Halfhand's Legacy: A Dance of Dragons - A Self-Insert Tale

130 AC

Dragonpit

Daeron's pyre was set alight by Sunfyre as thousands thronged the Dragonpit to see a Royal cremation. Tears streamed down her cheeks hidden by the veil, Daeron would have lived had Helaena been bold enough to join her brothers, and Helaena would never forgive herself for her weakness. Mother stood next to her firmly, her tears had long since dried and with them came a hatred for Rhaenyra's ghost that Helaena had never seen before. Aegon having killed Rhaenyra did nothing to comfort their mother. Aegon and Aemond stood next to her with stony expressions, yet Helaena could see the grief that marred them, Daeron was their brother, their baby brother and he was the first amongst them to die in this war that consumed the realm.

More in her family would die if Helaena stood by doing nothing, she closed her eyes and once more the horror came to her mind, a golden dragon and a blood-red dragon locked in an embrace of death tumbling down to the earth in a crash that would reverberate across the realm and neither would rise again. Helaena did not need Aegon to tell her what this nightmare meant. The smells of brimstone filled her nose as the flames cackled, if she did nothing Aegon would be next on that pyre.

"Send a raven to Highgarden, tell them to assemble whatever men they can spare and prepare for a march on the Ocean road. Take a thousand of our best men and ride to Bitterbridge tonight. There will be barges waiting for you, sail down the Mander to Highgarden, I will join you alongside Ser Daeron. Daemon is sure to leave the Westerlands and march on Highgarden, I am certain of it." Aegon turned and said to Ser Criston as Septon Eustace finished speaking. "We will catch him and his host in the Reach and end their depredations to my realm for good."

"Aemond will take the remaining men and march up the Kingsroad to join Ser Byrndon in the Riverlands. In the meantime, Ser Willis Fell is to ride forth by the Gold Road with a hundred men and rally whatever remains of Lord Ormund's host." Aegon continued. Vhagar may no longer be able to fly but Aemond's desire for blood was yet to be sated, if not by dragonfire then by the sword. Whilst Vhagar was to recover for the next year maybe two on Driftmark, Aemond would not leave himself out of this war. She needed to be like him in that regard.

"Yes, Your Grace, it will be done," Ser Criston bowed. The cremation was over. Aegon and Aemond turned to leave along with Ser Criston and the rest of the Small Council that stood atop the stage when Mother called out for Aegon, she did not tear her eyes away from the blackened pyre as its flames began to ebb. The City Watch began to escort the people out of the Dragonpit. Some of the nobility tried to stay back and listen but her Uncle Gwayne pushed them away.

"What about that whore's children? They still live, it is not right that they draw breath when your half-sister has taken your brother's life," Mother hissed. The veil could not hide the venom in her words. Daeron was her favourite, Helaena knew that so did her brothers, perhaps because he was the youngest or because Aegon, Aemond, and Helaena were too self-obsessed with their own lives to bother with anybody else's. Aegon pretending to be a drunk, Aemond devoting his life to the sword even as his fury began to build and lash out at everyone around him for the slightest of transgressions, and Helaena with her dreams and insects that left her in a different world from everyone else. It seemed that Daeron was the only normal one amongst her children and to save him from his brothers' less-than-ideal influence, she sent him away to Oldtown.

"We will deal with them when the time comes Mother, first we have to deal with Daemon," Aegon replied turning back. Helaena could hear the weariness in Aegon's voice. He was getting sick of this war while Mother and Aemond burned with a renewed desire to continue the orgy of blood and death. Aegon's face was now gaunt, his purple eyes had lost the once clever glint that nobody other than Helaena noticed, his silver hair had grown long into a long thick tangled mess and his beard had grown from patchy into a mane.

As Aegon turned to leave, Helaena gathered her strength and raised her veil, "Aegon, wait," Everyone turned to look at her, "I wish to accompany you to Highgarden and help you deal with Daemon."

