The sun hung low above the tourney grounds, its dying light turning the banners of House Targaryen into rivers of molten gold and crimson. Beneath that fading glow, Prince Aemon Targaryen, eldest son of King Jaehaerys and Queen Alysanne, sat astride his silver-grey destrier. The crowd roared as he tilted his lance forward. He had already unhorsed three knights, and now only Ser Theomore Redwyne stood before him.

The prince’s armor gleamed like pale flame, chased with dragons wrought in silver. Beneath his helm, his face was calm, too calm, perhaps, a mask that betrayed none of the restlessness in his blood. The North Wind tugged at the long white plume that flowed from his helm, and for a fleeting instant, Aemon thought of how the wind must feel upon the peaks of Dragonstone, wild and untamed as the dragons that slept beneath the volcanic rock.

Then the trumpets blared, and the world narrowed to speed, thunder, and impact. Wood splintered, steel rang, and Ser Theomore crashed to the ground.

The victor’s cry went up at once: “Aemon! Aemon!”

But the prince paid them little heed. His violet eyes sought someone beyond the dust and the banners, a figure cloaked in pale blue, her dark hair glinting like obsidian in the sun.

She stood at the edge of the royal dais, beside her mother, Queen Alysanne, his twin sister, his mirror, his other half.

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He did not need to think; his body simply moved. The crowd parted as he guided his horse before her, sunlight flashing off the polished silver of his armor. He dismounted in a single, fluid motion. Every eye upon him, every whisper carried by the wind.

From a page, he took the garland, a crown of winter roses, blue as the heart of ice. Their color was that of her eyes. He knelt before her, the noise of the crowd fading until there was nothing but the two of them, and the weight of centuries pressing upon their blood.

“Sister,” he said, his voice low, yet clear as a bell. “You are my queen of love and beauty.”

Gasps rippled through the air. Even his mother’s lips parted slightly in surprise. To crown one’s own kin was not unheard of, but to crown one’s twin, the daughter of fire and blood, was something else entirely.