The Unyielding Stag (Game of Thrones AU/Invincible)
Chapter 12: King’s Landing

A/N: King's Landing at long last!

-x-X-x-

Lord Arryn has them ride straight on through the night following the backstabbing and knighting. For Axel, this isn't a problem. But for Lord Arryn, the remaining two Vale Knights, and all of their horses, it's a bit of an issue as the harsh pace wears on them. In the end, they're forced to stop at Hayford Castle for new mounts, where Axel watches on tensely while Lord Arryn throws around his authority as Hand of the King.

Axel is primed and ready for the men at Hayford Castle to betray them as well. If they force him to once again defend the Lord of the Vale with his inhuman strength, then that's what he'll do. But fortunately his uncle's treachery doesn't appear to extend this far.

But then, if Lord Arryn is correct, it might not even extend to all of King's Landing. To hear the older man explain it, he doesn't actually believe Renly has the resources or the men to take control of the city. If he did, he would have already done so and simply had Axel and Jon thrown into prison cells or executed on the spot the moment they arrived.

On top of that, with the death of so many Baratheon Knights on the Kingsroad, Renly will be in an even worse position supposedly. Axel can only hope that Lord Arryn is right. At the very least Lord Hayford seems appropriately shocked and appalled by all the treachery and backstabbing they've had to deal with.

In the end, once Lord Arryn has had the time to explain everything that's happened, they're not only given fresh horses but also a detachment of Hayford men to carry them the rest of the way to King's Landing and make sure they arrive safely at the gates.

After what happened before, Axel is quite on edge around said men, but thankfully they don't seem to have any ill intentions. And so, only a couple hours after leaving Hayford Castle behind, they come into view of their ultimate destination. The sprawling city of King's Landing looms in the distance… and as they get ever closer, so does it's smell.

"By the Seven, that stench…"

From beside him, Lord Arryn lets out a mirthless bark of laughter.

"Apologies Axel, but you'll get used to it eventually. Fortunately, the Red Keep is kept… isolated from the rest of the city's unique aromas."

Axel just wrinkles his nose, privately thinking that he'll never get used to this kind of smell. Though at least he'll have some respite if Lord Arryn is to be believed.

Finally, after another full half hour of riding, they reach the city's outer wall and the Northern Gate. Which… is currently closed, Axel notes with narrowed eyes and budding suspicion.

One of the two remaining Vale Knights rides forward and shouts at the top of his lungs.

"Open the gate! Lord Arryn returns! Open the gate and make way for the Hand of the King!"

There's some shuffling atop the wall before a voice comes back down.

"The gate is to remain closed by order of the Queen! Nobody is to come in and out of the city, no exceptions!"

… The Queen? Axel shoots a curious look over at Lord Arryn. The older man has a deep frown and a shadow cast over his features as he pushes his horse forward. Axel moves with him, staying at his side just in case another archer decides to try to put an arrow in his chest.

Stopping beside the first Vale Knight, Lord Arryn is the next to call out.

"The Queen does not have the authority to shut the gates of King's Landing! Even if she did, the orders of the King's Hand would supersede them! For what reason does the Queen lock down the city?!"

It's a good question, though Axel thinks it would be better to ask it after making them open the gates. Especially since all of this hard riding and now heavy shouting can't be good for Lord Arryn. Even setting aside Axel's… unnaturalness, the Lord of the Vale is much older than him and it's clear that their journey, as well as the incidents along the road, have taken their toll on the man.

"Not rightly sure, truth be told! They say that Lord Renly fled in the night two days past. City was locked down shortly after! And how do we even know you ARE the Hand of the King, eh?"

… Seriously? As Lord Arryn looks increasingly done with this whole conversation, Axel leans over and whispers to him.

"I can scale that wall and have the gate open in less than a minute. Just give the word."

Blinking, Lord Arryn looks over at him, all of his anger flowing away after a moment. Axel hadn't intended his words to seem humorous, and yet the older man lets out a chuckle all the same.

"I'm sure you could, Axel. But… let's shelve that idea at least for the moment. I still have something else to try."

Axel simply raises an eyebrow, watching in silence as Lord Arryn reaches into his clothes and pulls out a small metal brooch in the form of a hand surrounded by a crown, holding a sword. Lifting the brooch up into the sky and letting the sun reflect off of it, the Lord of the Vale tries again.

"I am Jon Arryn, Lord of the Eyrie, Defender of the Vale, Warden of the East, and Hand of the King! You will open the gate and make way or I will be forced to order you apprehended and put in the Black Cells for a fortnight!"

