The King of Winters

Chapter - 114

Dany

Each night seemed colder and longer than the last in her captivity in the Hightower.

Her cell had a fireplace and the sheets to keep her warm but she was too proud to use them. The only windows open in the room was too high to allow her a view and too small to squeeze through, but more than large enough to let in the chill. Dany had been housed in a different room before, back when she'd been demanding of the Hightowers for things that could scarcely be expected of a captive and when she had been trying to escape. She was a captive, for all that she was and the coldness and bluntness of the servants of Hightower had made sure she learned of that.

The window let in sounds as well. That was the only way the princess had to know what might be happening in the city. The gaolers who brought her food would tell her nothing.

She hated that as much as she hated everything else that had to do with the cell the Hightowers had provided her. Her brother or nephews would be coming for her, but how would she know when they arrived? They would teach these traitors of Oldtown a lesson. They would burn down the city as the Targaryens of the old had once done and put every poor fellow who were unfortunate enough to be born here to sword while burning this wretched city and the Hightowers to the ground. She asked about her family and the war often, but her gaolers gave no answer. She asked about Ser Jorah too and Ser Gerold. They would never let me die here, nor will they allow me to be handed over to Stark's justice. If only she was able to get out of this cell, she would make her escape or find her men. Not all of those who fought for her family died in the family after all.

Lord Hightower had been her last and only visitor. And somehow Dany missed his presence more so than she had thought to miss it. There was nothing else to do but to miss- miss her family, miss King's Landing, miss her dragon and the feeling of wind rushing through her hair as she sped across the sky on Drogon's back. That was what she missed the most, her freedom. A cell wore her down. Rich and lavish as her cell was it was still a cell and that cell was her world.

Her world had a population of four: herself and her three gaolers, tight lipped and unyielding. Sometimes the guards posted at the door leaned in to take a look, most likely to gaze at her beauty. Or maybe to make sure that she stayed there without causing any issues. Had they been allowed to be with her alone she might offer them her fair young body and make her escape from there. But with her lady gaolers that wasn't an option.

One of them was a big-boned and mannish woman, with callused hands and homely, scowling features. Her companion had stiff hair the colour of dirty straw and small mean eyes perpetually crinkled in suspicion, peering out of a wrinkled face as sharp as the blade of an axe. The woman who led them was named Liz. Dany had worked that named out of the straw haired woman once. She would have gathered a lot more had that scowling woman had not stopped her companion with a swat at the back of her head.

They brought her food and water, and brought her new shifts every time she complained of them getting threadbare and dirty. Apart from that Dany had nothing else to do but see them work around all in silence and they never stayed anymore longer than they needed to. Somedays she would read the books Lord Leyton had allowed to be kept in her room, just to keep herself occupied. She had completed The Seven-Pointed Star twice over and had dropped The Book of Holy Prayer after managing to get halfway through several times. Elsewise there was nothing else to do and none of them would speak with her or answer any of her questions. She hated and despised all three of them, almost as much as she has hated anyone.

She had a lot of time to think and to hate. False friends, treacherous servants, men who had professed undying love and duty and service ... all of them had deserted her in her hour of need. Even Mace Tyrell and his lords had abandoned her to captivity and turned on the oaths they'd sworn to her brother. She was supposed to wed his son and heir and he's left her to her fate. That bothered her the most. How could she even be a part of such a family?