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A massive black shape appeared in the sky above King's Landing.
It came from far away, growing fast.
The guards on the city walls spotted it first. They pointed upward in terror, blowing sharp whistles.
"What is that?!"
"A dragon! It's a dragon!"
Panic swallowed the city whole.
People on the streets craned their necks, and the moment they made out the enormous silhouette blotting out the sun, they screamed. They ran. They shoved and trampled each other in every direction, each one desperate to find any corner to hide in.
All of King's Landing dissolved into chaos.
The vast shadow swept across the Red Keep's towering turrets.
Winter roared , a sound that shook the air itself. The sheer pressure of that draconic cry turned the legs of even the castle's bravest guardsmen to water.
"Protect His Grace the King!"
Ser Barristan Selmy, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, drew his longsword and put himself between King Joffrey and Liana.
His face was stone.
The other guards rushed to form a shield wall, their trembling bodies braced in front of their young king.
"Get out of my way!"
Joffrey shoved Barristan aside. There was no fear on his face , only a feverish, almost sickly excitement.
"It's Lynn! Lynn is here!"
He pushed to the front of the courtyard, threw his arms wide, tilted his head back, and waited for the dragon descending from the sky.
Winter's enormous wings beat a gale into the courtyard as it touched down in the center of the Red Keep with surprising steadiness.
Dust billowed in every direction.
The great dragon lowered all three of its fearsome heads. Eyes of different colors swept slowly across the trembling humans below. A cold, contemptuous breath puffed from its nostrils.
Lynn dropped from the dragon's back in a single clean motion.
Black leather armor. Black trousers. His cloak snapped and rippled behind him in the dying wind.
"Lynn! My most loyal subject! You've finally come!"
Joffrey laughed and charged forward, throwing his arms around Lynn in a fierce embrace.
Lynn's body went stiff for a moment. He endured it without any change in expression.
"Your Grace."
His voice was calm.
"My Hand! My new Hand of the King!"
Joffrey released him and clapped him on the shoulder, making no effort to hide his excitement. His gaze drifted past Lynn to the dragon standing in silence behind him.
Winter was even larger than he had imagined. Its sapphire scales caught the sunlight and blazed with a dreamlike, otherworldly gleam.
Power and destruction, made beautiful.
"Magnificent..." Joffrey murmured. "Truly magnificent..."
His eyes were alight with naked possessiveness.
He walked straight up to Winter and reached out a hand, fingers extended toward those cold, glittering scales.
RRRAAUGH,, !
Winter felt the intent of this strange human. A deep, resonant warning rolled up from its throat. Its head drew back slightly, baring rows of teeth like drawn swords.
The breath that washed over Joffrey smelled of death. It pushed him back two steps.
He grinned wider.
"Ha! Some spirit! I like it!"
He turned to Lynn.
"Lynn — you remember the promise you made to my father."
"That you would leave a dragon in King's Landing."
His voice left no room for negotiation.
"As proof of the North's loyalty to the crown."
Lynn studied that entitled face and felt a quiet flicker of displeasure.
This was his dragon. Not a pet to be surrendered on demand.
"Your Grace, Winter has a difficult temperament. It answers only to me." His voice stayed even. "Leaving it here could cause problems no one wants."
"Problems? What problems!"
Joffrey waved a hand.
"I'll keep it in the Dragonpit — where House Targaryen housed their dragons! I'll feed it a hundred cattle a day. No , two hundred!" His voice rose with the vision. "It will be House Baratheon's mightiest weapon. The most brilliant symbol of royal power in all of Westeros."
He looked at Lynn with a magnanimous smile.
"You won't have to worry about feeding it. The royal treasury is open."
Lynn didn't answer immediately.
Joffrey's words had surfaced a problem he had been carefully not thinking about.
Winter's appetite.
The dragon had kept growing, and its hunger had grown with it , into something almost monstrous. Back in the North, feeding it had nearly emptied every livestock pen Lynn could find. He had even resorted to the great ice mammoths of the frozen wastes, creatures so tough that even the undead army had given up chewing through them.
But those mammoths were supposed to be mounts for his giant cavalry. Every one that disappeared down Winter's throat cost him.
And it still wasn't enough. Winter spent most of its time hunting at sea, sometimes vanishing for days at a stretch.
Now Joffrey was volunteering to drain the royal treasury to feed the thing for him?
That was actually a reasonable arrangement.
"If Your Grace insists," Lynn said after a pause, letting a reluctant expression settle on his face. "I can allow it to remain in King's Landing for a time."
"But you must guarantee that no one disturbs it. No one." He held the king's gaze. "Because if its temper breaks, even I may not be able to stop it."
"Of course! Of course!"
The moment Lynn gave ground, Joffrey seized it with both hands.
"I'll post the most loyal Gold Cloaks to guard the Dragonpit around the clock! Anyone who approaches without authorization , killed on sight!"
He was already somewhere else in his mind, riding that sapphire back, the Seven Kingdoms spread out below him like a painted map.
"Wonderful! Lynn, you truly are a brother to me!"
Lynn watched the king's unguarded delight and changed course.
"Your Grace — there is something else. I have news from Essos. About dragons."
Joffrey's head snapped around. His eyes went wide.
"What? More dragons?"
"Yes." Lynn nodded. "Daenerys Targaryen has hatched a dragon in Essos. It's still young, but it is a true dragon."
"That Targaryen remnant?" A flash of disgust crossed Joffrey's face.
Then he seemed to remember that Daenerys and Lynn had some kind of connection, and he swallowed the rest of what he was going to say.
"But dragons," he said instead, stroking his chin, eyes glinting, "are always worth having." He looked at Lynn. "Where is it? Bring it to me."
"That may prove difficult, Your Grace." Lynn shook his head. "But I will do what I can. I'll try to bring it back to King's Landing as quickly as possible and present it to you."
"Good! Excellent!"
Joffrey's excitement surged again. One dragon was a symbol. Two dragons was conquest. He could already see himself standing beyond Aegon Targaryen , the greatest king in the history of Westeros.
"Lynn! You are a gift from the gods themselves!"
He seized Lynn's hand in both of his.
"You arrive and immediately bring me news like this! I must hold the grandest feast Westeros has ever seen in your honor." He stopped, then shook his head. "No. A feast isn't enough."
A fanatic light burned behind his eyes.
"A tourney. I will hold a tourney. For you alone , a tournament for the Hand of the King."
He spread his arms and turned to face the whole of the Red Keep, his voice carrying across every stone.
"Every knight in the Seven Kingdoms will come to King's Landing! They will fight for your glory! The victor will receive a personal knighthood from my hand , and the right to join the Kingsguard!"
He let the words ring out.
"This will be the grandest event Westeros has seen in a hundred years!"
From where she stood at a distance, Liana watched the king in his moment of triumph, then let her eyes settle on the man who had absorbed all of it without a ripple.
A gentle smile rested on her face. What lay behind it, no one could read.
Ser Barristan Selmy watched all of it with quiet, deepening dread.
He had the persistent feeling that the sky over King's Landing had already begun to change , and would never quite look the same again.
"Attendants!" Joffrey wheeled on the servants at his back. "Send word in my name to every lord in the Seven Kingdoms , immediately!"
"Tell them: one month from now, come to King's Landing. Come to the grand tourney held in honor of my new Hand of the King , Lord Lynn!"
➤ Next: Liana's Visit
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