The Dragon's Princess

13.

After Rhaenyra and her family's departure for Dragonstone, in the dead of night, a servant boy discovered King Viserys had passed away in his sleep.

The boy immediately informed Queen Alicent Hightower's lady in waiting, Talya.

"You're sure?"-Talya alerted her mistress to her husband's passing.

"With his own eyes, Your Grace. "

"Uh... stay here. Tell, tell no one. Help me dress."

A tearful Alicent hastily dressed and headed to her father's chambers in the Tower of the Hand.

"Who knows?"

"My handmaiden, Talya. Some of the servants."-the Queen informed him of the King's death.

"I saw him last night... before he... He told me he wished for Aegon to be King."

Alicent also talked about her husband's seeming choice on his deathbed to rename his heir as her eldest son Aegon.

"It is the truth. Uttered with his own lips. His last words to me and I was the only one to hear it. And now, he's dead."

Unbeknowst to either of them, Talya lighted a candelabra in the window of Viserys's chamber as a signal to someone in King's Landing.

♧

The Small Council was hastily convened.

"What is it that could not have waited an hour? Was Dorne invaded?"

Ser Tyland Lannister asked what matter could not have waited until dawn, sarcastically asking if Dorne was invaded.

"The King is dead."-the Lannister was silenced when Otto informed him the King had passed away.

"We grieve for Viserys the Peaceful... our sovereign... our friend."-the Hand sombrely noted that they grieved for their fallen sovereign.

"But, he has left us a gift. With his last breath, he impressed upon the Queen his final wish, that his son, Aegon... should succeed him as Lord of Seven Kingdoms."

He noted that the late King Viserys had given them a final gift in naming Aegon as his heir.

"Then we may proceed now with the full assurance of his blessing on our long laid plans."

"Yes. There is much to be done, as we've previously discussed."

Tyland said that they could now proceed with his blessing on their long laid plans, to which Otto agreed.

"Now, there are two among the captains of the City Watch that remain loyal to Daemon. Let us replace them. Lord Lannister."-he began suggesting.

"The Treasury is well in hand. The gold will be divided for safekeeping."

"Let ravens be sent to our allies, Riverrun and Highgarden."

"Am I to understand that the members of the Small Council have been planning secretly to install my son without me?"

Appalled Alicent demanded to know why she was not informed members of the council were plotting to install Aegin as heir without her knowledge.

"My Queen, there was no need to sully you with darling schemes."-Lord Jasper Wylde replied.

"I will not have this. To hear that you're plotting to replace the King's chosen heir with an imposter!"

Lord Lyman Beesbury was also angered by this subterfuge, with the latter furiously raging at the other council members for plotting to replace Viserys's chosen heir, his eldest daughter Rhaenyra.