Chapter 33
LADY GWIN ASHFORD—212AC
'It's the Greyjoys! They have begun attacking the lands besides the Narrow Sea!'
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.
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That had been the beginning of her marriage. She had sat in the Great Hall of her new home for the first time, at the feast arranged in celebration when a servant had come running into the Hall to whisper those words into her husband's ears.
Until then, Gwin had not thought much about the curse that the whispers went on about. But that was the first time she had felt doubt creep up in her heart. It was the meant to be the most joyous day of her life, yet the celebrations had been marred once more by the rebellion of Dagon Greyjoy, the Lord Reaver of the Iron Islands.
The plague had hit the coastal cities the hardest. Old Town, Lannisport, Arbor had been hit the hardest. The Greyjoy lord had sought to take advantage of the suffering, and begun his campaign at a time when he knew that the Crown had little ability to retaliate against him.
The tales from the lands that he had attacked were harrowing to hear. The Ironborn were ruthless in their campaign as they killed thousands, and took thousands more as salt wives and thralls. The lords were helpless against their brutality for any time they tried to attack them, Dagon and his men would simply flee back to their seas.
In the end, they wrote to the Crown seeking its aid. But the Crown was still dealing with the plague, yet King Baelor was not the kind of man to turn his back on his subjects. But the Crown lacked the ability to raise a massive army, and so the missive had come a moon later and her lord husband was called to war once more.
She had cried in his arms that day, cursing the Gods and the Lords who had pushed this burden onto him. Lord Velaryon would lead the navy, but Matarys was to take command of the armies and restore the Crown's writ on the Iron Islands.
It had taken him two moons to gather and train the levies, and then one more to gather the supplies. And less than half a year into their marriage, he had ridden out to war along with some ten thousand men to defeat the Lord Reaver of the Iron Islands.
"He has him surrounded!" Egg shouted at the top of his voice, as he read the latest of Duncan's messages. The young Prince was a esquire of the giant knight, but the King had refused to give him his permission to join the man for war, so the young Prince stayed behind with her even as Ser Duncan with her husband to face Dagon Greyjoy in the Sunset Sea.
"It has not even been a year," Princess Daella added, and her swollen belly was proof of that. The sickness had started a few days after Matarys had left, and initially the maesters had feared that the Spring Sickness had come for her.
But when she refused to show any other symptoms, the master was forced to look at explanation beyond the Spring Sickness. By the end of the third week, he was certain that a babe was growing in her womb.
The news spread quickly, and the Crown was quick to send her all the help it could. The Queen had been the first to arrive, along with Princess Daella and Kiera of Tyrosh. The plague had taken a toll on the Royal family, and it had been quite a long time since the Crown had welcomed a Prince or a Princess.
"Well, we should have expected nothing less with Matarys leading the men," the young Prince added with shining eyes, and he spoke with such reverence that it made it easy to forget the tragic history between their families.
"They say he slew Erik Ironmaker with his own blade after trapping the man with the Raven's Teeth," and Erik Ironmaker was Dagon's right hand man. He had been the one to lead the attack against Old Town, but Matarys had trapped the man with his hundred Raven's Teeth and then taken the man's head by himself.
That had been a major blow to the Ironborn, and with the Crown leading the resistance the other Houses gathered the men and the courage to retaliate as well, and now Dagon Greyjoy was trapped behind the walls of Pyke as Matarys lay siege to his castle.
"Well, it seems like the Prince is in a rush to come back," Princess Daella added as she eyed her with a hidden smile, and that was no secret.
"As he should be," Lady Kiera added, and she was the wife of Prince Valarr. She was from Tyrosh, and her hair were a unique purple. She was kind and sweet, but was cursed with a barren womb.
She had thought that she would bear her some resentment for the child she could not have, but the purple haired Princess had shown her only kindness and love.
"No man should leave behind his wife alone in this condition to go and play with his swords and shield," Lady Kiera added as she chided Matarys for his choices.
"Matarys is not playing. He is fighting a war," Egg was quick to come to his cousin's defence, and the young Prince had taken to shaving off his head and even now his head was devoid of his iconic slivery hair just as it had been in Ashford years ago.
"I stand by my words," Lady Kiera retorted, and before Egg could respond, Gwin herself chose to intervene.
"He had no choice," she defended her lord husband, as Lady Kiera and Daella looked at each other.
"See, she understands. He had to go to defeat that wretched Pirate. No one else could have done this but him," and Princess Daella nodded.
"Maybe," she agreed before her eyes narrowed at her brother.
"But if you ever think of doing this to me. I will skin you alive with my own hands, you understand," and the young Prince Aegon was betrothed to his own sister, and while usually such a marriage would be considered a taboo.
The Targaryens had long married brother to sister to keep their bloodline pure. It was strange to her, but she would dare not voice it out.
"We are not even married yet," Egg countered with a flushed face.
"We will be one day," Princess Daella responded, and that was enough of his patience for their gossip.
