Black tidings

Danyla's favorite thing to do was feed the dragons on Dragonmont. There, at Dragonstone Castle, dragonkeepers loyal to House Targaryen were responsible for feeding and training the Great Dragons.

Most of these dragonkeepers were descendants of House Targaryen's bastards. Perhaps that was why the Great Dragons rarely harmed them, though their diluted blood also made it difficult for them to grow close to the dragons.

They could not read and spoke only Valyrian. Chosen as children, they were raised to become dragonkeepers. Most had already been taken to King's Landing to continue serving the Targaryen Great Dragons in the Dragonpit.

Only a dozen or so remained on Dragonstone.

Every day, the dragonkeepers drove flocks of sheep into the dragons' lairs and let them eat their fill.

Honestly, it was rather wasteful. Sheepskin and wool might not be expensive, but they were still worth a Copper Star-sixteen coppers, enough to buy sixteen pieces of white bread. That was five days' food for an adult.

So Danyla had the dragonkeepers slaughter and marinate the sheep first, then carry them near the dragons' lairs and roast them on huge iron racks.

Of course, they did not dare stay nearby, but Danyla did. Great Dragons would not readily harm someone with Targaryen blood, would they?

Over the years, Danyla had amassed several thousand Gold Dragons in private savings from selling sheepskins. That was what remained after she gave half the proceeds to the servants who skinned the sheep and bought the hides.

For this purpose, Danyla had even picked out twelve teenage boys from among the orphans of King's Landing to serve her and handle the skinning.

She had selected these boys from over a hundred orphans. They were all decent-looking and bright.

Danyla intended to train them as her personal guard. To that end, she had specifically hired Bronn, a highly skilled Mercenary Warrior from King's Landing, to teach them swordsmanship.

Bronn's skills were every bit as good as those of the white cloaks, so the boys' training went quite well. They became much quicker at skinning sheep, too.

Her niece Rhaenyra even gave them a nickname: the Order of the Sheepskin Peeler Warriors. For a time, the fame of the Sheepskin Peeler Warriors spread throughout the Seven Kingdoms.

Danyla did not care in the slightest. Not many people in this world can turn their reputation into money, but this girl is one of them!

Ever since Danyla had fallen in love with feeding Great Dragons, she had visited them all in turn: the Bronze Fury-Vermithor, the Good Queen-Silverwing, the ugly brute-Sheepstealer, and the old bitch-Vhagar.

Danyla did not dare provoke the savage Great Dragon Cannibal. That old dragon was both cunning and dangerous.

King Jaehaerys had left Vermithor and Silverwing on Dragonstone for a long time. Perhaps he had grown too old for Dragonriding!

Every time, Vermithor simply picked up the whole roasted sheep Danyla had prepared for him and left. Utterly heartless. Neither he nor Silverwing ventured out of Dragonmont very often.

At least Silverwing occasionally spared Danyla a glance and did not reject her attempts to get close.

Sheepstealer certainly lived up to her name. She only liked stealing, always waiting until Danyla had left before emerging to drag away the roast sheep.

And her looks were... tsk, tsk. Quite ugly. Those supposedly mud-colored scales were neither black nor gray, with a touch of yellow like shit!

Her head was bald-looking, too, without horns or spikes. In that respect, she looked rather like Vhagar.

Vhagar was now Prince Baelon's mount. Since she disliked the Dragonpit, she often flew back to Dragonstone on her own.

She did give Danyla some respect, though. Every time Danyla fed her, she would roar a few times and flap her wings. Occasionally, she would even give Danyla a look that seemed to say, "You're not bad."

Vhagar liked to rest on the rocks along the beach, and she was always languid when eating sheep. Fortunately, she not only allowed Danyla to touch her, but was also willing to listen as Danyla sat beneath her head and chattered away. Every so often, she puffed a little smoke from her nostrils. Danyla did not know whether that was her way of responding.

That day, Danyla rode Dreamfyre on a few circuits around Dragonstone. After years of recovery and growth, she could see that Dragonstone's new island was finally beginning to look prosperous.

