Chapter 19.1- The Seadragon's Roar

“There’s been a change of plans” Mother said, spreading out a map of Bloodstone in Daemon’s command tent. He hadn’t even begrudged her taking control. I guess even the infuriating and mercurial man-child could see that pissing my mother off in this situation would be even more brain dead than his usual behaviour.

“What do you have in mind, Cousin?” He said, stepping closer to look at the map as well.

“My husband’s plans, while brilliant, were overly generous to these scum of the earth. I propose a different solution. We burn them and salt the earth” She said.

“I like that plan” He said, looking at her with something in his eyes that very much should not have been there. I felt my eyes narrow even without my intending it. Hell to the fucking no, Daemon. I’d castrate him myself before I let him anywhere near her.

“So what do you need me to do?” He asked.

“We take Bloodstone. You said the pirates have taken up hiding in caves to prevent themselves from getting caught out?” She asked.

“Yes. Too deep for Caraxes’ flames to penetrate and the caves are too sturdy to collapse. We considered closing the entrances, but there was no guarantee that there were no other entrances and we’d find ourselves taken by surprise before we know about it” He said.

“So we need to take the caves from within then?”

“Yes. No chance otherwise.”

“Then we do that. We focus on both the caves and the castles. We burn the castles to the ground and we see them scurry to their caves like rats. Then we go rat-hunting” She said, looking up from the map with a sharp smirk on her face. Daemon returned it even as I felt a bit queasy from the whole affair. This felt wrong in many ways but there was little I could do to stop it. I wanted this Kingdom to become something useful, but I could to even fully convince myself that this was not the right course of action for that to happen. After all, who could say that it wasn’t for the best to wipe things clean here to start over from the beginning. A clean slate and a fresh start for these islands. That would mean mass migration, comprehensive building projects, manpower, all the nine yards. These islands would become a money pit. Yet, I wanted them. I wanted them more than I wanted anything else at this point in my life.

The Stepstones. They had potential. So much potential that it would hurt me to abandon them. Where others saw a collection of storm swept rocks, I saw a Kingdom of Islands. Everything from ship building to glassmaking could find its place on the islands. A Kingdom. Not big enough or wealthy enough to rival Westeros from where I hailed but a potential powerbaye regardless. It would take decades. It would be long and thankless work, but I would do it. Damn it, I would do it. And I was beginning to get ideas.