VIII / No Mourners, No Funerals

The time was too late to return home now, so they would ride out on dragonback tomorrow and those without dragons or dragons too small to be ridden would go by boat.

Rhaelys slept peacefully until she was woken by Baela. "Rhae!" She looked scared and in a mere moment Rhaelys had stood up. "What's going on, Baela? You must speak to me if you wish for me to understand what is going on," Baela breathed heavily and Rhae held her hand.

"What's going on, Baela, tell me," Rhaelys said as she turned to her brother. "Wake him up, he can help," Rhaena nodded as she shook Jace awake. "Jace, wake up!" Rhaena woke Jace as Baela had done with same with Rhaelys. "Wake up, Jace, Jace!" Jace was always slow to wake up and when he finally did, he looked worryingly at his cousins.

"Someone stole Vhagar!" It was clear that they did not understand dragons yet enough. A dragon could not be stolen as they did not belong to anyone. A dragon was their own's and no one else's, not even their rider. Vhagar could not be stolen, because something could not be stolen that did not belong to you in the first place.

But Rhaelys understood Laena Velaryon's daughters in that moment. Rhaena had been promised Vhagar, the last piece of her mother. A dragon is not a slave, but a grieving child is a grieving child.

"What?" Jace questioned as he got out of his bed. "Baela, stay here and look after Luke. Jace, Rhaena, you will go with me and we will find Vhagar," They nodded and she got their hands, Jace and Rhaena's, walking to the hallways where they were faced with none other than Aemond.

"It's him!" Rhaena said as she eyed him up and down. "It's me," It was clear that Aemond had ridden and claimed Vhagar. He reeked of dragon as he never had, not even after the pig burned him following the pig incident. "Vhagar is my mother's dragon!" Rhaena shouted at Aemond, tears filling her eyes. "Your mother's dead. And Vhagar has a new rider now," Rhaena shot an angry glare at Aemond. "She was mine to claim,"

"Then you should've claimed her," It was the truth. Vhagar had chosen to accept Aemond, she could have as well not and Aemond would now have been dead, burned or both. "Maybe your cousins can find you a pig to ride, or your father could be next and then his dragon is yours claim. But I believe a pig would suit you so much more," Rhaelys looked at Aemond and she lost all respect for him.

"Enough, Aemond." Rhaelys said, and he knuckled. "You are not one to talk, bastard whore." Before she could be stopped Rhaena fastened herself towards Aemond, before quickly being thrown off to the floor where she would lay.

"Aren't we friends, Aemond?" Rhaelys asked him, and he laughed loudly.

Aemond drew his dagger and Rhaelys did the same. "I am not friends with you or your Strong brothers. A bunch of bastards. The throne will be my brother's, my sister will be his queen and you can be his whore like you are now." Rhaelys stepped closer to him and Aemond took a step back. "You take those words back to your mother and pretend like you've never spoken them. What is this about? I am no whore and I will never be Aegon's whore at that."

Aemond cried a little cry before he took an angry look on his face again. Was he jealous of the lies he was spewing?

Rhaena had woken up again and hit Aemond in this face, which he returned harder and more quickly. She fell again and Jace stood up now and hit him, as Luke and Baela ran to them. "Lucerys, Baela, I told you to stay in our chambers!" Luke ignored his sister's words and quickly got to Aemond who punched him in his nose breaking it. "Then next time you touch me, I will feed you to my dragon!" He had claimed Vhagar only an hour ago and yet he already considered her his by all rights. Jace went at Aemond again and was punched in the face, before Rhaelys was finally done. This fight would end now.

Aemond took Luke's neck and yelled at him with a stone. "You'll die streaming like your father," Luke cried out and Rhaelys could see the tears starting to flow. "My father's still alive," He spoke and in more ways than one it was true. "He hasn't been told?" Aemond taunted Rhaelys and Jace, who shared looks of disgust.

"Stop it Aemond, you are hurting them, hurting your kin and mine. If you wish to fight, fight me and fight fair. They have a head shorter than you and are handful of years younger than you. Fight me, Aemond," He shook his head with defiance and he tried to hit Luke again. "Then so be it,"

She slashed her dagger directly in his eye, and he cried out in pain, before she walked over to him and with her knife came his eye. She held in her hand and laughed. "Smaller than I expected," She took his dagger from his hand stepped closer and wishepered something in his ears.

"The next time you dare raise your voice to my brothers or to Princess Baela and Princess Rhaena, that will be the last time you see or speak ever again. I have taken one eye, I can take the other,"

Aemond cried and out pushed Rhaelys away, who was stronger than he was. She stood where she had before and didn't move. He tried grabbing a stone to hit Luke with it as he held Luke by the throat, but Rhaelys hit him over the head with the same stone. It was not hard enough to kill him, she made sure of it, but hard enough that he would still feel it tomorrow.

