The Maid - Aemond Targaryen

Forty One - Please Lie To Me

"Mommy, look at me! Father has gifted me new riding gear! He says he will let me hold Vhagar's reins the next time he takes me riding!" A girl, a beautiful girl ran into Elyana's parlor with a huge beaming smile and shining bright eyes.

"Oh my! Look at you, sweetling. You look just like your father!" Elyana chuckled, a hand over her newly pregnant stomach. Aemond came in shortly after with a smile, eager to see if his daighter had shown her mother her new gift.

"Then she looks like the fiercest girl in all of Westeros." Aemond said cockily as he moved to plant a soft kiss to his wife's forehead. "Ah... takes after you then." Elyana chuckled heartedly.

"Of course I do! One day I will claim a big big big dragon like father did! Just as fiercely if not more!" The girl exclaimed and sprawled herself over her mother's lap. Elyana chuckled and ran her fingers through the child's blonde hair.

"If not more? Oh my... I've raised a handful, have I not?" Aemond asked with a smirk, sitting next to his wife and staring lovingly at their child. A princess, their princess, their perfect and sweet girl, the heir to House Rotchamsey.

"My sweetling, it's time to go to supper. Up." Elyana said with a bright smile, but the girl remained unmoving, her eyes staring blankly at the ceiling. "She's not here." Aemond told his wife stoicly.

"She's not here." He repeated. Elyana looked at him bewildered and began shaking her daughter. Her only daughter. "Yes he is! Aemond, get the maester!"

"She is dead already. As dead as they come." Elyana let out a piercing scream when she heard her husband's words.

And she jolted awake, panting to save her life. Her head was pounding as she took deep breaths, looking around the room only to see Aemond rushing to her. Her vision was blurry, and she was drifting in and out of consciousness. "Get the maester." His voice was so distant, she could barely hear his screams for help.

Elyana felt a sharp pain on her stomach, and so she threw the duvet off of her body. Then she let out a scream so loud that it echoed through the Red Keep for seconds on end. Her pregnant stomach was gone. Her child was no longer within her. Violent sobs left her mouth in a hysterical manner, and Aemond was quick to crawl into the bed and hold her to his body to calm her down.

"No..." Elyana cried as she shook her head. "No! No! Please no!" She cried as the maester came bursting into the bedchamber. Her mother and Lucia followed, both of them rushing to her side. Aemond was crying too, avidly sobbing as he held his wife. "Please no..." Elyana cried, as she became more conscious, her mind reliving that fateful night.

"Lady Elyana, you must stop thrashing! Your stitches are fragile." The maester exasperated as he moved to serve her a cup of poppy milk to calm her nerves. Then a few seconds later the Dowager Queen burst in, and she was brought to tears at the scene. Alicent rushed to Elyana too, crowding around her alongside Lyanna and Lucia.

"Please... my baby... where is my baby? Tell me it is okay! Aemond tell me!" Elyana begged in between sobs, her chest rising and falling in a wild and uncontrollable manner. "Elyana..." Her mother whispered, tears too streaming down her cheeks.

"Lie to me! Please lie to me! Tell me it is okay! Please! My baby! Gods, my baby!" Elyana cried, heaving as she tried to get air to her lungs.

"T-T-The life was lost, Elyana." Aemond told her, closing his eye as he held on to her for dear life. Elyana sobbed uncontrollably as Orwyle rushed to her with a cup of poppy milk. "You must drink this, my lady! Please! If the stitches tear your life might be lost too!" He said desperately and Aemond grabbed it from him, gently pushing Elyana down and bringing the cup to her lips.