"I am going to the yard," and with Ser Duncan gone, Aegon had been training under Matarys's captain of the guards. He spoke well of the young Prince, and Egg seemed more determined than ever to surpass his cousin in chivalry and courage.
She eyed him run out of the garden, as his betrothed rose from her seat as well.
"I am going after him," and who was she to stop her, as the Princess followed her brother but with a far more dignified gait.
"It is good to see them smiling," Lady Kiera added, and indeed it was.
"Yes," she agreed, and New Haven was a new castle. It had been designed by Matarys himself, and he had insisted on creating a rather large garden. Trees, and plants of all kinds surrounded her as she sat in the centre of the Grand Garden.
"I have heard that the Spring Sickness is finally dying down," the lady from Tyrosh began, and that was good news. The Spring Sickness had wreaked havoc across the continent, and the dead numbered over several hundred thousand.
It did not care for your status, or your wealth. The sickness swallowed Kings, and peasants alike.
"Really?" she asked, and Lady Kiera nodded.
"They believe that it will be over by the end of the year," and that was sooner than she had expected.
"One in twenty died from it in the capital. The numbers are even higher for Old Town. Way Higher," and the disease had not even spared the Citadel, and for the first time in centuries the place faced a lack of acolytes and Maesters.
"Seven bless our souls," but her lands had been spared.
"I believe the numbers here are closer to one in hundred," and Lady Kiera nodded.
"Matarys did well in dealing with it. Many ridiculed him for his soaps and baths when he first proposed them to deal with the plague, but he was right," and Matarys had been kind enough to share his own methods with all of the lords of the realm, but few had paid him any heed.
They had called him a fool and a grasping merchant trying to sell his soaps and lards. But he was right, and the numbers were evidence of that.
"The lords can be rather stubborn," and their grudges were only set to grow.
"They will never admit that they were wrong," Lady Kiera added, and Matarys was not the kind of person who would backdown either.
"They will hate him more after they see what he intends to do with the Iron Islands," and he had never had much fondness for the Ironborn and their archaic ways, and now that the Ironborn were in open rebellion, he intended on destroying them and their ways.
Matarys was usually rather kind, he had shown little kindness to the Ironborn. He had taken no hostages, and even the highborns had not been spared his wrath. Few spoke of it here, but he had killed more Ironborn than the Spring Sickness itself.
It would years for the Iron islands to have enough men to even think of war again, and that would only be possible if he were to let them survive this at all. She knew that Lord Brynden was constantly making effort to have the King declare the islands as a part of Crown territory.
The idea had his support, but many whispered how it had come from the young Prince himself who wished to take the lands for himself.
"Then it is good that he does not care for them at all," Lady Kiera added, and he was stronger than the Lords realised. He would not back down. Not easily.
She missed him. She missed him greatly, and the babe in her belly kicked hard as if to comfort her.
"GUGH!" she winced in pain, and Lady Kiera was by her side in a blink.
"What happened?" she asked worriedly, and Gwin shook her head.
"The babe has grown rather rowdy. It kicked me," she whispered as she eyed her swollen baby, and she saw the purple haired girl eye her belly with a forlorn gaze.
"I see," and thrice now she had taken to the birthing chambers, but each time the babe was a stillborn.
Many had been calling for the annulment of their marriage so that Prince Valarr may take a new wife, but the Prince had resisted all such efforts.
'I have an heir and he is my brother!' he had roared back angrily at a few lords who had dared to make that suggestion.
Still, the birthing bed was a woman's battle and Lady Kiera felt that she had failed her lord husband in that. It had been many years since their marriage, and the Prince still remained childless and Gwin knew that her child would only make those whispers grow.
"He is different from his father in that," Lady Kiera added, as she met her gaze.
"Lady Jena says that Matarys was the calmest babe ever. He rarely moved in the womb as if he knew it would cause her discomfort, and even after his birth he was very careful in his cries and wails," and she did not know all that.
"I can only hope that this one is as careful," and she had heard many a horror stories of babes who would cry all night, and cause ruckus. She was not sure that she was ready to deal with that.
Still, she noticed one thing in her words.
"He?" she asked, and Lady Kiera nodded.
"It's a boy," she answered, and there was no way to know the sex until it was born.
"I am sure of it," but she seemed certain. She winced again, as pain ripped through her lower body, and the Sun began to set.
"I think you should return to your chambers," Lady Kiera suggested, and the pain refused to go away this time as Gwin clenched her good sister's hand.
"Aye," she agreed, but the pain worsened.
"AGHHHH!" she grunted, as her good sister paled.
"Gwin! Gwin!" she screamed her name, but then she suddenly felt wetness around her legs as Lady Kiera grew silent.
"My....," and she knew well what it meant, and so did Lady Kiera.
"HELP! HELP!" Lady Kiera screamed as hard as she could, and the pain dulled her senses as she felt people surround her.
"What happened?" came a question, and she could not answer. But she did not need to.
"Her water just broke...."
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