Chapter 61

Six months later...
The Red Keep
King’s Landing

“Her Grace, Daenerys, of the House Targaryen, the Stormborn, the First of Her Name, Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men, Lady of the Seven Kingdoms, Protector of the Realm, the Unburnt, the Khaleesi of Great Grass Sea, the Queen of Meereen, the Queen of Yunkai, the Queen of Astapor, the Mother of Dragons, and the Breaker of Chains,” Missandei of the Isle of Naath, her herald and interpreter, herself the holder of some titles and offices, and quite visibly pregnant by now, proclaimed to all facing the Iron Throne, on which Dany sat.

All bent the knee by this point to the quite heavily pregnant Queen of Westeros, a widow who had inherited her throne from her late husband and nephew, Jon Snow, the father of her unborn twins. Jon Snow, of course, was born under the name of Aegon Targaryen, the legitimate son in wedlock of Prince Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark. He had been raised as the bastard son of Eddard Stark, Lord of Winterfell, Warden of the North, and briefly Hand of the King under Robert Baratheon, who just happened to be his uncle, the eldest surviving brother of Lyanna Stark.

No one learned his true parentage until after he had already married Dany, which was a political match arranged when he was still just King in the North. After that, well, they basically reigned as a team, a power couple of sorts, husband and wife, lovers, co-rulers, and aunt with nephew. That was hardly surprising, given the Targaryen tradition of incestuous marriage, of course. As Jon’s widow and his aunt, Dany’s succession upon the death of her husband and nephew was automatic and immediate, given that her children by him were still in her womb. That Missandei of the Isle of Naath, Lady of Dragonstone and Mistress of Laws, was also with child by Jon, well, that was just icing on the cake. It had been necessary, given that her companion and de facto husband, Grey Worm, Captain of the Unsullied, Master of War, and Lord of the Dreadfort, was a eunuch soldier of the Unsullied, so couldn’t breed her himself.

It was also an open secret at court that Dany and Missandei were lovers these days, their bond over their shared loss in wartime of their beloved men, who had shared them at times with each other, now turning into a kind of necessary solace. Neither woman had been intimate with a man since the passing of their husbands, as they thought of those men, even though Missandei was never formally wed to Grey Worm. Missandei, of course, had been technically a virgin until she lay with Jon Snow, Dany’s husband and nephew, her own King, since Grey Worm was unable to take her maidenhead. Now Dany and she did things to each other that Grey Worm and she had done not nearly as much as she wanted prior to his death.

Dany and Missandei tried not to smirk at times as they recalled their nights of passion, straight from the bath, where Dany was especially fond of licking Missandei’s bottom and vice versa. That seemed to be their favorite act for some reason, tasting each other’s arse, especially the anus. They enjoyed eating each other’s twats, too, of course, but the bum, that was their favorite part to kiss and lick. They could make each other’s toes curl with their ardor in that particular act, too. They also enjoyed kissing each other with the flavors of their own butt sweat on their tongues. It was a very nice kind of dessert in their books. They preferred to bathe each other as well.

Dany smiled at Ser Jorah Mormont, who now served as Lord Commander of the Queensguard (they figured that they couldn’t call it the “Kingsguard” without a King). She had increasing affection for the old man, just as she did for Tormund Giantsbane, the only Wildling to ever sit on the Small Council in his capacity as Master of War. She also thought of Sandor Clegane, the Hound, now the Lord of the Dreadfort in Grey Worm’s stead, as well as husband to Lady Alys Karstark of Karhold. She thought of Lord Tyrion Lannister, Lord of Casterly Rock, Lord of the Westerlands, Warden of the West, and Hand of the Queen, who was now married to Lady Sansa Stark, Lady of Winterfell and Wardeness of the North, once again.

Dany also looked over at Lord Davos Seaworth, Lord of Highgarden, Lord Paramount of the Reach, Warden of the South, and Master of Ships. She then gazed at Lord Varys, once the Spider and the Master of Whispers, now the somewhat more mundane Master of Coin, though still quite powerful at court. She noticed Lord Gendry Baratheon, Lord of Storm’s End, Lord of the Stormlands, and Warden of the East. She saw Princess Elia Martell (formerly Sand) of Dorne and Lord Edmure Tully, Lord of Riverrun and Lord Paramount of the Riverlands, with his wife, Lady Roslin Tully, formerly Frey, Lady of the Twins.

Then she noticed Grand Maester Samwell, formerly Samwell Tarly, and his concubine, Gilly, a Wildling herself by birth, who was pregnant with another child, this one Sam’s. She looked at Lord Bronn Blackwater, as he now called himself, Lord Commander of the City Watch and Lord of Castamere, as well as his wife, Lady Bernadette, the Mistress of Whispers, and then Rendal, the Queen’s Justice, and at Raina, the Royal Gaoler. This was a special occasion, so they were all out in force. Even Lady Lynesse Hightower, Ser Jorah Mormont’s wife, something very rare in Westerosi history, as Lord Commanders or Kingsguards in general were actually supposed to be celibate and chaste. Because that Lady had never formally divorced Ser Jorah, she was allowed on the basis of that technicality.

That Lynesse was pregnant, presumably by Ser Jorah, didn’t mean that he would actually be faithful to her at this point. There were certainly rumors that he still held her at arm’s length and hadn’t fully forgiven or trusted her after she came back to him after leaving him for a merchant prince from Lys in Essos. He was still rather bitter at her, though she had climbed back enough into his favor for him to call her his wife openly and claimed their unborn child as his. While she carried this, his child, inside her, a child that could only inherit from her, not him, he felt quite free to lie with at least the Red Priestess Kinvara, who made no secret of her growing affection for the grizzled old knight. Kinvara also delighted in flaunting that fact with a woman so devout to the Faith of the Seven and thus a serious hypocrite.

Then there was Ser Brienne of Tarth, the only lady knight in Westerosi history, knighted by Ser Jaime Lannister, now the One Thousandth Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch. That was one of the shortest elections in the history of the order. It had been decided that, at least for now, the order needed to exist, if only as a place for the various former Lannister troops and the various Sparrows who seemed to need a new purpose. If Ser Jaime happened to lie with Ser Brienne at times, well, no one batted an eye. The days of strict celibacy in that order, or of the Maesters of the Citadel, or of the Queensguard, those days were in the past. Such regulations seemed to belonged to a different, more puritanical age.

There was also Bran Stark, who remained behind at Winterfell, as there must always be a Stark there, and Arya Stark, now betrothed to marry Lord Gendry. She was restless at times, but he had promised to let her sail as much as she wished, as long as she came home to him. She often sailed on the Full Moon, the flagship of the Iron Fleet, with Yara Greyjoy, also present, known as Yara the Bottomless, the Queen of Iron Islands, who not secretly served as the salt wife of Lord Darren Haerrd, the Hand of the Queen and Master of Ships to the Ironborn Queen.

That was the occasion for this latest assemblage, in fact. Dany had decided to honor her word and grant the full independence of the Iron Islands to Yara. Yara, in return, had now opted to enter a formal pact with Dany, agreeing to supply her with ships and warriors to help fight the Volantene-backed Free Cities of Essos in the Great War between Braavos and Pentos on the one side and the bulk of Essos on the other. It was clear that Dany fully intended to commit the Dornish, who hadn’t made it to the fray in the War of the Dead until too late to make a difference, as well as the Ironborn, to this great campaign on the side of Braavos and Pentos.