Winter's Fire → Game of Thrones

xlii. The Red Viper

First they killed my father. Then Talisa, Robb, Mother and Alios. They married Sansa off to Tyrion after trying to force her to marry Joffrey still. Then they locked me up here and act as though I am a guest, not an honored prisoner. And now... Now they have melted down my family's great sword - Ice.

My family's sword. The sword that was to be placed in my hands. It has been melted down as swords for Joffrey and the Kingslayer. Outraged does not truly explain how I feel knowing this.

However, that is not what upset me the most as I took my walk in the gardens to calm myself from the nightmares I have. It was the freshly commissioned statue of the absolute prick of a king. When I saw the statue I wanted to demand the chance to cut off the king's head the same way he cut off my father's.

This statue showed Joffrey standing over a dead direwolf. It was to commemorate the defeat of my family. A defeat that the boy-king had no hand in.

I stood in front of the statue, hands clenched and tears in my eyes. It made me want to throw up. It made me want to scream. It made me want to get my revenge on the Lannisters before marching North to kill the Freys and Boltons.

A hand placed itself on my shoulder. I flinched away before turning to see that it was just Lucien trying to comfort me. He looked sad to see me so affected and disgusted by the statue depicting the downfall of my family. The downfall that was brought upon us by Tywin Lannister, not his incest-product grandson.

"My lady, there is a guest wanting to speak to you," a serving girl told me, having just run over to me.

"Do you know who?" Lucien asked before I could. "And is it urgent enough to disrupt the meeting between Lady Stark, Prince Daemon and I that is about to commence?"

"I-I will tell him to wait," she stuttered. "Sorry, my lord, Lady Stark."

I just nodded and waved my hand in dismissal. I know I was trying to come off as polite and trustworthy, but now was not the time. Right now I wanted to take my sword and drive it through someone's chest.

Lucien seemed to notice my anger and took half a step back. I ignored him as I continued to stare at the statue in disgust. More rage and hatred filled me with every second I stared at it, but it felt good to finally have some kind of fire running back through my veins despite the reasons why.

"I just lied about what we were up to, my lady," Lucien pointed out. "Looks like we will have to find Daemon and pretend to be discussing important matters."

"No need," I dismissed. "He is in the courtyard training. And I want to join him."

As we walked towards the courtyard Daemon was training in, Lucien tried to protest. He was trying to remind me of my goal to get the people in the Red Keep to trust me more and to him training with a prince was not the way to go about it. I did not care, though. I needed to do something to keep myself busy.

When I found Daemon he was training with the man-at-arms of the Red Keep. I did not know his name, but we had spoken a few times. He had offered to train with me once, but took it back after seeing me practice on a straw man and rip it to shreds. He did keep allowing me to train with the straw people though.

Daemon stopped training when he saw Lucien and I. He shot us both one of his charming smiles and lowered his sword. It still surprised me that someone as intelligent and cunning as he would only fight with one weapon.

"I want to train," I stated. "I do believe my weapons are still locked out here?"

"About that, Lord Lannister is now allowing you to have them back," the man-at-arms informed me. "Give me a moment and I will return them all to you."