Chapter 16 - The Eye.

120 AC

Sixth day of the second moon

Ulf Pov

As I entered the training yard I could see Aegon practicing his strikes on a dummy with Aemond doing the same while Ser Criston was correcting the princes whenever they made a mistake. While Ser Harwin was with his bastards I meant the princes advising them about the various weapons and their uses in battle. As soon as Jacaerys caught sight of me he ran straight toward me and gave me a hug. I was a bit dumbfounded, to say the least.

"Sensei, I missed you a lot", he said in a sincere tone.

"I heard that you are going to fight Aegon", came the voice of Lucerys who was not that far behind.

"It is not a fight my princes, It is just a friendly training session as I am sure that I would learn a lot after exchanging some strikes with prince Aegon."

"It is a fight all right, and you have no right to call me a friend. How can a lowly lowborn be a friend to the blood of the dragon? Know your place peasant", he said in a vicious manner.

Hearing his words my blood started to boil but I just took a deep breath and exhaled. There is no point in arguing with a hormonal teenager I thought to myself.

"It is just like in court brother. We are wearing green while he is wearing back", came the voice of Daeron.

Huh, so that was the 'Daring'. A shame what happened to him, he was a good guy.

"Shut up Daeron", came the sharp reply of Aemond.

Wow, It seemed that Aemond was a jerk even before he lost his eye.

Then I saw a few familiar faces come onto the balcony which overlooked the courtyard.

"Kepa hurry up or we are going to miss it".

"Baela It is not my fault that your uncle is fat and cannot keep up", said Daemon who was struggling to hold his laugh.

"I heard that Daemon", said Viserys.

"It was just a jape brother", said Daemon, "Although It was the truth", he finished much to the charging of Viserys.

"Father It seems that you have come just in time", said Rhaenyra.

"Yes, husband It seems that our son will show the peasant the difference between a real dragon and a dragon seed", said alicent while giving me the stink eye.

Boy, I wanted nothing more than to smash her teeth in.

"After all the 'blood' runs true", she says while looking at Rhaenyra.

Viserys immediately saw the tension rising and tried to turn their attention back to the reason for their gathering.

"Well, boys I hope that you have a fair fight. There is nothing like a good spar to brighten up your day."

I could not believe that the fat fuck was lecturing me on how sparring is good for health. For the seven's sake, the last time that he must have picked up a sword must have been when he fucked his first wife who mind you was eleven when they married. For fucks sake If there was a rule that I could implement then I would increase the age limits of marriage in Westeros.

"Boy make your father proud", he said with a fatherly smile while looking at Aegon who in turn seemed invigorated and had the look of a boy who wanted to make his father proud.

"How about a wager for ten gold dragons brother? Let's see who wins, my son or your squire", said Viserys.

Daemon's face lit up and he couldn't control his smile. If there was one thing that made the Rogue prince happy other than food wine and the girls then It would be gambling and boy did he hate losing.

Now focusing solely on my opponent I went and picked up a wooden sword while Aegon was twirling his. The referee of this spar was decided to be Ser Criston Cole while Rhaenyra looked pissed about the fact.

It then hit me that I was not just representing myself rather I was representing the entire Black faction while Aegon was representing the Greens. If I won this bout then Rhaenyra would not treat me like the plague and I wouldn't have to suffer her tantrums once she would marry Daemon and I would have to return to Dragonstone.

As we started circling each other I observed Aegon's stance and I noticed that he had very less openings and that I would have to play it smart to defeat him. Instead of attacking first, I would wait for him to make his first move. Seeing that I was not going to attack first he became irritated and got out of his guard to attack. Swing after swing I dodged his attacks focusing solely on defense, while he seemed to relish the fact that I was not able to attack him at all. The fool.

"There's no need to hold back Ulf", came the voice of Daemon and I realized that playtime was over.

In a quick motion, I brought my sword down on his wrist and he dropped the sword while he fell down on his knees clutching his right hand in agony.

"Do you yield, my prince?", I asked while looking down at him.

"No", he screamed out and quickly took hold of his sword again and started swinging more viciously.

He became easier to read and his motions had gotten slower since he was swinging with a lot of power and slowly his stamina was depleting. As he brought his sword over his head and onto me I sidestepped and let his sword hit the ground after which I brought my sword to his neck while my leg was on his sword. He was panting heavily but his eyes were still determined to go on.

There was no need for me to ask the question as he shout out "Never" and again started attacking. His speed had decreased drastically and I quickly hit his shin with my sword and he fell down face first.

As he turned back he saw my sword hanging above his neck as an executioners blade and as his eyes bore into mine I could see the loathing that he had for me.

"Do you yield my prince?", I asked again but this time I did not put any effort into sounding genuine rather I gave him a smirk as If telling him to continue. His eyes became a bit frightened but then as his eyes left mine I could see a small grin starting to form on his face. Fuck.

I quickly rolled away as a wooden sword came down to where I was standing just a moment ago.

"Aemond", I said in a low whisper.

"How dare does a commoner like you touch the blood of the dragon, you fucking peasant", he said furiously.

Not waiting for him to raise his sword I threw my sword at him and the moment he raised his sword to deflect the sword I ran quickly and jumped in the air with my boot connecting to his chest. He was totally dumbfounded and started gasping for air because my kick had knocked the wind out of him. I went and picked up the sword and put it on his chest.

"Yield", I said in a low voice.

Aemond who was on the ground could not comprehend what had just happened and looked close to crying.

"Arrest him Ser Criston", came the sharp voice of Queen Alicent.

Hearing the bitch's voice he started walking towards me and I faced him not wanting to back down.

As he was about to remove the sword from his sheathe I could see that he did not want to do it.

