Ruin Me

Chapter Forty Two

Daenyra was unaware of the fact that her son had sent her husband a raven ahead of her arrival back to Harrenhal. Daemon had been waiting on her and doted on her like fragile glass after Vaelon had told him all about how she had near collapsed at the foot of her bed from exhaustion. She'd kissed her husband for caring and then smacked him for being so overbearing.

While he had an exceeding grasp on reality in the days of his wife's absence, the bandage on his wrist finally being untied as the wound began to heal; his son's missive had fire raging in his blood. No one would hurt his wife, not even herself. So he sought to make some changes as to how things were to be run. He and his wife would do things together before they both retired. Surely the men they left in charge as they slept could handle things before they would wake, and they were only to be woken prematurely unless there was a dire emergency. Not to mention that even during the waking hours, he had people bringing her a constant rotation of food and water, ensuring that she ate everything that was put in front of her. She was not unused to this treatment though, Daemon was surprisingly much worse when she was pregnant. There was nothing quite like watching a man care for the woman carrying his child.

As of now, Daenyra was walking through the stronghold towards the main hall where Daemon was said to be setting up the last of the men.

"Ah, Lady Commander," one of the lords said as he began walking along with them at their hurried pace. "It seems the sheep on our land has been sold upriver. My vassals have sent a drove of swine instead. Dragons do eat pigs, I assume?"

"Myrrax will have to make do but Caraxes prefers them," she answered. "How goes your muster?"

"We'll be ready to march in two days' time."

"Very good. That is much better than initially predicted. Make sure you see to those pigs."

"At once, Princess."

"Thank you."

"Princess Daenyra," called Ser Simon. "Ser Alfred Broome has come calling. He meets with Prince Daemon as we speak. I must speak honestly, my Princess, but I believe it to be a meeting of treachery."

Daenyra halted in her tracks, the old man nearly ramming into her back. "On whose behalf? Ser Alfred's or my husband's? Because both are severely grave accusations to be making, Ser Simon."

"I know, Princess, but I cannot say. All I know is that I spied the two of them in secret conference in the Godswood and it did not seem to be in honest nature."

"I will be the judge of that myself," she said darkly as she marched for the Godswood.

Meanwhile, as the two men walked out of the castle and towards the mystical tree, Daemon was beginning to grow annoyed.

"I was faithful to the king, your brother," Ser Alfred spoke. He had been sent at Rhaenyra's instruction, as both added help and to make certain that Daemon was keeping to his word. "I pledged my banners to Rhaenyra, his heir. I will never serve the usurpers or the whelps of Oldtown, but there are battles to be fought. And in times like this –"

It was then that the cold wind felt walk on Daemon's skin as it whispered in his ears. 'Traitor,' it sang. While he had most certainly become accustomed to this and the eerie hauntings of Harrenhal, Ser Alfred was not.

"Did you hear something?" he asked, and Daemon only smirked at the taller man.

"This place will have you barking at the fucking moon," he remarked.

Alfred kept speaking. "While you have mustered an army, Rhaenyra has faltered, turning aside from our judgement and taking a course, I myself, deem reckless."