Chapter 204: I Want to Control the Dragon

Besides returning the Valyrian Steel crown, Arthur wanted to add two more clauses.

"Even if Arianne marries me, she remains the first heir to Dorne; after Doran Martell, she shall be the Princess of Dorne."

When it comes to stabilizing relationships, marriage is the best method.

After being driven out of the Rhoyne, the surviving Rhoynar viewed Valyrian Dragonlords as their mortal enemies; it was precisely this spirit of hostility that allowed Dorne to resist the Targaryens and the Iron Throne for over one hundred and fifty years, but after both sides concluded a marriage alliance during the reign of Daeron II Targaryen, the relationship between Dorne and the Iron Throne took a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn.

In the several Blackfyre Rebellions and the Usurper's War, Dorne has always been the Iron Throne's most loyal ally, bar none.

Even if this ally is a bit mediocre.

The members of the Small Council took their seats one after another; Prince Oberyn, dressed in a plain yellow robe, pondered for a moment before stating his view:

"This is only right; we in Dorne never strip a daughter of her inheritance rights just because she marries. I think my brother would also be very happy to support his eldest daughter in ruling Dorne."

The King was satisfied with this, as it meant he could obtain solid support from Dorne for a considerable time to come.

"The final point: after the Golden Company is wiped out, you in Dorne must be the first to respond to my Second Sons Act. All lords of Dorne must send their second sons and bastards of appropriate age to King's Landing to join the royal army."

Unlike the customs of the six northern kingdoms, Dorne is very tolerant regarding bastards; aside from inheritance rights, the Sand children receive treatment in all other aspects far exceeding that of the Flowers, Rivers, Storm, and Snows of the North.

Correspondingly, the lord knights of Dorne are very willing to acknowledge their bastards and raise them with care.

This results in a significant number of noble bastards in Dorne.

After coming of age, these Sands seek their own livelihoods, and a considerable number of Dornish bastards go to the Disputed Lands in the east and places like Lys, Tyrosh, and Myr to serve as mercenaries.

It is this group that Arthur is targeting.

"As you wish, Your Grace." Oberyn nodded in agreement.

This counts as good news for both sides: the lords reduce the pressure of supporting their offspring and allow their second sons and bastards to obtain relatively decent employment, while the royal army gains elite officers.

Once the King finished discussing this matter, Lord Tristan Rivers announced another piece of news.

"Your Grace, after a month of debate, the Conclave of the Citadel has appointed a new Grand Maester, Archmaester Leyton; he has already departed from Oldtown and is expected to arrive in King's Landing within two weeks."

Archmaester Leyton?

Arthur had no impression of him at all.

He looked at the six courtiers, "Who can tell me what kind of person this Archmaester Leyton is?"

People from the Citadel must be guarded against, so it is necessary to understand him in advance.

The Red Viper, who had spent some time at the Citadel, answered this question:

"As far as I know, this Archmaester is a very stern old Maester; his Archmaester's mask and Maester's chain are both cast from gold, and his areas of expertise should be finance and accounting."

Arthur nodded; it sounded normal enough, he would observe the man's performance later.

"Qyburn is filling the vacancy for Maester of Harrenhal, and I myself must go on campaigns or inspections, so I need a personal Maester by my side."

He thought for a moment and stated his decision, "Send a letter to the Citadel and ask if that Maester Adal, who compiled *The World of A Song of Ice and Fire*, is willing to serve the King."

This Maester is a student of Archmaester Walgrave, born in 272.

At twenty-seven, he is young enough to withstand the rigors of traveling everywhere.

Tristan nodded, indicating he had noted the matter.

In the time that followed, the Small Council discussed the war in the south; although the forces provided by the various parties supporting Arthur were already overwhelming, being careful never hurts.

This world is not lacking in miracles; one hundred and seventy years ago at the first Battle of the Lakeshore, the Winter Wolves, numbering less than two thousand, managed to defeat the Reach's army of a full twenty thousand.

