FIRE AND BLOOD ( CHAPTER NINE ) "THERE'S A HUMMING IN THE RESTLESS SUMMER AIR, AND WE'RE SLIPPING OFF THE COURSE THAT WE PREPARED"
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290, RHAENYS'S HILL
"WHAT COULD THEY POSSIBLY WANT FROM YOU?" Brienne asked and Aerea sighed briefly as they made their way down from Rhaenys's Hill. She had left Theon up at the top with Barristan Selmy because she knew exactly what the people wanted from her.
Varys had pulled her to the side the other day and warned her that some of the commoner Baratheon extremists were trying to rile up the people against her--somehow trying to throw the blame of the Greyjoy attack on to her, which she thought was absolutely ridiculous. The Greyjoys would have rebelled anyway and if she hadn't of been there with her dragons to take care of it then a lot more people would have died.
"They're angry about the attack," Aerea said simply, "They think that somehow this is my fault."
"That's bullshit," Jaime spat and Aerea nodded.
"I am aware."
"I don't understand, you saved the city," Brienne said, confused and Aerea wanted to laugh out loud because she didn't fucking understand either. She knew power transitions were hard but fuck were the gods testing her--these past few months have been nothing but chaos on top of chaos.
"I was under that impression too," Aerea said dryly, "It appears we were both wrong in their eyes. They want someone to blame and considering the Greyjoys aren't here to blame, they're blaming me."
"That's why you left Theon Greyjoy up there," Draqo realized and Aerea nodded.
"He's safer with four irritable dragons than he is with this mob," Aerea said, finally getting a glimpse of the people at the bottom of Rhaenys's Hill. There were less than she expected, several dozen at least, but with the way that Varys had been warning her, she had assumed that it was at least half of the city. She supposed he just wanted her to be on guard because of how rash she typically is.
They were all yelling but Aerea wasn't entirely sure what they were saying because they were all trying to be louder than the person next to them and their voices ended up just melding together into indecipherable shouts. Aerea could practically feel a headache coming on already and sighed but went to move forward so they could see her.
Automatically, Jaime grabbed her wrist, stopping her dead in her tracks. Aerea looked at him with a frown, about to pull away before she saw the genuinely concerned look in his eyes, "What's wrong?" she asked.
"There's too many of them," he said, "If worse comes to worst, we need to be able to get you out of here if it gets violent."
Aerea stared at him carefully before turning her attention back to the people, "I don't think it's going to get violent," she finally said, "They could have accosted us at any point in King's Landing but they chose here, where they know my dragons are just yards away waiting to kill anyone who tries to harm me. If they were going to attack me, they would have done it in the middle of the streets."
