A royal proclamation was sent forth from the king to every corner of the Seven Kingdoms:
Prince Aemon of Dragonstone is betrothed to Jocelyn of House Baratheon. Their wedding will be held once both have reached adulthood.
At the same time, the Crown announces the commencement of construction on the southern branch of the King's Road, which will run from King's Landing to Highgarden. Work has also begun on the northern extension linking the Eyrie to the King's Road. The western branch toward Casterly Rock remains under survey, as the mountains of the Westerlands make construction difficult.
There had long been friction between two of the Seven Kingdoms' most powerful houses. Now, through the union of House Targaryen and House Baratheon, that rift has been healed. Such reconciliation will surely bring greater stability to the realm.
The prosperity brought by the first two royal highways still lingered fresh in people's memory. Once the roads reach the Reach and the Westerlands, the Seven Kingdoms will grow yet more prosperous.
King Jaehaerys's proclamation was widely praised by the nobles of the realm.
Yet during these same days, several Dragonkeepers who had gone into the mountains of Dragonstone for routine patrols vanished without a trace. More Dragonkeepers were soon dispatched to search for them.
Just three days later, while people were still praising Jaehaerys's wisdom,a second royal proclamation arrived.
Prince Baelon and Princess Alyssa were to be betrothed.
The reaction was immediate.
"How can brother and sister marry?!"
"Shameful! Filthy! Disgusting!"
"This is blasphemy against the Faith of the Seven! The Seven will surely punish the Targaryens!"
Only the day before, the king had been celebrated throughout the realm. Now his name was cursed and debated in every corner of the Seven Kingdoms. Not only nobles voiced their outrage, common folk joined the uproar as well.
Years ago, when Jaehaerys married his sister Alysanne, the crown had dispatched eloquent preachers across the realm to persuade the faithful to accept the union. But those men were long dead or too old to speak with the same authority. To the younger generation, the king's decision now felt like an insult to both their faith and their own marriages.
That very night, the High Septon of the Starry Sept in Oldtown sent a letter to Dragonstone, urging the king to cancel the betrothal and find more suitable matches for Prince Baelon and Princess Alyssa.
Meanwhile, more Dragonkeepers disappeared on Dragonstone. When search parties finally found them, only charred and half-eaten remains were left behind.
Three days later, the king issued a third proclamation.
Many expected the crown to admit its mistake and annul the marriage pact.
Instead, an even more shocking announcement followed.
Rhaegar Serys, the obscure bastard son of Princess Aerea, had successfully hatched a dragon egg on Dragonstone. The king himself granted the newborn dragon to the boy.
Septon Barth, the Hand of the King, declared that this was the first dragon to hatch in thirty-one years. It was, he proclaimed, a sign that House Targaryen would once again rise to glory, and a blessed omen for the prosperity of the Seven Kingdoms.
The realm erupted with argument.
"A bastard taming a dragon? What nonsense! If that's true, I could walk around Dragonstone and bring one back myself!"
"The king would never be foolish enough to give a dragon to a bastard."
"Dragons are the root of evil! The Targaryens should be driven back into the sea!"
Everyone understood the terror of dragons. A single adult dragon could burn a town to ashes in an afternoon. Gradually, the realm's gossip shifted away from the prince and princess's marriage toward Rhaegar and his hatchling.
Dragonstone had always been dangerous. The island's jagged terrain and the unpredictable temper of dragons had claimed many lives over the centuries.
But the repeated deaths of Dragonkeepers drew King Jaehaerys's full attention.
An investigation concluded that the missing men had been devoured by a wild dragon known as the Cannibal. The creature was officially declared the most dangerous wild dragon on Dragonstone. Anyone who glimpsed its black shape in the sky was ordered to flee and hide at once.
More wild dragons had begun to appear in the mountains. People often saw them clashing in the sky, fighting over prey. Many Dragonkeepers born during the reigns of Aenys and Maegor lacked the experience, or the strength, to escape the Cannibal once it found them.
