OF BASTARDS & DRAGONS || Aenar Targaryen [1]

19 • SINS OF ADULTERY

3 MOONS LATER.

Aenar's marriage with Francesa proved to be faithful, for the Prince took his union with Tully seriously, consummating his marriage out of duty and not out of love, for his heart still yearned for Alicent Hightower.

On one point Mushroom, Septon Eustace, Grand Maester Mellos, and all our other sources concur: Ser Otto Hightower, the King’s Hand, took a great dislike to the king’s brother, always looking for opportunities to disinherit Aenar, but his plans never availed.

As for the Viserys own views, all the chronicles agree that King Viserys hated dissension. Though far from blind to his brother’s flaws, he cherished his memories of the free-spirited, adventurous boy that Aenar had been in the past, but is happy of his new path of being a married man.

Indeed his twin daughter was his life’s great joy, he often said, but a brother is a brother. Time and time again he strove to make peace between Prince Aenar and Ser Otto, but the enmity between the two men roiled endlessly beneath the false smiles they wore at court.

When pressed upon the matter of the realm wanting a new Queen, King Viserys would only say that he was certain, but he announced to the court and small council that he plans on marrying again.

To which Rheanyra and Daenerys took it upon themselves to find a suitable wife for their father.

During these same fateful moons, Ser Criston Cole was appointed to the Kingsguard to fill the place created by the death of the legendary Ser Ryam Redwyne.

Born the son of a steward in service to Lord Dondarrion of Blackhaven, Ser Criston was a comely young knight of three-and-twenty years. He first came to the attention of the court when he won the melee held at Maidenpool in honor of King Viserys’s name day.

Afterward, Ser Criston begged for Princess Rhaenyra's favor to wear in the joust. Once again, and unhorsed both of the celebrated Cargyll twins, Ser Arryk and Ser Erryk of the Kingsguard, before falling to Lord Lymond Mallister.

With his pale green eyes, coal black hair, and easy charm, Cole soon became a favorite of all the ladies at court…not the least amongst them Rhaenyra Targaryen herself.

So smitten was she by the charms of the man she called “my white knight” that Rhaenyra begged her father to name Ser Criston her own personal shield and protector. His Grace indulged her in this, as in so much else. Thereafter Ser Criston always wore her favor in the lists and became a fixture at her side during feasts and frolics as her sworn protector.

Though Prince Aenar had been proclaimed her father’s successor, there were many in the realm, at court and beyond it, who still hoped that Viserys might father a male heir.

Lord Lyman Beesbury had a private audience with the King, urging His Grace to remarry, even suggesting a suitable choice: the Lady Laena Velaryon, who had just turned fourteen. A fiery young maiden, freshly flowered, Lady Laena had inherited the beauty of a true Targaryen from her mother, Rhaenys, and a bold, adventurous spirit from her father, the Sea Snake.

As Lord Corlys loved to sail, Laena loved to fly, and had claimed for her own no less a mount than mighty Vhagar, the oldest and largest of the Targaryen dragons since the passing of the Black Dread. By taking the girl to wife, the king could heal the rift that had grown up between the Iron Throne and Driftmark, Runciter pointed out. And Laena would surely make a splendid queen.

Viserys is not the strongest-willed of kings, it must be said; always amiable and anxious to please, he relied greatly on the counsel of the men around him, and did as they bade more oft than not.