Chapter Text
Alleras the Sphinx hereby begs leave of the Archmaesters to supplicate for a copper maester’s link...
Alleras stopped writing and scratched out the line with a sigh.
If he were submitting this to the Mage, it would be easy. I found this in the secret compartment of one of my father’s trunks. Can I translate it for a copper link? But Archmaester Marwyn's subjects of record did not include history, though he knew as much or more than any of the archmaesters who were on record for it. He would instead face Archmaester Perestan, whose scholarship consistently struck the perfect balance of rage-inducing tedium to ruin Alleras’ day without teaching him anything useful.
He looked at the paper again, blank below the crossed-out line. He would need to submit a fair copy, but it was more important to get the words on the page.
Alleras the Sphinx begs leave of the Archmaesters of the Citadel to supplicate for as many copper links as the Archmaesters deem fitting through submission of an authoritative edition and translation of Florilegia Dracarya, or A Flowering of Dragons, a heretofore unknown record of all the ladies-in-waiting to serve Queens of House Targaryen, last possessed by Queen Rhaella, wife to the Mad King Aerys II, who died in the year 283 after the Conquest.
There would need to be proof, of course. Alleras did not intend to submit the entire text for one link—it was at least ten years’ work to transcribe, annotate, and produce commentary for the book that had been sitting, forgotten, in the bottom of a rosewood trunk since the fall of the Targaryens. But for purposes of a first copper link, he could submit a translation of two, maybe three reigns, show off what he could do.
Except that it was Perestan. Perestan’s face had a permanent scowl that deepened any time a woman came up in conversation. But Perestan was in charge of the copper links.
Alleras started with the driest of description.
This text comprises one octavo volume of approximately four-inch thickness, bound in what Archmaester Marwyn has confirmed to be dragonskin; based on chronological and stylistic considerations, he submits that the dragon in question may have, in fact, been Vhagar, most famously the mount of Queen Visenya Targaryen, sister-wife to Aegon the Conqueror. The front cover and the spine are both stamped with the sigil of House Targaryen but no other text appears on the volume’s exterior. There are perhaps as many as eight hundred pages, and the entries conclude not with Queen Rhaella’s ladies-in-waiting, but those of Princess Elia Martell, written in what may in fact be the hand of Queen Rhaella herself, which would suggest the account was written during the last months of the queen's life, while she was besieged at Dragonstone. I have not yet had the opportunity to compare these final pages to the handful of examples we have of the queen’s signature, but should I achieve my first copper link, I would either visit the library in the Red Keep or the libraries in Sunspear, Storm’s End, or Casterly Rock to make those comparative studies.
This is a text that could, with additional study, comparison, and incorporation, offer counterpoints to the authoritative accounts of Gyldayn and Yandel...
Alleras stopped again. What he wanted to say was one thing. But what he wanted to say would make Perestan choke.
...which are scanty at best in their descriptions of the women surrounding the Targaryen queens.
And which queens should be made example of for this exercise? Not the Dance of the Dragons; Perestan’s disgust for all things related to Rhaenyra Targaryen was legend. And nothing too recent either, though the accounts that Alleras had first read upon discovering the book were those final pages. The Queen's handwriting was shaky and barely legible, some words blotted with what may have been tears. Two of Princess Elia's ladies-in-waiting had managed to flee King's Landing before the Lannisters arrived, and while Queen Rhaella had not known their fates, Alleras recognised one of them as a well-known singer in Sunspear. The third, Ashara Dayne, was dead, having thrown herself from the tallest tower at the castle of Starfall. But these were perilous days, and reminders of the last war seemed less than advisable.
I propose to present, in addition to the prefatory material, the account of Queen Myriah Martell, wife to Daeron II, the completion of which would earn one copper link.
Perestan would likely hate that she was Dornish, but there were no scandals to report of Myriah Martell. Of course there weren’t, Alleras knew, because any Dornishwoman married to the King on the Iron Throne would know better, as would her ladies-in-waiting.
He allowed himself, for a moment, to think of the sisters and cousins he did not have, who knew all too well that outside the borders of Dorne, all Dornishwomen had to be on their guard. As far as anyone other than Archmaester Marwyn was concerned, that family belonged to someone else, and in time, that person would return. For now, however, Alleras the Sphinx had a manuscript to study.
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PREFACE
In honour of my royal sister, Queen Rhaenys, lately slain in Dorne to the great heaviness of myself and the king our brother, I, Queen Visenya do hereby consecrate this book, Florilegia Dracarya, or A Flowering of Dragons. Herein will be contained the names, histories, and deeds of all the ladies-in-waiting who serve at the pleasure of the Queen (or Queens) on the Iron Throne. A King has his Kingsguard, and their deeds shall be recorded in the White Book; it is only fitting that those who serve, obey, and protect their queen are similarly placed in remembrance.
In this the tenth year of the reign of Aegon, First of his Name, of House Targaryen, King of the Andals and the First Men, and Lord of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros.