Tourney To Love | Aemond Targaryen and Eowyn Velaryon

The great escape

Sleep came easier after her bath; her body had hit a new level of exhaustion, but she didn't sleep for long. The events from last night took up most of her time. But just three hours of sleep was enough to keep her semi-awake for today's classes. Eowyn approached the library and this time there was one of the older hand maidens there. "Ah Princess. You're late! Today we're going to show you how to do some needlework."

"Absolutely not." She was already walking back outside of the library and of course the poor woman couldn't do anything to stop her. But there was more of a skip in the young princesses' step today. She didn't even spot her idiot cousins as she crossed the courtyard, plus there was too many people in the crowd to even catch a glimpse but she spotted her brothers in the distance. "Brothers!" She was met by tiny hugs as the siblings left for the gardens. "Thank you for the sword. She's beautiful. I just need a name now."

Jacaerys laughed softly as he spotted one of the cooks further down the garden. "It looks like he's trying to catch a rabbit for the stew. Let's go see!" They all helped the cook to catch the rabbit and then Eowyn's morbid curiosity got the better of her. She followed the cook to the kitchen, really it was no place for royalty, but no one would be the one to tell her no.

"Can you teach me how to skin it?" The cook looked confused, staring at the girl before him in her fine blue silks. Was it a test? He knew he couldn't say no either way, so he brought her over to a wooden bucket in the corner. He passed her a dirty blade and told her where to cut. She was precise with her cut, not wanting to cause the animal more distress than she had to and then she tucked her fingers beneath the fur pelt and pulled until there was no more fur left on the meat. "Oh wow." Her fingers touched the pink bloody meat of the rabbit, but then she heard that the Queen was on her way. She passed the blade back to the cook. "Thank you. This is the valuable stuff I should be learning. Not how to stitch some needlework." She washed the blood from her hands before leaving and returning back to the gardens. She sat on the grass, staring up at the sky and somehow, she had fell asleep out there.

The drops of rain around her woke her up, she was laughing loudly as she tried to run and escape the rainfall. She hid under one of the towers arches, at least she wouldn't get anymore wet here. She waited for the rain to stop and the sun to break through the clouds again before she returned to the keep. There was always so much foot traffic, more than there ever was on Dragonstone. Did some people just spend their days pacing back and forth? She stopped off in the hall, to enjoy the stew she had partly prepared with her brothers. Things were going well so far; she had managed to avoid most people and most things. She was living a second life at night, and she was already planning her escape for when darkness fell over Kings Landing again.

This time after her bath Belladonna had pulled her silver hair up into a tight and high hairstyle. All she would have to wear today is the hood, but would she risk it? Maybe it was time she was honest to Robert if he was there. She approached the inn again, this time she took a deep breath before going inside and she went straight to the hooded figure in the corner. "I'm starting to think you come here just to see me now." She smiled as she sat across from him. He was a quiet, mysterious type and she found herself just drawn to him.

"Nonsense, you just enjoy my company." She smiled and asked for two drinks to be brought over but he stopped her with a gesture of his hand. "We're not staying. I want to show you something." He held his arm out for her to hold onto and she did without question. They left the inn together and he walked her down to the docks. "That ship there. It departs in two days' time. I've paid them to take us." Her brain caught up with the words a little slower than usual. Us. Plural. Was he running too?

"And what do you have to run from Robert?" They walked along the riverbed, just speaking as if they were friends who had just been re-united.

"Nothing. I just don't trust that you wouldn't die without me to look after you." She laughed softly; she was more than capable of surviving. She had a Dragon. Who would try and touch her? "So, in two nights time, just before dawn meet here. And we'll leave together." Before she could answer the heavens opened again, the rainfall was heavier than this afternoon and the pair ran laughing to hide under the docks, there was some protection but not a lot. She didn't realise her hood had fell down until he pulled it back over her silver hair. "Best not to reveal yourself out here Princess."

"You knew? This whole time?" He nodded, of course he did. This was all part of his stupid plan. The emotions of her not having to tell him and thinking she was already accepted took over her body. Her arms wrapped around his shoulders and this time she initiated the kiss. This kiss was full of hunger and hope. When she finally pulled back they were both gasping for air. "Two days. I'll be there." If future Eowyn could go back and warn her stupid vulnerable self what was going to happen, she would have. To spare herself the pain and embarrassment of what was going to happen.

"I have to work extra tomorrow, to pay for our place on the ship so I won't be at the inn. But Eowyn, I'll be waiting for you on the docks." Hearing Robert use her real name made her heart skip. He lifted her right hand to his lips and kissed it gently before he left. She floated back to the red keep, or that's how it felt. She was falling for him. And now she was going to run away with him?

Over the next two days she wrote her family letters, she explained how she couldn't marry someone that she hated and that she had met someone. And on the night of the planned runaway, she left them all on her bed, addressed to her mother/father and brothers. She pulled on her cloak, the only thing she had decided to pack was the sword they had gifted, and she ran to the docks. She wanted to leave this god damn town and the plans everyone seemed to have for her. When she approached the docks there was no sign of Robert. Maybe she was too early? She looked around, sitting on one of the lobster cages. She waited and waited, and he didn't show. Did something happen? Is he okay? She stood there alone and watched her ship to freedom leave. As her back faced the dock she heard someone approach and she turned around excitedly but was met by one of the servants from the red keep. "Princess, Prince Aemond wanted you to have this." The young male passed her a bag, inside was the eyepatch she had come to admire over the last week and a piece or parchment paper. "Se prince isse nykeā whorehouse. Umbagon ēva se dāria hears bē bis." (The Princess in a whorehouse, wait until the Queen hears about this.)

The Princess felt her heart sink, had she been followed this whole time? Had Aemond killed Robert? Even now she was too innocent to know the depths that her family would go to in the pursuit of the Iron Throne. She dropped the bag into the river, hoping it would be taken out to sea as she swore revenge on his killer. She walked back to the red keep with the servant and managed to burn the letters she left before her family had seen them.