Chapter Twenty One

The Ironborn, with their tempers adjusted by their time in the dungeons swore fealty to their new Lady, and Commander of the Westerosi Navy two days later, Daenerys watched from the Iron throne, having stood Yara on the steps and dragons soaring beyond the windows; none refused. While named to her counsel Yara Greyjoy would spend little time in the city, sailing first for Pyke to re-establish her home and then to establish the shipping routes which would provide for the Ironborn people, for while they did not sow they would not rape or raid either.

A ship with a few of her own men, volunteers from the Unsullied primarily, had already left for the North to garrison on Bear Island with her in-laws; Lady Lyanna Mormont had the men and the task of ensuring the new laws were kept. She liked the young woman's matter of fact approach, the raven she had sent promptly returned an invitation and a slot in their harbour for the royal ship.

Perhaps in time she would go and see the place that raised such strong warriors, her husband and his cousin only two examples, it was not such a long trip by sea. Daenerys suspected there would be a lot of memories for Jorah there, and she knew not all would be good; but it was his home and their child should know it.

The city still thrummed with life and excitement, many of the nobles and their households were still in the capitol and local businesses were doing quick trade; but for the first time she knew of, all knew where their next meal would come from. And as Daenerys climbed the wall, Drogon and Rhaegal had landed as soon as she put a foot on the stairs, she watched the Unsullied hauling a man down towards the dungeons; not all chose to celebrate in the right way.

She frowned, the city was swelling as people poured in from the outlying areas as the promise of soup kitchens and shelters spread, under careful supervision men and women were being given jobs staffing them, a small allowance and food their payment; but it was proof she needed to expand the project and quickly. Her guards hung back as she approached the dragons, Rhaegal trying to be first to greet her only for Drogon to snap at him; then innocently lowering his huge snout for her to stroke it.

Daenerys lay a hand on the black snout, but reached out to touch Rhaegal as well, her husband was becoming protective now that he knew she was pregnant; but somehow her sons seemed to sense it as well. And Jorah had nothing on Drogon, who had leaned into her hand until it slid away and she laughed, leaning the whole of her body onto his snout, feeling his hot breath blow through his nostrils as he sniffed at her. His wing tips rested on the walkway, wings folded against his side and Daenerys only paused a moment, his invitation clear; and in a few moons her body would be too ungainly to hope to ride at all.

Climbing his folded wing Daenerys seated herself on his back and found a good grip, Drogon gave her an extra moment and then launched himself up. She urged him out over the city, his wings spread wide as he rode the breeze, gliding low so she could see the streets below. People still looked up uneasily as his shadow passed over them, but when they began to point, seeing that she was on his back they began to cheer.

The city flowed beneath her and she studied the capital, there was a great deal that needed to be done; it was not just a matter of feeding these people. She circled Drogon over a poor area, people were already lined up to a garrison for food; but her eyes roamed over the buildings and streets; and an old crater of rubble at the center.

The sights she had seen stayed with her and that afternoon when she found her husband pouring over the map again, she joined him for a moment. Counselors might prefer the work was left to them, so they could spin the stories for her; but she had no such intentions. Jorah had spent more time out in the city than she had, but he wasn't working with this view; and she knew his attention was currently on her stronghold. The wheel was breaking now, and piece by piece she intended to take it apart.

"The mines have been opened, there is a small shipment on the way here for your personal use, but as word of the war with the dead is whispered around the world dragon glass is becoming valuable." Jorah told her, showing her a report he must have received recently.

"That's good." The mines of Dragonstone had been reopened; men would be well paid for the hard work to mine. They had received their first pay; the smallfolk of her lands would not starve in hovels anymore. Jorah was good at coordinating the work, but it was one thing to do it in her own lands. "Now how do we make other houses find opportunities for their smallfolk?"

"A prominent house needs to follow suit." Jorah murmured.

"Tyrion." She muttered; his brother was already here to plead for him. Jorah winced in sympathy and his hand rubbed her back. "I need to talk to Arya Stark."

"Don't take on too much today." He frowned. "I can go find her."

"No, I'll find her." Daenerys was not tired, and she knew she needed to do this; she needed to deal with Tyrion.

