The Dance Of Sapphires

10 - Lady Of The Sand Castles

Jaerionna

The remaining two moons went by dull and boring. Nothing interesting happened, I missed my mother and brothers. I stopped starving myself and rotting in my room, but black was still the only colour I wore. I didn't spend a lot of time with Alicent's kids, perhaps only Helaena, but most of the time I was in the gardens under the weirwood tree. I was reading, sowing, writing, or drawing.

Thoughts of my dream were lingering in my head all the time. The blood dipped dragon. And adult me. I knew what I had to do. Once I'm at Dragonstone, I will do what I must. Dreams of the red dragon became more usual and it haunted me, like my father. I will finally get a dragon, when I'm home.

Aemond and I rarely saw each other, even though we lived in the same castle. He was always training, or having history lessons, whilst I had lessons with the septas and spent time in the gardens.

Supper was the only time everyone would meet each other, but suppers were quiet and fast. Nobody wanted to spend time with one another.

And now I was finally leaving. I will be back home, to my family and pretty beaches, comfortable room and huge libraries. The Red Keep had libraries, that were even bigger, but they were cold and distant.

My mother was visiting Dorne, she had some business with Lady Martell, so prince Daemon was supposed to take me home. Which made me nervous, even if the last interaction with him was nice, he still was very scary.

"Prince Daemon, you came to escort the princess home? Or will princess Rhaenyra join us too?" The queen questioned. We were waiting outside, greeting him. He looked at me and smiled, I returned a nervous smile, which was more of a grimace. Then he turned his dragon eyes to the queen and looked at her with disgust.

"Princess Rhaenyra is in Sunspear at the moment, so I will be taking the young princess home." He put an emphasys on the word home that made me smile. I missed it so much. Daemon, of course, said it like that, out of spite, to show the queen where my home was.

"Oh, well that's a bummer." She said with fake sadness and a pinched smile. "Would you care to join for dinner? I'm sure you and the princess would like to eat before the journey." Alicent said out of duty, not out of want. Daemon looked at me with a questionable face, asking me do I want to do that. I slowly shook my head a no.

"We have to return to Dragonstone as fast as we can. Rhaenyra and her sons greatly miss Jaerionna and can't wait to see her. We should please their worried minds." The prince demanded. I said my goodbyes to Helaena and Aemond, bowed to the queen and followed Daemon.

Prince Daemon and I walked to the dragon pit, he took my hand and I realized that he was quite sweet. He won't hurt me, he would never do that to my mother. As we walked, he asked me a few things.

"So did you enjoy your time here?" "No, I was mourning my father. I stayed in my room the first moon, but the queen ordered me to have a dinner with the king and her family. She tried to make me wear a green dress and I wanted to burn it. So I wore a black one, that my father gifted, it had dragon wings on the shoulders and dragon scales on the upper top. The queen was furious." I told him with a shrug. He laughed deliciously.

"I can only imagine. Never stop making them angry. They forget that we are Targaryens and they just Hightowers. They're nothing compared to us, yet they think of themselves as kings of the worlds." He talked of Hightowers with so much disgust. I smiled at him. Maybe he wasn't that scary, he was nice to me, that's all that I need. He's not my father, but it could have been worse.

He guided me to his dragon and shushed him down, when he became suspicious of me. I stared at the long necked beauty. Red and powerful. The red dragon from my dreams crept from the shadows. Caraxes was beautiful, but nothing compared to the beauty of my dreams.

"Have you ever ridden a dragon before?" Daemon asked. "Once, when I was little. My mother took me to fly on Syrax. But I don't really remember." I answered, remembering the first and only time I rode a dragon. It was the best feeling I ever had. As if suddenly I became me, of course I always am just me, but at that dragon ride and the night I took Aemond's eye, my true beast showed herself in all her glamour.

"Well, Caraxes is nothing like Syrax. He's much more frantic."

He helped me mount his dragon and then sat behind me. He showed me where to hold and told me to hold strong. Then he wrapped one arm around me and with the other saddled Caraxes. "Sōvegon!"

The dragon obeyed and flew out of the dragon pit. I yelped and had to hold even tighter. The wind blew my face and hair. My cheeks flushed red and I laughed and screamed out of joy. It was the best feeling I ever had. I heard Daemon chuckle behind me.

When we got home my hair was a mess and looked like I haven't brushed them in years, my dress was crumpled and tarnished. But it was the greatest feeling in the world. I was beyond happy.

"Jace! Luke!" I screamed full of joy. My brothers ran to me and hugged me. It was the greatest feeling I felt in months. I missed them so much. I missed Jace and his love for my storied, I missed Luke, my little lamb, and him always hanging to my hand like his life was depending on it.

Rhaena soon came next to us and offered me an awkward smile. I smiled back and pulled her in a hug. We were sisters now, although it saddened me that Baela was sent to live in Driftmark, with Princess Rhaenys and Lord Corlys.

The girl softened in my grasp and let out an honest laugh. Everything was perfect. I was home.

We went to the castle and waited for our mother's return. We talked about what has happened in the time period I was away. Daemon was there too, joining in the conversations with his children.

I finally felt whole again. Like we were a mirror, designed to always reflect other families as smaller and shallower than ours. And Alicent broke the mirror to pieces, torn me from the mirror and made me leave. But now we were all back together.

When mother returned I ran to her and held her close to me. She slightly lifted me in the air and clenched on me as hard as she could. We held each other like that for some time and when we parted, both of our eyes were teary. There was nothing I loved more than my mother.

But then from my mother's back a figure, nicely shaped, in a silk dress, came from the shadows.

"Jaerionna, this is Marketti Martell. She will be your lady in waiting." Then I saw the most beautiful girl in the whole seven kingdoms. She had skin like chocolate and black, silky hair, that was braided into many layers. Her body was covered in Dornish silks and jewels from the free cities. She was stunning. She was holding a glass cage and in the cage were three snakes.

I thought about Dorne. The desserts and dunes lingered in my head. The heat must cleanse everyone there, I suppose that's why Dornish people are more open and are not as strict. I thought of sand. When people mention Dorne I always imagine it's castles to be made out of sand. Funny, is it not?

"Hello. I'm Jaerionna!" I walked to her and pushed out my hand. She took it and shook it. "Hello! I'm Marketti." She said in a pretty accent.

"Those are very pretty snakes." I said. "Mother wanted me to leave them home, she said you might be scared of them." She told me, lifting the cage to her face and looking at the snakes.

So we all went to our dining hall and had some tea and cake. We welcomed Marketti Martell with open arms. And she seemed glad that she was in our home, instead of some sad place, like the Red Keep.

When dusk befalled Dragonstone, I already knew what I had to do. My dreams showed more. They showed me what I have to do. I will need to cast a spell. I tried to find some information, some spells, different magic. But Kings Landing had nothing, no books, no stories, I even tried asking the septas and the maesters, but they didn't know anything.

Even if they did know, their fears and prejudice came before the truth. Magic, despite being powerful is dangerous, every great power comes with great danger. My dreams did not question whether I would stomach it, or have enough courage to do so, but they rather questioned will I take the risk.

If you don't want to burn, don't play with the fire, but what is fire to a dragon?

And also, I knew what I needed.

A blood sacrifice.