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Chapter 16: Chapter 14: VhagarChapter Text

"Dragons are intelligent creatures, moreso than men."

-Excerpt from The Book of Dragons

104 AC, Dragonstone

Vhagar growled, unamused by my cheerfulness. She reared her neck back, massive maw opening and revealing black teeth the size of swords and unleashing a stream of green fire at us. The flames impacted the black volcanic earth, throwing up a tide of dust and debris, carving a channel into the ground. As the smoke cleared, I saw that the bottom of the channel had been fused into glass, the edges of it molten rock with wisps of green flames flickering off it. A haze of heat hung in the air, rippling like water.

We would have been instantly vaporised had Silverwing not leapt out of the way and into the air. I swallowed in utter fear. It was one thing to know that Vhagar could kill me in an instant. Another to really see it.

Calm down. I ordered myself, forcing my fear under control. Do not succumb to a panic attack! There is no Pamela to save your life and reputation this time!

Flapping her wings, Queen Alysanne's mount hovered gently in the air, hissing furiously at the elder dragon. With shuddering hands, I gently calmed my mount down, urging her to land before Vhagar.

Faking confidence and calm I didn't have, I unchained myself from the saddle and dismounted, my feet landing on the black earth with a thud. Laena quickly got off Silverwing as well, well aware that dragons only accepted their other riders on their backs when their partner was mounted. Even if Silverwing was the most docile dragon in our stable, lingering on her after her rider had dismounted was foolish in the extreme.

Vhagar snarled at us, snapping her jaws furiously, but I produced my secret weapon. I reached down to the sword on my waist, and fluidly drew Dark Sister, allowing the smoky Valyrian steel to taste the air. The titanic dragon before me exhaled sharply at the sight of her first rider's sword. She bent forwards, sniffing at us cautiously. Laena was hyperventilating at the sight of the biggest dragon alive taking a personal interest in us, clinging on to me in fright. I too, clung onto her for moral support, certain if I let go, my legs would turn to jelly and I would fall to my knees.

God, Vhagar had presence.

Forcing my terrified body to move, I disentangled myself from Laena, shoving steel back into my spine and legs. Beside me, Laena got her breathing under control, the two of us meeting each other's gaze. Violet met indigo eyes and we both saw fear calcify into something that could pass as courage. I didn't nod or say anything, but she didn't need me to tell her what to do. There were some things that were just understood, between best friends and sisters.

I stabbed Dark Sister into the black earth, and my free hand linked fingers with Laena's. Holding hands with my confidant, we removed our gloves and carefully placed our palms onto the snout of Queen Visenya's mount. Vhagar's nostrils thinning with pleasure as her eyes narrowed.

The pull was lesser now. Though I still felt a great connection with Vhagar, it was muted compared to the first time I touched Silverwing, weaker. Like a fire behind a glass divider. The fire still emanated warmth and light, but not as much as it used to. Though beside me, Laena's eyes, once wide open with terror and fear, were now wide open with joy and wonder. Unlike me, she was unbonded, and thus the pull was unsubdued. Rawer, fuller.

"Mount her." I instructed Laena, my mouth dry and my voice a hoarse whisper.

"What?!" Laena hissed back, fear dancing in her violet eyes and painted across her beautiful face.

"Claim Vhagar. This is why I needed an unbonded Targaryen." I repeated, my voice brittle but insistent. My best friend stared at me for a long instant, before nodding the smallest nod.

Taking a deep breath to steel herself, Laena released her hand from Vhagar's snout, and walked slowly towards her neck. She placed her hands and feet onto the scales and hoisted herself up, one step at the time, until she sat on Vhagar's neck, gripping onto the dark teal-crest for her dear life. And then Vhagar moved, shaking me aside and striding forwards, leaping into the air with her wings spread as Laena screamed in terror.

I immediately climbed onto Silverwing and chained myself to the saddle, the smaller dragon chasing the larger one.

Vhagar let out a great roar, so loud that the mountain itself seemed to shake from the sheer volume and power. She flew higher and higher, gently ascending before spreading her dark teal wings, gliding towards Dragonstone. I flew up beside them, ready to catch Laena in case the worst happened. Vhagar blew past the castle walls, her mere slipstream throwing guards atop the battlements onto their rumps and causing every flag and pennant to billow furiously— more than one snapped off the flagpoles, clattering down into the courtyard.

The entire town seemed to gasp or scream as Vhagar descended sharply. Dogs howled and barked in fear, cattle stampeded in an attempt to flee the city and children wept in fear as Vhagar plunged the entire town into shadow. The relief when Queen Visenya's mount blew past them, heading for the sea, was nearly a physical thing.

Laena struggled to hold on as her mount tilted nearly seventy degrees. One wing skimmed the surface of the sea, throwing up a great spray of white foam and water that dwarfed even the tallest mast in the harbour. A couple of unlucky fishermen were swept up in the tide, their sailboats capsizing instantly as the wave bowled them over, sending them tumbling into the black water.

