When King Jaehaerys marched against Dorne, his dragon Vermithor had only given ordinary roars. The last time a dragon had made such a terrifying cry was ten years earlier, when Balerion the Black Dread returned after mysteriously disappearing.
The cooks quickly followed the noise and found Rhaegar.
Together they dragged the bodies of the three old soldiers back to Harrenhal.
Guests awakened in the middle of the night peered out of their windows.
They saw the burning forest in the distance and Dreamfyre circling above the castle.
Too frightened to leave their rooms, they hid inside.
Everyone in Harrenhal waited anxiously in the great hall.
Rhaegar pushed open the door wearing a cook's rough clothes.
"Rhaegar!"
Rhaena stood up and shouted.
Her voice carried both anger and relief.
Rhaegar walked toward her quietly, his expression dim.
"I'm fine," he said softly. "But the old soldiers… they're dead."
A plump maid ran to one of the bodies and collapsed onto him, wailing.
Through her broken cries people finally understood:
She was pregnant.
The child belonged to one of the dead soldiers.
"Go back to your room immediately!"
Rhaena glanced at the crying maid, then grabbed Rhaegar and dragged him toward the bedroom.
The cook's clothes were thrown aside.
Rhaegar stood naked beside the table.
A feather duster rod struck his back again and again.
Rhaegar stood straight without making a sound.
Compared with the pain on his back, what weighed on him more was the death of the soldiers.
They had been old and weak.
Yet they had faithfully done everything within their ability.
Even when they died, their swords were still sheathed.
They had been ambushed while searching for him.
They had fulfilled their oath to protect their lord.
Harrenhal had few people.
The three soldiers had watched Rhaegar grow up.
They had lived together for ten years.
How could anyone not grieve?
This time, Rhaegar knew he had been reckless.
He had believed that with his cheat ability he could handle anything.
He had underestimated others, assuming they would act according to his plan.
Reality proved otherwise.
Everyone around him had real lives.
Even if he became powerful, he could not always be there to protect them.
When he wasn't there, a sword, an arrow, poison, or even a stone... could take their lives.
Smack! Smack!
The sound of the rod striking flesh echoed loudly.
Even the maids outside the door couldn't bear to listen.
They had watched Rhaegar grow up too.
But they dared not stop Rhaena.
They could only wipe their tears and walk away.
Rhaena continued shouting angrily:
"Protecting nobles is the duty of soldiers!"
"Dying for you is their honor!"
That belief was common in Westeros.
Wars killed countless soldiers.
If nobles mourned every death, they would cry themselves to death.
"How dare you take Dreamfyre with you!"
Her voice grew hoarse.
Crack!
The rod snapped from the force of her blows.
She threw it away, breathing hard, and grabbed a leather belt from the wardrobe.
"You think I don't know you sneak out at night to ride my dragon?!"
Rhaegar turned around in shock.
He had thought the beating was for causing the soldiers' deaths.
But this was the real reason.
The belt cracked loudly.
Red marks turned into swelling bruises across his back.
"A dragon can have only one rider at a time!"
"It has been that way for thousands of years!"
"I'm still alive- how could you ride Dreamfyre?!"
Tears streamed down Rhaena's face as she struck him again.
"Do you know what would happen if anyone found out?!"
"Jaehaerys would kill you!"
"The next king would kill you!"
"Every Targaryen except me would kill you!"
"Do you understand that?!"
Rhaegar's heart tightened.
She was right.
The Kingsroad ran near Harrenhal.
People came constantly to draw water from Gods Eye Lake.
Dreamfyre was enormous.
Someone might easily see a dragon flying at night.
And if that person noticed the rider wasn't Rhaena…
If Rhaegar could ride Dreamfyre, then logically he might ride:
Jaehaerys's Vermithor
Queen Alysanne's Silverwing
The wild dragons of Dragonstone
Rhaegar would never actually do that.
But others would not think so.
Such a possibility threatened the very foundation of Targaryen rule.
