Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken [Aegon Targaryen]

CHAPTER EIGHT - SUNSPEAR

IT TOOK THEM DAYS TO GET TO DORNE, THEN MORE TO GET TO SUNSPEAR. Their entire group was exhausted, especially after meeting with her bannermen on the way, and each time they stopped to rest Sarella had nearly went on alone. If not for Aegon and Visenya, she would have.

Rhaenys had stayed behind to rule over King's Landing, though she let them take Meraxes. The other Targaryens rode with Sarella, their dragons flying overhead. They, too, were anxious to arrive.

When finally the city came into view, Sarella's eyes hardened and her grip on the reins tightened. As they rode closer, they saw the heads. There had to be fifty or more, lined along the walls like decoration. Dried blood was caked onto the stone walls. Lannister banners replaced the Martell ones, which made her seethe.

She found her brother on the wall quickly, though he was terribly disfigured. His hair hung over his face, greasy. His eyes were dead, gone. Like he was. His lips had already begun to peel away from his teeth.

She must have let out a pained sound and not realized, because she felt Aegon's hand on her arm in a comforting way. "I'm fine," she muttered, shaking her head. "Let's go."

There was a man standing guard at the gate, who shouted down at them as they approached. "Who goes there?"

"Sarella of House Nymeros Martell, Princess of Dorne, here to rid my city of the vermin who have infested it. Accompanied by the Conqueror himself, come to aid me," Sarella answered, her voice strong. "Let us pass and you will live. Deny us, and we will enter anyway, and then you will die."

The man turned away, and there were muffled voices from on the wall. Sarella turned to Aegon with an impatient look and told him, "I feel like a fool. If we are forced to wait another second, I am going in."

"Patience, Princess, patience," he replied.

The man on the wall disappeared then, only to be replaced by another. Sarella would recognize the arrogant smirk the man had anywhere. "Lannister," she snarled, gripping the reins tighter.

"Careful," Aegon warned, though made no move to hold her back. If she attacked, he would follow. If she waited, so would he. He was following her lead completely.

"Lannister!" Sarella shouted up to him. "I have come for my city!"

"And not alone, I can see," he replied. He looked down at them, uninterestedly. As if they were insignificant.

"I have come with the dragons," she continued, "and as I do not wish to see my city burn, if it comes to that, it will."

"Become the dragon's whore now, have you, Princess?" He taunted her, looking for the angry reaction she had within her. She held it back.

"Open the gates, Lannister, or you will burn." She glanced toward Aegon, then back to Loren. "I trust that it will be a death more painful than any other."