ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴀʀᴋ ꜱɪꜱᴛᴇʀ - House of the Dragon

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

"Why are you under the table?"

I unconsciously jumped at the sound of a deep, raspy voice at my left.

I could have expected Luke or Jace or even Aemond. Yet, finding Cregan Stark's wolfy grey eyes was truly a surprise.

He was kneeling beside the wooden table, with a hand above his head and the other resting on his thigh. His dark brown hair was slightly wet, and the smell of sweat and horse reached my nose when he slightly leaned closer.

I quickly hushed him, raising a finger to my lips and massaging my chest with my other hand. That was the very first time someone had ever gotten to scare me in a long time.

Lord Cregan raised a playful eyebrow, but remained quiet when we heard a childish scream not far from the giant library. Suddenly, a dull and cracky sound, as if someone had opened the old doors, made him frown his brows, and moved his lips in a silent question almost as if he expected me to speak after I had silenced him merely a minute ago. Had he ever played hide and seek?

Quiet, slow steps reached my ears, and a long shadow painted the shelving behind Stark as if someone had walked right in front of the window, covering the bright sun of the day.

How ere the odds, that she hadn't found us yet? The Warden of the North was big, with broad shoulders and quiet difficult to miss, since he had decided to wear the hottest pieces of clothes he could find in his wardrobe even so far from the North. The clothes he wore to my nameday's feast flashed through my mind, and I had to admit, despite the weather, he looked better off in northens clothes.

I grabbed his forearm, pulling him under the table and moving my lips until he understood my command.

Silent.

The table was not big enough for both of us, and, after accidentally touching my thighs, he held both his hands over his head, gripping the table and doing his best to avoid my gaze. Was that blush on his cheeks? How adorable.

The sounds of steps told me they were more than one person, which meant Rhaena had caught someone and now they were both looking for the rest of us. Was it Luke? Baela perhaps? Joff? I doubted Jace would follow her around instead of looking somewhere else to cover more ground, and Egg would definitely drop himself to the ground until someone walked beside him and then he would caught them.

"Come on, Ela. Come out and help us find Vis."

The Queen of Hide and Seek, Jacaerys always called me. I wasn't even that good, they were just too predictable. Though I had always enjoyed playing with them, as I grew older I got tired of being the last one standing, hiding for hours with stiff muscles and boredom slowly consuming my mind. I had tried to better them, but Luke always hid under his own bed and Jace behind our grandsire's throne, so it was not complicated for me to find them. Yet, Joffrey was slightly good, since I had taught him the better places to hide in both Dragonstone and the capital, and he had betrayed me and forced me to hide under a table in one of the most busy places in the Red Keep after I had found him behind the ovens in the kitchens.

It was not Baela, the person compaining Rhaena, since they were looking for her. And my eyes got a glimpse of curly brown hair when I slightly stuck my head out from the table, smirking and winking and pulling Stark's hand when Lucerys' blue eyes found me and forced us to leave our hiding spot.

Cregan Stark didn't seem to enjoy running around the Keep as a misbehaved child trying to escape his mother's fury, yet he followed me, turning corners every time I did and holding back his own laughter when we found Joffrey pulling Egg's hand.

"Where is Rhaena?"

"Library, you have a few seconds of advantage. Don't waste them!"

Aegon jumped on my arms the second I ran beside them, sending a slightly painful shiver down my spine when he held from my recently healed shoulder, and Joffrey screamed as a man would do in battle and started running towards the opposite direction as Stark and I. I had to chew on my lip when, right before turning a corner to reach the Throne Room's hall, I saw Luke pulling his ear and Rhaena hitting the older's arm.