Chapter 173 - The Reconquest of Eyrie (II)

"Sometimes even the puppeteer finds himself controlled under wires." Varys, The Spider.

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Looking at the gigantic crimson dragon landing on the most impenetrable castle in the Seven Kingdoms, Petyr Baelish, Robert Baratheon's former Master of Coin, flashed the most sincere and gentle smile he could muster at that moment.

Even though he knew such a scene would happen, seeing such an intrusion into the castle still left him with a deep bitter taste in his mouth. All the effort, all the sweat and blood, all the conspiracy, all vanished the moment Aenar appeared.

Faced with a true dragon capable of reducing any city to ashes, his conspiracies were nothing more than the plans of children. There was no way to fight it, the other side could kill him the moment they felt it necessary and he could do absolutely nothing but beg for mercy and pray to the gods that he would survive yet another dangerous situation.

For some reason, Petyr remembered a phrase from Varys: "Lord Baelish must beware of ambition. The greater the ambition, the greater the fall."

"Foolish eunuch, but his words have some truth in them." Petyr muttered as he watched the dragon land in the castle courtyard. Obviously, the courtyard was nowhere near big enough to accommodate a dragon, so only the upper part of the dragon entered the courtyard while the lower part was resting on the castle walls.

Honestly, it was a truly terrifying sight. Just imagine a monster the size of a hill appearing in your backyard.

"My love, what are we going to do?" Hearing the female voice next to him, Petyr looked at the woman next to him.

Petyr could still remember Lysa's appearance when she was younger: a pretty girl, slender and high-breasted in her youth, dimpled and delicate. But because of too many pregnancies, miscarriages and stillbirths, she had become overweight.

Despite being two years younger than her sister Catelyn, Lysa looks ten years older; her face has become pale and puffy, and now she paints and dusts it. Although Lysa uses scents to smell sweeter, she can't completely hide the sour, milky smell.

Remembering the beautiful, shy young girl in his teens and seeing the woman in front of him, Petyr's gray-green eyes showed a hint of disgust. Catelyn was beautiful and young even after six children, but Lysa was the opposite; with each failed pregnancy, she became uglier.

However, even though he wanted to kill his wife now and take over the Vale as regent, he knew it was impossible. It might have been possible before, but after Aenar's arrival, Robert and Lysa would be locked away in a smaller, irrelevant castle they'd stayed in all their lives.

Aenar couldn't care less about both of them, but the new Lord of the Vale would never allow mother and son to leave the Vale or even have the chance to rebel with help from other noble houses in the Vale.

As an intelligent man, Petyr knew that this was the best fate for Lysa and Robert, but he himself thought that it was unlikely to happen. A mysterious accident could solve all the new Lord of the Vale's problems.

"Nothing's going to happen, darling." Despite his thoughts, Petyr didn't dare show any dissatisfaction towards Lysa. If he wanted to survive, it was Lysa who could make it happen.

Petyr was counting on the fact that since Lysa was Catelyn's sister, the King would not kill Lysa for the kindness of growing up under Catelyn's tutelage.

(Note: I laughed a lot writing that paragraph.)

If Aenar had known Petyr's thoughts, he would have laughed. It was much easier for Petyr to survive by his wits than to trust in the love Aenar received from Catelyn. However, how could Petyr know what happened while Aenar was growing up in Winterfell?

Who would spend resources spying on the life of a mere bastard? So Aenar and Catelyn's grudge wasn't known to outsiders, even the Lords of the North who knew about it didn't tell others, after all, Catelyn's treatment of Aenar couldn't matter less to them.

If such a grudge were known, Hoster Tully might not be able to sleep at night, with all the fear and terror he would feel. Like Petyr, the Head of House Tully thought he could simply bend the knee to his relationship with House Stark and everything would be fine.

But who would have thought that Aenar was by far the most exotic King Westeros and the world had ever seen. Aenar's revolution was known to no one more than the Kingsguard and the members of House Targaryen themselves.

"Let's meet the king, my love." Petyr spoke in a gentle tone and took Lysa's hand, who in turn held the hand of a thin, apparently sickly boy.

The boy was small, pale and so thin that you'd wonder if the wind blew, maybe it would carry him away. He looked so ill that walking seemed exhausting for him. There was a crown on his brown hair.

Robert II Arryn, King of the Mountains and the Vale, Protector of the Realm and Guardian of the East.

In all honesty, Petyr himself didn't know if Robert was his son or Jon Arryn's son. Just as Jon Arryn slept with his wife in King's Landing, Petyr also slept with Lysa on a similar day. So truly knowing whose son Robert was was a mystery.

However, even if Robert was his son, Petyr felt absolutely nothing towards the boy, who was about to be forced to give up his titles, crown, fiefdom and castles.

The "family" of three, surrounded by knights loyal to House Arryn, approached the courtyard, where two extremely tall figures could be seen.

Petyr couldn't help but be surprised by the height of the King and the apparently female Kingsguard. Leda was enormous, over two meters tall. Aenar was even bigger than her, reaching an incredible two and a half meters in height. Together with the armor they both wore, the king and the knight looked like colliders of steel.

Suddenly, just as Petyr was shaking hands and bowing, Robert's angry voice was heard throughout the courtyard.

"Mom, I don't like him."

"Besides, I want the dragon."

"Please, Mom. I want the dragon."

"I want the dragon!!!"

"I want the dragon!!!"

(Note: When I wrote Robert Arryn, I imagined the world's most spoiled child).

When the young king's angry words and pleas were heard, even though she was mentally stable, Lysa couldn't help but look even paler than she usually did because of the make-up on her face.

As if he understood what Robert had said, Caraxes' eyes fell on the boy, a feeling of fury reflected in the draconic eyes as the crimson dragon moved his huge head towards the insect that had dared to speak to him like that.

Caraxes opened its mouth full of sharp teeth as big as daggers, and crimson fire could be seen in the deepest part of the dragon's throat, ready to reduce anything to ashes.

Petyr's face changed dramatically as he saw the scene in front of him. Without any hesitation, he pulled Lysa aside and walked away. Lysa didn't even have time to react when the funnel of red flames completely engulfed Robert and all the Knights of the Vale.

The young King of the Mountain and Valley didn't even have the chance to cry out in pain and, together with the Knights of the Valley, was reduced to mere ashes in the blink of an eye.

The funnel of flames didn't stop after incinerating the boy king and his entourage, it passed through the entire courtyard and reached the castle, melting a large part of the castle walls.

It all happened so fast that Aenar didn't have time to calm Caraxes down.

Caraxes was his brother, he wasn't a pet as everyone in Westeros thought. A dragon was as intelligent as a human, but unlike humans, dragon society was simple, they didn't develop writing or anything else out of sheer laziness. If it weren't for Valiria, dragons, who were usually solitary, would never gather in such large groups.

But as a thinking creature, the dragon had its own feelings and thoughts, of course it would be angry at an insect that dared to look at it as an item to be taken or bought.

Leda was also surprised by the events, she had never expected that the boy king would dare to speak in front of Aenar and ask for Caraxes as if it were a mere item that could be given away at any time.

However, Aenar and Leda soon heard a cry and scream so agonizing that they both wondered how one being could love another to the point of screaming and crying with such intense and profound feeling.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!"

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