"Illlyrio and Varys have gone far beyond all bounds of reason. Once the fighting in Slaver's Bay is over, I will convene a Great Council in Westeros and give them an open and fair trial."
In the end, the Dragon Queen still rejected the suggestion to punish Illyrio immediately.
How was she supposed to punish the fat merchant now?Send a dragonrider to cut him down with a single stroke?
That would be letting him off too lightly.
She wanted, before the people of the Seven Kingdoms, to give them the absolute justice that belonged to a queen, just as she had judged the Citadel and the maesters.
"Then what about Aegon?" Old Crab asked cautiously.
"Sigh. He is, after all, a descendant of a Targaryen bastard, and he himself was kept in the dark and knew nothing of Illyrio's plan. Those who are ignorant bear no guilt." Dany sighed, pressing her hand to her forehead.
Darkstar frowned. "Your Grace is being far too magnanimous. He truly did not know, but he is the greatest beneficiary of the conspiracy.You may pardon him after the trial, but you cannot treat him as completely innocent."
The Dragon Queen gently shook her head and said sorrowfully, "He has called me aunt for so long, and I have invested so much in him…"
Darkstar sighed and said no more.
"Should we take back the dragons?" Old Crab asked again.
Dany asked curiously, "Did Stannis really obtain thirty dragons?"
"At the time, he only controlled ten. The other twenty were said to be across the Narrow Sea. I don't know whether he has gone to subdue them yet."
Now that Aegon was no longer the Dragon Queen's beloved nephew, Big Crab lost his reason to remain at Sansa's side as an adviser. That very night, he rode a dragon back to Dragonstone.
"Stannis has really turned his fortunes around lately!" Dany exclaimed. "Unlimited loans from the Iron Bank, sellswords, the Northmen, a surprise strike deep into the Vale, and now thirty dragons.
"He really might subdue the Vale, then march out through the Bloody Gate and take the Riverlands. With the strength of the Riverlands, the North, and the Vale, he would still have a fight on his hands against Cersei.
"Oh, though now the one truly running King's Landing is Euron."
Euron versus the Second Stag. Would that be worth watching?
If you counted carefully, the Second Stag had been involved in the game of power since the War of the Usurper, barely qualifying as having crossed swords with the Mad King.
During King Balon's rebellion, he commanded Robert's royal fleet and destroyed the Iron Fleet, so he had faced Balon as well.
In the War of the Five Kings, Renly ate his peach, Robb, Balon, and Joffrey collected their death notices one after another, and even the regent Tywin died.
King Aegon rose like a comet and fell like a comet. The King in the North, Little Skinner, even became a sacrifice to R'hllor.
If every king in Westeros were a level in a game, the Second Stag would be the only one to clear them all. He absolutely counted as the toughest king in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire, the most seasoned player of the game of thrones.
"Let them keep the dragons," Dany waved her hand. "Sansa's dragon was a wedding gift. Taking it back would look terrible."
"There's still one dragon. Ser Clinton took it north, preparing to ransom back Balerion's mottled dragon," Old Crab reminded her.
"Is Aegon free?" Dany asked curiously.
"At least he wasn't when I left. Stannis said he would put him on trial for the crime of muddling noble bloodlines.Given that man's character, he will certainly do what he says," Old Crab said with a complicated tone.
After all, the Second Stag was still his liege lord.During the fourteen years when the Second Stag served as Duke of Dragonstone, Old Crab had always been his direct vassal.
"That dragon already counts as Stannis's ransom. We can't demand it back."
Dany then turned to Marwyn and asked, "Are there laws in the Seven Kingdoms regarding the muddling of noble bloodlines?"
"There are, and they are very severe," said Bull-Neck Doctor solemnly. "If the evidence is solid, Illyrio, Varys, and Aegon would all face the death penalty."
"What is this supposed to mean? I, the victim, have already declared Aegon innocent. What right does Stannis have to meddle in this?" Dany said angrily.
"He believes himself to be the king of the Seven Kingdoms," Old Crab replied.
Dany's expression darkened. "Send him a letter and tell him to release Aegon immediately.
"If Stannis, in the capacity of king, tries Targaryen affairs, wouldn't that make me his subject?As for Illyrio and Varys, he is not allowed to interfere either. I will judge them myself at the Great Council."
For the Second Stag to try Aegon's case was like using a Ming dynasty imperial sword to behead a Qing dynasty official.
"That does make some sense," Big Crab nodded, then hesitated. "But if you stop Stannis from trying Aegon, it may give others extra ideas.
"When I left, Sansa was still shouting, 'Illyrio is a liar! I want Aunt Dany to uphold justice for me!'"
"Uh…" The corner of Dany's mouth twitched.
Marwyn pondered for a moment and said, "The best option is to stop paying attention to Aegon altogether and pretend we don't know Stannis intends to try him.
"In any case, Aegon definitely won't die. No matter what, he is Sansa Stark's lawful husband."
Dany thought it over and said, "Keep watching Stannis. Melisandre is the priority. As for Aegon…If Sansa can get him out, so much the better.
"If Stannis insists on holding him, have Count Celtigar go in person and warn him to behave himself."
"Ah, Aegon… my Silver Prince," Old Jiong wailed toward the sky and fainted on the spot.
Servants and guards fell into chaos.
"How could this happen, how could it come to this," Ashara swayed unsteadily as well, her face deathly pale and her expression vacant. "Fifteen years. A full fifteen years. What were all our sacrifices for?"
"Alas!" Old Aemon sighed, unsure how to comfort the two of them.