"Sheathe your fucking sword Ser Criston", came the voice of Daemon who looked ready to gut him.

"He attacked your son, your grace", said Queen Alicent in a hysterical voice while looking at Viserys.

"It was a spar between boys Alicent", he said trying to defuse the situation.

"Rather you should be angry at your son for interfering", said Viserys while glaring at his second son.

"Didn't your uncle teach you not to interfere in a duel boy?", he shouted at Aemond.

While Aemond just kept his head down not responding.

"Seems like your sons are not true dragons, Queen Alicent. Mayhaps you should teach them how to sew. Afterall since they are having trouble at using such a large sword maybe they can use needles which are smaller in size", said Rhaenyra who looked quite pleased.

"I guess that your late husband was well versed at handling swords since your sons are so strong, princess", said Alicent while turning her attention back to Rhaenyra who started grinding her teeth.

"Alicent", Viserys growled out. "It is enough".

"Brother when will you give me the gold dragons?", asked Daemon cheekily.

"Ah, yes I will do just that", said Viserys as he seemed happy that he got a way out of an argument.

A day had passed since the duel and things were heated but I was pretty happy as Daemon gave me half of the gold dragons that he had won. While the kids were jumping up and down about how cool I was beating the princes ass. It is sufficient to say that Rhaenyra was pleased too and told me I had done a good job.

Another thing the happened was that Princess Helaena had joined my story telling session along with Prince Daeron and both looked quite happy by the looks of it.

Then as I tucked the princess and princes into the bed , Heleana asked me if I could walk with her. I agreed and she seemed very happy. I asked her about how Kingslanding was while she seemed thrilled to answer my questions. She asked about my family and when I told her the story she became very sad.

So to improve her mood I asked about her Dragon and she was very thrilled to answer it.

"Dreamfyre is quite a docile dragon Ulf. I could give you a ride If you want?" she said while blushing.

"Thank you for the invitation princess but I would have to decline".

"Why", she asked.

Because Silverwing will fucking roast me If I do, I wanted to say.

"Your mother will not like the fact that I am spending time with you", I said.

"It does not matter what mother says, Ulf", she said.

"I did not know that you were the rebellious kind princess", I said while giving her a smrik.

Hearing my words she became embaressed.

"Well, It seems that I have to go and rest princess", I said after which I took her hand in my palm and gave it a kiss.

She became redder than a tomato, and quickly said good night before running back to her room.

I came out of my thoughts as Vaemond was finishing his eulogy.

"May the seven give rest to his soul", said Vaemond after which everyone repeated the words.

As his coffin was pushed into the sea my eyes drifted to the skies where a golden dragon was flying along with a small blue dragon.

Just like a certain maester had said or rather was going to say, Driftmark looked like the new Valyria due to the many dragons present here for Laenor's funeral. Truly a shame that the majority of them died in the dance.

I saw Helaena looking at me and I gave her a wink after which she turned red again. Most probably thinking of last night. By the gods girls in Westeros were easy to manipulate.

As I turned my attention to Aegon who looked at me sullenly, while Aemond was in conversation with his father. I heard snippets of how It was time for them to go to dragonstone and get a hatchling for him, while Aemond did not look happy at that thought of bonding with a small dragon.

I guess that he would make his move on Vhagar today. Boy I could not wait to see the fight that would occur between the princes.

It was the hour of the wolf and I was standing quietly in the corridor. I saw a young boys hooded figure quietly leave the room and after some time I saw the youngest child of Princess Rhaenyra follow him. I fooled the both of them as Aemond made his way to where Vhagar was chained completely unaware of Joffery who was following him.

As he went into the cave Joffery to followed him inside.

It was then that Joffery made his presence known and caught Aemond while telling him that he would go and inform grandfather after which Aemond grew angry and in order to frighten him he slapped the boy and threw him into dragon droppings. I had to do my best to keep my laughter inside.

Then I saw Ameond make his way to Vhagar who was sleeping and just like in the books he was able to tame it. Despite my grievances with Aemond I had to admit that he had balls of steel as he was able to tame the largest living dragon.

If one could define Vhagar then even the word "Massive" could not do her justice. She was way bigger than Silvewing.

Then as he mounted her she spread out her wings and broke out of the chains holding her and flew into the air. Seeing them flying in the air I started missing Silverwing.

As they were flying in the air Joffery had gotten himself out of the dragon shit and rushed towards his brothers room.

After some time I saw Vhagar coming back and as he landed Aemond came down and was greeted by his nephews waiting for him with wooden swords.

Then I heard the roar of a dragon which sounded familiar. As I looked at the sky I could see the figure Of Silverwing in the distance.

Fuck.

I quietly got out of there and made a beeline to the shoreline. As she came down she started roaring loudly. It seemed that she was venting out her anger at tha fact that I had ridden Caraxes.

"I missed you too girl, but now is not the time. I promise that I will come back to Dragonstone and be with you again but right now I will get into trouble if they realize that we have bonded."

"Please go back to Dragonstone before anyone notices you", I said in Valyrian while gently stroking her snout.

"Humphh", she snorted before flying back but not before giving some low growls.

"yes I love you too", I said before making my way back to the cave.

As I neared the cave I could not hear the clash of the swords rather there was deathly silence. It seems that Aemond had lost his eye and the others must have become shocked.

As I slowly peeked inside I froze.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck", I said as I bolted inside . I saw Aemond looking with fear in his eyes with a bloody knife in his hand.

"Ulf please help her", Baela cried out.

The one who had lost the eye that night was not Prince Aemond rather It was the sweet and innocent Princess Rhaena who sadly never remained the same after that.