Chapter 29.6- the Seadragon's Roar

“What was that? Was that Caraxes?” The fear in his brother’s voice almost made him chuckle.

“The Red Queen, most likely. The Blood Wyrm is said to be more lithe and slight” He said. He had consumed every piece of information House Martell had gathered on the dragons of House Targaryen once this stupid war had turned from a possibility into a certainty. It was not something many would expect, that House Martell would have deep and extensive accounts of every dragon in the possession of House Targaryen. But it made perfect sense that the Princes of Dorne would spend he money on getting spices or information brokers to Dragonstone, King’s Landing, and more recently Driftmark to keep track of the threats that the dragons represented. They were the ones who the dragons were most likely to be used against if the time ever came.

And so Icarus had taken advantage of that information bounty in his studies and preparation. The Toland ships were gone in a matter of seconds. He hesitated to order his men to fire, enough time that it would seem to be shock or something else as the dragon drive down again, straight to the center of their formation. The dragon’s flames, a bright red seemed to smite whatever they struck. It was more than just setting ships on fire, some of them were outright incinerated. It was only when it seemed every other fleet in this coalition had fired did he order his men to load the scorpions.

It would seem to be incompetence, not malice that had left his own scorpions unloaded. Instead of watching the progress his ships were making to getting ready to fire, he watched the dragon.

It was beautiful, the way it flew. He got the name now.Red Queen. Because she was the Queen of the skies themselves. She dove down with no hesitation. The scorpion bolts that they had been assured would be oh so effective against her kind either clattered off her scales with no effect or just missed. Each house had their best marksmen doing the aiming, but aiming an arrow at a stationary, or even moving target was different from aiming it at a dragon that could not just move left or right, but upwards and downwards as well. Part of him was watching for some sort of weakness, but there was none. At least when it came to this particular dragon.

The Red Queen arced down, and in one pass, incinerated the tip of their spear, Yronwood’s flagship inclusive. Icarus turned his eyes to the other ships. Who would break first? It could not be him. Qoren would be all too willing to suspect foul play on his end. Santanger, the brave fool that he was, was marshalling a concentrated storm of scorpion bolts and arrows. Maybe he hoped to somehow hit the infinitesimally small target the Rhaenys Targaryen represented when squashed against her dragon’s bulk as she was. He hit nothing, and did naught but assured a quick end as the dragon dove down, and in one pass, turned the ships he had been so proud of into kindling.

Fowler. Blessed Fowler was the first to dip his banners and attempt an about turn. “Get us out of here” He said next, surprising his sailors.

“Brother?”

“I said, turn us around. Are you deaf or blind? If any of you want to be dragon meal then I can toss you overboard myself. Dorne has lost. The Fleet is gone, and I won’t be going don with them” He said. And it said something g that that was all the convincing his sailors needed to abandon their fellows to their fates.

“Also, someone dump those scorpion bolts in the sea once you can” He said next. No need to make it obvious that he hadn’t fired a single shot.