-Chapter 56-

-Chapter 56-

-POV Daemon Targaryen-

Watching Aemon move gracefully while effortlessly cutting down the knights facing him made me want to fight him to see…

‘How long it would take him to defeat me,’ I thought before shaking my head.

"I didn’t think you’d show up in the training yard," I said to my son once he had placed his blade on the neck of the last knight still standing.

Aemon smiled as he lifted the sword from the knight, who, like his twenty other companions, had been humiliated by my son’s talents. Then he said:

"Do you want to test yourself against your son?"

I smiled, knowing he had plenty of good reasons to want to take out his frustrations on me, but…

‘I won’t let you do it, especially not in front of all these people.’

"I need to talk to you, it’s important," I said, changing the subject and returning to the main reason I had been looking for him.

"What do you want?" he asked me, putting back the training sword he had borrowed.

"Me, nothing at all, but Rhaenyra, that’s another story. She has been particularly impatient, so follow me," I said, turning around, only to find myself face to face with the little dog of that Hightower whore.

Criston Cole walked past me without greeting me and spoke directly to Aemon while completely ignoring me: "The queen requires your presence…"

"Let’s go," I said to Aemon, deliberately cutting off that nobody who bowed to every woman as soon as they had a bit of power.

"Immediately," he added, stepping in front of Aemon, who narrowed his eyes in annoyance as he looked at the Kingsguard.

I gripped the hilt of my sword, but Aemon signaled for me to calm down with a glance before saying:

"If the queen wishes to see me, then so be it. After all, who am I to refuse an order from her Grace? Lead the way, Ser."

I narrowed my eyes at him, but the only thing he said was:

"We’ll talk later. Once I’ve finished with the queen, I’ll join you in my cousin’s chambers."

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-POV Alicent Hightower-

As I was still thinking about what I might say to Prince Aemon and how I would phrase it, the door suddenly opened.

It took me by surprise, as everyone was usually required to knock on my door and ask for permission to enter before opening it.

‘Except for Viserys, who does it more out of courtesy than duty,’ I thought as I watched the young prince, of impressive stature, enter my chamber as if it were his own.

Ser Criston entered right after him, scandalized by the prince’s actions, and shouted at him, saying:

"You cannot barge into the queen’s chambers…"

"It’s fine, Ser Criston, you can leave us," I said, not wanting to start these ‘negotiations’ on the wrong foot.

"You heard your mistress. Lie down and go back to your kennel," said Prince Aemon, throwing a provocative look at my champion, who fell right into the trap the prince had set for him.

Ser Criston stepped forward menacingly, his hand on his sword, which surprised Prince Aemon, who smiled at the completely thoughtless act of Ser Criston.

"Ser Criston, I gave you an order!" I said firmly, furious at the embarrassment my sworn shield was causing me.

Prince Aemon put a finger near his ear and said, "Are you deaf?"

Ser Criston turned away from the prince, bowed to me, and then left, furious.

I let out a sigh of relief when I saw that the incident had ended without further escalation, and I turned my attention to the prince, who was standing over Helaena’s cradle, still asleep despite the noise they had made.

"She’s beautiful," he remarked thoughtfully.

"She was, unfortunately, born a few years too late," I said, looking at the prince.

The prince smiled slightly at my unexpected flattery but then said seriously:

"Spit it out. Your guard’s attitude says a lot about what you seem to know about me."

Shocked by the suddenness of his blunt and unadorned words, I remained momentarily speechless until he added, with a sly smile, less than a meter away from me:

"What do you think you know that would give you control over my voice and my forces?"

‘Ser Criston is truly an idiot. He figured out right away that I had obtained compromising information about him because of that outburst,’ I thought, completely unsettled by the prince’s successive questions.

"I’ve learned that you’ve formed an alliance with the mountain clans, and I can prove it. Unfortunately for you, you weren’t discreet enough this time," I said, trying to regain control of the conversation.

"Very well, I understand better now this sudden blind confidence in you. Until today, you seemed quite weak to me, which you still are," the prince said, turning away from me and walking through my chamber, observing the decorations, paintings, and tapestries with a scrutinizing eye.

A few seconds passed before he turned his attention back to me and said:

"You have nothing but vague support from your birth house and a sworn shield. What makes you think you can blackmail me?"

His piercing gaze made me shudder slightly because it wasn’t Viserys I was trying to manipulate.

‘He’s Daemon Targaryen’s son. He hides it, but I know they’re alike, or at least I sense it,’ I thought before taking a small breath to release the tension in me and refocus on our discussion.

"You have an army of over 2,000 knights with your current bannermen. House Royce can certainly raise an army of 10,000 soldiers, and you have a dragon as a bonus…"

‘A very large dragon,’ I thought, pausing for a moment to recall the ever-growing size of his dragon.

I resumed my little monologue, adding, "In the event of open war in the Vale, you will certainly win. And as long as your ambitions remain in the Vale, it’s possible that the king… no, it’s even extremely likely that the king won’t seek to intervene, but…"

"But?" Aemon asked, waiting for me to finish my sentence.

"But you will lose his trust, and it’s more than likely that your children won’t get dragon eggs," I said, suddenly filled with a confidence I didn’t know I possessed.

‘May the Seven make him believe me,’ I thought, trying to scare him.