Silence falls over the area, a heaviness in the air that leaves even Axel shifting in his saddle. He waits with bated breath, feeling like he's ready for anything and everything. If they try to kill Lord Arryn, he will stop them. If they force him to scale the wall and open the gate himself, he'll do that too.

… Funny, he's so ready for them to make a mess of things and force his hand that Axel is actually caught a little off guard when the gate suddenly makes a heavy clunking sound and begins to slowly open up. Blinking, he glances over to Lord Arryn, watching the other man smile and carefully pin the brooch to his chest as he lets out a sigh.

"Very good. It seems good sense has carried the day for once."

Axel snorts in amusement at that, even as they enter the city with the men from Hayford Castle at their back. Inside, they're confronted by a number of men wearing Goldcloaks. Chief among them is a stout man with a bald head, his eyes widening when he catches sight of Lord Arryn in person.

"L-Lord Hand! You have truly returned!"

"Commander Slynt. You sound… surprised."

A commander. Axel narrows his eyes, watching the two men converse. Commander Slynt seems to be sweating just a bit, even as he shakes his head.

"No my Lord, of course not… it was just… there have been strange reports from both the ravens and the road. Some said you were dead. Some said you were waylaid. When we heard tell of a man bearing your brooch, we weren't sure what to believe."

Judging by the thin smile on Lord Arryn's face, there's no love lost between these two men. Axel surreptitiously drops his hand to the sword sheathed at his side, even as he looks over the Goldcloaks that this Commander has brought with him. None of them look like they're about to attack, but then Axel hadn't been able to tell the Baratheon Knights were about to attack either.

He's ready this go around either way. Axel refuses to be caught off guard a third time, not after the two encounters on the road.

"Believe this then. An assassin attempted to poison my charge in the Eyrie. Bandits tried to ambush my charge and I on the High Road. And Renly Baratheon's knights turned and stabbed my men in the back on the Kingsroad not three days ride from here. All of them failed and now here I am with my charge safe and sound at my side. All hail Crown Prince Axel Baratheon, Heir to the Iron Throne!"

Axel tenses up as all eyes fall upon him. Immediately, the remaining two Vale Knights repeat Lord Arryn's final words and only a moment later do the men from Hayford Castle do the same.

"Hail the Crown Prince!"

"Hail King Robert's Heir!"

"Hail!"

"Hail!"

"Hail!"

Even some of the goldcloaks get caught up in it, calling out as well as Commander Slynt looks… poleaxed to say the least. Eyes wide, the bald man looks at Axel in shock for a moment before a flicker of recognition enters his beady eyes.

"Ah… Y-Your Majesty… you have the look of your father about you."

And then, as though the initial tension hadn't happened at all, the Commander immediately falls all over himself.

"Lord Hand, Crown Prince Baratheon, please allow me and my men to escort you to the Red Keep! The city is in disarray and while the removal of the wildfire continues unabated, everyone is in need of proper leadership once more! Please, right this way!"

Axel still isn't sure he trusts it… but in the end he's not going to start something based purely on feelings. He'll finish anything anyone else wants to start, but for now… there's nothing to do but follow the Commander.

Along their way through the streets of King's Landing, Axel learns several things. One, he learns from the quiet whispers of Lord Arryn that the Commander's full name is Commander Janos Slynt and he's the current leader of the City Watch, or as Axel knows them, the Goldcloaks.

Two, he learns that while it was Lord Arryn who promoted Janos Slynt to his position in the first place some years back, he'd also uncovered proof of bribery and wanton corruption a little while later. Unfortunately, the proof had fallen through and Axel's father had ultimately decided to retain Slynt rather than have someone potentially worse take the man's job.

Third, separate from Lord Arryn's whispers, Axel learns that the smell of the city actually gets worse the deeper you get into it, until it feels like it's permeating not just your nostrils, but also your senses of seeing, hearing, and tasting. Indeed, Axel's eyes water a little bit from how… pungent the aromas get.

Fourth and finally, he learns that despite the needed removal of those wildfire caches Lord Arryn had told him about, there are still quite a lot of smallfolk in King's Landing with entirely too much time on their hands.

"The Hand O' the King's returned!"

"They say that's the next King beside him!"

"Looks just like his father, he does!"

"The King's son!"

"Your Majesty, over here Your Majesty!"

"A new ass to sit upon that spiky throne, bahaha!"

