Chapter 27.3- The Seadragon's Roar

“I see then. That would explain the interest in ships and building them” I said.

“Indeed. I got to see the Redwyne fleet from a young age, and it shaped my interests. I wanted to sail one myself, you know? But I was. Too feeble. In the end, I was little better than a coward with my weak constitution and lack of talent for the marital arts. In the end, I chose the citadel. If I could not become a great Sailor, then I would exercise my love for ships in another way, I would learn about them as much as I could. If my body as too weak for me to become a Knight, then I would train my mind until I became a Knight of the mind” He said. It all sounded very inspiring if I was being honest. It was a good story. It almost seemed like House Redwyne hadn’t sent a third son into the Citadel to ensure that they would have a spy in another Great House.

I didn’t know much about the Citadel’s politics, but something told me a Son of House Redwyne would never have been sent to a minor house. It was a waste of breeding and education.

“An inspiring story” I said, and kept my thoughts to myself as we walked. Daemon’s death meant that we would need to change our plans. It wa s height off why shoulders in that I would no longer have to worry much about the promised Kingdom we’d lay at his feet, but it was just one step forward and two back. Instead of worrying about Daemon’s mercurial nature, we had to hope Viserys didn’t choose to blame us for his brother’s death. That would be…unfortunate. Especially with how things stood now in terms of dragons. We had three of them, and House Targaryen had one.

Syrax was smaller than Igneel even, and then we had Meleys and Vhagar on top of him. If I were Viserys, I would see us as his greatest threat, and the options he had were many. In his place, I would betroth Laena to Aegon or Aemond (when he was eventually born. If I had the timeline right, then Allicent would be pregnant by now), and secure the largest dragon to my side. And then after that, he would have one of his children claim Caraxes as quickly as possible. That would surely flip the equilibrium.

And there was nothing we could do about it. If Laena was offered a royal betrothal, Kings were not easily refused. But then I had to trust in Viserys’ lack of logic. He would probably put protecting Rhaenyra’s claim above common sense here and if he did that, there was no chance he’d betroth Laena to any of his sons.

Surely, he would anticipate us wanting a queen out of my sister. Securing the most powerful house in the realm’s opposition for your heir was a level of braindead I doubted he was capable of. Not even with Otto in his ear.