“Were these captured from The Stepstones? How is the war going now?”
Talvey finally reined in his smile, sat up straight, and told Viserys every detail of their victory in The Stepstones, while thoroughly recounting the course of the war over the past year or more.
However, he concealed the matter of Daemon proclaiming himself king—that affair was best left for House Targaryen to resolve internally among themselves.
Hearing the news of the victory in The Stepstones, Otto Hightower was momentarily startled—he had actually not received any wind of it at this time.
The surrounding nobles were also startled upon hearing this, immediately whispering to one another with smiles on their faces.
After all, having The Stepstones controlled by Westeros nobility was far better than the Triarchy, especially for those nobles with massive merchant fleets, whose smiles were nearly impossible to conceal in the depths of their eyes.
Just as Talvey and Viserys were conversing happily, a hurried sound of footsteps approached from afar.
Rhaenyra strode up to Viserys, her skirt billowing in the wind, her voice trembling: “Is this my value to you? What do you take me for? A mere gift to win over high lords?”
Watching the expression of his future eldest sister-in-law, Talvey thought to himself: “She must have run into Jason Lannister.”
Viserys suppressed the surging anger in his heart and softened his voice: “Rhaenyra, you are already of age, and Lord Jason Lannister is a very suitable candidate.”
The two grew increasingly agitated as they spoke, until Viserys finally lost his temper, slammed his hand hard on the desk, and rebuked loudly: “Even I, the King, must yield to tradition and duty, how can you possibly stand aloof!”
“I do not want to marry!”
“You must marry!”
“Then why did you reject my marriage proposal back then?” Rhaenyra clenched her fists tightly and demanded loudly, her gaze sweeping gently over Talvey before fixing intently on Viserys’s eyes.
Viserys and Lyonel Strong beside him glanced at Talvey in unison.
This was a secret matter known to only a very few people.
Talvey merely pretended not to notice their gaze, casually picking up his goblet and taking a light sip.
Besides, so many years had passed, and combined with the fact that he was still very young back then, no one would have asked for his opinion—otherwise, he certainly would not have agreed to his grandfather’s proposal back then.
This stemmed from the marriage alliance request previously sent by House Valthorn to Viserys.
At that time, Gael had not yet been born, and Rhaenyra was of a similar age to Talvey, so Lord Iseorn Valthorn proposed to Viserys that the two be wed to strengthen their ties further.
As the only two dragon-riding bloodlines in the world, intermarriage was naturally a normal occurrence.
However, Lord Iseorn’s proposal at the time was decisively rejected by Viserys.
Viserys had only Rhaenyra as a daughter under his knees back then, and already harbored the thought of naming her as his heir.
After all, he had no sons at the time; if he were to have no sons later either, and Rhaenyra became heir while marrying into House Valthorn—their children in the future would surely sit upon the Iron Throne, but would that still be the bloodline of House Targaryen?
House Valthorn was not like House Velaryon: they originated from the Fourteen Flames just like House Targaryen, belonging to the same dragonlord families, and their bloodline was even more noble than the Targaryens—which was also the single point that successive generations of House Targaryen feared the most.
Although both sides had maintained a tradition of intermarriage since the reign of King Jaehaerys the Old, privately, House Targaryen had always maintained vigilance.
Especially after the death of Balerion, up until now, the entire House Targaryen had only three dragonriders—Gael, Rhaenyra, and Daemon.
Rhaenyra’s dragon was small in size, and Gael would sooner or later marry into House Valthorn, leaving only Daemon’s Blood Wyrm Caraxes to be considered peak combat strength.
House Velaryon likewise had three dragonriders.
The members of their family could ride dragons because they obtained the dragon-riding bloodline through intermarriage with House Targaryen: Corlys’s wife was Rhaenys Targaryen, known by the people as “The Queen Who Never Was”, who was the only daughter of Prince Aemon, the eldest son and heir of the Old King.
Her dragon was “The Red Queen” Meleys, an adult dragon.
Among Rhaenys’s children, Laenor’s dragon was Seasmoke, also an adult dragon; whereas Rhaenys’s daughter Laena Velaryon rode none other than the oldest and largest dragon in the world today—Vhagar.
As for House Valthorn, it possessed as many as four dragonriders.
Strictly speaking, however, only three could participate in battle—Talvey’s grandfather, Lord Iseorn, was advancing in age after all.
Riding a dragon was fine, but riding a dragon into combat was somewhat a stretch; of course, Talvey certainly would not let his grandfather ride a dragon into battle.
Would that not be handing the kingdom established by “The Conqueror” over to House Valthorn on a silver platter?
Yet he also feared the strength of House Valthorn, so after Gael was born, he chose to have his second daughter Gael marry into House Valthorn to maintain the stability of the royal power of the Targaryens.
Precisely because of this, in the short three years that followed, Queen Aemma fell pregnant five times in succession and miscarried four times, until her final difficult labor, where Queen Aemma and the “Prince for a Day” Baelon perished together.
Rhaenyra had long known that Gael’s betrothed was originally her own intended match.
She didn’t care at all in the beginning, until she saw Talvey at the King’s Landing tourney.
The tall, handsome, and dazzling Talvey captivated not only her, but all the young maidens present at the time.
Unfortunately, it was already too late by then, as Talvey had long since been betrothed to Gael, which was why Rhaenyra brought up the old matters of yesteryear today.
However, Rhaenyra did not necessarily fall in love with Talvey; perhaps it was more out of envy and jealousy towards Gael.
Of course, even if Talvey knew all this, he would not accept Rhaenyra.
He was quite familiar with this ‘Realm’s Delight’—her various chaotic personal lives and various idiotic behaviors in the later period.
In short, Talvey had always kept his distance from Rhaenyra; if she weren’t Gael’s full sister sharing the same mother, Talvey wouldn’t even want to have any dealings with her at all.
Compared to Rhaenyra, the innocent and kind Gael was obviously a very suitable candidate for a wife, so Rhaenyra was destined to be nothing more than his eldest sister-in-law.
Inside the royal pavilion, everyone watched the quarrel between the king and the heir.
Towards such royal gossip, these nobles remained deeply interested, watching each and every one with relish.
In the end, it was Otto who stepped forward to remind the king that the white stag had been found, which finally interrupted their argument.
However, after this, the faint, elusive smile on Otto’s face was extremely thought-provoking..
After all, House Hightower at this time was anxious to push Prince Aegon, who possessed Hightower blood, onto the Iron Throne.
The words out of her mouth, Rhaenyra felt somewhat regretful that she shouldn’t have brought up this old matter.
Yet the anger in her chest had not subsided in the slightest; she clenched the corner of her dress and turned to run out of the tent.