BLOOD & FIRE | jacaerys velaryon

prologue

A DRUNKEN MAN laid beside me, snoring in the depths of his sleep. naked, his hand resting on my breast, i slipped from the bed and back into the open room of the pleasure house, seeking my own place to sleep, and perhaps a glass of wine.
one of the cup bearing girls tugs at my hair, looking fearful and clutching the skirts of her dress. i know this girl to be only nine years old. she was young, and would not touch a man for years, but when sold to a pleasure house, you know your fate, and that poor fate had faded the youth from the girl's eyes.
"she wishes to see you, sovi" she says quietly, and releases her hand from my hair, her eyes lingering on its sliver strands for a moment. i nod at the girl, and i go where i am beckoned. to sylvie, the head woman of the house, she is a favorite to the prince regent, which gives her more authority than she is worth.
when i open the curtain she is mounted upon a man, riding him as he lay in a drunken stupor. "there is news sovi, from dragonstone." she says, dismounting the man.
"what news from dragonstone may concern me?" it is true the "king" is a usurper, and it is true that the real queen sits on a throne at dragonstone. but no matter who rules, i will always be a whore, nothing will change that.
she takes me by the shoulders, "news that could change your life. the queen has ordered all targaryen bastards be on their way to dragonstone at once. she is looking for new dragonriders."
all my life i have known who i am, silver hair and distinct purple eyes. i am a bastard daughter of a targaryen. not just any targaryen. it was told to me by my mother before she passed that when the prince daemon had come home from the stepstones, he had come to a pleasure house, and conceived me with my mother. she said he had likely forgotten about her, but all twenty years of my life she reminded me what i was. a targaryen. and men pay more to fuck a girl with silver hair.

that night i sailed with the many targaryen bastards of the red keep. i did not know what had become of me, all my life i'd been a girl of that pleasure house, what possessed me to think i was more? when we arrived at dragonstone, i stayed to the back, my only hope was to survive, and stay as far away from the red keep as i could. maybe i could become a handmaiden of the queen.
many of the others burned. the bronze fury taking their lives as if they were nothing. i hid, i ran, i found myself in a dimly lit cavern, the dripping water from the stones on the ceiling lulled me to sleep.

when i woke, there was darkness, then the light of a torch, and some distant yelling. when i came to full consciousness, the rise and fall of my own breath was not the only breathing i could hear. slowly i turned, and i could feel my heart stop. asleep, she was, the silver dragon curled up around me, she was so close, i could see nothing but her. i stood as quietly as i could, and tried to look for a way out. then i stepped in something soft, and gooey. a clutch of dragon eggs at my feet, one i had absentmindedly stomped upon.
i saw her stir, she moved her giant head and peered at me. i knew this moment was my end. i dropped to my knees, prayed to the mother for a quick death.
nothing.
nothing but hot breath on my chest. my eyes peeled open, and there she was, nuzzling against the fabrics of my cheap dress.
i knew her name from the quick moments the queen had spoken to us. silverwing. she was beautiful, and gentle, and in this moment, i felt nothing but adoration for the beast who had curled around me and made me her very own.

when her eyes opened, i knew what she wanted from me. she had crouched to my level and turned, exposing the unused ancient saddle upon her back. i mounted her like i would a man in the pleasure house, except this time, not with disgust, with pride.
she took to wing, smoothly, and i held on. i shivered from the air breezing against my face. the sun newly rising in the horizon.
we circled dragonstone together. me and silverwing. my very own, scaly, shiny, beautiful beast. i did not know what this meant for me. but i did know it was all that i wanted.