My Imbecile Dragon and Me - Chapter 2
"Darling, Your Father Is Dead Too; or, How to Turn a Creditor into an Assassin"
Rhaenyra:
Lady Frey is becoming an intolerable pain in the arse.
Alicent looks up from her book.
Alicent:
What did you do?
Rhaenyra:
Why must you immediately assume that I did something?
Alicent:
Because Lady Frey is not standing in my chamber complaining about you. You are standing here complaining about Lady Frey.
Rhaenyra:
She continues to demand Harrenhal.
Rhaenyra:
Because Jace promised it to her.
Alicent:
Then she is quite right.
Alicent:
What would you prefer me to say? That promises become impolite when the person collecting them is persistent?
Rhaenyra:
Jace had no right to offer Harrenhal without first consulting me.
Alicent:
Did you send him as your envoy?
Alicent:
Did you authorise him to negotiate for military support and passage?
Alicent:
Did House Frey provide what he negotiated for?
Rhaenyra:
They allowed our allies to cross.
Alicent:
Then your son made an agreement on behalf of your cause, and House Frey fulfilled its part. I am still waiting to hear what Lady Frey has done wrong.
Alicent studies her for a moment.
Rhaenyra:
His promise cannot simply bind me forever.
Alicent:
No promise binds anyone forever. This one binds you until you pay what was promised.
Rhaenyra:
I have already offered Harrenhal to someone else.
Alicent:
Of course you have.
Rhaenyra:
You need not say it in that tone.
Alicent:
I used no tone, darling. Your decisions have begun supplying their own.
Rhaenyra:
I promised Harrenhal to whoever brings me your son’s head.
Alicent’s fingers stop upon the edge of the page. When she speaks, her voice remains perfectly level.
Alicent:
How comforting that I still have enough sons for the question to require an answer.
Alicent:
No, it makes sense. Aemond rides Vhagar. You cannot defeat him yourself, so you have offered someone else a castle in exchange for his head. It is a perfectly comprehensible bounty.
Rhaenyra:
You are remarkably calm about this.
Alicent:
Would you prefer screaming?
Alicent:
Then do not sound disappointed.
Rhaenyra:
I did not come here to hurt you.
Alicent:
You came here to complain about your creditor and happened to mention that you have placed a castle upon my son’s head. The hurt appears incidental.
Rhaenyra:
Aemond has killed people I love.
Rhaenyra:
He remains a danger to me, my family and the realm.
Alicent:
I know that as well.
Alicent closes her book and places it aside.
Alicent:
The bounty is not the part I fail to understand.
Alicent:
How you have managed to offer the same castle twice and decided that Lady Frey is the unreasonable party.
Rhaenyra:
Jace made the first promise. I made the second.
Alicent:
Yes. That is generally how conflicting obligations arise.
Rhaenyra:
His promise died with him.
Rhaenyra:
He can no longer fulfil it.
Alicent:
Neither can your father fulfil his promise to make you Queen.
Rhaenyra’s expression changes.
Rhaenyra:
That is entirely different. My father named me his heir before the realm. He made the lords swear to uphold my claim.
Alicent:
And then he died.
Rhaenyra:
His death did not undo his decree.
Rhaenyra:
Jace was not the King.
Alicent:
No. He was your heir, the Prince of Dragonstone, and your authorised representative. He negotiated in your name, for your war, with people whose aid you accepted.
Rhaenyra:
He exceeded his authority.
Alicent:
Did you tell House Frey that before using their crossing?
Alicent:
Did you return what House Frey had provided?
Rhaenyra:
One cannot return the use of a road.
Alicent:
How inconvenient.
Rhaenyra:
You are mocking me again.
Alicent:
Only because theft becomes such a cumbersome word when one can call it a royal necessity.
Rhaenyra:
I did not steal from them.
Alicent:
You accepted their performance, refused their payment and then accused them of being difficult when they presented the account. What gentler term would you suggest?
Rhaenyra:
The circumstances have changed.
Alicent:
Circumstances often change between a promise and its fulfilment. That is why honour exists, rather than merely good intentions.
Rhaenyra:
You would have me surrender Harrenhal simply because Jace spoke too freely?
Alicent:
I would have you decide whether the words of the dead retain authority.
Rhaenyra:
They do when lawfully spoken.
Alicent:
Convenient. Then let us determine which dead men spoke lawfully.
Alicent begins counting on her fingers.
Alicent:
Viserys named you heir. He is dead, but you insist his declaration remains binding.
Alicent:
Jace promised Harrenhal in exchange for aid. He is dead, but you insist his agreement has expired.
Rhaenyra:
He lacked the authority—
Alicent:
The Winter Wolves marched because of agreements made through Jace, did they not?
Alicent:
Shall they return home now that he is dead?
Rhaenyra:
They pledged themselves to my cause.
Alicent:
As did House Frey.
Alicent:
And what of every other lord who promised men, roads, provisions or loyalty after treating with your son? Do their obligations survive his death?
Rhaenyra:
They made commitments to the Crown.
Rhaenyra:
Harrenhal is not theirs to demand from the Crown.