The Commander of the Winter Wolves, a seventy-year-old man, killed Brandon Hightower and Lord Humfrey Hightower in the midst of a ten-thousand-man formation while missing an arm.

It was also in this battle that House Hightower lost its ancestral Valyrian Steel sword, Vigilance.

It is currently unclear if Vigilance was lost; if not, this sword should be in the custody of the Winter Wolves and their descendants remaining in the Blackwood lands.

Although the Golden Company is small in number, they have fought in the Disputed Lands for years, and the soldiers' combat experience is far richer than that of the levies of Westeros; plus, with the elephant corps unique to the southwest of Essos, completely wiping out this mercenary company will still be somewhat difficult.

Meanwhile, in the Sunset Sea to the west of Westeros, in the waters of Oakenshield in the Shield Islands.

The long, narrow red war-galley *Silence* was drifting on an unusually calm sea, its black-and-gold kraken sails being slowly lowered by the mute crew.

A black iron maiden stood at the prow, and Falia Flowers was tied before the iron statue.

She was the bastard daughter of the former Lord of Oakenshield, Lord Humfrey Hewett, and had defected to Euron Greyjoy, becoming the woman of the Iron King, due to her dissatisfaction with the oppression from the Lady of the house and her half-sisters.

Yet King Euron did not let her enjoy much comfort; every time they set sail, the pregnant Falia was always tied to the prow, as if this made King Euron feel a bit more at ease.

"Strange, why did she miscarry?" King Euron, having finished directing the mute crew to lower the sails, walked near the iron statue and voiced his confusion while looking at the blood on the deck.

The miscarrying Falia could not respond to this question, for her tongue had also been cut out.

King Euron would never allow any crew member on his ship to have a tongue, except for himself and his brother Aeron Greyjoy.

He slowly approached Falia, and in the terrified eyes of this bastard from the Reach, he removed the black eyepatch from his left eye, revealing that black eye "flickering with malice."

King Euron used this eye to observe carefully for a while, then fumbled for a well-preserved small bottle from his waist, pulled out the stopper, and dripped the Shade of the Evening inside into his mouth.

Shade of the Evening is a thick blue drink that Warlocks of Qarth drink year-round. There are trees with black bark around the House of the Undying, and Shade of the Evening is made from their ink-blue leaves.

It is said that this special concoction can enhance the eye capabilities of magical individuals, allowing them to see traces of magic that ordinary people cannot.

With his lips stained blue, Euron scanned the details on Falia's body again, then muttered to himself: "King's blood... curse... the methods of a Shadowbinder."

It is no wonder he looked as if facing a great enemy; the pregnant Falia was no ordinary sacrifice, and the child in her womb was worth a life of Euron's own.

A Blood Witch from Asshai had once given Euron a set of "blood-binding" arts, and King Euron had successfully used this set of evil arts on his own kin.

Therefore, all of Euron's children could die in his stead once.

"No matter, at this most critical moment, the Shadowbinder's curse is no longer important."

Euron made up his mind, put the black eyepatch back over his left eye, rose, and left to begin preparing for tonight's blood sacrifice ritual.

Thirty or forty mute crew members, following the captain's arrangements, moved all the clutter between the iron statue and the mast, clearing this section of the deck, before returning to their quarters.

This group of tamed, wretched people held firm to their conviction: no matter what howling or moaning came from the deck tonight, they would never come out to take a look.

Items involving magic required Euron to arrange them himself.

Fortunately, the only true god in this world does not care whether the believers' rituals are precise to every detail; He only cares about the value of the sacrifice.

A Qarth Warlock, tortured beyond recognition, was brought out from an iron cage inside the ship by King Euron.

To summon the Drowned God, one Warlock was enough.

After the Ironborn King threw the Warlock onto the deck, he found a bone-chopping knife used for fish nearby, then proceeded to hack the Warlock into fist-sized chunks of meat, one cut at a time.

Euron started with the limbs, then the soft flesh of the abdomen, followed by the chest ribs, leaving only a relatively intact skull at the end.