"Come now, we must go back to your chambers where it is safe." She quickly spoke, knowing they had been in the wrong and Aemond would soon call the Kingsguard. He did just that as Rhaelys angrily eyed Jace and Luke. "My prince, my prince, let me see. Gods be good," The Kingsguard were quickly to help Aemond even if Luke and Jace had broken noses, Baela and Rhaena had concussions. Rhaelys herself had a cut on her arm, one that could have killed her.

As she walked into a chamber with her brothers, cousins and Prince Aemond, everyone was called there. And with everyone, she meant everyone. She could see her grandfather, Queen Alicent, Princess Helaena, Prince Aegon, but her mother was no where to be found. "Where is my mother?" Rhaelys cried out, in want of one simple thing.

"I just want my mother please. I demand she be brought to me, please!" She yelled out and cried, holding onto her arm tightly as someone came up to her and sewed it closed. "I want my mother. Remember her? Princess Rhaenyra of House Targaryen? Or my father Ser Laenor? Anyone please, I beg of you!" She cried out and could feel Aegon's pity on her. It seemed no one would come to her aid this time.

"How could you allow such a thing to happen?" Viserys questioned his Kingsguard, who had been no where in sight when everything went down with Aemond. "I will have answers," Aemond had been having his eye stitched closed. He would never seen again. She supposed Helaena had been right.

He had gotten his long-wanted dragon, but he had to close an eye. Helaena's visions hadn't been right before, but it seemed now she was.

"The children were supposed to be abed, my king," Viserys still was not convinced. "Who had the watch?" He questioned next and Rhae held her breath as an answer came.

"The young Prince was attacked by his own niece, Your Grace," If asked, Rhaelys would take all the blame. Most of it was hers anyway, but she would not have her brother's hurt because of this. Her life meant far less than theirs, anyway. "You swore oaths to protect and defend my blood." Of all the members of her grandsire's Kingsguard, none seemed to care. "I'm very sorry, Your Grace,"

The commander told Viserys while Criston told him something entirely else. "The Kingsguard has never had to defend princes from princes, Your Grace." Viserys stepped closer to Criston as he yelled in his face. "That is no answer!" And it truly wasn't. Rhaelys thought that it was Criston Cole who had been on duty, which was why he was acting like he was.

"It will heal, will it not, maester?" Rhaelys knew it would not. The knife had been in his eye for too long. There was nothing left to heal. "The flesh will heal. But the eye is lost, Your Grace," The maester told Alicent, who eyed Rhaelys.

Rhae could understand why. She had never meant to but in the moment she had simply been so angry. "Where were you?" She asked Aegon who looked confused. "Me?" Alicent hit her eldest son in his face, and though she felt a little sympathy for her uncle, she understood Alicent. If he had been with his brother, none of this would've happened.

"What was that for?" He asked loudly as he held his face in his hand. "That was nothing compared to the abuse your brother suffered while you were drowning in your cups, you fool," Sometimes she felt bad for Aegon. And sometimes she remembered that it was his own fault for choosing what he chose to do.

He could be better and yet he simply chose not to be. At that moment, Corlys and Rhaenys finally came down from their shared chamber. "What is the meaning of this?" Corlys' voice was so loud you'd hear it on the other side of the island.

Rhaenys on the other hand rushed over to her granddaughters. Rhaelys had wished it was her who her grandmother sought to comfort, but quickly she was besides Rhaena and Baela. As she hugged her girls, finally, Rhaenyra arrived, Daemon not long behind her.

"Jace? She questioned as she walked in, then seeing how hurt her boys and Rhae were. "Luke, Rhaelys?" She yelled, rushing to their side. She slowly held Rhaelys' hand and looked where it bled, while Luke took his hand off of his nose, revealing it being broken. "Show me, my love. Show me," She said carefully examining her children's wounds.

"Who did this?" Rhaenyra questioned, her attention only being on Luke and Rhae as it should be. "They attacked me!" A muffled voice came from the side of the room, and that voice belonged to Aemond Targaryen. "He attacked Rhaena, and I wanted to fight back-" Rhaelys quickly put her hand over Jace's mouth.

"It was my fault. None of them did anything wrong. I was in the wrong, no one else," Rhaelys kept her hand on Jace's mouth, whose shouting was muffled. "He broke Luke's nose!" Rhaena shouted then, and for a moment, they looked at each other and only at each other. But chaos had broken loose. The children quarreled for a bit longer.

"Enough," Viserys finally said, standing up from the throne had been sitting on. As they did not stop screaming at each other, Alicent finally screamed and broke down. "It should be my son telling the tale!" It should be. Aemond was the one who had lost an eye and spoken so careless before, it was only fair he get to talk now as well.

Even after Alicent spoke, no one held their tongue. "Silence!" Viserys finally yelled, showing a piece of the King he had been a decade again.

"He called us bastards and he called Rhaelys Aegon's whore," Jace whispered to his mother before Rhae could stop him, which formed a teary-eyed look on her face.

He really shouldn't have said that.