When Gael entered her room, she was surprised to find her mother reading a book in the chair beside the bed. Showing a shy expression, she didn’t dare look her mother in the eye. She was truly embarrassed.
As an unmarried princess, she shouldn’t be involved with Maekar, who was also unmarried. Much less act with such intimacy.
"Looking at your face, it seems he hasn’t deflowered my lovely daughter." Alysanne turned a page of the book and commented in a calm tone. The queen’s blue eyes stared at her daughter with a touch of provocation and amusement.
"Mother..." Gael lowered her head even further, like a child who had just broken something.
Alysanne smiled at her daughter’s reaction and walked over to her, tenderly lifting Gael’s face and seeing her pale cheeks flushed like two beautiful apples. Looking at her daughter’s neck and shoulder, she saw countless remnants of her daughter’s amorous adventures.
"Looking at these marks, I’m surprised you’re still a maiden," Alysanne said with a playful smile on her lips.
"Maekar is gentle; he didn’t want our first time to be on a beach." Gael hugged Alysanne and spoke in a shy tone, unable to look her mother in the eye.
"A beach..." Alysanne showed a gentle look and spoke in a teasing tone. "If I were you, I would have ridden him on that beach until he couldn’t even stand."
"Mother!" Gael looked at her mother with a shocked expression.
"Don’t look at me like that; before I am your mother, I am a woman, and I love sex," Alysanne said in an indifferent tone. If she didn’t like sex, she wouldn’t have had thirteen children. Though she had to admit, she truly had a gift for childbirth.
Gael looked at her mother, whom she considered so elegant and noble, with a shocked expression.
"That arrogant and foolish man actually believed that Jaehaerys and I wouldn’t have consummated our marriage. What teenagers wouldn’t consummate their marriage?" Alysanne said with a touch of disdain for her mother’s second husband, Rogar Baratheon.
Gael wanted to cover her ears; her mother’s sacred image was crumbling as she heard those words.
Realizing this, Alysanne let out a sincere laugh and pulled her daughter to the bed, asking about what happened between Maekar and Gael.
Gael hid nothing, even telling her mother about Maekar’s plans. Including the plan to kidnap a septon and flee to Dragonstone.
Alysanne began to laugh as she hadn’t in a long time. Just imagining her husband’s expression if he knew of these plans made the queen feel happy.
"Don’t worry, if Jaehaerys dares to refuse the marriage between you, I will make his Court complete chaos." Alysanne held her daughter’s hand and spoke in a gentle tone, but tinged with a majesty Gael had never seen in her mother.
Alysanne wasn’t joking; for her daughter’s future happiness, she really would cause chaos in the court. She wanted to see if she or Jaehaerys was more determined in this matter.
"As for a dragon, Maekar is right. The will of two dragonriders is not something Jaehaerys can ignore," Alysanne added with a piercing look. "However, that is risky. Jaehaerys does not like to be crossed, much less by a pair of young people."
"So, let’s go by a more diplomatic path without actually causing such a large incident in the court," Alysanne said in a gentle tone full of wisdom. Although Maekar’s plan might work, Jaehaerys’s anger was not as simple as Maekar himself imagined.
One word from him and Maekar would be completely exiled from Westeros, and no Noble House would truly dare to let Maekar rest in their castle.
And, knowing her grandson’s ambition, that was terrible. It made her realize that Maekar was intelligent, but lacked some political sense. However, considering the boy was nearly fourteen, she wasn’t surprised by the arrogance and impulsiveness typical of youth.
Gael nodded her head; in her eyes, everything Alysanne said was right. After all, it was Alysanne Targaryen, the woman who changed this continent from the shadows of the court. Countless laws were created and abolished by her.
All of them improved the status of women and gave extra protection to the fair sex of this world. Because of this, the political power in her hands was simply enormous. Although women generally did not possess power, their power was in the bed, when they whispered to their husbands, subtly influencing them.
On the other side of the castle, in Baelon’s room.
Jaehaerys, accompanied by the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, Ser Ryam Redwyne, entered the room and soon smelled the familiar scent of milk of the poppy. Displeasure flashed in the king’s eyes before disappearing again.
He hated that smell, for every time he smelled it, someone important to him died.
Seeing the figure in the bed, a desolate look reflected in the king’s violet eyes. He still found it hard to believe that the fragile man in the bed was the imposing and great Baelon.
"Father." Despite the terrible pain in his belly, Baelon smiled, the same sunny smile he always had on his lips.
With a wave of his hand, Jaehaerys dismissed all the servants and maesters from the room, leaving only Ryam, the king, and the prince.
"Any improvement?" Jaehaerys sat in the chair beside the bed and asked in a calm, deep tone.
Looking at his father, Baelon lost his smile and showed an equally calm expression on his pale face. "No."
Jaehaerys clenched his fists so hard that his nails pierced his skin, drawing blood. Would he really bury another son? How much more did the gods want him to suffer such pain? Were these the sins he had committed throughout his life?
"Father, I have a request, a final request." Baelon forced a smile and spoke in a gentle tone.
Jaehaerys woke from his thoughts and looked deeply at his son; he spoke in a firm tone. "You are not going to die."
Baelon smiled and didn’t try to convince his father; he knew better than anyone that he was dying. The pain in his belly was getting stronger and stronger, and he himself wanted to kill himself sometimes just to stop suffering.
"I want to pass the throne to Maekar," Baelon spoke with a warm but determined smile.
A deafening silence hung in the air. Ryam’s eyes widened, and he looked shocked at Prince Baelon; he tapped his ear, trying to prove if he had really just heard such a thing!
"Did he ask you for this?" Jaehaerys showed a chilling and terrifying look.
"It is my wish, an apology of mine for causing him so much pain." Baelon sighed and spoke in a weak tone, his smiling expression gone.
"Baelon." Jaehaerys’s cold voice rang through the room. "Do you think the throne is a toy you can simply pass along?"
"Listen well," Jaehaerys said in a solemn tone. "Until the last breath leaves my lungs, until my heart stops beating, even if I turn to ash, he will never touch the Iron Throne."
Baelon frowned; although he already knew his father would refuse, such resistance shocked him deeply. If he didn’t know better, he would have thought Maekar had killed someone precious to Jaehaerys to make him feel such anger toward the boy.
"He is a thirteen-year-old boy," Baelon said in a calm tone, but Jaehaerys could notice the dissatisfaction in his son’s voice. "I don’t understand why you are so resistant to him; he is not a man-eating monster."
"Baelon, the only thing that can destroy House Targaryen is itself," Jaehaerys said in a calm tone, but the words shocked Baelon. "I will not allow a second civil war to occur. Our house cannot endure another war among ourselves."
If Maekar had been present, he would have given Jaehaerys a thumbs up; that was exactly what he wanted to do.
"Father, you are overthinking," Baelon said in a sad tone.
Jaehaerys did not answer; he looked deeply at his son and left the room.
Ryam bowed to Baelon before leaving and accompanied the king, leaving the Spring Prince with a complex expression.
Read the advanced Chapters on my Patreon!
/GOTSW
Read my other books:
House of The Dragon: The Pale Prince
Game Of Thrones: The God-Emperor of Planetos (500,000 words written).
Percy Jackson: Godwyn the Golden.
Game Of Thrones: The King’s Court Wizard