If he were the king himself, he admitted he would eliminate such a danger immediately.
"I…"
Rhaegar fell silent.
Only now did he realize how worried Rhaena had been for him.
The belt slipped from her bloody hands.
Seeing the blood on Rhaegar's back, she suddenly hugged him tightly and burst into tears.
Now it was Rhaegar comforting her.
He gently patted her back.
"I've enjoyed noble life because of you," he said quietly.
"But I'm not truly a noble. I'm only a bastard."
"In the future I can stay away from the king and politics… or even leave for Essos."
"No!"
"You carry the blood of the true dragon-a special kind of dragon!"
Westerosi people had brown, gold, red, or black hair.
As Rhaegar grew older, his foreign appearance and straight black hair became more obvious.
Rhaena had sometimes doubted whether he was truly Aerea's son.
Until one night she saw Dreamfyre glide from the tower toward Gods Eye.
The rider on its back was Rhaegar.
From that moment she knew he must indeed be Aerea's child.
But her worry only deepened.
Holding his face, she spoke slowly:
"Targaryen blood doesn't only produce dragonriders."
"It has produced dreamers."
"Centuries ago there was a girl named Daenys."
"She could see the future in her dreams."
"She wrote down the visions she saw in a book called 'Signs and Portents.'"
"Her father believed her prophecy."
"That was how our family escaped the Doom of Valyria."
"Does that book still exist?" Rhaegar asked quickly.
Good, she lived centuries ago.
If another dreamer appeared and somehow dreamed about him being a transmigrator, that would be disastrous.
He definitely needed to study that book first.
"It's in the Dragonstone library," Rhaena said.
"It cannot be borrowed."
"And it's written in High Valyrian."
"I'll teach you the language first."
"Then you can read it."
Rhaegar nodded.
High Valyrian was far beyond him now.
He had only heard a few dragon commands spoken in it.
Rhaena continued:
"If our family could produce a dreamer…"
"Then perhaps someone like you- someone who can share another person's dragon... is also possible."
"But remember this carefully."
"Never let anyone know."
She worried he might accidentally reveal the secret.
People often called Rhaegar slow-witted because he spoke little.
She forgot that he was actually quite intelligent.
So she repeated the warning several times.
"I understand," Rhaegar assured her.
"In the future, if you want to ride Dreamfyre," she said softly,
"tell me first."
"I'll go with you."
She wiped her tears, then pulled a crisp pear from a drawer and placed it in his hands.
Her fingers gently stroked his hair.
At that moment Maester Naelin entered.
He applied foul-smelling ointment to Rhaegar's back.
The wounds were minor.
Rhaegar had thick skin and strong recovery.
He didn't plan to heal them with fire.
That would only frighten Rhaena again.
Rhaegar never asked about other people's secrets.
Nor did he share his own.
Avoid riding dragons alone.
Avoid exposing his body to open flames.
Those two conditions were easy enough.
Everyone in Westeros lived the same way.
The next morning, Rhaena gathered all the guests in the dining hall and made a formal announcement:
Five mercenaries had insulted her, committing a crime punishable by cutting out their tongues.
After losing a duel with Rhaegar, they held a grudge and organized bandits to rob Harrenhal.
Last night, Rhaegar led the castle's soldiers and cooks to pursue them and executed six.
Rhaena herself rode Dreamfyre and burned the remaining four to ashes.
Rhaena took all responsibility onto herself.
Rhaegar stood beside her making exaggerated facial expressions.
He was reminding her that she had forgotten to mention the vicious dog.
The guests reacted with outrage.
They shouted that such criminals deserved punishment.
They later went to the forest and retrieved six corpses and the dead dog.
The bodies were stripped naked.
Their hands and feet were nailed down.
Then they were hung from the flagpoles outside Harrenhal as a warning.
------
A/N- Read 21 chapters ahead on Patreon, with the first 1 free.
patreon.com/Captain_Lag