8

Chapter Text

8.

Bells of Surrender 

304 ac

Outskirts of King's Landing 

A dark foreboding settled within her despite the quietness that reigned in the Blackwater Bay. The chances were given that today would be the last day of Cersei Lannister's reign in this life and in all lives, and whether King's Landing would pay a price or not it was up to fate to decide it; Daenerys was determined not to be the one to pass the sentence this time.

With a hand resting on her belly and her unease gaze on the city walls, Daenerys stood on a hill to oversee the surrendering of Jaime Lannister. There, with her also stood Yara Greyjoy.

"Does Her Grace really think the kingslayer has a chance to convince Cersei to give up without a fight?" she asked, tone incredulously.

Daenerys didn't answer first.

"I'm not sending him to negotiate a surrender. I'm sending him to die with whoever he wishes," Dany replied absently. Her thoughts wandered to a place she would have never wanted to walk first. "Sometimes the only punishment that can be given to a horrible man is his guilt."

Yara huffed.

"In my opinion, people like the Lannisters are not made to feel a shred of guilt," Yara refuted. "But you were right about the siege of Highgarden and about my uncle. I fully trust your judgment."

Dany turned around and gave her a toothless smile.

"Thank you, Captain Greyjoy," she said sincerely. Even in the other life, Yara Greyjoy looked for her after her return couldn't be held a secret anymore. And in that life, they were still regular collaborators. "You and your people, be prepared."

Her blood-riders escorted the kingslayer to where a small retinue of House Lannister soldiers greeted him. With his hands and feet chained, Jaime Lannister looked over his shoulder and searched her with his gaze. Daenerys remained unfazed. Only when the gates swung open and shut with a thud did she turn and went back to camp.

***

"What do we do now?" Asked a restless Tyrion, pacing the carpeted floor of the tent. A Dothraki maid was doing the same while burning incense, spreading out a scent that sent Daenerys to a place that felt closer to home.

With her head thrown back, Daenerys absently replied, "We do what you suggested first. We wait."

"Why did Lord Varys stay in Highgarden?" he asked and changed the subject of his concern. "His abilities could be more useful to us here..."

"Lord Varys left his cage open the day he left King's Landing and all his little birds flew and found water and crumbs in another master's cage," Dany explained.

"Whose?"

She raised her head and slowly opened her eyes.

"The Hand of your sister."

"Qyburn?"

She arched an eyebrow, pretending surprise "Do you know him?"

"Of course…he came to Red Keep with Jaime, after the war of the five kings. How do you know that Qyburn mastered Varys's little birds?"

Daenerys twisted her lips nervously. Her lack of response only spurred Tyrion's unease.

"Do you know something I should know?" she asked him, instead.

Tyrion seemed to ponder it.

"I know he was exiled from the Citadel for his strange studies related to necromancy. Jaime complained that the whole way back to King's Landing he tried to win his favor...Cersei was an easier catch, from what I can see."

"Would you say that Cersei trusts him?"

"In a way, it's her Hand for a reason," Tyrion replied. "Where are you going with this? Why would Qyburn be of any use to-?...Oh."

Dany looked at him as comprehension dawned on him.

***

She didn't change the design of her attack on King's Landing, though this time she was no longer driven by the seething anger and desire for vindication. She flew over the city destroying the few defenses that had been mounted and incidentally, destroyed the city gates, not only for the entry of her troops but for the egress and evacuation of the inhabitants of the streets closer to the walls. Those who lived in the hills and in the center seemed more reluctant to leave the city.

The cavalry of Dorne made way for the foot soldiers to crowd the main street, shouting for the people to leave the city. Daenerys watched them from the sky, while she made a mental map in her head with the memories of the wildfire caches beneath underground. 

It was then that she heard the unmistakable sound of a projectile coming towards her, and in one swift motion she became alerted and forced Drogon to turn violently to the side, nearly losing her balance and falling off the dragon.

"Agh!" Dany whined.

