The King of Winters

Chapter-134

Dany

Outside the chambers where she was being held in Dany could hear the muffled noises of the revelry through the thick walls of her chambers. The sounds of drunken men and their laughter could not be stopped by the walls, nor by the crashing of the waves against the castle. The chambers she had been given was large and better furnished than what she had in the ship, if no less cold and damp. The smell of salt always hung in the air though the chambers were located well within the keep. The ceilings were so high that they were lost in gloom.

Dany had been surprised when she had been given a suite of rooms instead of some small cell after they reached land in Pyke, the seat of House Greyjoy. Though it wasn't much better than the cabin she had been forced into in The Silence. The wall hangings were green with mildew, the mattress musty-smelling and sagging, the rushes old and brittle. It must have been years since someone used these chambers. She knew it for sure that it had not been opened for some time now. The damp went bone deep and if not for the small fire in the hearth she might have died of frost already. Euron had given her a crone to serve as her handmaiden. But Dany knew that she was there to spy on her and watch over her.

That had been the case since she reached here on this godsforsaken island. Dany still remembered that day she was brought here. It had been raining as they came upon the small castle made up of timber and wattle which overlooked the harbour and the village beneath. As she thought about it, she noted that it had been raining ever since Euron Greyjoy had caught up to her. There was a rain when she was captured by him from Oldtown as the fled the city and she had seen it drizzle everytime she was taken out of her cell. It was almost as if a storm was constantly accompanying him.

The Greyjoy had kept her close even as she was taken out of his wretched ship. She was taken by him on a path that wounded up and up, into bare and stony hills until they reached the walls of Pyke, a crescent of dark stone that ran from cliff to cliff, with the gatehouse in the center and three square towers to either side. Dany had never once thought of Pyke or the Iron Isles before in her life. The only thing she had seen of an ironborn was when a couple of old men in dark furs and damp leather had come to swear fealty to her brother when she had been littler. They had not scared her much then with Rhaegar there to protect her, but her brother was not here to protect her anymore.

She had been shown to her rooms as soon as she was brought in and had never left the place. No one ever came to see her here except for the crone, not Euron or Ser Jorah. At times she feared that he had been killed and was thrown into the sea to be nibbled on by the fishes. But she could not bear the thought and hoped that it was simply a nightmare, induced by the salve Euron had forced her to drink sometimes.

Dany did not know how many days had passed since she arrived here. At first she had tried to keep count of the days, but every hour spent in solitude was longer than she had expected. She had given up on that attempt right on the very first day out of exhaustion. The rooms turned freezing cold at night and then the crone would lit up her fire in the brazier. That alone would tell her that night had come and another day had passed.

The passing of each day brought no relief. The crone brought her a bowl of some watery grey gruel and some salted fishand a fresh ewer of water, to sup and drink. No one else came to her but somehow Dany knew it wouldn't be long until she would have another visit from Euron Greyjoy. She did not know if she dreaded him or the wicked shade of evening that he made her drink the most. It clouded her mind and made her see things, things worse than anything from her maid's stories on monsters and maidens. They lingered with her even after Greyjoy left, tormenting her, never letting her to sleep and draining her strength.

She wondered what could be happening outside as the sounds grew louder and the thin slice of light through the small opening beneath her door began to creep further. The crone hardly ever lights this part of the castle, but today the torches seemed to brighten the gloomy hallway that she had seen on her way here. Why though? The more the time she spent in captivity the more she feared that she was abandoned. That no one was going to come to pry her out of here? She could not believe that she would be abandoned by her brother. That made it even worse, leaving her to worry about the war. She was going to get Oldtown subdued for her brother but instead she was locked up here in this salt stained island. And she had heard nothing more about the war or her brother or her nephews.