldn't breathe, his one eye fixed on his lifeless wife. He couldn't lose her, not her. He needed her.

Then she flinched. A glimmer of hope, Aemond decided. She was still here, still with life. Still with him. "The babe is coming!" The maester called. "You! Press this into the wound until she stops her bleeding!" Orwyle ordered as he moved to tear off Elyana's undergarments.

"Aemond..." Lyanna cried from the floor, and he reacted . He moved to his mother in law and helped her up. The woman took his hands in hers and began praying out loud, praying to the Gods for the saving of her only child and only family left. "Please..." Lyanna cried as Aemond held her up.

Aemond watched unmoving as the maester worked on his wife, as he pressed on her stomach to get the babe out. It felt like hours had passed, and they had. The babe was not coming easily, and she was not conscious to push it out. It was agony, having to stand there and watch his wife be probed and worked on without being able to do anything to help her.

"We have to get this child out! We have to stitch her up or else she'll lose too much blood! It'll kill her!" The maester said in hysterics. Aemond could not take it, he pushed Lyanna away and exited their chambers. When in the corridor he slammed his fist on the wall, bursting out into even more tears. He should have been there to protect his family, and he was not. He failed her, he failed their child, his sister, his mother, his nephew. He failed everyone.

Powerless. He felt powerless. Just like he had felt many times before. His wife's life was in danger and there was nothing that Aemond could do now. "Prince Aemond..." It was Criston Cole. He turned to look at the knight, who had an angered look on his face.

"I um... I am sorry about the lady. What transpired was a tragedy but I thought you should know, we apprehended the one that fled. He is in the dungeons... I thought you would want a crack at him." Cole spoke stoicly, awaiting for Aemond to react to his words.