At least now she had tangible reasons to pardon him, and to keep him away from her reign. She did not intend to appoint a new hand; her husband would fill the role as the only man with the authority to speak for her. She would keep her counsel full of voices from all of Westeros, but their opportunities to betray her would be limited.

That her first Hand had betrayed her, would not be forgotten, but he could be used. Jamie Lannister loved him, and being dismissed from the Kingsguard for obvious reasons, meant that he was now Lord of Casterly Rock and the extensive Lannister holdings. Thousands of small folk lived on his lands, and as she had learned in the ill-timed attack on the Rock, the Lannisters were not as stable as they had pretended.

She signaled her guards to fall back as she saw Arya Stark watching what was happening in the training yard; she was safe here. Daenerys watched her with a smile, if anyone questioned whether a girl could be raised as a warrior Arya had silenced them.

"Arya, may I have a word?" She stepped up beside her; they had a little privacy in this corridor.

"Your grace." The teen dipped her head in acknowledgement, watching the practice yard a little longer; she noticed the girl's eyes were fixed on the armourer.

"The night you entered the city, you intercepted Qyburn." She verified quietly. "Had he spoken to Tyrion yet?"

Arya was quiet for a long moment, and Daenerys thought she was going to get the run around; then the teen spoke. "Tyrion was captured and taken to the black cells before he met his sister. Qyburn sent someone to inform Cersei that he had her brother before..."

"He died." She finished the sentence; she had a sense of the girl now; Arya had her own scores to settle. Another prisoner had died that first night, and Jorah had urged her to let it rest; Ilyn Payne had taken Ned Stark's head. "Did you speak to Tyrion at all? Did he ever speak to his sister?"

"The message was for the Queen to meet Qyburn first; she did nothing after." Arya shook her head, and Daenerys nodded, she should feel relieved to know Tyrion had not been given an opportunity to talk; but she felt nothing on that note. Whatever he had intended to do, he had not been able to follow through with his plan and it had changed nothing. Arya and Jorah had infiltrated the Keep and it had fallen; Tyrion had spent the whole of the time in the dungeons.

"Thank you." She murmured, and then she paused; glancing across the yard again. "He is Gendry Baratheon now, he has a house and a title; I am sure your siblings would support your choice."

"I am not a lady, I am…" Arya denied quickly, and she frowned, she had not meant the words to be a slight.

"Do you believe that to be a lady must define who you are?" She asked quietly. "It is a title, one of love and protection that your parents were able to pass on to you, a powerful one if you choose to harness it; but it only defines you if you allow it to be so."

"A lady does not do the things I've done." Arya said quietly.

"Perhaps most don't, and before our time a Queen had never ruled Westeros and Dragons had been lost to this world." She challenged, seeing the young man across the yard watching them as well; did those two know what they had? "We are only limited by what we allow power over us. You are a Lady, born of your father's house, that does not mean you cannot be a warrior; in nature there are no fiercer fighter than mothers protecting their young. But you and I are luckier than most. We know what we are, and we have men willing to support and defend our right to be what we are. I made mine wait years because I believed I must follow the rules; I did not know the value of the bond I had."

"There are many men who would marry me for my position, but only one who was willing to it to stand behind me. I will never wield a sword as he does, or as you do; but on the back of my dragon I can change the tide of a war. And I do it knowing he will champion me." Her eyes locked onto a short blade of dragon glass tucked into the girl's belt. "Who made your weapon?"

Arya's eyes slid across the yard and Daenerys turned to leave, feeling rather content with herself for the first time in a very long time. Perhaps young love would blossom, the two were clearly interested in each other, she suspected the bastard made a lord wouldn't mind if his woman carried a sword; given he was the one arming her.

…

Jorah cut through the corridor, heading to meet the counsel through he expected it to be a rough meeting. He knew what Daenerys wanted to discuss and given the topic had come up many times as they journeyed towards the capitol, he had helped her put it into motion in her own holdings, she would be expecting some plans to be coming together.

Anyone who thought they could push her around or redirect the goals she had built her claim upon would be sorely disappointed; however, he did not want her to be. Jorah had been doing some research of his own, with the assistance of Sam; who might be the only Southern Lord who would support these plans with an open mind.

