No one dared move. No one dared speak.
Some trembled on their feet, some were pale as paper, and some did not even dare raise their heads to look at the enormous beast. They could only stare at the ground beneath their feet, as though one more second of looking would make them faint.
The Dornish nobles who had raised their cups in celebration in the Council Chamber moments earlier now resembled lambs under a predator's gaze, afraid even to breathe too loudly.
Arianne stood at the front, her face pale.
She watched the silver-haired man slide down from the dragon's snout and walk toward her, step by step. Her heart pounded in her chest, but she did not retreat.
Then a single movement broke the deathly silence.
Earl Anders Yronwood, the man who had opposed Arianne from the very beginning, suddenly stepped forward. Under everyone's astonished gaze, he dropped to one knee and bowed his head.
"Your Highness, Aegon Targaryen."
Those words were like a boulder dropped into stagnant water.
Aegon paused and raised an eyebrow, looking at the old earl who had suddenly paid him homage.
Arianne whipped her head around, glaring at Yronwood with an ugly expression.
The nobles behind her also blanched. Shocked, furious, disbelieving eyes turned as one toward the kneeling figure.
"Yronwood... what are you doing?" Earl Dagos Manwoody blurted out, his voice distorted by shock.
Anders ignored him.
Still on one knee, he raised his head and looked directly at Aegon, enunciating every word. "Your Highness, you have come at just the right moment. This woman has usurped power in Dorne for days now..."
"Prince Doran is under house arrest in the Water Gardens, forbidden to communicate with the outside world. Princess Arianne now decides every matter in Dorne, great and small, alone."