Alicent:
Yet their soldiers, roads and provisions remain yours to demand for it.
Rhaenyra:
You are twisting my words.
Alicent:
No, darling. I am placing them beside one another. They object to the company.
Rhaenyra:
My father’s decree and Jace’s bargain cannot be compared.
Alicent:
Not in scale, certainly. Your father’s words grant you an entire realm. Your son’s words cost you one castle.
Alicent leans back, regarding her beloved dragon with tired affection.
Alicent:
You cannot build your reign upon the eternal authority of one dead man whilst declaring another dead man’s promise void the moment someone asks you to pay for it.
Rhaenyra:
I am the Queen.
Alicent:
That is your title, darling. It is not an answer.
Rhaenyra:
Lady Frey was still extraordinarily rude.
Alicent:
I expect unpaid creditors rarely arrive in a celebratory mood.
Rhaenyra:
You are taking her side.
Alicent:
No. I am taking the side of basic continuity between cause and effect.
Rhaenyra:
You could take my side occasionally.
Alicent:
I have taken your side for most of my life, maybe not in the way you like. And I did it badly. But I did. I have. That is why I must occasionally prevent it from walking directly into a wall. Now tell me what precisely you said to Lady Frey?
Rhaenyra:
I told her that Harrenhal would belong to whoever brought me Aemond’s head.
Alicent:
And when she reminded you that Jace had already promised it to her?
Rhaenyra:
I said that she could try herself.
Alicent regards her in silence.
Alicent:
You told your creditor to fight Aemond and Vhagar in order to collect a debt you already owed her?
Rhaenyra:
I did not expect her actually to do it.
Alicent:
I know you were mocking her, and I know you believed the condition impossible. That does not make it any less careless, darling. It means you were so certain Lady Frey could never reach Aemond that you never stopped to consider what you had just suggested to a creditor whose debt you had publicly refused to honour.
Rhaenyra’s expression hardens.
Rhaenyra:
And what, precisely, did I suggest?
Alicent:
That murdering a Targaryen is a legitimate means of recovering what the Crown owes her. That, in order to recover what was promised to her, Lady Frey should murder a Targaryen prince who fights considerably better than you do and possesses a dragon larger and more dangerous than yours and your husband’s.
Rhaenyra:
Aemond is my enemy.
Alicent:
If Lady Frey were capable of reaching Aemond, surviving Vhagar and taking his head, she would possess strength enough to threaten almost anyone in the realm.
Rhaenyra:
Including me, you mean.
Alicent:
You are the one who invited the comparison.
Rhaenyra:
I have Syrax. I have Daemon. And Caraxes. And—
Alicent:
Daemon is not beside you at every hour. Your guards have not been paid. Syrax and Caraxes sleep upon a hill from your bed, and neither can protect you from a knife that reaches you before you can call for them.
Alicent’s gaze remains fixed upon her.
Alicent:
Aemond travels with Vhagar. You sleep behind hungry men whose wages you owe. Which Targaryen do you imagine would be easier for an aggrieved creditor to reach?
Rhaenyra:
Lady Frey would never dare.
Alicent:
Perhaps not. But a Queen should not teach those she has wronged that murdering a member of her family is an acceptable means of recovering their due, particularly when she herself is the less dangerous member of that family.
Rhaenyra:
Do you truly believe Lady Frey might now consider killing me?
Alicent:
Before today? Probably not.
Alicent:
You invited her to conduct a cost–benefit analysis.
Rhaenyra:
I asked her to remain and serve the Crown. I gave her a seat upon my Council. It ought to be payment enough.
Alicent:
In other circumstances, it might have been. Offering a place upon the Small Council to a lord or lady whose House assisted the Crown in wartime would ordinarily be a considerable reward.
Rhaenyra:
Then you agree with me.
Alicent:
No, darling. You offered it after giving Lady Frey several excellent reasons to resent you and distrust both your judgment and your word.
Rhaenyra:
She accepted the position.
Rhaenyra:
A place upon my Council.
Alicent:
Yes, but what office does she hold? What matters is that she is to oversee?
Rhaenyra:
I have not decided yet.
Alicent looks at her for a long moment.
Alicent:
So you have placed an aggrieved creditor at the heart of your government, given her access to your deliberations and assigned her no responsibilities with which to occupy herself.
Rhaenyra:
She is there to advise me.
Alicent:
After you demonstrated that your promises may expire whenever honouring them becomes inconvenient? You have now allowed her to sit beside you, watch your reign erode at close quarters and calculate whether she would benefit more by continuing to serve you or by selling you to your enemies, my family, presumably. We are the opposing side in this war.
Rhaenyra:
You mean Lady Frey would bring them my head?
Alicent:
Why not? You were the one who introduced her to the principle that delivering a Targaryen head may be exchanged for political and material reward.
Rhaenyra:
I meant Aemond’s head!
Alicent:
Your ability to seize upon the smallest detail whilst allowing the dragon at the centre of the argument to fly straight out of the window—all to avoid admitting a mistake—never ceases to astonish me.
Alicent:
And unlike your court, my side still possesses enough gold to pay her upon delivery.
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