Silverwing overtook the larger dragon, circling back towards the island, Vhagar following us. I looked back, seeing Laena had stopped screaming, and was now resolutely holding on for dear life. We flew over the cliffs and hills, weaving between mountain peaks. As we circled the island, I saw Vhagar's flight grow more controlled. The titanic dragon grew less wilful and wild, her wing flaps growing gentler and her flight stabilising.

Vhagar then roared once more, but it was gentler. Less assertion of dominion and more calling out to Silverwing. I let the elder dragon take the lead once more, Vhagar rising higher and higher, ascending into the sky. I made myself yawn, popping my ears as we came closer and closer to the clouds. Silverwing elegantly circled around a granite-grey cloud, a bare instant later, Vhagar burst through the cloud, like an orca lunging out of the sea.

Trailing water vapour and mist, Vhagar emerged into the skies above the clouds. Her wings snapped taut, and she simply drifted through the air, crooning with surprising gentleness. Silverwing fell in line, hanging by her flank as the four of us breathed in the fresh autumn air, letting the afternoon sun shine upon us, warming us all up.

"Beautiful." I whispered, looking at the view beneath me. And endless sea of clouds, stretching to the horizon. This was a world with no one else to mar it. Solitude and tranquility.

I looked over to Laena, and she nodded, her hair windswept and a radiant smile on her face. She said nothing, and neither did I. There was nothing to be said. We allowed the silence to wash over us, mutually enjoying the view and each other's presence.

I wasn't sure how long we were up there. It could have been a minute or a hundred. But gravity was a harsh and unyielding mistress, slowing pulling our gliding dragons back to the ground. We drifted through the clouds, descending to back where we started. Silverwing landed first, and I looked over at my companion.

Where she had been ferocious and domineering the first time Laena mounted her, Vhagar was now practically docile, softly landing with surprising grace, and bending down to allow her new rider to gently descend onto the ground.

"Well? How was Vhagar?" I asked Laena once she dismounted, whom exhaled a huge breath before looking up at me.

"Amazing." She declared, drawing herself to her full height. "She's so powerful, and strong. I was convinced that she'd throw me off, but she didn't."

"She's a dragon." I reminded her. "An ancient and ferocious one at that. She wanted to make sure her rider was worthy of her."

"Well, I hope I passed your test, your Royal Viciousness." Laena sardonically stated, turning to face her mount, whom snorted, unamused, before knocking both of us onto our rumps with mere exhalation. A great gust of scorching wind faintly smelling of smoke bursting out of nostrils the size of cannons and bowling us both over. I giggled as Laena leapt to her feet, shouting obscenities at the supermassive dragon.

Getting back to my feet, I tugged Dark Sister out of the ground and sheathed the blade with a hiss, before tuning back to Laena.

"Ask her where the vault is." I instructed my best friend.

"What?" She asked, surprised.

"The vault. She's taken Visenya there before. Ask Vhagar where it is." I repeated, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"What makes you think she knows where it is?" Laena asked, holding my hand with her own.

"Dragons are intelligent creatures. More intelligent than men, some say." That bit wasn't surprising in my opinion, given the sheer stupidity of the people in my old secondary school. I was convinced that dogs were more intelligent than some of those numbskulls. Dragons? No contest on the brains department.

Laena looked dubiously at me, but her body language told me that she was going to at least try my idea.

"Vhagar!" She called out, the dragon focusing on her, it's huge green eyes staring at the Velaryon scion. Laena whimpered once and mustered her courage. "Take me to my family's vault. The one you brought Visenya to many times."

The supermassive dragon let out a soft growl of what I hoped was agreement, nudging Laena to mount up. She did so, and the four of us took to the air.

———

104 AC, Skies above Blackwater Bay

Vhagar flew due east like an unerring arrow, the oldest living dragon gliding through the air, interspersed with the occasional flap of the wings when she began to sink. It was something that I noticed the older dragons defaulting to, flying mostly by gliding and flapping their wings as little as possible. Younger dragons like Laenor's Seasmoke flapped their wings near constantly, but my Silverwing only did the bare minimum. A matter of age, experience and practise, I supposed. The older dragons knew exactly how to fly the furthest with the least effort.

As we flew, I took in Vhagar for the first time in earnest. The dragon was colossal, the largest of its kind I had ever seen. She was larger than a Boeing 737, with wing membranes the size of mainsails. Her scales were a greenish-bronze, like old copper left out so long it began to oxidise. The faintest touch of green entering the bronze, like the patina on the Statue of Liberty. Vhagar's crest, wings and horns were dark teal, so dark it nearly appeared black.

And despite her size and power, she was covered with scars. Lines and pockmarks of paler scales where blades and spear had wounded it. A veteran of a hundred battles, it was said. Vhagar was a hundred and fifty-seven years old now, and had seen more conflict that any other creature on the planet still alive.