Its… a lot. Fortunately he has Lord Arryn at his side, and the man advises him to ignore the smallfolk by and large. Many of them clamor for his attention, pulling his eyes in all directions. Many more just seem to clamor for the sake of clamoring. A few even jeer and throw insults at him, relying on the safety of the crowd to protect them.

If he was of a mind to take issue with their words, it wouldn't of course. He picks out each of the more belligerent smallfolk with ease, catching them with his eyes one after the other. Many of them are incredibly drunk though, so he pays them no mind. Those that aren't drunk… well, they tend to freeze the moment he makes eye contact with them, shutting up and looking like they've pissed themselves as he rides past.

In the end, between the Hayford men and the Goldcloaks, they reach the Red Keep unmolested despite the smallfolk that appear from the roads all around them and follow behind them in a huge growing mass. Ascending a road at a steep incline, Axel looks back and blinks, able to see not just all the way to the back of that huge grouping of smallfolk, but also most of the city from up here.

The higher they climb, the better the smell gets too, almost as though there's a literal ocean of stench filling King's Landing and by moving up the hill, they were escaping said ocean. As they come to a stop in front of the Red Keep, Lord Arryn leans over to him and clears his throat.

"Might be good to say a quick word, just so they disperse easier."

… Right. That was probably fair. The only problem was, Axel had no fucking clue what to say. Swallowing thickly, he turns his horse and looks back over the gathered crowd. All of them fall silent once they have his full, undivided attention.

Seriously though, what the fuck was he supposed to say? In the end, Axel just decides to speak from the heart. Words that have honestly been swirling around in his head for days now come bubbling to the surface.

"… People of King's Landing! The tragic deaths of my father and my brothers will not soon be forgotten! I grieve for them and I'm sure all of you do as well! But I swear on my father's name, I swear on the crown soon to sit upon my brow, and I swear upon the Seven Who Are One that I will be the best King to all of you that I can be, from this day until my last!"

There's a brief pause as Axel worries he's sounded more ridiculous than kingly. But then… a cheer erupts from the crowd, buoying his spirits and bringing a broad smile to his face. Beside him, Lord Arryn chuckles and grabs him by the shoulder, giving it a good squeeze.

"Well said, Axel. Well said."

He's feeling good about himself after that, even as they dismount from their horses and dismiss the Hayford men back to their lands and the Goldcloaks back to their duties in the city. In the end, it's just Lord Arryn, Axel, and the last two of Lord Arryn's knights who enter the Red Keep's courtyard.

They find… quite the sorry reception waiting for them there. There's a bald, rotund man that Axel recognizes from Lord Arryn's descriptions as Varys the Spider, the Small Council's Master of Whispers. Then there's a tall, weedy looking man with a smile that reminds Axel more of a rat than anything else who can only be Lord Petyr Baelish, aka Littlefinger, the Small Council's Master of Coin.

Tellingly, however, there is no sign of either of Axel's uncles. Stannis Baratheon, Master of Ships, is off on Dragonstone, where he has been since just before the King's death. Renly Baratheon, Master of Laws, has fled the city after trying to have Axel killed on the Kingsroad.

Even more tellingly, Axel sees no sign of the Queen Dowager, Cersei Lannister, or the Princess Myrcella, his half-sister. Both women are completely absent from the courtyard, leaving Axel and Lord Arryn to be greeted by the tattered remains of the Small Council and nothing else.

As Lord Varys and Lord Baelish step forward to make their introductions and pay their respects, Axel is gratified when Lord Arryn does most of the heavy lifting with the other two men. It allows him to take a step back and really… recognize where he is, how far he's come.

He's made it. He made it to King's Landing. Distantly, he hears Lord Arryn making demands for his coronation to take place as soon as possible, so he supposes that will be done swiftly too. Soon he'll be King of this place… no, not just of this place, but the entire Seven Kingdoms.

Except, of course, it wouldn't be that simple. Not with a treacherous Uncle in the wind and multiple people trying to have him killed. Funny, Lord Arryn had convinced Axel to become King specifically because he said it was the only way to prevent a war breaking out. He'd made it sound like everyone would accept Axel because all of the other options were worse.

… As he stands there in that rather empty courtyard, the adulation of the smallfolk already fading into the back of his mind, Axel can't help but wonder if anyone really wants him on the throne at all.

-x-X-x-

A/N: Poor Axel. But hey, at least he finally got to King's Landing! Tomorrow's chapter will be the last of Arc One, and then we get into Arc Two~

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