The song of ice and fire

Dreams of Conquest

Tyrion 

The Princess Rhaelle is a sweet girl, she has been one ever since she was born. She reminds Tyrion so much of his beloved niece, Myrcella that the Hand can’t help but have a soft spot in his heart for the princess. She is kind and gentle and everyone who knew her loved her. Her birth was a difficult one, the Queen had almost bled to death. And if not for Grand Maester Tarly, Tyrion was sure Daenerys would have died. It would have devastated King Jon, for there was no greater Love for him than the love he had for his wife. She took a long while to recover and the King never left her side throughout. Tyrion acted as Lord Protector and Regent as King Jon stayed with his wife. The children would be with their father and mother. Daeron was nine then and Aemon eight and Lyanna was only four years old. They all slept in the room next to the Queen’s chambers and their father with them.

The royal family are very close, unlike other noble families. Both the King and Queen were very affectionate with their children and that was unusual as most highborn families in the South have governesses to look after their young. Maybe growing up as an orphan made Daenerys a doting mother. The Queen is extra caring and loving with her babies. They are her whole life and they followed her wherever she went, like her dragons would when they were still little. The death of her two beloved dragons still brought tears to her eyes even till this day. 

She still has Drogon who would travel to and fro between King’s Landing and Dragonstone. Flying as he pleases along Blackwater Bay catching whales in the sea or cattle in the fields. He has grown twice in size since the Great War. Maybe almost as large as Balerion the Black Dread. Drogon is the only dragon left in the world so he was guarded well. The Queen made sure of it. Armed guards would stand by as he sleeps on the grass by the cliffs of Dragonstone. 

When Prince Daeron took up his seat in the island fortress bringing his brother Aemon with him, he installed more guards and watchmen and even commandeered a quarter of the Royal fleet to patrol the bay as well as the waters along the Narrow Sea. Of course the Hand had no idea that the smiling laidback prince had dreams of conquest. He means to take back the old slave cities in the Bay of Dragons that his mother once ruled and control the riches of the East including the profitable trade routes that pass through the nine Free Cities.

Aemon.

My brother, the Crown Prince wants to travel East. That’s where all the riches are, Daeron says. The Westerlands has no more gold, the North is a barren wasteland with little arable soil left for farming. Dorne is mostly a desert, the Vale is full of rocks, the Riverlands nothing but rivers, and the once fertile lands of the Reach had been wrecked by the last long Winter and the Great War. But the East with its Free Cities that are more developed had been spared from winter and the army of the dead due to its heat and the Narrow Sea, and that is where the future lies.

“Father will never agree to this.” I tell him while we are in the War Room of Dragonstone. My father, the King isn’t one for Conquest. He thought it a folly and that it would only cost more lives and gold.

“We don’t need Father’s permission,” Daeron says coolly.

“He is King.” I say to him, looking straight at Daeron.

“Of the Seven Kingdoms not of Essos.” Daeron tells me and I frown. 

“The Bay of Dragons still belongs to us Brother, to House Targaryen. Our mother conquered and sacked the cities there.”

“And she left.” I breathe loudly. “She took her ships and her dragons and she headed west.”

I keep thinking of how Daeron and his silly ideas used to get us in trouble when we were younger. He’d sneak out of Red Keep palace in the middle of the night dragging me along just so he could go to the tavern and pretend that he was a commoner. We would dress in coarse cloaks as we explored the city and of course there were times when we got into trouble getting into bar fights with drunken muscular thugs who chased us down the streets. And that one time when we were still children, thinking that we could ride from Winterfell where we were visiting family to Castle Black by ourselves, just to see the Broken Wall. I remember Father was furious. He rode hard into the night with his men to track us down.

Two young princes, the heir and the spare thinking that we could just run away to see the Wall. He screamed at us when we were back in Winterfell and we were rather shocked by it then because Father had never gotten this angry before. Mama was angry that Father would shout at her precious boys and they had a heated argument. I felt awfully guilty about it while Daeron was blasé as usual. 

Lyanna only shook her head and crossed her arms. “I told you so…”

“Tattletale…” Daeron said and shot her an angry glare but she only shrugged nonchalantly. 

I looked at my brother and rolled my eyes and Daeron did the same. Lyanna was Father’s favourite and she would take any opportunity to be in his good graces, including telling on us. Rhaelle was only three then and she saw us as we sat on the floor outside the King’s Room in Winterfell. We could hear our parents arguing inside.

I smiled and my little sister went to me. I pulled her in and let Rhaelle sat on my lap.

“What’s going on?” She asked.

“Daeron and Aemon are in trouble.” Lyanna piped in with a bright grin. She sounded too gleeful about it. 

“Nothing’s going to happen…” Daeron said, stifling a yawn and tapped my shoulder. He probably realised I was brooding more.

“We’d probably not be allowed to have sweets during supper and to stay in our rooms for a day or two.” He shook his head and sighed. “Father’s not going to whip us or have us do hard labour.”

Daeron was right of course, Father was angry but he wasn’t cruel. Besides my mother would never allow corporal punishment. And in the end, he did take us to Castle Black on the back of Drogon before we left Winterfell. It was safer then for the King and the Princes of the realm to travel on a mighty black dragon. No one would dare try to rob or harm us.