In response, Jaehaerys ordered the younger generation of Dragonkeepers, along with the island's children, gathered inside the castle. There the king himself would oversee their training.
The measure was warmly welcomed by Dragonstone's native inhabitants.
News of Baelon's betrothal and Rhaegar's dragon continued spreading across the realm. But when people began speaking of Baelon again, an embarrassing story involving Rhaegar resurfaced.
It happened during Prince Aemon's betrothal ceremony.
Rhaegar had gotten into a revolting fight with Corlys, heir to House Velaryon.
After a meeting of the small council in the Red Keep, Septon Barth mentioned the incident in passing.
Within days it had become the most popular joke in the taverns of King's Landing.
The story was so infamous that many drinkers refused to sit facing one another while drinking. Taverns with square tables began seating guests side-by-side instead. Only the long bar remained unchanged. Business suffered accordingly.
One member of the small council, Grand Maester Elysa, dubbed the brawl "The Battle of the Comets."
A comet, he explained, streaks across the heavens wrapped in a halo of red, yellow, or other colors, trailing a long blazing tail behind it.
Just like the streams of vomit the two young men had spewed at each other.
Truly, a learned man knew how to make even vulgarity sound elegant.
Grand Maester Elysa even speculated about the reason Rhaegar had managed to hatch the dragon egg. Judging by the boy's appearance, he suggested that Rhaegar's father might descend from a mysterious eastern empire, the Golden Celestial Dynasty, whose ruler was the Son of Heaven, Emperor Chaiduo.
More than a century earlier, Emperor Chaiduo was said to have married a Valyrian noblewoman and kept dragons within his imperial palace. If Rhaegar carried such blood through his father, and Targaryen blood through his mother, it would make sense that he could hatch a dragon.
The royal court offered no comment on the theory.
Nevertheless, the master of whisperers quietly dispatched several spies to the Nine Free Cities to gather information.
Rhaegar himself nearly exploded with rage upon hearing that he had somehow acquired a mysterious father named Chai overnight.
Grand Maester Elysa's remarks only made both Rhaegar and Corlys even more famous.
Soon the number of people discussing the incident surpassed those talking about the royal betrothal.
The unofficial nickname "the Vomiting Comet" was gleefully attached to both young men. Some even preferred the name "the Twin Vomiting Comets." Mention one of them, and everyone immediately thought of the other.
For proud Corlys, the humiliation was unbearable.
Whether walking through the streets of Driftmark or King's Landing, he felt every passerby's smile was mocking him. Whenever someone spoke, the movement of their lips seemed to form the same words:
Vomiting Comet Corlys.
At last, unable to endure the shame, Corlys decided he could no longer remain in Westeros.
After sending Rhaegar a challenge letter, without naming a time for their duel, he borrowed twenty warships and merchant vessels from his grandfather. Gathering the knights and sailors of his house, he set sail for Essos, seeking adventure across the Narrow Sea.
The summer continued for another year.
And the year after that remained summer still.
Plants had already adapted to the endless warmth, flowering and bearing fruit with steady rhythm.
Outside Harrenhal, the pear trees blossomed for the first time.
The fruit that followed was small and sour. Princess Rhaena summoned maesters and farmers from the Reach, and together they experimented with ways to cultivate the orchard.
Around the same time, a large group of travelers moved into one of the castle's empty towers.
They were strong men, broad of shoulder. The wagons traveling with them carried unusually heavy cargo. When the chests were brought into the tower and opened, they revealed armor and weapons, standard issue for the garrison of the Red Keep.
The men posed as merchants and wanderers. Sometimes they sold small trinkets, but more often they lingered in the castle's dining hall, chatting casually with passing traders.
Rhaena also hired a new master-at-arms.
His name was Royce, the second son of House Blackwood. He brought five soldiers from his family lands to serve under him.
Guarding the castle was only a minor duty.
His true responsibility was to train Rhaegar, in archery, horsemanship, mounted combat, and even music.
For now, the pressure from the Faith remained limited to words alone.
The storm everyone expected from the church… had not yet arrived that year.
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