"Helaena, do you know what you are asking for?" Aemond said with a shocked expression on his face as even as an equally shocked Mother grabbed her hand.

Helaena stood firm, "I know what I am asking for and am ready to fight if I had fought with you at the Gullet, Daeron would still be alive. Dreamfyre could have easily chased away Silverwing when she went wild and you know it. Tell me Aegon do you fancy your chances with Daemon even with Ser Daeron? For all of Sunfyre's vaunted strength, it is nothing compared to Caraxes, if you are lucky the two of you fools will kill yourselves and if you are not, Caraxes and Daemon will win on their own."

Mother gripped her arm tightly, "My dear Helaena, don't be a fool. Flying into battle isn't for you. I have already lost Daeron, I cannot lose you either."

Helaena evenly replied, "And if you don't let me go, you will lose Aegon and it will be his funeral pyre that we will be lighting provided we find his body. I have no intention of losing my husband and the father of my children. I have no intention of telling them why I let their father die in what is so obviously a suicide. Unless you wish to tell your grandchildren that."

Mother released her grip on Heleana's arm in shock as Helaena turned back to Aegon, she felt a fire within her that wanted to burn further and she would not stop, "And nobody dares say that I am a woman if our enemies can fight with women on dragonback so can I." She said silencing the Small Council members who were about to speak.

Aemond then spoke, "It is less about you being a woman and more about you being you. Hel, you do not have the stomach to kill. When the Dragonkeepers tried to teach you how to command Dreamfyre to burn that sheep, you vomited upon the smell of the burnt carcass."

Helaena felt her face redden in embarrassment but she turned pleadingly to Aegon, "Aegon, I have told you about the red and gold dragon haven't I? Let me come with you."

Aegon gave out a sigh that belayed his tiredness before he turned to her, "Fine, you can come but first we need to ensure that you have what it takes to burn people alive." He then turned to Ser Tyland and Lord Jasper, "Bring out all the criminals in the dungeons marked for death. They will be facing Dreamfyre as their executioner and Helaena will give the order."

Within an hour, everyone who wasn't important or necessary was removed from the Dragonpit. It was silent as a tomb except for the sound of the shackles of prisoners brought forth. Helaena stood next to Dreamfyre near her lair as Uncle Gwayne and his men brought a train of prisoners to meet their end. Helaena took deep breaths as she steadied herself for what was to come.

Aegon, Aemond, Mother, Grandfather, and the rest of the Small Council stood further away. Helaena had not changed her clothes from the cremation but she cared not for it neither did the others. She had to prove herself a true dragonrider before everyone who ever doubted her.

"Most of them are murderers and rapists while others are those who have sympathies with Rhaenyra. Some of them are spies and agents of Mysaria who tried to burn our fleet. Thankfully, loyal men in the shipyards and the docks managed to catch and stop them, any fires that were lit were put out immediately. They are the worst of the worst, the scum of the earth that deserve nothing but death, you shouldn't have many compunctions about putting them to death for every one of them deserves it." Uncle Gwayne said to her kindly as he removed his helmet.

Helaena never noticed it until now, the City Watch had changed their armour completely to break away from its past with Daemon. It went further than simply changing the colour of the cloak from gold to red. The half helms that most watchmen wore were replaced by ridge helmets. Uncle Gwayne's helmet and those of the Captains were decorated with a red horsehair plume running down the middle, the breastplates and mail armour were replaced with a cuirass of black scale armour over their tunics with leather vambraces and greaves. They now also had oval shields with the sigil of House Targaryen painted upon them. The only thing from Daemon's time to remain were the black boots and gloves.

Perhaps the reason why she never noticed it was because Aegon ordered that the City Watch would henceforth serve only the city, the protection of the Red Keep would now come under the men-at-arms of House Targaryen. She hadn't seen much of Uncle Gwayne and the City Watch for quite some time in Maegor's Holdfast. Whenever Uncle Gwayne did come to the Red Keep, he never came as the Commander of the City Watch but rather as her uncle, hence he never wore his armour.

