House of The Dragon:The Rise of the Emperor of the Seven Kingdoms

Looking at twelve bodies side by side, their faces pale and showing signs of poisoning, Mara knelt and touched a man’s chest. There was a look of sadness in her eyes. Of these twenty people who had protected her for nearly two decades, more than half had died today.

"Maekar, they say demons are the cruelest beings inhabiting the Seven Hells, but you and I know there is no greater evil in the world than us human beings," Mara said in a calm tone. "We kill ourselves for many things: gold, women, glory, or the simple feeling of pleasure in taking a life."

"I read in a book that we are our own demons and our guilt is the hell we create to torture ourselves," Maekar replied calmly. He looked at the twelve corpses before him with a serene gaze. They were good men who had given their lives to protect what they deemed important. That was admirable.

Mara looked at Maekar and understood what he meant. She showed a smile and stood up. "You could have simply told me not to feel guilty."

"That would require a larger vocabulary, my princess," Maekar shrugged and spoke casually.

Mara rolled her eyes, and the sadness in them gradually faded, replaced by a calm and cold feeling.

"Tonight, I want the banquet to happen; as for those who couldn’t arrive, I no longer care," Mara said calmly, looking at her castle, which showed countless cracks and large missing pieces. She looked at Maekar and said in a playful tone:

"If I were a greedy merchant, I would charge you for nearly destroying my castle."

This time it was Maekar’s turn to roll his eyes; it wasn’t his fault the castle was so fragile. Bahamut had broken the castle as if he were destroying a sandcastle on the beach.

"Dress well, my dear Prince Targaryen; today we begin long hours of discussion. Prepare yourself for blood, sweat, and screams," Mara said with a sarcastic and cold smile.

"I always dress well," Maekar replied with an amused smile on his lips.

"We’ll see, we’ll see, Maekar," Mara said.

Just as Mara had said, a banquet took place that night. However, unlike any other banquet, there was no music or even food, only drinks served at the table. Curiously, there were silver chalices for each guest.

Seated on the throne that had passed from prince to princess over millennia, Mara was looking at all the lords present with a calm gaze. Seated in an ornate chair beside her was Maekar, with Clarisse by his side.

"Drink, this is a night of joy," Mara said, smiling. Her black eyes, like two black pearls, were gentler than ever.

The lords exchanged looks, but no one truly dared to do such a thing. The smell of blood and ash still lingered in the castle; who would be fool enough to drink from the silver chalices?

However, one person actually drank. He wore yellow clothes with the House Martell crest embroidered on his chest. It was none other than Prince Mors Martell, Mara’s uncle.

"I heard you suffered an assassination attempt, niece." Mors drank the wine from the silver chalice and spoke in a deeply concerned tone.

If it were before, perhaps Mara would have felt like acting out a good scene between uncle and niece, but at this moment, Mara’s smile vanished completely.

"You’re the one concerned for my safety, despite being the mastermind behind the attempt, dear uncle." Mara brought the silver chalice to her lips and spoke each word in a calm tone.

As soon as Mara spoke those words, an almost deafening silence hung in the air. Everyone could hear each other’s breathing. The sound of swallowing echoed around the room.

"It seems you have been influenced by the sordid and malicious words of the Targaryen prince; otherwise, how could you think such a thing?" Mors appeared shocked and shook his head, speaking his words in a tone full of indignation and helplessness.

"Great, now I’m a demon who can bewitch people. I should have used this power to sit on the Iron Throne." Maekar rolled his eyes and spoke sarcastically; his violet eyes stared at Mors with a look full of interest. "Careful, I might ask you to kill yourself."

The lips of the Dornish lords curled into smiles for a few moments before returning to calm and solemn expressions. The prince was more provocative and bold than they had expected.

"Ignoring my uncle’s stupid words, I’ll get straight to the point." Mara ignored Mors’s words and spoke to all the Lords present.

"I wish to make Dorne part of the Seven Kingdoms."

Mors’s face turned cold as he was ignored by everyone; it was as if he were the court jester.

The first to stand and speak against it was none other than Lord Yoren of House Yronwood. He was a man in his thirties, tall and strong, with hard features and a face marked by a massive scar running from his forehead to his chin.

"Let us not bow to the Conqueror; it won’t be a boy with no hair on his balls who will make us bend the knee."

However, despite his furious words, his expression was calmer than ever.

"You will not bow to Prince Maekar, but to King Jaehaerys I Targaryen, the Wise King." Mara certainly knew that Maekar could not be the target for bending the knee. Not even the lords would accept such a thing.

It was one thing to bow to a Conqueror or Jaehaerys, who had great prestige. Even if they knelt, they would only speak of how strong Jaehaerys was, not that they were weak.

Half of the resistance seemed to vanish at that moment.

"I know some of you are undecided, but we are the people who have most resisted the power of the Targaryens. Who else didn’t kneel to the Conqueror? At least we are braver than all the Seven Kingdoms combined," Mara said, playing to the Lords’ ego and arrogance.

Maekar rolled his eyes. If it weren’t for fleeing to mountain caves, only ashes would have remained in all of Dorne. Aegon was not like Jaehaerys, who didn’t dare burn Oldtown when the Faith of the Seven orchestrated Alysanne’s death.

Aegon mounted Balerion the Black Dread and simply burned Dorne for two years. This was no joke; an entire region burned under Balerion’s black flames.

The conquest of Dorne only ceased because Aegon was busy with the newly won Targaryen conquest of Westeros and couldn’t stay any longer. This continued until now; if it weren’t for how troublesome it was to conquer Dorne, Maegor and Jaehaerys would have marched many years earlier.

"I know some of you are friends of my grandfather; otherwise, the Fourth Dornish War wouldn’t have been such a fiasco," Maekar spoke then, looking at the Lords with a smile. He realized there wasn’t much resistance from Dorne.

This surprised him a little, but it also pleased him. Things were moving in a good direction.

Morion had planned to invade the Stormlands by ship. Since Dorne had no strength at sea, he hired pirates from the Stepstones, mercenaries from Myr, and corsairs from the Pepper Coast. This took him nearly a year.

Although Morion expected to catch Jaehaerys by surprise, the king on the Iron Throne had spies in Morion’s own court and friends among some of the Dornish lords, and was therefore warned well in advance of the plans made by the Dornish prince.

In 83 AC, Prince Morion Martell was ready to attack and sailed with his spearmen to Cape Wrath to begin his invasion. The Fourth Dornish War consisted of a single battle and lasted only one day.

King Jaehaerys and his two eldest sons, Prince Aemon and Prince Baelon, awaited the Dornishmen on Vermithor, Caraxes, and Vhagar, while Lord Boremund Baratheon awaited the Dornishmen with his army at Cape Wrath.

As the Dornish fleet sailed north into the Sea of Dorne, Jaehaerys and his sons struck first, descending from the skies on their dragons. Although the Dornishmen responded by filling the air with scorpion and crossbow bolts, none of the projectiles pierced the dragons’ scales. Dragonfire destroyed the Dornish fleet.

The lords wore strange expressions. The Fourth Dornish War was truly a great conspiracy. Prince Morion Martell, Mara’s father, was going increasingly mad.

Unlike Aerys II, where the realm was still very loyal to the king, the same could not be said of Dorne. Morion had touched the interests of many noble houses.

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/GOTSW

Read my other books:

House of The Dragon:The Rise of the Emperor of the Seven Kingdoms

Game Of Thrones: The God-Emperor of Planetos

Percy Jackson: Godwyn the Golden.

Game Of Thrones: The King’s Court Wizard