The Ironborn's rampage across the Sunset Sea meant that "Crow's Eye" Euron Greyjoy had joined the chaos after Great King Balon Greyjoy.
Now the Shield Islands of The Reach were strewn with corpses and running with blood, and the entire southwest had been dragged beneath the shadow of war.
In another direction, roughly parallel to the Sunset Sea, Gendry could still enjoy a moment of quiet beneath the fortress walls of Storm's End in the east. That quiet existed only for the sake of the harsher war to come.
Gendry spent each day taming the Dragon, studying the runes of Storm's End, and feasting with the lords, knights, and servants of the Stormlands.
The black dragon Balerion circled above Storm's End. At times he plunged into the sea to hunt fish, and at others he swept over the deep woods to prey on wild beasts.
Storm's End had magic and runes, but the Dragon's arrival there met with few restraints. Perhaps only a direct, forceful attack against the castle would trigger some kind of backlash.
During The Dance of the Dragons, both the old Dragon Vhagar and the young Dragon Arrax had once landed in Storm's End's courtyard.
"He's flying so high."
Gendry looked up and watched Balerion glide among the clouds on his wings. The clouds looked like tufts of white cotton.
There seemed to be a bond between man and Dragon.
"The Dragon is landing."
"Balerion is coming down."
The lords of the Stormlands cried out in awe.
Balerion descended, lower and lower, until he came down from the high sky and landed in the courtyard of Storm's End.
The Dragon's black leathery wings were enormous and broad. As Balerion folded them, he gave off a heat like the burning afterglow of the sun.
Even so, the Dragon still could not carry a person, not even after Balerion had grown to a wingspan of twenty feet and become larger than a horse.
A horse of roughly the same six-foot-plus body length could weigh seven hundred jin, but a Dragon could not reach that weight. A dragon's build was closer to that of a bird.
A Dragon's bones were light, and much of its body was neck, tail, and wings. It would need to grow much larger before it could carry Gendry, though it would have no trouble carrying the smaller Daenerys.
"Dracarys," Gendry shouted.
A butchered goat had been laid out in front of Balerion. The black dragon breathed smoke, and even on the ground he moved with astonishing speed.
"Boom."
Balerion's eyes were like blood-red seas. He roared sharply, and smoke rose around him.
Then a swirling mass of black-red flame swept out, and the smell of scorched goat meat filled the air.
The Dragon tore off the meat and began to eat.
Gendry did not need a whip to tame the Dragon for now. He relied on the connection created by several runes. But he still had no clue about the legendary binding spells of the Valyrian Dragonlords.
The black dragon was always hungry. Aside from the prey he caught at sea and in the forest, additional food had to be prepared for him.
While the black dragon fed, Gendry sat in a folding camp chair and opened a map of the Seven Kingdoms. He had already sent out two groups of envoys.
The first group went north. The second went south.
The first group consisted of Jon Stark and Ser Davos Seaworth, the Onion Knight, leading a fleet north with supplies and Dragonglass.
The fleet set out from the Crownlands, passing the Fingers, the Three Sisters, and White Harbor on its way to Eastwatch-by-the-Sea at the Wall, seeking out and making contact with the people Beyond the Wall.
The second group was made up of the descendants of Lady Mary Mertyns of Mistwood in the Rainwood. They would search deep in the Rainwood for any traces of the Children of the Forest and the Giants.
Mistwood lay south of the Rainwood, and House Mertyns knew the Rainwood best.
Across the sea from Storm's End, the most striking sight on Cape Wrath was the vast Rainwood, a great expanse of mist and green.
The quiet Rainwood was known for its furs, timber, and amber. Though damp and rainy, its soil was very fertile.
"There are only two castles near the Rainwood. Once the Onion Knight finishes this northern mission, I'll carve out a fief in the Rainwood and grant it to him," Gendry thought.
Gendry believed the northern party had a strong chance of success, because Mance Rayder was heading south, and the wildlings needed to escape the Others and the White Ghosts as well.
By now, the Night's Watch rangers had likely suffered heavy losses at the Fist of the First Men. Making contact with the King-Beyond-the-Wall was a painful but necessary choice.
That barren, freezing land Beyond the Wall could only truly be guarded by northerners.
People from the Green lands simply could not adapt to deep winter. Sending them north to fight would be little different from sending them to their deaths.
The real problem was the Rainwood party. Gendry did not have much hope for them.
The Giants were surely extinct. That left only the Children of the Forest hiding in caves, and no one knew whether they were still alive.
It was not only because human footsteps had spread ever farther. It was also because magic itself was gradually fading. Now, most, perhaps all, of the Children of the Forest might already be in caves Beyond the Wall.
Since the Dawn Age, all manner of ancient and wondrous things had been disappearing: lions, unicorns, woolly mammoths, Direwolves, Giants.
"Oldtown, Oldtown."
Gendry looked toward Oldtown's position.
