The Old Bear's Daughter

ᵉⁱᵍʰᵗ

"What are you doing? Let go of him!"

As Julianna heard Arya's yelling she quickly walked away from the horse she had been reading and towards the shouting only to see that two armoured had gripped Gendry while Arya was yelling at them to stop. A woman dressed completely in red stood between Thoros and Beric and watched.

"The fuck are you doing?" Juliana asked.

"The Lord of Light needs this boy," Beric explained.

"Did the Lord of Light tell you that or did she?" Arya spat as Gendry was forced onto a wagon.

A knight came over to them with two money bags, making Juliana walk over to Beric angrily, "This isn't even for your stupid god, is it? This is for gold!"

Suddenly the woman in red spoke up, "And we will double the price if you send the warg with us."

Before Juliana even knew what was happening, two men gripped her arms. Quickly, she kicked in the legs of one of them, using her free hand to pull her dagger from her boot to slit the throat of the other one before stabbing the man on the ground.

She threw her dagger into the neck of another man that was approaching her and knelt down to pick up the weapon of the man she killed first but couldn't continue her work as the red woman suddenly stood in front of her and blew red dust into her face.

Without wanting to, Juliana breathed the dust in and choked a moment before the world around her turned black.

*****

"After all the running and fighting, here I am, back where I started," Gendry said as he stood next to Melisandre on the upper deck of the ship they had been brought to, looking at the palace of King's Landing, while Juliana was in a cabin below, still unconscious from the mysterious powder the red woman had used.

"Do you miss it?" said red woman asked.

"King's Landing?"

"Your father's house."

Gendry shook his head, "Never had a father. Never wanted one."

"Haven't you ever wondered where your strength came from? Your talent for fighting?"

"I'm lowborn," he told her, "As low as can be. My mother was a tavern wench."

"Mine was a slave. So was I. Bought and sold, scourged and branded, until the Lord of Light reached down, took me in his hand and raised me up," she stared at him with bright blue eyes.

"I was born in Flea Bottom," he looked down.

"Your blood is noble."

"Are you saying my father, he was some lord or...," Gendry trailed off.

Melisandre turned to look at the Red Keep, "There. Your father's house."

Gendry looked up and shook his head, "I'm just a bastard."

"The bastard of Robert of the House Baratheon, First of His Name, King of the Andals and the First Men. Why do you think the gold cloaks wanted you? There is power in a king's blood."

*****

"Where are you bringing her?" Gendry asked as he saw a man carry Juliana away.

"She will stay unconscious for a day or two," a knight explained without answering the young man's question.

*****

Gendry was looking around the room he was in as the red priestess entered with a box in her hand. He was now dressed in finer clothing and had been bathed.

"Have you ever seen one like it?" Melisandre asked, referring to the golden firepit he was looking at while she placed the box on a nearby table.

"I've never seen anything like any of this. Not in my life."

"It's shocking, isn't it, the first time you encounter real wealth? when I was your age, I lived on a bowl of stew a day. And stew is a kind word for it."

"In Flea Bottom we call them bowls of brown. We'd pretend that the meat in them was chicken... We knew it wasn't chicken."

"Here, taste this," Melisandre handed him a goblet. As Gendry was reluctant, she added, "You think I'm trying to poison you? This isn't poison."

Slowly, Gendry walked forwards and took the goblet of her hand. Lifting it to his lips, he took a sip before putting it down. "That's-" he didn't finish his sentence as his legs gave out underneath him.

He felt as she heaved him up onto the bed in the room but wasn't able to move a single muscle in his body. 

She walked over to the small table with the box on it and opened it, taking pincers to get a small wiggling creature out of it. A leech.

"Don't worry, it won't take much," she said before ripping his shirt open with one hand and placing the slimy creature on his naked chest.

*****

When Juliana finally woke up, she was lying in a dimly lit cell with Gendry across of her.

"Where are we?" she asked groggily as she sat up.

"Dragonstone," he replied. "We're King Stannis' prisoners."

Juliana cursed and rubbed her hands over her face, "How long was I out?"

"About a day or so," he replied as they heard the footsteps of a man echo through the dungeons. They looked to see a man carrying a torch walking towards them.