34

Chapter 34: Interlude

Notes:

Just because I can, I guess...

34.

Interlude

Winterfell

Jon stepped out of the shadows and into the light as people gathered around the great table in the library of Winterfell. The King had summoned some of the Great Lords and the rest of his Household including his sisters Sansa and Arya Stark, and of course, his guest of honor, Daenerys Targaryen.

Among those attendants, there were representatives of Houses Tallhart, Karstark, Manderly, Glover, Cerwyn, Mormont, Hornwood, Norrey, Wull, Whitehill, and Fenn. 

The Master-at-arms Lord Cassel, brother to Jory Cassel, spread out a map on the table. The invasion of the dead had just begun. 

Jon gazed at Sansa.

She swallowed hard, unclasping the hands she had folded behind her back to slide onto the table, the missive written in scrawled letters with a strong message:

"The Wall is under attack. Three blasts of the horn."

"My Lords," Jon began, with a cold intonation, "this came all the way from Castle Black; the war is but started."

His words gained the strength to strike distress to those present, enough to drain the blood from their petrified faces.

"And now my King? What we are to do or who are we to follow?"

As Lord Fenn asked this, he glanced dubiously between Jon and Daenerys.

"Whose orders exactly...My King?" the small but imposing Lyanna Mormon perked up, not unkindly.

"Winterfell will not be left undefended," Jon declared, not to anyone's surprise, for that was what had been agreed so far; his meaningful gaze set on Dany in passing, but he continued to address the lords. "But it is imperative that the North accept Queen Daenerys's enormously generous proposal. In fact—" he paused, took a deep breath, "—I have decided to accept it. The evacuation of the North will begin immediately."

"How exactly?" Sansa choke on these words, "How exactly will we convince thousands of northerners to leave their homes and villages?"

"The dead are here, Sansa!" Jon lashed out. The tension was palpable to all. Jon loosened the pressure on his jaw. "At this moment, at its weakest, the Night's Watch is fulfilling its oath to protect the Realm. Men are giving their lives so that we have a chance to live. It will not be I, the King who will go down in history as the stubborn one who allowed thousands to stand to hone his pride."

"And House Mormont will stand behind your decision, my King," Lyanna interceded again, "Here we stand," reassured the girl not yet a grown woman, reciting her House's motto. She spared Dany a respectful curtsey.

"Very well," Jon moved to the side, his eyes still scanning the map, "Messages will have to be sent to every fortress, every castle."

Daenerys, still with her good sense nudging her back, added, "Ravens won't be enough to send the message. Dragons can travel throughout the North in far less time — we should go together."

And it was there that the room fell into a deadly silence, watching monarchs with wild stares, for they were still unaware of their King's recent bond with Rhaegal.

Jon closed his eyes and opened them again. He had been holding on to this information for so long that now was bursting inside of him.

"Queen Daenerys has allowed me to ride one of her dragons," he admitted, sparing not further information. "Everyone knows what they have to do. The war has begun," he said, looking into their serious countenances without lingering on any of them too long, "We must get ready."

***

Dany was following Jon down the exit corridor when they were stopped by Sansa's shrill, deep voice. They both turned to see her, who stood at the other end of the hall, one side of her face illuminated by the light of the room and the other consumed by darkness. From that vantage point she looked like one of the statues in the crypts, petrified and haughty.

"Would you at least have the precaution not to parade your affections so explicitly? How will you justify Jon now being a dragon rider?" she questioned them.

Only Targaryens can ride dragons. Or only those of the blood of the dragon, Dany recalled from those distant lessons from Viserys.

"It is a matter that will have to wait its turn for me to care," Jon replied harshly, no longer restraining his irritation with Sansa.

"To my knowledge, no one knows who Jon's mother is," Daenerys stepped forward a few paces to add. "But if it is inconvenient for you that this matter is too exposed, Lady Sansa. My dragons are not like the dragons of old. They are born from the stone by and for me, given to me by the gods or whatever force is above us. I can command all three of them, and it has been my design to give one of them, at least for now, to Jon's reins."

Not entirely a lie; that she could command all three of them was an achievement of her alone, one that no other Targaryen had ever succeeded. 

"How much longer until this becomes so obvious that excuses fall short? What's the fear of telling the truth if you will eventually join your claims anyway?"

Jon stepped forward with a lunge.

"Sansa, you are trying my patience."

"They think you've surrendered your crown, Jon! Even worse than our brother Robb, who made a foreigner his queen. They whisper Queen Daenerys seduced you to give up your crown and leave you with nothing!" Sansa warned, just as fearlessly. 

Our brother, she said. Not my brother as Jon had probably expected. 

"Listen to reason, both of you, for once. What will happen now? What are the chances that the dragon will accidentally kick Jon out? That the dead will attack you in mid-air?" Daenerys was halfway through her reply when Sansa continued, "Yes, I know you command them, but even willpower is not enough when tragedy strikes. So at least have the decency to keep affairs clean, between yourselves and with your respective subjects," she remarked harshly. "Stop this game of flying through the air without any concern for those of us on the ground. Queen Daenerys is young, unmarried, and unattached. Jon is young, unmarried, and unattached. Swear your alliance in front of the Heart Tree through a marriage bond right now, to the North as your witness, and seal this matter for good while you still have power over it, for I promise you, not by threat but by knowledge, it will soon cease to be the secret of the few and become the information of the many. I urge you. Do it now."

Notes:

I know I promised a new chapter of The Smoke After the Fire before updating this but well, that's just the way it is.