The King of Winters

Chapter-105

Daenerys

The cell they had given her in Oldtown was not a dark and dank cell a prisoner would expect. Daenerys had not expected that. Why would Lord Hightower go to such great lengths to provide for her comfort in captivity after taking her as a prisoner? He does not mean to kill me, she realised then. He would never dare to murder the blood of the Dragon. I am his princess, his liege's sister. She would be ransomed soon enough. Why else have her staying here in these nice chambers like a guest instead of throwing her in the dungeons like everyone else who'd fought in the battle beneath her dragon.

Hers had been a lonely sojourn though, and for most of it she had been hurt and angry. Her brother would get her ransomed, Dany thought, or he will free her by other means. She had been telling herself that ever since she had fallen from her dragon into the sea. She was less certain now as to whether or not help was coming.

She still clung to the hope that someone would come after her. Ser Gerold might come seeking her; he was the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, sworn to defend her life with his own. And her goodfather might yet gather the remnants of her forces and raise new levies to come free her as she was betrothed to his son and heir and their lives were now bound to her own. Even if he didn't Aegon and Rhaegal would come for her and her nephew had a large force with him. Her brother, the King might dispatch others for her sake. And Ser Jorah... Dany pictured him riding for her after breaking down the gates. He claimed to love me, surely he would come for me.

But she knew her Mormont knight was lost long before she was. Ser Jorah had been given command of the Royal fleet and had lost it in the first battle of Oldtown to the Hightowers. Dany thought he was most likely a hostage sharing a holding cell in the basement of the Hightower with other prisoners in his company. She hoped that was the case otherwise the knight would've been most likely perished in the sea with the fleet and Dany didn't want to think of him being dead.

Memories of her own battle held hostage of her mind. Clouds seen from above. Horses small as ants thundering through the grass. And fires, fires everywhere with the lava flowing through the streets in a bright red glow that shimmered like the setting sun. Will I ever see such sights again? The nightmares of the day still troubled her in her sleep. On Drogon's back she felt safe. Up in the sky the woes of the world had not touched her. But that thought had come crashing down to the earth when the sorcerer had emerged. She had been flying free in the air until then, but then the sea her enveloped her and Drogon like a ball of water and swished her and swirled her within its grasp. Dany tried hard to get away from the watery depths. Even Drogon didn't like that. She had felt the black dragon's rage and desperation as it tried to claw its way outside to freedom. Then she heard the crack of thunder and she was falling, falling, falling... until she hit the sea. Only then she had remembered the vision she had once had, back when Quaithe showed her of certain things. She remembered dreaming that she was falling from Drogon after flying so high and it had come true. Dany had almost forgotten about them, but now it had come to happen.

Had it not for Lord Hightower's men she would've drowned. They found her half drowned in the sea and took her away alone. She did not even know what happened to Drogon. The last she had seen of him he was falling down with her and she knew naught of what happened to him after that. He was alive though, she told herself. A dragon cannot be killed. Her thoughts then turned to Viserion in Winterfell and Andrew Stark. Jaehaerys had lost her Viserion to the hands of the Dragonslayer, and so could she. And the violent sea... Dragons hated water and Drogon did not like the watery prison Leyton Hightower had them encased in.

Dany had expected to be brought before Lord Hightower's high seat in front of the leaded glass which threw a rainbow light across the Great Hall of the Hightower which directly overlooked the Starry Sept. Instead, the knights delivered her to the floor above the Great Hall, and the custody of Ser Baelor and his brother, Ser Garth Greysteel. "Princess," Ser Baelor had said when they brought her before him, "by the order of Leyton Hightower, Lord of the Hightower, Defender of Oldtown and Beacon of the South, I hereby take you as a prisoner. You shall have all the honours as befit your status though. A chamber has been prepared for you. My brother will escort you there, to await my Lord father's pleasure."