The primary reason Old Jon raised Aegon was "the Silver Prince" Rhaegar; the secondary reason was to atone for his mistake in the "Battle of the Bells."
To put it plainly, Old Jon was a true supporter of the Red Dragon faction, yet Aegon had not the slightest connection to Rhaegar. It was even possible that because of Aegon, Rhaegar's real son failed to survive.
After all, the greatest enemy of a false prince is not the exposure of the lie, but the continued existence of the true prince.
Ashara's purpose was also very simple: for Princess Elia of Dorne, who was both her childhood friend and her liege.
"Aegon's identity may be false, but the person himself is real. You raised him very well," the Dragon Queen said, offering comfort that did not quite match her true feelings.
Frankly speaking, if those fifteen years of hard effort had been spent instead on the original Daenerys and Viserys, then as long as Prince Viserys had even half of Aegon's temper and character, he could have been considered a barely competent king, even if his abilities were lacking.
"Fortunately, Aegon failed to tame a dragon." After Old Jon was carried away and Ashara wiped her tears and left, leaving only Dany in the hall, Old Aemon said with immense relief.
"I'll tell you the truth. Without my permission, even if our ancient ancestor, the true Aegon, were to come back to life, he would not be taking a single one of my dragons!" At this point, Dany no longer bothered to hide her own guarded thoughts.
Old Aemon froze for a moment and said haltingly, "But earlier… you even wrote to Illyrio about finding dragonriders because of the saying that 'the dragon has three heads.'"
"Heh, old man, you would not be so naive as to think I ever trusted Illyrio, would you?"
Old Aemon asked in astonishment, "You were only fourteen then, and you had always received assistance from Illyrio. Why did you not trust him?"
"Not long after I arrived in Qarth, his fleet showed up, wanting to take me to Pentos," Dany sneered. "Obviously, he had been keeping an eye on me all along. There were even his people around me."
As she spoke, a trace of melancholy appeared on Dany's face.
In truth, she had always known who Illyrio's spy was.
It was Doreah, the Lysene handmaid who died at the hands of the Faceless Men.
Doreah had originally been a Lysene prostitute, striking in appearance, skilled, and relatively simple and likable in temperament. Illyrio bought her for his own use for a time, then gave her to Viserys. After the original Daenerys married, he sent her to serve Daenerys as a handmaid.
Aside from Jorah and Doreah, everyone around Dany was Dothraki.
The Dothraki of Qarth would never act as spies for outsiders, so if there was a traitor within Dany's retinue, it could only be the two foreigners: the Great Bear and Doreah.
The Great Bear was a spy of the Iron Throne in King's Landing and could not possibly serve Illyrio at the same time.
That left a simple and obvious conclusion: Doreah was the spy of the Magister of Pentos.
However, Dany's personal charm was extraordinarily strong. Both spies found their roles increasingly agonizing, and gradually began to think, "I had no choice before, but now I want to be a good person."
"At that time, I had only a few dozen Dothraki warriors left. Aside from my dragons, there was nothing else worth coveting.
So if Illyrio sent people to fetch me, it could only be because he coveted my dragons.
The dragons are my children. How could I possibly hand them over to anyone else?
But his spies could track my movements, even know what I had said and what I was about to do.
Naturally, I had to play the part of an honest, obedient person.
I obediently followed that damned prophecy about 'the dragon having three heads.'"
Old Aemon could only smile bitterly. As expected, this was no ordinary Targaryen. An ordinary Targaryen would have long since been toyed with to death by those treacherous schemers. Only a more cunning, more ruthless outlier could survive, and survive so well.
"Actually, now that I think about it, the prophecy that 'the dragon has three heads' may not be entirely false," the old man said slowly. "Neither Aegon nor I truly count. I am too old, and Aegon could barely manage even a black dragon. But Jon and Tyrion, plus you, would indeed make three heads."
A mocking smile curled at the corner of Dany's lips as she asked, "Do you dare trust Jon and Tyrion? Would you dare give them dragons?"
Old Aemon's smile grew even more bitter as he said hoarsely, "You are right. As Targaryens, they are completely untrustworthy.
They have the blood of the true dragon, yet the souls of a direwolf and a lion.
Even if they learned their true identities, they would surely be proud of their Targaryen blood, but they would never feel a sense of belonging to House Targaryen."
Dany looked the old man up and down with a strange expression and said oddly, "I thought you would say those two were trustworthy and worth relying on."
"Alas, I have lived for more than a hundred years and seen far too many people and events. I may still harbor beautiful fantasies, but I will no longer be so naive," Old Aemon said, shaking his head with a sigh.
"As expected!" Prince Doran handed the letter to his daughter, pressing his temples hard with both hands, his expression weary. "Aegon really is a fake."
"Luckily, we did not marry into his line," Arianne said with great relief.
"Sigh, we were all badly deceived by Varys. Dorne lost three thousand precious sand steeds, and Daenerys paid no small price either," Prince Doran said with a bitter smile.
A cold glint flashed in Arianne's eyes as she asked, "Should we give him some retaliation? He dared to impersonate the blood of House Martell of Dorne and cost us three thousand cavalry."
"Let us wait and see how Daenerys reacts."
"Wahaha!"
"I said it long ago, that was a fake. If that is the case, Daenerys is not all that clever either!And Sansa, that bitch, married a fake prince. She can never be a threat to me again!"
Locked inside the Queen Regent's Tower by four coarse, strong old septas, Queen Cersei stood with her hands on her hips and threw her head back in wild laughter.
(End of chapter)
Want to read the chapters in Advance? Join my Patreon
https://patreon.com/Glimmer09