"As long as we can kill Crow's Eye and the Ironborn, it will be worth it even if Oldtown is shattered."
Besides, House Hightower had an excellent tradition of kneeling when the time came, and Gendry did not find them worthy of trust.
Right now, every force was gathering toward Oldtown. The Storm would inevitably collide there: Dragons, Skinchangers, Kraken, and stone behemoths.
"Prepare to return to Dragonstone," Gendry said to Anguy and Lothor.
"As you command, Your Grace."
"But this voyage really is too dangerous, especially by sea."
Gendry looked over the journey from the Stepstones to Oldtown. The Dornish coast was barren and dry, and the four hundred leagues along the way were filled with whirlpools, cliffs, and reefs. There was hardly a single place to anchor safely.
...
The rocky island the Ironborn used as a rear base was filled with laughter. Drunken men played the finger dance, while some Ironborn openly raped the spoils they had taken.
Some of those female captives were lords' daughters, some were knights' wives, and some were castle maids.
Crow's Eye still had the lords' daughters pour wine for them naked, drawing a burst of laughter from the Ironborn.
"Defeating an enemy is one thing. Humiliating him is another," Victarion thought. Crow's Eye had once humiliated his wife in just this way.
Crow's Eye pushed away the woman in his arms, a bastard daughter named Flowers, and climbed onto the table.
"Euron!"
"Euron!"
"Euron!"
The captains beat their cups and stamped their feet.
The Ironborn cheered Crow's Eye's name. The victories they had won by following him tasted so sweet.
Balon had given them the barren lands of The North, with no progress to show for it, while Crow's Eye had attacked The Reach, richer and far more tempting.
"I promise I will give you more. I will give you Westeros." Crow's Eye gave another splendid speech, and the Ironborn listened as if entranced. "This is only your first taste, no more than a small bite... I promise that in the days to come, I will let you enjoy the full feast."
Crow's Eye looked almost bewitching. His lips and eyes were both blue.
"He stole my victory again," Victarion thought bitterly.
The feast went on, rising again and again like waves.
Victarion looked around and saw that Crow's Eye had left the hall at some point.
"He slipped away again."
Victarion could hold his wine, and he was a huge man, but today he had drunk far too much.
"My father wants to see you."
One of Crow's Eye's bastard sons came to summon Victarion. The boy was only ten, with fluffy curls and muddy-colored skin.
"My father has something to tell you."
The commander of the Iron Fleet followed the bastard. Behind him, the sounds of laughter, rape, and revelry grew fainter and fainter.
Crow's Eye was drinking from a silver cup, draped in a blood-red robe. His newest bastard daughter and bedmate was asleep nearby.
Victarion saw the horn in the bedchamber, the Dragon Horn Crow's Eye had brought back.
The horn was fully six feet long, a huge, twisted thing. It shone with black light, banded with red gold and Valyrian black steel, like a horn from hell.
Yet the Dragon Horn also gleamed. Deep within it, a man could see his own distorted reflection.
"Care for some fine wine?" Crow's Eye asked.
In his cup was a strange black wine, thick as honey. Up close, it looked more blue than black, viscous and oily, with the smell of rotting meat.
"No. That stuff makes me want to vomit. Are you trying to poison me?" Victarion said.
"Your vision is far too narrow, little brother," Crow's Eye said. "From Ibben to Asshai, anyone who sees my sails begins to pray. I once held a dragon egg. I have killed Warlocks..."
The commander of the Iron Fleet felt a chill. Crow's Eye was, in the end, a madman.
"Little brother, do you see what this room is missing?" Crow's Eye asked. "A king must have a Queen, and legitimate heirs."
Victarion said nothing.
"A lover. I once had a lover too."
"You have many lovers, and many children," Victarion said.
"A pack of mixed-blood bastards, born from weeping whores, and whores."
"They are still your children, born from your body."
"Not one of them is worthy of the Sea Stone Seat, let alone the Iron Throne. For a proper heir, I need a noble, extraordinary woman."
A strange smile appeared on Crow's Eye's face.
"Where would this woman come from?"
"Far away, and yet right before us. When the Kraken and the Dragon marry, I will win the whole world."
"You... you mean the Queen?" Victarion frowned as he looked at Crow's Eye. He was a perfect madman.
"Everyone has heard of her beauty. The most beautiful woman in the world, with silver-gold hair and eyes like amethysts..."
...
"Beautiful, isn't it, little brother?" Crow's Eye looked at Victarion and pointed at the Dragon Horn.
Victarion shook his head. "That thing kills people."
"It does," Crow's Eye said. "Cragorn, the man who blew my Dragon Horn, was cut open afterward. His lungs were burned like charcoal."
"I intend to lend it to you," Crow's Eye said.
"Me?" the commander of the Iron Fleet asked in confusion.
"I want to broaden your horizons. This horn can bind a Dragon as well. When the little king and his wife arrive, I will need your help."
***
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