"Helaena, we are waiting. You can start executing them. We do not have all day," Aegon's voice called out to her and Helaena was broken from her thoughts as she looked around to see everyone waiting expectantly while the gagged prisoners were crying, trying to plead for mercy yet no words ever came out.

Helaena turned to the first man who was on his knees but this man might as well have murdered his wife for all she knew, his eyes were red with tears but Helaena turned her eyes away to an expectant Dreamfyre who was looking at her rather than the prisoner, this was the moment of truth. Helaena pointed to the man and uttered, "Dracarys."

Dreamfyre turned to the prisoner and opened her maw, a lance of orange flame shot forth immolating the man before he could even scream. The smell of burnt meat and sulfur filled her nose but Helaena did not turn away from it, bile rose into her mouth but she pushed it down. She would go through this to the end.

Then the body began to finally stop twitching in the flames as Dreamfyre bent down to eat the corpse before one of the Dragonkeeper Elders stopped her with his staff, "Not yet, Dreamfyre, not yet."

"Good," Aegon called out to Hel, "You did well, Hel. Now you have to do this same thing from the remaining," He bent his neck to Tyland and asked, "How many prisoners?" Tyland whispered the number into his ear. Aegon announced, "Forty remaining prisoners. You know what, this will take forever and I am not waiting that long for every one of them to die alone, so let us hurry this along shall we? Clump all these prisoners together against one of the lairs and tie them all up. Let Dreamfyre kill them all at once like how it happens in battles. We have a war to win."

Highgarden

"The Shield Islands have fallen to the Ironborn, which means that pretty soon we will see Ironborn raiding up and down the Mander, it would be ideal to destroy them right now," Aegon said to her as they gathered in the Great Hall of Highgarden to plan their next moves. Ser Criston along with Sers Arryk Cargyll, Rickard Thorne, and Daeron Velaryon were standing next to her and Aegon while Lady Elinor Tyrell, Lord Senechal of Highgarden Theodore Tyrell, the Maester Walys, and the master-at-arms Ser Lucas Kidwell stood around the High Table. The castellan and the foremost knight of Highgarden was Ser Moryn Tyrell who had left with the majority of Highgarden's strength to occupy the Stormlands.

Highgarden was truly a beautiful castle with its briar, fountains, statues, and colonnades and if it were any other time, Helaena would have perhaps taken the time to explore the castle and find new insects but it wasn't the time to do so. Perhaps she could convince Aegon to hold a Royal Progress through the Reach after the war and after winter had passed and spring had returned. A Royal Progress would do well to heal and unite a realm hurting under what everyone agreed was the most devastating Westeros-wide civil war ever to occur. From the Marches to the Wall, the hand of war touched everything and everyone.

"Helaena, would you take care of the Ironborn problem?" Aegon asked her, Helaena turned her attention back to the table and the map.

"Yes, of course," Helaena nodded as she noticed Aegon move the dragon figurine meant for her down to the mouth of the Mander on the map. "But what about dealing with Daemon?"

"We need Daemon to commit to an attack, if he sees you he might flee. If he goes North, this war might take a turn for the worse," Aegon replied. Which meant that he was using himself and Ser Daeron as bait for Daemon. "Once you are done with the Greyjoys, you fly up north along the Ocean Road and join us wherever we meet Daemon."

"Our reports suggest that Lord Dalton Greyjoy has already made landfall at the mouth of the Mander, which means that his fleet will either be congregated there or they will be sailing up the Mander. Either way, I assume that they will be easy targets for your dragon, Your Grace," Ser Criston said to her. Helaena merely nodded as looked at the map. The dragon figurines meant for Aegon and Ser Daeron were on the ocean Road near Old Oak.

"How many men have you raised?" Aegon turned to Theodore Tyrell. A portly man with a bushy moustache but he wasn't a bumbling buffoon as most people would think him to be. He had planned for Highgarden to sit out the war had it not been for Aegon anticipating such an act from the very beginning.