And Balerion was both bigger and badder. I thought to myself. God what an utter monster the Black Dread must have been.

"Rhae!" Laena shouted, stirring me from my thoughts. "I think she's slowing down!"

Indeed she was. Vhagar had stoped flapping her wings, beginning a slow descent towards a spit of rock in the distance. And that's what it was. A tiny spit of rock in the middle of the sea. Barely an island. With no trees or beaches to its name. Just a chunk of rock sticking up above the waves, covered with grass and weeds. Vhagar landed gently on it, Silverwing following suit. The two massive dragons taking up over three quarters of the island by themselves.

The two of us dismounted, standing on the utterly flat field of grass that covered the bulk of the island. And there, half buried in overgrown weeds and grass, was a staircase descending into the ground. The two of us nodded, hearts beating like a drum in anticipation, and walked down the stairs. The chamber beneath was plain stone, old fading bricks held together by crumbling mortar, with a single stone coffin at the end. At first glance, it looked to be a barrow of sorts, shaded and indirectly illuminated by the sun.

But there, in the wall, was a pair of indentations. One for a bastard sword, the other for a thin longsword. And the second I saw them, I knew we were in the right place. Mouth dry, I drew Dark Sister and slotted it into the wall, where it fit perfectly.

Nothing happened.

I was about to remove Dark Sister when Laena grabbed my hand, wordlessly pointing at the stone coffin, where there was a faded mark of brownish-black. Blood, long dried out after so many years, but still there.

I produced a dagger, the very same one I used to cut my hair up. It was the blunted dirk that came with my miniature Goldcloak outfit, sharpened to a fine edge and carried by me at all times. I suppressed a pained whimper as Daemon's gift cut my finger, blood trickling down it. I placed my hand onto the coffin, my blood joining that of my ancestors. And with a shudder, the room lit up, my blood glowing like magma as High Valyrian glyphs appeared on bare stone, shining like a neon billboard.

The stone coffin I bled on then withdrew into the wall behind it with a grinding noise of stone on stone, revealing a ladder down into the gloom. We ran back to the dragons and I fished an oil lantern out of Silverwing's saddlebag, and a bunch of matches. I struck the match on my mount's scales, lighting the lantern, and the two of us returned to the tomb, carefully climbing down the ladder.

It wasn't a long climb. The room was a single storey below the crypt, and roughly the same size. The walls were solid dragonstone, as were the floors and ceiling, with the entrance the only hole into this sealed vault. Despite how long it had been sealed, there was not a single speck of dust in the room, and neither vermin nor mold had encroached on it. Something told me it wasn't natural.

Shelves lined two of the walls, the first filled with rows upon rows of books.

I walked over to it, reading the names on the spines of the book. Most were in High Valyrian, but there was the odd few in the Common Tongue. Signs and Portents, Blood Majick Volume One, Candles and Candlemakers, The Forging of Dragonsteel and The Shaping of Dragonstone. Each was worth a fortune, I realised. Every single one of them a book of great importance and value.

The other shelf was filled with trinkets instead. Dozens of glass candles lined a shelf, while the rest had stranger things. Bottles of liquids in dozens of colours. Glass jars of strange powders. Chunks of obsidian in every shade, shaped into daggers, ornaments or even wineglasses. Dragonbone items too, daggers fashioned from teeth, musical instruments made from the bones and jewellery made from the excess. There were also strange wooden items there, all made from a strange bright crimson wood I had never seen before. Musical boxes, telescopes and compasses. The bottom shelf was filled with boxes made from same wood, which when we opened, revealed row upon row of parchment scrolls.

Another wall of the room was filled with racks of weapons. Laena and I moving cautiously over. There were dozens of dragonbone bows, from great double recurves to shortbows. Lances made from dragonbone or the crimson wood. Staves, staffs, wands and sceptres with bodies of dragonbone or the crimson wood, ornamented with precious metals and tipped with obsidian chunks. No blades though.

The last wall of the room, the furthest in, was covered from floor-to-ceiling in chests crimson wood with Valyrian steel locks. Twelve of them, all stacked until they filled the back wall. We couldn't reach the highest chests, and couldn't remove any from the stack safely, so we let it be for now.

"We need to go back." I told Laena.

"What?" She asked, dazed by the great fortune we saw around us.

"We can't carry this all on our own." I pointed out, light dawning in Laena's eyes at that. "So we'll fly back to King's Landing, and muster every dragon and rider we can before carrying this all back."

"Understood." Laena said, moving to climb up the ladder. I made to follow, before reconsidering and grabbing a book from the shelf and a glass candle. Proof that we weren't pulling some sort of elaborate prank.

I retrieved Dark Sister from the wall, and the stone coffin shuddered forwards once more, covering up the vault. We left the crypt and mounted our dragons before flying back west, heading for the capital.