They soared higher until they found shelter among the clouds and the rays of the sun. There she noticed she had opened a wound on the back of her arm from the friction with Drogon's scales.

She looked downward for the direction the projectile came from and found it at Red Keep.

***

Pentos

"What if things just can't be reversed or altered?" Daenerys asks in an annoyed tone, exhausted and strangely sore. She shakes her head and leans it between her open hands, elbows resting on her knees. " Maybe some things are just meant to happen."

"There are things that are," Bran replies, his tone remains calm as always. "And there are things that are just circumstances."

"At least you know what is what?" Daenerys gets up and paces the room, crossing her arms in frustration. "What if I have to watch all of them die again? Where is the meaning of all this?"

Brandon listens to her carefully.

"What's the worth of life if we are condemned to die? Will you try to save them? All of those you loved? I know you will. It doesn't mean things will turn out well. What it's mean to be, will be." 

"And if I try to change what cannot be changed?"

He seems to ponder it.

"We have to find out what moment went wrong," he simply answers. "It can be the moment you and Jon met. Or when I told him the truth. Or it can be something we aren't even aware of. Either way, the worth of life is to try."

Their conversation is interrupted by a knock on the door. It is the one knight of his royal escort who is the most attentive of Brandon's needs, reminding them it is mealtime.

Daenerys steps aside and walks about, feeling no appetite. Instead, she moves to the open window and stares at the evening sky, imagining that she sees her three children there again, soaring the sky together. 

"Is there a reason why you decided to stay in Essos instead of conquering Westeros again?" Brandon's question comes out of sudden, startling Dany. 

She lifts an eyebrow but doesn't turn around, "Didn't you know everything?"

"I made it clear that I don't. I don't know everything."

She swallows hard and turns around slowly, still leaning against the windowsill. Her eyes land on the knight. 

"You can speak freely in front of him. Podrick is the most loyal man in all the Seven Kingdoms," Brandon assures her. "He knows what we are doing."

She actually feels surprised. 

"And do you agree?" she directs at him.

"It's not my place to agree or disagree," Ser Podrick dutifully answers. 

"You can share your thoughts, Podrick," Brandon says.

After a moment of hesitation, he yields, "If there is a chance for things to be better than now, I think it is worth trying."

Daenerys half-smiles as she holds his gaze; in his eyes, she finds no pretensions or indulgence. 

"What will you find outside these four walls, Lord Podrick?" she asks him this time.

"A city, Your Grace."

"Yes. There's a city. A city that it's beautiful as the others are. And some of these cities are so because millions paid the price with their blood." Dany looks over at Brandon. " Twice in my lifetime I've held back from my selfish desires to follow a more important goal, and not because I am the more selfless person, but I am not a monster. I have never been one. I committed a mistake and if there's a chance to undo the damage I caused, I'll take that chance. Before now, there was no chance. Westeros is just a land where I have experienced the greatest losses of my life and suffered unending pains that I carry even now. So that's the answer to your question, Your Grace, and we agree on this: we can only follow the path the leads us to somewhere better than where we are."

A moment of silence. Brandon stares at her but says nothing. 

"I do believe the same, Your Majesty," Podrick interjects, good-naturally. 

***

Daernerys' body nearly ejected upward as Drogon landed on the arch of the outer wall surrounding Red Keep. A cloud of earth rose with the flapping of his wings and until it dissipated Dany could not see how many people were below them, seeking refuge within the fortress. Their screams were perfectly distinguishable, however. Shouts for help, asking for mercy, and cries of little children that sent her back to that dark place in her memory, to a life that she'd worked years to leave behind. 

She was here again, nevertheless, and the more Dany doubted herself the more she put Drogon in danger.

Dany grimaced and ordered Drogon to smash the door with a swipe of his tail.

The sound of another projectile launching at them forced them to retreat and climb the towers that loomed above them, using the facade of Red Keep as a shield. Daenerys looked back and watched half of those people understand the message and flee as quickly as possible. There was another half, however, who stood there, staring at them in shock.

Why weren't they running away?