"Around ten thousand men, Your Grace, regrettably most of them are green boys and greybeards for most of our fighting men are down south in the Stormlands," The Lord Seneschal of Highgarden immediately replied bowing his head.

Aegon waved it off, "No matter, my men have reached. They will be unified with your men into a single command, they will serve as officers for your men to keep discipline."

Helaena noticed that Lady Elinor was not pleased to have given up the command of her men to Aegon but there was nothing that she could do to prevent it. Helaena knew that Lady Tyrell had no intention of ever joining the war other than giving lip service to Aegon if not for Daeron and Tessarion landing in the courtyard of Highgarden, a visit that was quickly followed by Aegon destroying Bitterbridge and Goldengrove.

She had flown over Bitterbridge, and she saw the destruction that Aegon had wrought upon the town. The ruins remained untouched as Aegon wanted Bitterbridge to remain a blackened ruin for all in the Reach as a reminder to those who dared to scorn the power of the House of the Dragon. It had a noticeable impact on many of the Green Lords like Unwin Peake, for before the war when they came to the Red Keep, they saw Aegon as a drunk puppet that they could manipulate for their ambitions.

After some time of further deliberation, Aegon announced. "That is it, we march immediately. There is a good chance that Daemon and his men will be somewhere around Old Oak by now. If we are lucky we will catch them off guard."

"Are you ready for this, Hel?" Aegon asked her as they walked into the famous briar labyrinth of Highgarden.

Helaena swallowed before nodding, she couldn't find words and her mouth was dry. She felt lightheaded even as her heart began to beat faster and faster, perhaps Aegon could hear the sound of her heart beating. She was barely able to hold her stomach when brought to face against the prisoners but now she would have to do it with both the Ironborn and then the Rivermen and Daemon. It was going to be a quick flying and burning campaign that Aegon conducted throughout the war.

"Sit down," Aegon calmly said to her as he brought her down to one of the marble benches scattered across the labyrinth. "I understand that you are nervous and that is fine. All you need to do is get your mind off things, just take a deep breath and then release it and keep doing it."

"Focus on nothing but on your breaths, it will calm you down," Aegon placed his hand on her shoulder and Helaena followed his instructions, after a few minutes, Helaena could feel her thumping heart slowing down.

"How do you do this?" Helaena then asked Aegon once she began to breathe normally.

Aegon shrugged, "I thrive in it, when your heart starts to beat out of control, when you feel lightheaded, instead of thinking it to be a problem to solve I think of it more like a goal to reach. I want to reach the peak of that experience. The same goes for Aemond, we revel in it and that is what makes dragon flying and burning and destroying upon a dragon's back so amazing. It is what makes us dragonlords. It gives a feeling of invincibility that cannot be described by mere words but must be experienced, whatever euphoria you have experienced by merely flying Dreamfyre here and there it is nothing compared to what you feel when you burn and destroy upon a dragon. All you have to do is learn to close your ears to the screams."

Helaena closed her eyes, she could already hear the screams of the burning, she could hear the flames cackle as they spread their fingers of death.

"Before you get all queasy about burning people alive, think about why you are doing it?" Aegon then said to her, "The Ironborn that you are about to burn have no absolutely no notions of what is right or honourable. They burn, pillage and rape, and take away innocents as slaves that is practically their way of life which we need to destroy with dragon fire. If you do not stop Dalton Greyjoy before he starts to burn his way up the Mander, people will starve and die because of your hesitation. You are a dragon-riding Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, Helaena, you have duties to your subjects, your duty to protect them from all harm."

