The Targaryen Jewel

Ch.16

Visenya's POV

"Did you send assassins to murder children in their beds?" Rhaeynra asked Daemon after she ended the meeting asking for me to stay with her, I went to her chambers with Daemon following us.

"I sent the queen's vengeance for her son." Daemon answers and I sigh shaking my head as tears come to my eyes as I think back to what I saw in my vision, poor Helena.

"What did you tell this "vengeance"? What did you say to him, Daemon, that a boy lies dead and I am accused of killing it?" Rhaeynra demands.

"Mysaria provided me with names and a subterfuge. I was clear in my instructions: Aemond, the brother of Aegon the Usurper. I cannot be responsible for a mistake." Daemon says and I scoff.

"Don't act like a child." I spit out at my brother and he glances at me before turning back to his wife.

"Cannot be responsible? If Aemond was not to be found, what were your instructions then?" Rhaenyra asks.

" They did not concern, in any way, that of a little child." Daemon says holding his head as Rhaenyra moves closer to him and I lean back in my seat and rub my belly.

"You said that it was your aim to spill Hightower blood, and if not Aemond, then anyone would do." Rhaenyra tells him.

"No." He says and I believe him in that moment at the truth within his eyes and he glances at me before his wife speaks once more.

"You have wounded me. Weakened my claim to the throne, my ability to raise an army, my standing among my own council." Rhaenyra tells him.

"I said no." Daemon says once more and I sigh again as I sit forward in my seat. Rhaeynra looks at me before turning back to Daemon.

"I don't believe you." She walks away from the table giving us her back and I gaze at my brother as he looks at his wife with hurt in his eye. She turns back to him and his gaze steels.

"And so we come to it, at long last. Cannot trust you, Daemon. I've never trusted you, wholly... much though I wished to, willed myself to. But now I have seen that your heart belongs only to you. And when I was a child, I took this as a challenge. But I am older now. I have challenges enough." Rhaenyra speaks and I look down at the table feeling as if I shouldn't be here for this.

"I have served you faithfully."

"Have you? Or have you used me as a tool with which to grasp at your stolen inheritance?" Rhaeynra asks as she moves around the room.

Daemon swats things off the table and stands up angrily, I stand up as fast as I can as he charges at his wife.

I move closer to them as Daemon looks as if he wants to strike her, and Rhaeynra looks at him fearfully.

"If you lay a hand on her brother, I will get my sword and cut it off myself." I spit out feeling anger run through my veins, I move in front of the queen and push my brother away harshly and he stares down at me. I see the anger and sadness in his eyes but I shake my head at him and he sighs.

"When Ser Erryk brought you the crown... did I myself not place it upon your brow?" Daemon asks Rhaenyra from over my shoulder, I feel Rhaeynra place a hand on my back as she hides behind me breath still not even in her panic.

"Yes, but before that, you sought to lead a council of war while I labored alone in my bedchamber. And afterward, when I thought it meet to considern the terms our foes put before us..." Daemon interrupts her as he storms away from us.

"A folly! A folly! To give up my brother's throne to the traitorous lies of Otto Hightower!"

"My throne, Daemon, mine!" Rhaeynra shouts moving around me to follow after him and stay close to her. "I think you used my words as an excuse to take your own revenge... to indulge the darkness you keep sheathed within you like a blade."

"You think me some kind of monster..." He asks as he walks past us.

"Oh, I don't know what to think of you. I don't know what you are, or who it is you serve." Rhaenyra speaks and I soothe my belly.

My brother stammers." Am I not on my way, even now, to Harrenhal to raise an army in your name, Rhaenyra?! Yours!" Daemon snaps.

"Do you accept me as your queen and ruler? Or do you cling, even now, to what you think you lost?" Rhaenyra asks him.

"What I think I lost?" Daemon asks leaning over a chair.

"You did not lose it. You gave it away... because you thought ever and only of your own glory, and not of my father in his grief who needed you." Rhaenyra says to him and Daemons next words shock me.

"Your father was a coward who knew I was the stronger son, that I was the leader of men and he was afraid to be seen in my shadow." Daemon says and I speak up.

"Is that what you understand of our own brother?" I ask Daemon and he turns to me angrily.

"Oh, you know him better than I do, you abandoned me when I needed you for him!" Daemon snaps at me and I flinch as my emotions fly and tears come to my eyes, as I always felt bad for leaving him.

He turns back to Rhaenyra." Do you believe he made you heir because of your great wisdom Because of your virtue?"

"How dare you..." Rhaenyra says as she walks away.

"Or did he merely use you as a tool to put me in my place because he was afraid of me? Because he knew your legacy, unlike mine, would never outshine his own." I scoff at Daemon's words.

"He was not afraid of you, Daemon! He could not trust you!" I shout at him and he looks at me in shock." You make it so hard to trust you!"

"He did not trust you...any more than I can trust you." Rhaeynra speaks up and he glances between us.

"He was a fool... who sought greatness but shrank from spilling blood to achieve it. And I see you will suffer the same fate." Daemon tells Rhaenyra when she approaches him once more.

"You struck down a child." I speak up as the tears fall down my cheek and both Raenyra and Daemon look at me, at the horror that was on my face.

"It was a mistake." Daemon says." Sister, it was a mistake." I shake my head.

" You're pathetic." Rhaenyra whispers to him and she takes a seat. the look in Daemon's eyes as he stares at his wife scares me and I flinch away as he storms past me.

I move to Rhaenyra's side and place my hand on her shoulder, she reaches up and takes my hand laying her cheek against it. We stay quiet until the door is opened.

"You wish to see me, Your Grace?" Baela speaks as she enters and I move to take a seat as my back starts to ache.

"When morning comes, take Moondancer and keep a watch on King's Landing. I must know which course they take next." Rhaenyra tells the girl as she stands.

"I will be vigilant." Baela tells her and I gently smile at the girl.

"I depend on you, Baela. Stay high and keep your distance. We can afford no further mistakes." Rhaenyra tells her.

"My father?" Baela asks.

"He must follow his own path." Rhaenyra says after she has sat back down.

(Not Edited)