The Rogue Daughter (House of the Dragon - Aemond Targaryen Story)

Curiosity and Fury

RHAELLA

An insistent push on Rhae's shoulder jolted her from a deep sleep. Her hand was on the smooth hilt of a small dagger stuffed under her pillow the moment her eyes snapped open, but she quickly realized there was no urgent need to reveal her weapon. She'd nicked it from the training yard and paid a blacksmith in the nearest smallfolk village to sharpen it.

"You missed breakfast, Rhae," Luke said, forgoing any kind of good morning or pleasant greeting.

She let out a yawn and flopped back onto her pillow. She'd been up late with Baela, training in an unused receiving room far from the critical remarks of the father they shared since a steady rain had flooded the training yard the previous morning. It was part of a weekly routine that had come about gradually after they'd spent months eyeing and assessing one another. "And?"

Luke let out a sigh that could have been mistaken for a whine. "It's my nameday and you're still in bed."

Rhae groaned aloud and pushed a tangled curl out of her face. He'd been talking about his nameday for weeks, but the exact date had slipped her mind. "I'm up now," she declared as she tossed aside the thick covers that kept away the damp nighttime chill. "I don't suppose you'll be content with the usual sailing lesson."

He shook his head. "Mother says there are no tutors or lessons on namedays."

Rhae toed around Luke and donned a long robe. "I seem to recall that lump of language master smacking my hand with his cane several times on my nameday when I failed to articulate the correct Valyrian pronunciations for his dreadful text translation."

She'd arrived with what she thought to be an adequate level of understanding of the old language of Valyria thanks to Gerold's insistence she learn, but she'd quickly come to find her level similar to what little Joff could speak.

"That's because you failed to inform anyone that it was your nameday," Luke pointedly reminded her.

The day she turned ten and five several months prior was nothing but a reminder that she was spending a pivotal day in Dragonstone rather than Runestone where her namedays had always been a feast-worthy event. Months were passing rapidly her and she was none the wiser as to when it would end. It was Rhaenyra that had eventually ascertained that she must have had a nameday and pried the exact date from her with passive skill only a princess could manage. Treats of the sweetest varieties and new clothes of the deepest black had been quietly left for her without fuss. Though she was outgrowing much of what she'd brought with her, she stuck to her brown and bronze as best she could.

Her long silence prompted Luke to amend his statement to something more lighthearted. "We will have a grand celebration for it next year. Pies, lemon cakes, and maybe even deer roasted over a big fire on the beach."

The thought of hearty meat prepared like how it was by the hunters in Runestone made her empty stomach grumble. The cooks here prepared freshly caught fish daily and while decadent in the beginning, it had long since grown tiresome.

"But in the meantime," Luke continued, "It's my nameday and I think it's a fine day for you to cease your avoidance of Arrax and have a proper introduction."

Rhae cringed. Sometimes Luke acted much younger than his age but other times, she was reminded of how observant he could be. Whereas Jace was always in the thick of things and constantly getting reprimanded for one small thing or another, Luke preferred being on the outskirts of debates and fights. "I'm not—"

"You scurry away anytime a curious dragon swoops down and you've never once accompanied me to the tunnels to see Arrax even though I've assured you he's quite docile, especially after being presented with freshly slaughtered meat." Luke's tone had gone from whiney to persistent, but one look at his pleading eyes told her that she wasn't going to be able to brush him off as she normally did.