The arrival of the Dornish soldiers hastened the evacuation of these people, so Daenerys could focus on finding the scorpion. The sound of another harpoon coming towards them revealed that it was not Red Keep that they came from but from the roof of a house on the west side, and to add to the perplexity of it all, there were no soldiers loosing them, but children.

She used their innocence as a weapon against me. She thought it would cripple me, she recalled her own voice saying. 

The two of the...boys, they couldn't be older than green boys. 

Horror crystallized on their young faces as Dany and Drogon landed on the roof opposite theirs. Dany froze not knowing what to do with them. In her hesitation, she did not see that the scorpion was charged.

Before they could loose, Dany lifted Drogon into the air and made him land on their roof.

***

Daenerys felt strangely disoriented as she landed back inside the walls of Red Keep. She was unfamiliar with the fortress design, and could only rebuild it from distant memories she almost buried completely. She was still shocked at having faced those children when she saw an entourage of soldiers from House Lannister marching into the courtyard where the Dothraki and Unsullied once gathered to celebrate their victory.

Behind them came an unfazed Cersei Lannister accompanied by the hoarded monster who had murdered her good sister and her nephews, the disgraced maester that was now her Hand, and of course, Jaime Lannister.

Daenerys tightened her grip on Drogon's spines. 

***

This time, she noticed Cersei emboldened rather than defeated and Daenerys thought to understand why. As she looked around them she saw they were at a standstill. The few Lannisters remained stuck in their defensive positions while the Dornish stood behind Daenerys and Drogon. This wasn't meant to end in a showdown between forces. 

The wildfire still lay beneath their feet.

"I see that I underestimate you," Cersei said, watching Dany from above with a smug expression on her face. "The wondrous Dragon Queen who frees poor slaves in Essos does not consider the lives of children if they stand in her way to the Throne."

Dany couldn't hide her wincing. A stream of seething anger shot up inside her.

"You know you were the one who put those children there," yet another voice broke in. Dany turned around and saw Tyrion approaching at a hurried but not hostile pace, both hands in the air. "This is over, Cersei...Jaime," he added looking at his brother with pleading eyes. "It's over. Surrender the throne to its rightful claimant and show some decency for the records."

"Insidious, evil creature," Cersei replied. "You think I care about the records?"

"Our father certainly did," Tyrion pointed out. "And you know how much."

Cersei lunged forward but was stopped by Jaime Lannister, who whispered something in her ear that Dany couldn't hear.

Daenerys watched the exchange in confusion. In principle, she didn't expect Tyrion to show up and intervene.

Her Hand exchanged a look with her and then with his family. Daenerys could see how conflicted he felt in that moment, in the middle of them.

"Daenerys opened the city gates and people saw that at all times she has avoided using Dragonfire. She has not even attacked with the full strength of her army and her other two dragons. How long did it take you to destroy the lives of thousands just to be able to sit on the throne of your children? "

"Enough!" Jaime Lannister yelled as Cersei began to slip out of his grasp. "We have conditions," he added, looking up at Daenerys.

Dany commanded Drogon to stretch out so that she could see them both head-on.

"What conditions?" she asked.

"I'm not giving you the throne. I'm not," Cersei turned to Daenerys; her voice bordering on despair and anger. "Qyburn!"

The former Maester left arm shot up into the air, at the same time as everyone's breathing stopped.

Daenerys shot a glance at Tyrion and vice versa.

"As soon as I order Qyburn to lower his arm, everyone in this bloody city will turn into a pile of black bones and burned flesh," Cersei threatened. "If your Queen is the saint that everyone preaches, then let her sacrifice herself for the scum of this city. Come and bow before me, send your dragon away, and may the records remember you as the selfless and self-sacrificing martyr everyone thinks you are," she said, dripping poison with her words.

Drogon roared at them, making them retrace two steps and their soldiers lift up their weapons.

"If something happens to the queen, her children are not going to spare anyone's life," Tyrion warned, looking not at Cersei but at his brother, imploring with his eyes that he stops this.

