Chapter 29.1- The Seadragon's Roar

House Velaryon had the best sailors in the world. This was a piece of information that I had grown up taking for granted, but now I could see it clear as day. The disparity in the way they efficiently got their ships in order, completing a perfect retreat in good order that led the Triarchy’s fleet by the nose into one of the few natural choke points in the Stepstones. Two large islands so close together that there was only a narrow corridor between them. Not so narrow that ships could not pass, but narrow enough that more than four would struggle to pass at the same time. There was the possibility of going around the islands, but while neither was as large as something like Bloodstone was, they were still large enough that going around would mean valuable time lost.

Made even worse by the fact that our caravels could leave them in the dust in open seas already. The wise thing was to disengage, but that was what the long chase had been for. To make them lose sight of wisdom. The expeditionary fleet was about half the size of our full fleet, which was just about the size of the fleet we had attacked Tyrosh with. Chances were they thought that was the bulk of our force. So they continued heedlessly. And as they placed their necks into the noose, it began to tighten.

Two fleets, one on either side of the island, both hidden from view by convenient cliffs began to arc around the island. The plan? To bugger the Triarchy’s fleet from behind. It was a good plan, but they had two hundred ships, and we had barely a hundred. They would still win. It would be bloody, but they just had to keep their heads, and victory would be theirs. I watched their ships begin to react to Vaemond’s surprise. Their catapults all aimed in the wrong direction, their scorpions still trained on the sky. Vhagar and Igneel say behind convenient cloud cover, far from sight. Maybe they would have spotted us if they decided to stare at the sky for a few minutes, but they had bigger problems on the ground.

“How can you even see anything from up here?” I heard Laena’s voice to my side.

“Igneel’s helping. I’ll teach you later” I shouted back, waving off her interruption. The Triarchy fleet was getting hammered. It was just a matter of time our own fleet was suffering as well, but I just had to wait. One of the Triarchy fleets tried to veer out of the way of the line of fire, and took a scorpion bolt straight through its side. Water began to rush through it. More and more began to sustain damage like that. Their catapults were working overtime, but they were losing. At least it looked like they were losing. And then the scorpions began to drop. They left their fixed angles aimed at the sky and began to aim at the Velaryon ships.

No Admiral would lose his fleet when they had a shiny new weapon they could use.

“Now” I screamed, and someone down there must have shit their pants as Vhagar’s roar sounded over the space.