Burning the Dragons

“Come with me,” Oberyn whispered in Tabitha’s ear before continuing striding down the hallway of the Red Keep to the throne room. Tabitha naturally followed and was shocked to see that a pyre had been constructed before the iron throne, three posts amongst it that secured limp bodies with heads of silver hair.

“What is this?” she breathed with wide eyes, immediately wondering why Eddard had approved of the pyre.

“I’m going to burn the dragons,” he replied simply, taking her hand and leading her forwards. “What Westeros needs to see is something symbolic. A quick execution will not stand out in the history books, but this will. The people will not forget this.” Tabitha gasped as she climbed the steps to the throne, finally seeing the Targaryens for the first time since the siege. Oberyn’s poison had been slowly killing them, and their skin was almost as white as their hair. Their muscles had wasted, their eyes appeared hollowed out, and the swollen cut on Rhaegar’s cheek that was the entry site for the poison was now a ghastly purple that had tendrils spreading from it in all directions.

“Have they not already suffered enough from your poison?” Tabitha questioned as she watched a Dornish guard dump a box of Targaryen belongings onto the pyre, Daenerys weeping as one of the glass items smashed by her feet.

“Do you think that one short month of being poisoned compares to Elia’s eight months of rape and beatings? Do you think that compares to her watching her children being burned alive? The suffering that I went through, thinking that she was dead?” Oberyn countered, almost yelling with pure anger towards the Targaryens. Tabitha remained quiet, understanding his pain but believing that he was overreacting. “Or how about how those men have fucked their little sister? Do you care about her pain?”

“Then why burn her?” Tabitha muttered.

“Because of what she did to Cersei. She is as mad as her father too, butchering and scorching the woman,” Oberyn spat and Tabitha gasped.

“Is she…?”

“What was left of her remains have already been sent to Casterly Rock,” he replied and Tabitha gritted her teeth, looking across to Daenerys and trying to decide whether or not she believed that the young and innocent looking girl could do such a thing. “Tonight, we will rid the realm of madness. We will rid Westeros of these so-called dragons who murder for fun. We-”

“What is going on?” Eddard’s voice boomed as he stormed into the room, hurrying to Tabitha’s side. Oberyn’s jaw dropped from surprise, but he quickly regained his composure.

“You didn’t know about this?” Tabitha questioned, and once her brother shook his head in response she spun back to face Oberyn for answers.

“Stark…” Rhaegar groaned.

“Shut it,” Oberyn growled but Eddard walked down the steps and stopped before the former king. Rhaegar struggled to focus on Eddard, and allowed his head to sag on his shoulder as he found the motivation to speak with his tired lungs.

“You can’t have us killed… You would have to kill all the Targaryens,” Rhaegar said in a hoarse whisper, struggling to get the words out.

“This is all of you,” Eddard replied as Tabitha joined his side.

“No… Lyanna’s boy…” Rhaegar breathed and Tabitha shook her head.

“She did not have any children,” she dismissed, but after a quick glance up at Eddard she saw how rigid he had become.

“Jon… You called him Jon…” Rhaegar continued and Tabitha inhaled with shock.

“Ned… No… He’s yours, isn’t he?” she questioned.

“Of course he is,” Eddard snapped and Rhaegar grunted.

“He’s my son… I loved Lyanna, and she loved me… She didn’t want that prick Robert-”

“Don’t you speak ill of her or Robert,” Eddard growled and Tabitha grabbed his arm, fearing that he might lash out.

“He is delusional. It’s the poison; he doesn’t know what he is saying,” Oberyn called out from behind them, and Tabitha took the opportunity to push her brother away from the mumbling Targaryen. As she started to follow her brother, Rhaegar’s muttering caught her attention and she hesitated.

“And you…” he breathed to Tabitha. “I wanted to burn your hair brown… and have you as mine- a new Lyanna… But you wanted a slimy snake… Wrong choice… Just like Elia, he won’t love for long…”

“You’re wrong,” Tabitha countered confidently. “My marriage to Oberyn isn’t an arranged marriage like yours, ours was because of love. And I will never regret wedding him.” Tabitha left Rhaegar and hurried back to her brother.

“Do what you please with them. I don’t want to hear any more of his lies,” Eddard stated stiffly just as she returned. Oberyn looked to Tabitha for confirmation, and she nodded.

“For my father, and for Brandon,” she said softly, partly trying to find a way to justify Oberyn’s wishes for herself. He nodded and lifted a branch from the pyre, taking it to the closest wall torch to light the tip. A pair of Dornish guards brought Elia to the room to watch, more guards escorting other nobles, and another hurried in with a wide wooden case.

“My Prince,” the guard said, halting Oberyn. “We found these and thought you might like to burn them too.” He lifted the lid and revealed three petrified dragon eggs, the most valued items of the Targaryen house.

“One for each of them,” Oberyn smirked and the guard nodded. He placed the cream egg at Viserys’ feet and moved on to set the green egg at Rhaegar’s when Viserys started mumbling to himself.

“No, no,” he started to cry out as he stared at the dragon egg below him. “You can’t… You’ll wake the dragons! Don’t wake the dragons inside us! The blood of the dragon, the blood of the dragon…” The guard set the blackened egg with Daenerys and then left the room. Oberyn took his time descending the steps to his victims, watching Viserys talking to himself in madness.

“Not the dragons…” Daenerys suddenly said and Oberyn paused, raising his eyebrows at their in sync insanity. “Don’t wake the dragon in me, don’t wake it!” Rhaegar then joined in with their chants about dragon blood and waking the dragon inside him, and Oberyn turned swiftly on his heel to face his wife and her brother.

“Do you know what that means?” he asked them and Tabitha shook her head, just as puzzled as he was.

“You said it yourself; the poison is making them delirious,” Eddard replied and Oberyn nodded, accepting that as an answer and continuing down to the pyre. Despite the Targaryen’s mad muttering, he tossed the branch and watched as the flames crept up towards their bodies. The flames initially burned green as Rhaegar’s stash of wildfire had been poured over the pyre, but the flames that licked at the Targaryen’s legs were a bright orange. The two youngest screamed in agony and then smothered on smoke as they and their belongings before them were engulfed in flames. As their cries were silenced, Rhaegar’s began.

“With fire and blood!” he yelled with all his might before laughing. A few seconds later and he fell quiet too. The smoke billowed out of the Red Keep, delivering a powerful message to all of King’s Landing’s residents, and Westeros. Oberyn looked over his shoulder to Elia, giving her a triumphant smile as he was pleased with himself for finding her justice even though the two Starks were rigid and clearly still uncomfortable with the situation. A shriek echoed around the throne room, catching everyone off guard, and Oberyn turned back to the pyre. Crawling up the post that Viserys’ skeleton was secured to was a cream dragon with gold markings along its thin wings.

“What in seven hells is that…” Oberyn whispered to himself, eyes wide with pure shock. The creature gave another cry, and it was answered by a deeper pitched screech. Clawing its way up Daenerys’ post was a black dragon, larger than the first. The stares of everyone in the throne room then focused on the middle post, and expectedly a green dragon rose from Rhaegar’s ashes. As the three dragons reached the tops of their posts and called to each other, Tabitha and Oberyn met eyes. Tabitha gave her husband an expression that proved that she was just as clueless as he was, followed by a tiny smile. As she stared at Oberyn, the flames rising tall behind him, she had faith that they would be able to defeat this new challenge too.