Chapter 10.6- The Seadragon's Roar

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Just as expected, there was naught but driftwood where our advance fleet was supposed to be. Without a doubt, those ships had been captured almost to the vessel, and now our men, loyal Velaryon men, were either beneath this very sea or on their way to be sold into slavery at this very moment. Pirates did not keep prisoners, and the hunger the triarchy had for the flesh trade was well known. That was why the expressions of the crew as we passed the fleet’s remains were far from despairing as should have been the case— instead, they were wrathful.

That was good. Anger was bad most of the time, but in this situation, with ready outlets for the anger within reach and nothing stopping them from exercising that rage, the anger was good. Besides, while the masses were angry, within Corlys there was only a deadly calm. A calm that spoke of a vengeance more thorough than most would have expected. The old plan was gone. We didn’t have the ships to thoroughly blockade and restrict the pirates like we had planned. And instead of pirates, we were being faced with sellsails, and soon we would have to fight men who bore the triarchy’s banner and flew its flag. We needed to strike at the triarchy itself, and that was what Father intended. We just had to be smart about it.

So when we sailed past the island we were supposed to make landfall at and begin our resupplying, a good portion of the crew were surprised but not enough to begin to question Father. Not when he was like this. Day and night he came out of his cabin and simply stared into the distance. In those moments I wondered what he carried in his mind. What burden he bore that was so great that he could not share it.

Whatever comfort I could have provided for the lost men was denied him by my duties as a squire. Borros Baratheon had finally found his sealers, and his seastomach and now kept me busy for near every waking moment either sparring or doing his laundry under his watchful eye, or just doing some form of erranding for him. He was bored, and I seemed to be his primary form of entertainment— when he wasn’t drinking himself into a stupor that is.

That was part of why I felt anticipation building as day after day passed without us making landfall and we sailed past all the islands of the stepstones. The day we sailed past Bloodstone in the distance had been the most noteworthy. For some reason, most of the crew thought we would be stopping there instead, but they were shocked when they received the order to go on. A shock that doubled when the order to stop finally came. We were in the open sea. There was nothing but barren islands for miles around, but the experienced sailors were already recognising just what we had wondered next to.

“Tomorrow, we bleed Tyrosh” Corlys said at the beginning of the first true strategy meeting since we’d set sail. Captains under him— Vaemond and the likes had come from their own ships to attend to him. Borros sat at the opposite end of the table and watched the whole thing with sharp eyes, aching for a fight.

“The Seasnake!” Vaemond hailed, and we all joined in.