Autumn Kiss 💋🍁 || Criston Cole

014 • QUEEN IN CHAINS || part two

Tossing back and forth with sweat dripping wet on her temples. Alicent sank deeper into the dream.

Ser Lorent Marbrand, commander of the Queensguard, had dragged his feet to their cell and told them that her two oldest sons had been killed at Rook's Rest she knew would be the worst in her life; Heleana and her mother had cried for days on end as their guards began to grow sick of it.

Their sobs of despair had even managed to persuade one guard to release them from their cell, but they hadnt even reached the end of the second corridor before Ser Bentley beat them with his hilt and ordered the guard executed for treason against the Black Queen.

Alicent remembered managing to get out, she is a husband to a murderer. Murderer. The word rung in Alicents head as the sound of the city below grew louder, the shriek of Dreamfyre signalling it was nearly nine on the morrow.

The little sunlight that got through their bars was vivid, and so hot that the straw began to smoke before the queen put it out with her foot. The summer months never usually brought the humidity experienced this year, but the guards claimed dragon's blood heated the sea, and this year seven servings of it were present inside every cauldron.

The jokes didn't break the skin anymore though. What did was the heat without any water or food expected for the next three hours- Alicent's lips were already dry, and she could barely speak when asking the guards for extra provisions.

Her mistake was using her former rank however, insisting that "the queen dowager does not dry like a fruit under the summer sun. Bring us water. Now." The guards grumbled to each other and went somewhere, most likely to ask permission from Queen  Rheanyra, but Alicent could not be sure.

Whilst the guards were gone, Heleana grumbled herself awake and shook the hair out of her eyes. She squinted from the light and turned to her mother, who now saw the fear in her eyes that was so familiar in the last weeks.

Every day, it was the same and every day Alicent gave the same response for her daughter was a good women but not one for deep thought or philosophical questioning, as her darling Viserys once put it to a possible suitor. "Is Aegon back yet?"

"...No sweetie....i don't think he's coming back- we talked about this yesterday, remember?"

"Oh....yeah....well maybe Rhaenyra might let me see Jaehaera and Maelor. The guards said they're safe and cared for."

"Yes i heard them say that too. Maybe Rheanyra might have the decency to let a mother see her family once a month. I thought a mother might know the needs of another."

Heleana's eyes went wide, her hands began to shake and the stutter the young girl lost over time returned. "You shouldn't say those th-th-things about her, m-m-mo-mother. Please," she rattled her chains to connect her hands in prayer "if she is kind, don't r-r-roo-ru-i-i-ruin it. I beg of you."

I will not bend the knee to her, Alicent knew. Her anger bubbled and boiled in her heart and for a moment she wanted to scream a final defiance.

My final son, my youngest boy still lives. Your children, the heirs after him, are safe. If Rheanys dare make me betray my children and my children's children, i will slit her throat and cut out that wretched cunt's babe with my hands.

Then she will see what a mother thinks of her kindness, a kindness that is so so similar to none at all. But she did not say that. Alicent managed "of course" and turned to look at the clouds, knowing her daughter did not believe her.