He paused in the doorway, the rhythmic sound of boots making him look back, Unsullied moving together; Daenerys' guards. His wife smiled as she saw him and Jorah waited for her to catch up, letting her enter the room first; and not missing the way she brushed against his side. The men assembled rose, Jorah pulled back a chair for Daenerys before standing to the side.

Daenerys asked for updates and he listened quietly until Varys spoke, reporting growing concerns for how long the Queen intended to feed the poor. The room tensed as his wife stared at her Master of Whispers, the silence hung in the room as some shifted uneasily.

"I did not free the slaves of Dragon's Bay and let them starve so why would I do that in my home? The poor will be fed as long as they are hungry and cannot afford to eat; but it is our duty to provide them the means to fend for themselves." There was fire in her voice, but it was something she had spoken of long before she sailed West; it was a plan they had spent hours on since arriving in the city.

"The crown will be bankrupt in a matter of months." Varys cautioned.

"The Lannisters have already bankrupted the crown, debts to their own house, and the Iron Bank of Bravos are only a portion of what is owed. But the fault of that is not on the people, King's Landing needs jobs, and infrastructure. Do you know how many wells there are in Flea Bottom? How many homes lay destroyed near ruins of the sept?" Daenerys questioned, her eyes roaming over the men assembled.

"There used to be two." Ser Davos coughed, shifting forward a little, he saw his wife's eyes widen; it was easy to forget the man had grown up in the city. "I believe one was contaminated after the Sept of Baylor was destroyed."

"And how many people does it serve?" She questioned; the man only scrubbed a hand over his face; it didn't need to be said. "Plans have already begun for work on the city, skilled laborers will be hired, but any unskilled position is to be given to a man of this city. I will be making arrangements for cut stone to be supplied soon. I began in my own lands, on Dragonstone some may not have much, but they will have what they need to survive; as their liege it is my duty to see that the opportunity for every person to provide for themselves is offered. Not all can be wealthy, but the poor will no longer be the slaves of this nation."

His wife rose, effectively closing the meeting and as soon as she left men began whispering about giving the poor too much power; oddly Jorah noticed one man was quiet. He lingered, listening to the chatter, unlike these men he knew the deal she had brokered with house Lannister.

Their gold mines might be empty but stone the Rock was built on could be quarried; and he had no doubt they would be looking for other precious metals now. In exchange for Tyrion's life Jamie, as Lord of the Rock, had sworn to support the Queen's efforts for industry and infrastructure, and to wipe debts the throne owed; Tyrion was to go to Casterly Rock and remain there.

The small folk of Casterly Rock would be employed in the quarries, and the supply chains; Jamie had not seemed to put out at the notion. Yet many would be, the nobles did not like empowering the small folk, they liked them poor, meek and desperate; but they would find a fierce opponent in their Queen.

"You approve?" Jorah muttered, eying the man who still sat skeptically, after her declaration he had fallen silent, sitting perfectly still in his seat as whispers raced around him; Varys acted as though he did not hear.

"I do." The eunuch met his gaze slowly, and Jorah was caught by surprise; there was respect in his eyes.

"She will face opposition on all sides." It wasn't like him to agree with Varys on anything, perhaps the man was softened by hearing that his old friend was to be released; though banished from the Queen's presence.

"Of course, she will, the rich like the realm to suffer." Varys seemed to gather himself as he said that, there was a sense of familiarity in his words; as though the man had experienced the suffering. And then he spoke with conviction. "But she will know of any who speak against her."

Jorah caught his arm as he moved to leave; a threat in his voice now. "No children."

With a quick nod Varys was gone, leaving Jorah to consider the strange exchange; he was acting as though he had heard her for the first time. Either way, children would no longer be used as spies for the throne, it was one thing for a man or woman to make such a choice; a child could be manipulated.

