Chapter Text
134 AD
The wheels of the carriage rolled slowly through the mud of the Kingsroad.
Viserys I Targaryen, King of the Seven Kingdoms, rested his head against the window frame and watched the forest rush past the glass. He was fifty-seven years old, but felt seventy.
“Your Majesty,” said Ser Harrold Westerling, approaching the carriage at a measured pace, his voice lowered so as not to alarm the soldiers. “The vanguard has spotted dragons.”
Viserys straightened. “Dragons.”
“At least three, Your Majesty. Hatchlings, by their size. They do not appear to be the offspring of Ser Laenor or Lady Laena.”
Dragons in the King's Wood. Wild dragons preferred mountains, volcanic rock, open skies. A dragon in the woods meant a rider. And there were very few dragonriders left now.
Viserys closed his eyes for a moment. He felt his heart beat faster—not with fear, but with something older and more painful.
“Take me there.”
“Your Majesty,” Otto Hightower interjected, raising his voice just enough to be heard without crossing the property line, “Prince Daemon is a traitor to the Crown. He has no lawful reason to—”
“I said take me there, Otto.” The king did not raise his voice. He did not need to.
Alicent had remained silent until then, her hands clasped in her lap. It was she, not Viserys, who asked the right question: “Ser Harrold, did you say three young dragons?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Three. Viserys thought about it. Rhaenyra and Daemon had one each—Syrax and Caraxes. But three hatchlings together suggested growth, a family, something built far away from him.
Grandchildren. Grandchildren he had never seen.
He rose from the cart with the slowness of one who has learned to reckon with his own body, declined the bodyguard's help with a wave of his hand, and mounted the most docile horse in the escort. In the distance, beyond the edge of the forest, three silver-haired figures galloped away in the morning sun.
Viserys spurred his horse.
Twenty years. It had been almost twenty years since he had last seen his daughter.
He spurred his horse harder.