The King of Winters

Chapter-19

Rhaegar

Faint and far away the light burned, low on the horizon, shining through the sea mists.

"It looks like a star," said Rhaegar.

"The star of home," said Denyo, the envoy sent from the Iron Bank as a honor guard to meet him.

His captain was shouting orders. Sailors scrambled up and down the three tall masts and moved along the rigging, reefing the heavy black and red sails. Below, oarsmen heaved and strained over two great banks of oars. The decks tilted, creaking, as the Targaryen flagship, Balerion heeled to starboard and began to come about.

The star of home. Rhaegar stood at the prow, one hand resting on the iron figurehead, a roaring dragon head of black iron. For half a heartbeat he remembered how Arthur Dayne had once claimed Starfall as the Home of gods and stars. He wondered which star was lurking here now that the Daynes were dealt with. Arthur and Ashara Dayne, both had glown too much for his liking that he had to finally drown them in darkness.

Braavos might not be so bad as his visit to Starfall was. Denyo said that everything had been already prepared for his visit. It would take one day at the most for me to stay here. Then he would return back to his kingdom and family. The Braavosi also told him about how hard they were searching for Viserys' killer. Maybe he would even get to see the man and deliver his own justice.

The last of the night's stars still peered from the sky through the first light . . . all along with the pair dead ahead. "It's two stars now."

"Two eyes," said Denyo. "The Titan sees us, King Rhaegar."

The Titan of Braavos. One of the splendors in the modern world made by men. A giant of a statue as tall as a mountain, which stood guard in the entrance of Braavos. Just like Arthur Dayne had stood to guard his sister and her husband at Starfall.

Starfall is done and fallen, Rhaegar reminded himself. Eddard Stark, Ashara Dayne and Arthur Dayne were all dead. It did no good to think of them. Even their ghosts never bothered to trouble him in Westeros, and there was no way that they were lurking all the way to haunt him here in Braavos. In Westeros, legends marks the Daynes as the descendants of gods. The gods never die, septons of the Seven preached, still the Daynes died when a blade was put through them. Gods or men the Targaryens answered to no one. 

"Do the Braavosi worship the Titan as a god, Denyo?" Rhaegar asked. 

"All gods are honored in Braavos." The Braavosi banker loved to talk about his city almost as much as he loved to talk about his home. "Your Seven have a sept here, the Sept-Beyond-the-Sea, but only Westerosi sailors worship there."

"The Moonsingers led us to this place of refuge, where the dragons of Valyria could not find us," Denyo said. "Theirs is the greatest temple. We esteem the Father of Waters as well, but his house is built anew whenever he takes his bride. The rest of the gods dwell together on an isle in the center of the city. That is where you will find the smaller gods."

The Titan's eyes seemed brighter now, and farther apart. Rhaegar never cared about the gods, he barely sought out for the help of gods. He had never wanted their help. 

The mists gave way before them, ragged grey curtains parted by their prow. Balerion cleaved through the grey-green waters on billowing black wings. Rhaegar could hear the cries of seabirds overhead. There, in front of them, a line of stony ridges rose sudden from the sea, their steep slopes covered with soldier pines and black spruce. But dead ahead the sea had broken through, and there above the open water the Titan towered, with his eyes blazing and his long green hair blowing in the wind.