…

It was more than a week after the coronation that the city began to settle, the celebration had lifted spirits and people had eagerly grabbed hold of it. As they rode down through the city children ran along beside the horses, trying to peek around the guards, people watched them from doorways and windows. In the harbour she let Jorah help her into a small boat to row out into the bay, Jorah had found where her children had settled. The dragons soared out over the Narrow Sea to fish as they pleased, but on a rocky outcrop outside the harbour her children were regularly offered cattle and sheep.

Since she had told him that his child grew within her Jorah had become even more protective, his hand rested on her back to steady her as the small craft was rowed across choppy water. Comfortable on the boat Jorah stood, indicating huge caves in the cliffs which the Red Keep had been built on; one was Drogon's lair and another Rhaegal's. High above the water, on the far side of the city it was a good place for the dragons to live freely and protect her people.

"They seem content up there, they fly over the sea and up the walls to see you and the cliffs are inaccessible. If any are fool enough to bother them let it be on their own head." Her husband told her as Rhaegal poked his head out of one of the caves and eyed them before launching himself into the air; glinting green in the winter sun.

"They look happy." She murmured as Rhaegal soared over them, it was not easy for dragons to live alongside man; but her children would not leave her. And she enjoyed every moment she spent with them, even as they looked forward to the new addition. Jorah nodded as he took his seat again and she saw him frown as he looked out at the bay; there was a ship dropping anchor. "What do you have this afternoon?"

"I want to speak with Sam before the counsel meeting." Jorah murmured, but he sounded a little distracted now, though he helped her from the boat and then into the carriage before climbing up beside her. "Are you feeling well?"

"I'm fine, I'll come with you." She took his hand and gave it a squeeze.

Jorah nodded; she didn't miss his worried look as they crossed to the library, but Sam was not there. As Jorah roamed the rows of books, she leaned over the desk to see what Sam had been working on; reading his sloping handwriting.

Let the blood of the mother and the wife be remembered through the ages; a sacrifice made for all.

Let the living stand together now and always, for when the cold winds blow south the dead rise to extend the divide.

They may be thrown back, for they cannot see, but never forget who made them, not all of us fight for peace.

She startled as a bird took flight from the top of a shelf, her eyes narrowed; it glided away as her husband and Sam met in the doorway to speak quietly. Daenerys turned her attention back to the passage; Jorah had recited those words to her a few days before but seeing the words carefully decoded beneath the strange symbols they had first seen months ago in the Northern crypts after a hard-fought battle. The words had been carved into stones centuries ago, perhaps after the first time the dead marched South, in the age when the first men united with the children of the forest to throw them back.

From Sam's research they knew the First Men had battled with the Children of the Forest for many generations, until they united against the dead and built the wall; and gradually the Children disappeared. Many had believed them to be extinct, but tales from the North and the Free folk confirmed that they had retreated to live in the Lands of Always Winter beyond the wall. Sam showed them several documents he had brought South from Winterfell, and a few he had found in the library here; picking through to find the symbols of the Children's ancient language. Those that came from Winterfell were about the old gods and the ancient faith the Northerners kept, while those from the South referenced the magic of the children, and that used to build the wall; but it was far from a complete history.

In a way it was sad, these whispers of a people who had once lived in Westeros, who had worshiped the lands they lived in; but they knew little of their culture. Daenerys thought of the stories her brother used to tell her, the stories of their house and life in Westeros. What stories had the Children of the Forest been told of their ancestors? What kind of life did they long for? Was it so different from what people wanted today?

Words left for the generations that would follow; left by people who did not believe the battle with the dead was over. And they had been right, for this year the war for the throne had waited as the living united once more; but had they won the battle or the war?

The End

A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who has taken the time to read and review this story, I have enjoyed writing it. I wanted to tell the story of Daenerys taking power, and her dreams for Westeros; the next bit is about her reign. I want to finish a couple of my other stories and then I will start posting it.

Of Fire and Fury

A wheel is not easily broken, the high lords do not give up their games freely, for they know only one way of treating their small folk and yet they have not known such a Queen as Daenerys Targaryen. Westeros might be changed by her rule, but the politics at play are not and relying heavily upon her husband, the one man she trusts completely, she sets out to build a new nation. Though the winds of the past blow cold and new threats rise against the Seven Kingdoms. Will the Queen overcome them? Will the nobles accept her ways and her help?