Aegon continued, "Then there is the matter of the Rivermen and Northmen who have burnt and pillaged their way through the West. Farms were laid to waste, granaries looted, villages put to the sword, and towns put to the fires. Castles were ransacked with noble families either wiped out or in hiding. Tens of thousands have been killed with more than double that number in the risk of starvation and famine that will follow with the coming winter. The mines that make the backbone of the economy of the West have been buried in stone and sealed. When the first reports of their march came to me, most of the court thought that Lady Johanna was overstating the destruction, now it turns out that Lady Johanna was watering down the true scale of the destruction. The West will be crippled for at least two generations if not more."

"As for Daemon, you know full well what will happen to our children if that man is allowed to live any longer." Aegon finished before he got up from the bench, "The final decision is yours Hel, no one can take it for you."

As Aegon was about to leave, Helaena asked, "Why did you destroy the town of Bitterbridge? You could have stayed your hand upon the people after you routed the army and burnt the castle. But you went after the people as well, the burnt ruins of the town say a much different story than one of fire simply spreading out of control."

"If I didn't destroy Bitterbridge they would have killed Maelor," Aegon replied, Helaena opened her mouth in shock but no words came out. Aegon continued speaking, "I had a dream wherein a mob from a town with a stone bridge across a wide river tore apart my son in exchange for a bounty. That town had a yellow centaur on its walls. As for whether it was necessary to burn the entire town, perhaps not, now that I think with a clear head but in the heat of the moment I decided to make the entire town pay for their possible future transgressions. Sure it may seem a bit farfetched now but then it felt real, as real as Sunfyre underneath me. To protect the sheep, we must kill the wolves."

Helaena could say nothing as Aegon turned and left.

Mander

The Mander was a slow river with snags and sandbars to trap the unwary ship. From Highgarden, the river was calm and navigable by sea-going vessels which put Highgarden under the threat of an Ironborn attack. Helaena flew over the Mander with Dreamfyre's leathery wings beating steadily as she soared over the clouds. Helaena looked down to see any signs of the Ironborn longships making their way up the Mander.

Aegon's words were stuck in her mind, she had to close her ears and accept her duty. Then from the clouds, Helaena saw the Ironborn longships, nearly forty of them. Their oars bent toward Highgarden, their black sails brought down but Helaena knew they were the Greyjoys, especially the lead ship for it was decorated with a kraken at its prow. It was the largest longship that Helaena had ever seen with at least a hundred oars. It must be the ship of Dalton Greyjoy, she had heard tales of his cruelty to the women he captured.

The Ironborn did not attempt to peel off and raid the farmland along the riverbanks, Helaena quickly realized why with dread pooling in her stomach, they meant to attack Highgarden. The spoils of Highgarden were worth a thousand times more than what they get from fields. Helaena steeled herself, she had to do her duty, she raised her whip and cracked it in the air and Dreamfyre gave out a roar that shook the air around her before she descended.

The shock on the Ironborn was instantaneous, the rowing immediately stopped and Dreamfyre came ever closer. Helaena saw Dalton's ship desperately trying to turn back only to crash into the ship behind it. Within the time it took for Dreamfyre to descend, the entire column of ships desperately tried to change course only to crash into each other causing all the ships to be jammed in the river as they desperately tried to escape. She could hear the rising shouts of panic from the ships accompanied by the song of steel, were the Ironboorn fighting each other?

Helaena felt herself weightless as Dreamfyre descended and then she reached Dalton Greyjoy's ship. A few arrows whistled past her but there was no coordinated attack from the Ironborn ships. Most of the arrows missed while the others bounced off harmlessly from Dreamfyre's scales. Helaena took a deep breath and said the words she braced herself to say, "Dracarys."

Dreamfyre opened her maw and shot forth a lance of yellow flames, the flames set the deck alight. Guttural screams of burning men reached Helaena's ears but she ignored them as Dreamfyre turned her neck to set alight the next ship. The decks of the longships were burning along with the men on them, sailors and oarsmen gave out terrified and agonizing screams as they began to writhe around in the flames. Some jumped into the water for succour while others consumed by the flames stayed unmoving.