"Her children? Do you think that because you made them woke from the stone you are their mother? Not even fairy tales are that ludicrous," Cersei scoffed. "They are just beasts just like their so-called mother. Just like all Targaryens were. Or are you already forgetting that this continent turned against them all when there were no more dragons to fear?" She cocked her head in a mocking way, "Let me give you a piece of advice, pretty face, and listen well. These bloody people don't deserve anything. Not the nobles, not the peasants. They are all just scum and waste. None of them will have mercy on you, and if you hadn't gotten your dragons and your armies behind your back, they would have you naked and defiled marching down these streets, doing to your body unspeakable things until you are nothing but a piece of rotten meal."

Cersei smiled sardonically.

"They will love you for a while, but they will love more hating you," she continued, "And in your case, there will not be a family to turn to, because you are alone, clinging to the last shreds of a legacy that no longer exists."

Daenerys remained expressionless throughout her speech, clenching her hands around Drogon's spines but holding back any hint of emotion.

For a moment, Dany understood Cersei. She was defeated and no matter what she did, this day was the end of her reign.

However, she did not want to go losing.

She was willing to die but she didn't want to lose.

"Alright; you will have what you want," Dany said simply.

Daenerys slid down Drogon's neck and landed on the ground.

"What are you doing?" Tyrion questioned walking towards her.

Daenerys turned around suddenly.

"Don't intervene," she snapped, and then ordered, "I want all of our soldiers to leave the city. I don't want anyone here."

"Your Grace-"

"Tyrion, it's an order," Daenerys cut him off.

She then turned and looked at Drogon with a soft gaze.

Fly and reunite with your brothers, she told him through their unbreakable bond. Restlessness flooded her chest, and she sensed it came from him. Everything will be fine, she reassured him.

***

"Jaime, I want you to thrust your sword in her throat as you did with her mad father."

Dany crouched in front of Cersei but never lowered her head; she continued to look into her emerald eyes.

"Jaime, I'm giving you an order," she said again with an even sharper edge.

Jaime however, looked between Daenerys and Cersei, conflicted.

"We're going to die if we stay here," he replied. "The moment I try to raise my sword, the dragons will attack."

Cersei stared at him with an expression that dripped anger before turning towards The Mountain and say, "Alright, Ser Gregor. Then I'll leave it in your hands. Finish what you started the night you took the life of Elia Martell and her children."

Daenerys saw out of the corner of her eye that the immense figure encased in black metal approached, drawing out his sword. The scene reminded her of the past...of the other time. Missandei trembling and looking into her eyes as this monster took her life.

Dany shivered, not with fear but with seething rage.

She moved her eyes to those of Jaime Lannister, whose chest rose and fell in shallow breaths.

A choking sound.

The Mountain had his sword in the air when arrows came from the sky and rained on them.

Jaime Lannister lunged at his sister to cover her and the Mountain stopped in front of both of them to do the same.

On the ground, Maester Qyburn had an arrow to the neck was choking with his own blood. 

Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion emerged behind the fortress, from the Blackwater.

On the heights of Red Keep, Yara Greyjoy, her Ironborn, and the Unsullied commanded by Torgo Nudho had taken the castle.

Notes:

In fact, I have recently read (out of my recklessness) an anti comment saying the following: Daenerys is doomed to villainy because her upbringing was cruel, tragic, and unhappy and therefore she has nothing to hold onto to continue on a brighter path.

Basically, the comparison was with the Starks, who on the contrary are a family, "a pack", and would always have the memory of a happy childhood to hold on to.

Yes. There are people who think that.

And it's plain disgusting. Something that could be put, as in this case, in the mouth of Cersei Lannister herself.

p.s.

In the next chapter, Dany and Tyrion have a heart-to-heart conversation, and she discovers that she can turn Varys and Tyrion against each other.

Jon wakes up on a boat after a very vivid vision with a certain woman with violet eyes and silver hair.

A great council takes place and ice and fire meet again.