Ashes In The Castle ||| Aemond Targaryen

twenty-four

Rook's Rest should have been a massacre on the part of Meleys and Vermithor.

Naerys saw her grandmother when she got closer, the scarlet dragon that soared above the battlefield. She was right. The Greens had prepared. With scorpions and crossbows, they fired shot after shot at the dragon, trying to kill it.

From what Naerys could see, the Greens had around 3,000 soldiers that were trying to lay siege to the castle. For dragons, that wouldn't be a problem.

Despite Meleys not being murdered by the scorpions, they were getting in her way, preventing her from flying low enough to do damage to the soldiers.

She could take care of that.

There was a lot of adrenaline in Naerys system when she arrived. From above, she could just hear the distant yelling and screaming. And she knew they'd seen her, the second dragon.

Before they could aim their scorpions at her, she leaned down low and pushed on Vermithor's saddle. He flew right above them.

Naerys gave him one command. Her favourite. One she didn't get to use enough.

"Dracarys!"

With a rumbling roar, Vermithor opened his mouth and spit a stream of fire from his mouth. They flew over half of the scorpions and burned the devices and soldiers operating them, taking them out of action.

She pulled him to the side when she saw the soldiers getting a handle on the ones that remained, pulling Vermithor out of the line of fire.

When she was away, when she pulled back and flew higher, Naerys found herself riding beside Meleys and Rhaenys.

"What are you doing here? Your mother told you to stay in your quarters!" Rhaenys yelled to her granddaughter over the fighting.

Naerys shrugged. "I disagreed! I won't let you fight this battle alone."

Rhaenys knew there was a very high chance Naerys would find her way to the battle. And she was relieved to have reinforcements.

"Good. Then let us make quick work of them."

She enjoyed the sound of that.

With half of the scorpions gone, it made it much easier for the dragons to attack the soldiers and crossbows behind them.

Vermithor and Meleys took turns. One took the heat from the scorpions and the other dove low to spit fire at the knights who'd committed themselves to Aegon.

Naerys began to realize how Aegon took the Seven Kingdoms. Vermithor largely protected her from the projectiles from the ground. The knights with swords had no chance against the dragons in the air. And he had Vhagar, Balerion, and Maraxes.

She thought it would be that simple. Naerys hadn't seen Sunfyre. It was completely plausible he'd flown back to King's Landing to leave his soldiers to deal with Rook's Rest. Lord Staunton only had 100 soldiers.

In fact, it was too easy. She should have known.

The first problem arose when Naerys was hit by an arrow from one of the archers. It pierced her armour and her skin, just below her left shoulder. And she felt it.