Burn me • Aemond Targaryen

With Time

Chapter Twenty-nine~ With Time

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They had all been instructed to wear green. The banners, table runners and bunting were all shades of green.

Rhaella rolled her eyes, would it kill for them to throw a shade of blue into the mix?

She sat closest to the king, Aemond to her right.

The music was cheerful but it was only the children enjoying themselves. Jaeharys chased after Elaena both of them giggling at their little game. Aerys and Vaegon held onto Jaehaera's hand the three of them spinning in a circle around Maelor.

Rhaella watched them carefully, making sure nobody got too close.

Alicent was whispering to Helaena, Rhaella could not hear over Aegon who was speaking to her husband, but she could tell it was something serious by the way Helaena seemed close to tears.

"Aegon, what is wrong with Helaena?" She said to him, taking him from his conversation with Aemond.

Aegon looked turned to face his wife, groaning when he saw her, he slammed his cup on the table making Helaena flinch from her conversation. "You spoil the mood wife." He mumbled so that only she could hear. "Now stop your hysterics or i'll have you confined in your rooms again."

Helaena looked down at her lap, not muttering another word for the rest of the night.

"She has been pestering over the gold cloaks, my mother tells me." Aegon muttered taking a sip of his ale. "Something about mice and gold, the same old hogwash she usually mutters about." Rhaella thought no more of it, but she would later come to regret not listening to her older sister. "Why is nobody dancing?!" It came out as a question, but it was really an instruction.

Groups of nobles took their ladies to the middle of the floor, A new song filling the air.

Aemond rose from his seat at the main table, offering his hand to Rhaella. "A dance?"

She nodded in reply standing and letting him guide her to the floor. "I have found passage." She whispered, staring up into his eyes. "A boatman will take me and the children across the narrow sea."

"I have set aside as much gold as I believe we would need." He informed her, hand resting on her waist. "Though I worry where we will set ourselves home?"

Rhaella had thought as far as where she would be burned by her dragon on the day she died. "Braavos, it is most likely to be our best chance of friendship, though they may not take kindly to our dragons."

Aemond nodded. "Braavos is a free city, they could see Targaryen royalty arriving with the two oldest beasts as a threat to that freedom."

"That is a worry for arrival." Rhaella concluded. "The most important thing is getting our children away from here."

Aemond agreed, but he could see how Rhaella was slipping away from her usual self, she had thought this through but only to the point of fleeing. They had no land and no status in Pentos, neither of the knew what they would receive on their arrival. And it was unlike Rhaella to go into something blind.

"We may never see them again." Rhaella muttered looking around the room, the music was cheerful and the laughter of the people made her feel a small sense of home. But her home had become her prison and her sentence was a tormenting game of waiting. Time was a cruel, cruel being and it would eventually take away everything she loved. Her only option was to flee from the jail so that she may have a chance at escaping her sentence.

"They all curse us behind our backs." He laughed. "They curse us for our power, wish they held it in their own hands."

Rhaella made a noise of agreement. "Possibly, but most of them are faces we have known all of our lives." She sighed. "Mother dotes on the children, perhaps she feels a sense of guilt after the ignorance she treated us with when we were young."

"Then she should've thought about that when we were young, perhaps that way she would not miss the sound of childhood laughter." Aemond glared toward his mother, she had taken herself to the floor, joy etched on her face as she chased after his children whilst they squealed in amusement.

"She will see them before we leave, Vaegon especially will never forgive me if he is not given the chance to say goodbye." She decided.

Aemond shook his head. "He will forget, with time."

"Perhaps, but that will not be for a good few years, and he insists on her reading to him." Rhaella laughed, turning her head away from her dance to look at her second eldest son. Vaegon was clapping along to the music laughing loudly when the ladies were lifted into the air and spun around.

Aemond smiled too, the smile on her face when she was put back on the ground warmed his heart. He knew then that no amount of riches would amount to the love one held for their family.
"Can I dance?" Aemond looked down to see his daughter, dressed in a sage green dress and her hair in her waves floating around her face.

"Of course you can dance." Rhaella smiled stroking the top of Elaenas head. Aemond took his daughter hand and let her dance with him to the music. Rhaella held her hand out for Aerys who ran over in an instant to grab onto her hand. "Now my little prince, the septa tells me you can dance almost as well as your sister." Aerys grinned up at his mother, pulling on her hands trying his best to guide her to the sound of the instruments.

When the dance ended the hall let out a series of applause. The king rose from his seat, lifting his goblet into the air. "A toast!" He shouted. "To my Brother, for being the first to prove his loyalty to me."

It had of course been Rhaella who had been the first to kill for Aegon. But the court may not of taken to kindly to a king who sent his sister to kill a man while he lay in his bed.

The applause from the crowd was quiet at first, but when one of the nobles raised his goblet and shouted. "To Prince Aemond!" The cheers in the room grew louder.

"And let this be a warning to all!" Aegon announced. "No life will be spared, you turn against your king and your turn against your lives!"

The applause continued, Rhaella and Aemond meeting the eyes of one another. They thought themselves traitors.

Though nobody else would ever know of the plan.

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