Chapter Text
Laena is to wed a King without an heir, and her son shall be King one day.
At least, that is what Father has been telling since she was two-and-ten and he came back from the Small Council meeting where the King announced their impending marriage. Except that is not entirely true. The King does have an heir, named and bowed to by the Lords of the Realm. The Princess of Dragonstone, Rhaenyra.
When Laena first told her father this, he smiled in that way Laena knew meant he thought you were very stupid. When Rhaenyra wed Alistar Hightower and instead of being cloaked by her new husband he was cloaked in the colours of House Targaryen by the King, Father stopped smiling at her like that. But he did not stop saying it.
Her Mother, regal and wise, simply told her, “You will be Queen.”
The Queen That Never Was seemed oddly unsatisfied with that, as if it was an insult instead of an honour. It was as if even then she knew what kind of joke Laena’s would become.
Laena is five-and-ten when she does wed the King. Her marriage is expected to be the talk of the Red Keep for the next few moons, but is instead eclipsed by the news of Princess Rhaenyra’s pregnancy. The Princess is barely showing, still looking as beautiful as ever, but it seems that talk of Laena is entirely forgotten in favour of talk of the baby in her belly. Laenor comforts her, knowing how the distraction of gossip had helped calm her nerves and how without it she feels them even stronger. The King is younger than their mother, but he looks so much older, the feeling of his eyes on her is frightening, never mind the thought of the wedding night.
Somehow, she gets through it. She’d been told that it would hurt, and it did. But then it seemed as though it faded but never ended. She felt like crying, though she did not.
The next morning, she begs leave due to sickness which she feels in her belly and not her head as she claims. She spends the entire day in the bath, scrubbing at places that feel made of wood.
She hopes she is pregnant already.
Alas, it is not to be. Rhaenyra gives birth some moons after her wedding, close to a year after it, the babe is a boy with the classic Valyrian colouring of silver-white hair and purple eyes, though his mess of curls is unlike Rhaenyra’s pin-straight hair and much more like his father’s own waves. Rhaenyra’s gain feels so much like Laena’s lack. Especially when the King holds his new grandson, named Aegon for the brother that never survived the cradle, and declares he is Prince Aegon Targaryen and that he will one day sit the Iron Throne.
Afterwards Laena can feel the eyes of the court on the back of her head at all times. Waiting, judging, balancing the stakes.
A hunt is thrown in honour of the young prince. Rhaenyra and Alistar attend together with their son, side and by side and always smiling pleasantly at everybody. Laena thinks they have their roles wrong, for Rhaenyra is the one dressed in leathers and with a bow over her shoulder while Alistar is instead making small talk with everyone and anyone, holding his son in his arms and being so proper it is instantly charming.
No one dares to comment on it however, not when both the King and his Hand are lurking in the background, watching the young couple with pleased eyes, though for related but altogether different reasons.
Laena is visited by her family during one of the food breaks, her mother and brother hug her, her father asks after her. She can feel the question in their eyes, are you pregnant yet? Laenor is the only one whose eyes also convey his concern for her. Her mother’s are like cold, icy fields. Her father is altogether eager for good news.
“I bled a week ago, exactly on time. But I have been doing my duty since then.”, once she speaks in such frank terms, her father finally gives her break and goes to bother the King and the Hand about the Stepstones pirates again. Her mother and brother stay with her, making small talk unrelated to her marriage, or to how the king has proclaimed his so supposed temporary heir’s son a prince of the blood.
Sometime during breaks the princess and her sworn shield disappear into the hunting grounds. Which will spark rumours for weeks, Laena is sure, especially since she left her husband and son behind. Said husband seems entirely too busy to notice however, as he makes rounds among the guests, shoving his son into the arms of anyone willing every once is a while. Laena notices how he lets them hold little Aegon long enough to be charmed by his beauty but not long enough to be bothered by his baby antics. He seems entirely too learnt on it, but then she notices Otto Hightower’s eyes follow his son with an almost critical gleam and realises who gave him the idea.
Jason Lannister says something probably unpleasant, judging by how Alistar’s smile fades momentarily. Which is of course when Rhaenyra rides out of the hunting grounds, blood smeared on her face, with the King of the Forest dragged behind her by her white mare. She paints a picture of the perfect princess, a divinely chosen ruler. Laena knows instantly that it was all planned out.
The princess unhorses, strolls to where her husband is standing without their son (little Aegon given off to a wetnurse) and pulls him down for a quick, firm kiss. She completely ignores Jason Lannister, going so far as to walk in the opposite direction to him when her kiss with her husband is broken, in order to show off her kill to him and the little group of hanger-ons they’ve acquired since the performance began.
Laena can already hear the rumours that will circulate the court tomorrow. Princess Rhaenyra, divinely blessed. Princess Rhaenyra, she’s meant to be Queen, the Seven proclaimed it! Princess Rhaenyra, already with a son when the young Queen-
Laenor’s hand moves to rest above Laena’s own. The touch snaps her out of her inner turmoil. Her mother says, “Jason Lannister will not forget the insult.”, as a way to offer her own comfort.
No, House Lannister will not forget the insult. Laena thinks, neither will all the lords who denied mother her claim because she was a woman and nothing else. The lords bowed to Rhaenyra, but that was in the King’s order, they will not bow again.
(Laena does not know it yet, but it is then that another dragon lands at the Dragonpit.)