Blood of Dragons

Day 4 of Month 6, 177 AC

For three weeks, the court of Prince Maron Nymeros Martell was gripped by a specter from the past, a legacy of the Young Dragon?s invasion and the overthrow of his rule: the fate of the infant son born to Lady Alia Dayne and the cruel Ser Wallace Chester, and whether a youth styling himself Lyonel Dayne arriving on a Hightower ship was that lost child returned from the dead. Rumors had flown ahead of their arrival in the Planky Town, and many were the curious Dornish nobles who came to look on him, and to jeer. But the youth and his escort proceeded to Sunspear and awaited Prince Maron’s summons.

When at last they stood before the Prince, the boy presented a cache of letters and a harrowing tale of survival. He claimed that he had been given to a servant at Starfall to expose in the desert, but the man took pity on him and delivered him to be raised in the anonymity of a distant septry. He only learned the truth of his heritage when he was preparing to make his final vows as a poor brother, and the Elder Brother felt compelled to tell him the truth—more to protect him, he claimed, than to set him on the path he took. By curious paths, this revelation led him to Oldtown, and there to the notice of the Hightowers following a most unexpected romance with Aelinor Hightower, the youngest and most beautiful of the daughters of Ser Garmund Hightower and the late dragonrider, Princess Rhaena.

The reception in the hall was as unforgiving as at Planky Town. Ser Jehan Santagar and Ser Arrant Blackmont immediately denounced the youth as a northern fraud, while the justiciar Ser Lyron Allyrion and Ser Farien Yronwood demanded that the truth could only be determined if Lady Alia came to admit or refute the claim. Prince Maron sided with them, and ruled that no judgment would pass until the Lady of Starfall stood before them, even as ravens arrived from her hand denying the existence of any living son.

The tension in Sunspear only deepened the following week, as some looked darkly on Ser Malwyn Hightower conducting business for the Bank of Oldtown, suspecting he was attempting to suborn witnesses. But the court gathered again, this time without the boy and Hightower, as the justiciar Ser Lyron Allyrion brought forth a woman named Annara, daughter of the servant Jate, whose testimony seemed to lend weight to the boy?s cause. She swore that her dying father confessed to receiving the babe from Ser Morgan Dayne on the night Starfall rose against Chester, but that he betrayed the Daynes by sparing the child rather than leaving him in the desert for the sand dogs and vultures. While her words wove neatly with what Ser Tamlyn Toland reported, gaps remained in the tale, most notably the absence of Lady Alia herself. Prince Maron announced that the Lady of Starfall had finally deigned to leave her castle for the first time in years, and would answer the claims.

The fervor culminated with the arrival of the Lady of Starfall. She entered the court a gaunt shadow of her former self, visibly ravaged by some wasting illness, yet she remained unbowed in spirit. Before the gathered might of Dorne, she denied the claimant utterly, refusing to so much as look at him. Her testimony was stark and tragic: the son of Wallace Chester had not been saved, indeed, he had perished lifelessly by some sudden illness in the cradle. Ser Morgan, she claimed, had removed the body not to save a life, but to ensure a Chester child did not lie among the honored Dayne dead. Ser Malwyn Hightower protested, asking why Ser Morgan was not present to support the Lady of Starfall, nor her sister Elysa, nor even Prince Marence to share his wisdom after years as a guest at Starfall. According to the lady, Ser Morgan was traveling abroad with his wife, visiting holy sites, and had not been heard from in half a year… but Ser Malwyn was welcome to attempt to locate him.

Though Danyll Toland swore the youth was indeed the boy from the septry he saw years before, many at the court found the testimony no longer useful, as Lady Alia had so strongly denied the claim. The youth, it could be seen, stared at Lady Alia throughout and soon began to fall to weeping as she steadfastly denied him and cast not even a moment’s hateful gaze on him. At last, unwlling to leave the matter unresolved, Prince Maron challenged Lady Alia to swear her testimony in a sept before the Seven. She immediately said she would do so—and the claimant?s facade finally shattered. Overcome by the weight of the moment, the boy wept and withdrew his claim, begging only for leave to depart. The court erupted in a cacophony of relief and scorn. Prince Maron, declaring the youth a misled pawn rather than a wilful deceiver, ended the matter. He ordered the boy and Ser Malwyn to leave Dorne under Martell protection, and the youth was led away, broken and lost. Lady Alia waited only for the pretender to vanish before she too turned from the hall, returning to her manse in silence. Her kin of House Toland attempted to visit her, but she refused them, whether out of anger at their having inadvertently supported the falsehood or a refusal to speak of what ailed her none could say.

Thus, the question of the lost heir was put to rest.