When she finished her flight and returned to the castle, Danyla immediately sensed that something was wrong with the atmosphere. With a grave expression, Maester Gladys told everyone:

"A black raven has brought black tidings. Prince Baelon has passed away."

Like everyone else, Danyla was struck by profound shock.

Then the seasoned, steady Maester Gladys quietly reminded Danyla:

"Your Highness, by tradition, when a member of House Targaryen dies, they must return to Dragonstone for a Funeral Rite. We should begin the preparations."

At those words, Danyla forced herself to rally and began instructing the servants to prepare for the arrivals.

"Ser Alfred, please make sure everyone stays vigilant. Assign more patrols to Fisherman's Village, and pay particular attention to screening outsiders. A curfew will be enforced during the funeral."

"Maester Tigris, please prepare the necessary supplies. I'm sorry for the trouble, but I'll be relying on you and Ser Alfred for what comes next!"

The steady, kindly old maester and the ill-tempered captain of the Guards, Alfred, answered respectfully,

"Yes, Your Highness!"

"Anne, we should have many female guests this time. Thank you for taking care of everything needed to receive them."

As Danyla's governess, Anne was also a noble lady, hailing from House Stokeworth in the Crownlands.

"Yes, Your Highness! Leave it to me!"

"All right, everyone, go and prepare!"

After making all the arrangements, Danyla sat on the Dragonstone chair and gazed at the enormous table modeled on Westeros, sinking into thought once more.

Dragonstone was an island formed by eruptions from Dragonmont's active volcano, situated at the mouth of Blackwater Bay. Rich deposits of dragonglass lay beneath the mountain.

For hundreds of years, apart from Dragonstone Castle, the island had held only a fishing village of some ten thousand people.

Many ships traveling across the Narrow Sea stopped here to replenish supplies and fresh water, or to shelter from storms.

Thus, although Fisherman's Village was not large, it still brought House Targaryen some tax revenue.

Before they became kings of the Seven Kingdoms, House Targaryen had drawn most of its income from its own overseas trade.

Now that the Seven Kingdoms supported them, the family's merchant fleet had long since been reorganized into the Royal Fleet and left sitting in King's Landing's harbor as little more than decoration.

Not far southwest of Dragonstone lay Driftmark, home to House Velaryon, another family from Valyria.

To the north was House Celtigar of Claw Isle, also vassals House Targaryen had brought with them from Old Valyria.

Although Dragonstone Castle was ancient and strong, Dragonstone had few vassals. Its islands were sparsely populated, making it difficult for their lords to muster armies.

But as the newly formed island to the northeast expanded to more than ten times its original size, King Jaehaerys summoned tens of thousands of displaced people from King's Landing and settled them where the new island met the old.

The settlement had now grown into a small town that lived by raising sheep and cultivating barley, oats, soybeans, and other crops-White Sheep Town.

After successfully mastering Dragonriding, Danyla had gone straight to her great-grandfather, King Jaehaerys, and asked for Goat Town and Dragonstone's new island as her own domain.

Since Danyla was the youngest dragonrider in Targaryen history, and they considered the land nothing more than dispensable wilderness, they agreed to her request as though humoring a child.

Now Danyla was a royal princess with a domain of her own, a first for House Targaryen.

Traditionally, only the heir to the throne was entitled to be named Prince of Dragonstone and granted the right to govern the island.

House Targaryen currently held vast reserves of wealth and had yet to reach the point in history when it would need to borrow from the Iron Bank.

There were few members of the royal family, too, so everyone lived comfortably and abundantly. They never thought Gold Dragons were particularly precious.

They all took it for granted that Danyla was simply a child playing house and gave her actions no serious thought.

If that's what you think, wonderful! Either way, Dragonstone's new island rightfully belongs to me, Danyla Targaryen!

Under the laws of the Seven Kingdoms, no one could interfere anymore. Otherwise, she could ride her dragon right up to their faces and unleash her ultimate attack.

She knew that, in history, Rhaenyra had already won, only to be driven from power by the strongest fighting force in the entire show-the mobs of King's Landing-after a shortage of funds forced her to raise taxes.

In the end, she had fallen so low that she could not even afford passage on a ship back to Dragonstone.