Chapter 26.6- The Seadragon's Roar

“I’m still not changing with you in here” I said, not caring much about how petulant that might have sounded. I was still in the middle of puberty, and that meant my equipment was far from grown to its full size. Maybe if I had something more imposing to show off, I would have done so. But as things stood now, anything like that would just have Laena leaving here with the very wrong impression as to my potential. When you start behind the ball, you almost never make it ahead.

“I’ll turn around” She said, doing so. And I knew her well enough to know that that was the best I was going to be able to get. I shimmied into my clothes quickly, doing it while still under my covers so incase she turned around, I would still have some protection. When I had my breeches on, I rolled to my feet. Years of training had given me an upper body physique to be proud of. At least there was something to thank Manfred for.

Laena turned back in my direction as I was shifting into my tunic.

“What happened?” I asked as I managed to squeeze in. It was a bit tighter than I remembered. Not disastrously so, just around the arms for the most part.

“Igneel made you better” She said. I nodded. I had figured out that much. I could feel his excitement through our bond clearer than ever. Probably some part of that had deepened our bond even further. I had previously been the one to offer Igneel my power but it was a two-way link, and it seemed Igneel using his side of things had widened the link even further.

“I know that much. I mean what else happened. Did anyone manage to get Pate for questioning?”

“I chased him, but he fell into the water. Idiot died in seconds from slamming into the walls. I only mourn that we didn’t get to make him suffer before he did so. Ser Ben searched his room though. He found the ingredients and Maester Bernard says the ingredients matched those necessary for creating the poison that almost killed you.” Hmm, I grunted. Things didn’t quite feel right, but that had tied itself up neatly.

“And motivations? Who put him up to it?”

“No one. He did it himself. We found his journal on the boat he’d wanted to escape with. His full name had been Pate Pyke. He was a bastard from the Iron Islands. Maybe a Greyjoy or something, he never says. He just talks about a Lord Father that had scorned him. He’d ended up here as a serving boy to a pirate captain with hopes of becoming a captain of his own one day.”

“And then we’d come along.” I surmised.

“So why try to kill me then?” I asked.

“His journal said he was going to go back in glory as the slayer of two dragonlords” She said, and it clicked that it hadn’t just been me he’d targeted.

“And Daemon? How is he?” I asked.

“He’s dead, Laenor"

A/N: Yup, I lied in the beginning. How’s it going?