The Passion of a Thousand Suns | Aemond Targaryen

One: a sapphire princess & a rogue prince

THE NARROW SEA

123 AC

They say the gods flip a coin for each Targaryen born and the realm holds their breath, waiting for a side to land. Madness or greatness, whichever side it may be, the realm will either bleed or rejoice.

Princess Hira Han wondered which side her coin fell on, for she was only half Targaryen by her father's blood and Lengii through her mother's. Would she be poisoned with madness, or did her Lengii blood dilute this sickness?

Hira supposed it didn't matter. She may have her father's otherworldly violet eyes, but she was ever her mother's daughter. An exact replica of the woman—long slender neck, lithe frame and high cheekbones.

Which was why the God-Empress of Leng shipped her youngest daughter to Pentos, to her father Prince Daemon Targaryen.

To protect the throne you will go to your father. As my second daughter your duty is to survive and secure the empire if I fail in this war.

Hira had protested, urged to be by her mother's side during the civil war which her uncle's greed had started. She yearned to stand in battle with her elder sister and prove to the empire that she was a Han. She demanded, as her right as a Princess to fight, yet her mother was unmovable in her decision. She wouldn't risk the spare.

After the Empress' exhausting and brutal birth of her second child, the healers warned her mother of her barrenness. The Elders had whispered behind cupped hands that it was due to her coupling with an outsider—a Dragonlord of the Old Valyria, no less—which caused her infertility. It was slander, but the rumours took hold. And so the Empress was left with two children to succeed her.

Hira often wondered if her mother regretted bearing the notorious Rogue Prince a child.

A fine man. Devilishly handsome, but dangerous, much like the dragon he rides on, her mother had said one night as they laid on the grass outside of the Emerald Palace. There are moments when the sunlight catches your face, my sapphire, and I see your father in your eyes. In the way you grip a sword and twirl a knife. Especially when you grin, oh, my girl, you remind me of him so much. You might bare my face and colours, but your eyes, those belong to Daemon.

Hira had never met her father, not once in her ten and three years of life. She knew of him, of his skills and accomplishments, and his Velaryon lady-wife and twin daughters. His dragon Caraxes, his House and the titles he had earned in battles and wars. But as a father, she knew next to nothing. Was he kind, stern, thoughtful? Protective? Or worse, cruel and unfair?

Despite being a Lengii daughter, Hira was not loved the way her mother or sister was. Leng was notoriously known to have a deep mistrust of outsiders. She might look Lengii, with her dark as night hair and piercing, distrustful stare, but she was forever known as the mongrel of Leng.

At the thought of that mocking title, deep sadness settled inside her. She loved her people, for they were her duty, and they are hers to protect all the same. But love was never guaranteed when a crown was in the game. Not by the person you marry out of duty, or the people pledged to follow you.

"We are to dock in a little under an hour, my Princess."

Turning her gaze from the ocean, Hira faced Ming, who had slowly crept up to her. Next to appear were her remaining ladies-in-waiting, Linh and Jade, waiting patiently as she gathered her thoughts. Ming was her cousin on her mother's side, the daughter of the Empress' youngest brother, with brown hair and piercing Lengii amber eyes.

Hira nodded, a small smile gracing her lips, ever grateful for her cousin's presence in the foreign land they would soon arrive at. Hira had handpicked three noblewomen to travel with her to act as her court ladies. Her four Sapphire Guards followed too for her protection, and found them plotted along the deck of the ship.