Before Helaena could react Dreamfyre turned to the next ship and gave out another jet of hellfire, most of its sailors began to jump in the river, most of them wore armour, and some were caught in the flames before they fell. Helaena sat motionlessly on her saddle as she let Dreamfyre take care of the Ironborn fleet on her own, every ship was met with flames that engulfed the ship. Men began to convulse on the burning decks as the smell of burnt meat reached her.

After an eternity, the river soon became a chokehold of burning ships and corpses as Dreamfyre set every single ship on fire, not one ship escaped the inferno.

Helaena looked out to the farms by the riverbank, and she saw terrified people flee for their lives in the fields into their daub and wattle huts with thatched roofs that would burn easily. Helaena saw the Ironborn trying to swim to safety, some began to sink in their armour while others were about to reach the riverbanks.

If these Ironborn reached the riverbanks there would be no telling what they would do, most of the soldiers were away fighting with Aegon or in the Stormlands there would be no one to save them. Helaena had to act. To protect the sheep, she must kill the wolves.

Helaena snapped her whip and Dreamfyre turned her attention to those swimming below, a burst of flames from Dreamfyre set the river boiling as more screams began. Helaena turned her face away from the stinging steam but she could not stop now, it was her duty to protect the people. Dreamfyre kept sending forth fireballs into the water wherever Helaena saw men trying to swim and before long boiled and corpses began to reach the riverbanks.

Helaena would have wished for nothing more than to end the carnage and fly back home to her children but she could not, not when she had to save Aegon as well. Helaena gave one last look to the burning fleet and snapped her whip, Dreamfyre turned and began to fly north to Old Oak.

Old Oak

Helaena would have been soaked in the wet clouds if not for her armour and helmet that Aegon forced her to wear. There was certainly a storm going on underneath and to escape the lightning Helaena flew high above the clouds but because of flying higher than the clouds, Helaena wasn't sure where she was.

Had she flown over the battle? Had she missed the battle entirely? Before any further dark thoughts came to her mind, Helaena heard the unmistakable roar of dragons, one of them was certainly that of Sunfyre. This was it, the place of the battle. Her heart began to beat faster and faster, she remembered what Aegon said, to embrace the dreaded anticipation, to revel in it. Helaena took a deep breath before she raised her whip and snapped it.

Dreamfyre roared as she descended from the clouds, and Helaena was greeted with the sight of her nightmares coming to life. Caraxes and Sunfyre in an embrace of death as they began to tumble down.

"NOOO," Helaena cried out, she was too late. "DREAMFYRE, GO AFTER THEM." Dreamfyre didn't need to be told twice as she began to rapidly descend toward the twisting forms of the dragons that were tearing each other apart. The castle of Old Oak, the army down below in disarray none of it registered to Helaena.

As she approached ever closer, Helaena saw the form of her uncle Daemon standing atop his saddle, he was not chained, Dark Sister in hand, Helaena's eyes widened as she realized what was to come, Helaena shouted, "DREAMFYRE, DRACARYS."

Dreamfyre did not fail her as she loosed a searing stream of her blinding hot flames upon where Daemon was standing and just before Daemon could jump, the flames reached him. Helaena heard Daemon scream as he was bathed in Dreamfyre's flames. A heartbeat later, Dreamfyre slammed into the two dragons.

A jarring jolt of pain went up and down Helaena as she screamed even as Dreamfyre sank her talons into Caraxes' back and her jaws closed around Caraxes' bleeding throat.

"AEGON, BREAK OFF, AEGON, BREAK OFF," Helaena shouted through the pain but she could not see Aegon neither could she hear him over the clamour of the dragons. But then, she saw Sunfyre break his claws free off Caraxes but as he tried to fly, Helaena saw to her horror that his wings were tattered to the point that Sunfyre could not hold his own weight and Sunfyre began to fall to the ground with them.

"Oh, no," Helaena felt her heart come up her throat before she screamed, "AEGON." Before Helaena could do anything, the ground came up to meet them.