He Doesnt Understand. My Lord, Sam Said, My F-f-f-father, Lord Randyll, He, He, He, He, He. The Life

   He doesn’t understand. “My lord,” Sam said, “my f-f-f-father, Lord Randyll, he, he, he, he, he. the life of a maester is a life of servitude. ” He was babbling, he knew. “No son of House Tarly will ever wear a chain. The men of Horn Hill do not bow and scrape to petty lords.” If it is chains you want, come with me. “Jon, I cannot disobey my father. ”    Jon, he’d said, but Jon was gone. It was Lord Snow who faced him now, grey eyes as hard as ice. “You have no father,” said Lord Snow. “Only brothers. Only us. Your life belongs to the Night’s Watch, so go and stuff your smallclothes into a sack, along with anything else you care to take to Oldtown. You leave an hour before sunrise. And here’s another order. From this day forth, you will not call yourself a craven. You’ve faced more things this past year than most men face in a lifetime. You can face the Citadel, but you’ll face it as a Sworn Brother of the Night’s Watch. I can’t command you to be brave, but I can command you to hide your fears. You said the words, Sam. Remember?”    I am the sword in the darkness. But he was wretched with a sword, and the darkness scared him. “I. I’ll try.”   “You won’t try. You will obey.”   “Obey.” Mormont’s raven flapped its great black wings.   “As my lord commands.”  

 (AFFC, SAMWELL I)

She ate but little and was painfully thin, almost emaciated. Naerys loved music and poetry, played the harp well, and enjoyed sewing and embroidering…

When it came, the fall of Dragonstone took less than an hour. […] Only in one respect did the plan go awry. As Tom Tangletongue and his ruffians smashed down the door of Lady Baela’s bedchamber to take her prisoner, the girl slipped out her window, scrambling across rooftops and down walls until she reached the yard. The king’s men had taken care to send guards to secure the stable where the castle dragons had been kept, but Baela had grown up in Dragonstone, and knew ways in and out that they did not. By the time her pursuers caught up with her, she had already loosed Moondancer’s chains and strapped a saddle onto her. So it came to pass that when King Aegon II flew Sunfyre over Dragonmont’s smoking peak and made his descent, expecting to make a triumphant entrance into a castle safely in the hands of his own men, with the queen’s loyalists slain or captured, up to meet him rose Baela Targaryen, Prince Daemon’s daughter by the Lady Laena, as fearless as her father. — Fire & Blood

Baela Targaryen and Moondancer, by Doug Wheatley, for Fire & Blood (paperback edition) by George R.R. Martin

[14/20] ASOIAF power couples → Maekar I Targaryen x Dyanna Dayne

The last of King Daeron’s sons was the second to wed, to Lady Dyanna Dayne, niece of the famed Ser Ulrick, the Sword of the Morning. This came as a surprise to most, as the groom was just sixteen, his bride scarcely a year older — and Dornish besides. King Daeron offered little in the way of explanation, but young maidens at court insisted it was the dour prince and gregarious Dyanna themselves who requested the match, for they were rarely seen far apart. Whatever the cause, so it was that in 190 AC, the two were married.

A warrior of note, Maekar’s greatest distinction came during the First Blackfyre Rebellion at the Battle of the Redgrass Field. The battle was a bloody affair that saw many to their deaths, including Daemon Blackfyre himself and his two eldest sons, and only came to an end when Baelor Breakspear appeared with a host of stormlords and Dornishmen, falling on the rebel rear, while the young Prince Maekar rallied what remained of Lord Arryn’s van and made an implacable anvil against which the rebels were hammered and destroyed.

For his valor, Prince Maekar was awarded the seat of Summerhall. By Lady Dyanna’s hand, Summerhall remained true to its name, less a fortress than a palace filled with music, art, and gardens. During their seventeen years of marriage, Dyanna bore Maekar four sons and two daughters before succumbing to a short and sudden illness some years after the birth of Princess Rhae. Several ladies were henceforth put forward as suitors, for the prince was yet young, but he accepted none. Already a stern man, it is said that what smiles he had died with Dyanna, and that he grew sterner still after the mishap that claimed the life of his brother, Prince Baelor.

Maekar later gained further renown on the battlefield with his leadership in the Third Blackfyre Rebellion, alongside the courage of his youngest son, Aegon. Rising to the throne in 221 AC, Maekar proved to be an energetic king whose twelve-year reign was one of relative peace. He ultimately fell in battle at the age of nine-and-fifty while leading his army against the rebellious Lord Peake on the Dornish Marches.

the dance of the dragons week: day 1 → the blacks or the greens

The Blacks of the Dance of the Dragons

I hate drawing children. Even The “Strong Boys” were a chore (except the twins Baela and Rhaena). I also had trouble with Rhaenyra. I want to redesign her jewelry.