The Lion and the Wolf ~ Game of Thrones

8

King's Landing.

Visenya Targaryen.

My mother's dagger licked at the eunuch's plump neck, a thin trickle of blood darkening the smoke-like edge further. I wanted so badly to add just a bit of pressure, see how deep Valyrian steel could bite into the flesh of this filthy beast I hated from the moment I started dreaming of him and what he'd done. It was all his fault—his fault Aerys had shown up at the tourney nineteen years ago, his fault my father had not been able to force Grandfather to abdicate.

"If you weren't still useful to me, Spider," I whispered so only he could hear, "I'd have driven this dagger through your skull before you could so much as glimpse me." There was something in his eyes at that—a flash of recognition that I was indeed who he had been trying to gauge. "Your little birds, your secrets, your life—they belong to me now."

Solemnity and reverence and a touch of terror flickered across the Master of Whisperer's eyes before he pressed his neck more against the blade, a silent message that he agreed. "Valar dohaeris se lentor hen zaldrīzes." All men must serve the House of the Dragon. I searched the Spider's eyes long and hard, weighing the sincerity in his voice—he'd had such a false tone before I'd come, almost boyishly innocent, but now it was... befitting of a spymaster.

And he would be of use to me—I needed to know all about the players in the game I'm stepping into, and I'd laugh in your face if you said you could find someone who knew my competitors better than Lord Varys. A beat passed before I growled and shoved off of the Spider, sheathing Mother's dagger at my waist in one fluid motion. The exchange had all happened in less than half a minute, but it was enough for the slender man to move close to try and hear. By a dry look of annoyance, I knew he hadn't been able to catch anything. Thank the gods; I didn't want to kill someone on my first day in the capital, even if a part of me was screaming at me not to let this "friend" of Lady Stark live for too long.

The Spider skittered away to hide behind Ser Rodrik Cassel, wiping his bleeding throat and whimpering while he shot me a look of silent admonition—he was the portrait of fear, a boon to me, I realised. If people heard the Spider feared Lady Joanna's sworn sword... I swallowed a wicked grin as the possibilities lined up for me. But the lady grabbed me by the arms and looked up at me angrily, demanding the reason for my abrupt and rather violent arrival. So I told her the truth—I thought I'd seen Ros being led into this place and needed to save her from this sort of life, but had found her instead and that I'd stayed to ensure she wasn't in any danger.

"...To be caught in the spider's web means death, my lady," I finished my explanation. "That was a risk I wouldn't take with you." A softer expression covered the lady's face before she sighed and held my cheeks in her hands. Wounded as they were, there was still the gentleness of a mother's caress beneath those bloodstained bandages.

"You can sometimes be as wild as your uncle," the lady told me. A sigh—she released my face and nodded to Rodrik Cassel, who removed a dagger wrapped in a piece of brown fabric. Its hilt was dragonbone, its blade Valyrian. A ruby set in the pommel gleamed in the afternoon light filtered through red curtains. "Do you know whose dagger this is?"

The Spider turned the dagger with exaggerated delicacy, glancing fitfully at the one at my side. Varys admitted he did not know the owner of the dagger, and the small man behind us chuckled before taking it from him, testing the grip. It didn't sit right with me to see my family's dagger being manhandled by this little man. Dark Sister and Blackfyre were lost—and I had every intention of finding them in the future, believe me—but we wouldn't lose this dagger if I had any say in the matter. Perhaps I'd steal it back later tonight, and if that wasn't possible, sometime soon.

"Nothing holds an edge like Valyrian steel," said the small man, smiling slyly at the Spider, who pouted at him. "Such sweet balance." He flipped the dagger in the air and caught it again with his other hand. "You want to find the owner. This is the reason for your visit, my lady? You have no need for Ser Aron for that. You should have come to me."