During this process, the Warlock, who had also had his tongue cut out, let out hoarse groans of immense pain until he fainted from the agony, only to be jolted awake by the pain again shortly after.

This cycle repeated until the Warlock lost consciousness.

Once King Euron finished his work, he unbuckled his belt, which was engraved with a kraken pattern, and took a leak on the pile of soft, pulpy remains.

The disgusting yellow liquid mixed with dark blood on the deck, with some seeping into the planks and some flowing off the ship, slowly dripping into the Sunset Sea.

Afterward, the Ironborn King found two unfortunate mute crewmen and ordered the pair to throw this pile of meat into the sea.

As the sun disappeared below the western horizon, the sacrifice had just been delivered to the domain of the Drowned God.

Everything was just right; Euron felt this might have been the most perfect sacrificial ritual.

After dismissing the two crewmen, the King leaned against the ship's side, gazing toward the continent of Westeros to the southeast with his smiling right eye.

Although Horas of House Redwyne had returned to the Arbor with over seventy large warships and repelled the small number of Ironborn who had entered the Arbor, Sir Horas clearly lacked the resolve to retake the Shield Islands for other houses, and House Hightower of Oldtown had no fleet of its own, so the Ironborn did not need to worry about a counterattack from the Reachmen at sea for the time being.

King Euron even felt he should send men to wreak havoc on the vast coastline of the Reach, to make the Reach knights run back and forth and dull their resolve to resist the Ironborn.

Night gradually claimed the starry sky, and the usually calm surface of the Sunset Sea began to grow restless, as if something was about to emerge from the deep sea.

And indeed, under the light of the not-so-bright moon, a massive creature leaped out of the sea.

Its body appeared to be a dull green, though the scalp was white. Most of the body was shiny and slick, but the lower part had eight large tentacles like an octopus.

The head, however, was different from an octopus; vague human features appeared in the moonlight.

A foul-smelling mouth opened on the head, from which hoarse, sharp guttural sounds emerged, and all the dark emotions that could not be expressed by its face seemed to be contained within the voice.

Aside from the humanoid facial features of this giant creature, any Westeros noble with a bit of knowledge could recognize the sigil of House Greyjoy, the leaders of the Iron Islands:

The Kraken.

"What do you want with me?"

Surprisingly, this Kraken actually emitted a sound similar to the Common Tongue of Westeros, only the Kraken's voice was much more mellow compared to a human's.

King Euron, however, was accustomed to this phenomenon that would leave all the lords and Maesters of the Western Continent dumbfounded, and he said firmly:

"I need to control a Dragon! And this cannot be done without your help, Dagon Greyjoy."

If Euron was not mistaken, this Kraken was his ancestor from a hundred years ago, the King of the Iron Islands during the time of Aerys I.

He was the last Ironborn King before Euron to have raided the Reach, and during his reign, the Ironborn had raided everything from the North to the Westerlands, and then to the Reach.

A member of House Greyjoy had once evaluated this fierce king: Dagon could "tweak the lion's whiskers" in the lion's den and "tie the Direwolf's tail in a knot," but even so, Dagon could not deal with a real Dragon.

"What will you do after controlling the Dragon?"

Perhaps due to slow reflexes, it took the Kraken a good while to continue asking.

"Raid Oldtown and Highgarden, then all the castles in the Reach, and fulfill your regret from a hundred years ago." Euron stepped on the ship's rail and answered with rough manners.

When Dagon was still a man, his final Ironborn act was raiding Little Dock in the Reach.

That was a small village near Standfast, loyal to Osgrey, and the lord of Standfast, Osgrey, was merely a vassal to House Rowan, the largest lord in the northern Reach.

As for Rowan, they could be considered a first-tier great house of the Reach, not comparable to the Tyrells, Redwynes, or Hightowers, but often mentioned in the same breath as families like the Florents of Brightwater Keep.

For the Ironborn, this was considered a rather large humiliation; after all, it had taken the effort of the entire Ironborn leadership to raid only the territory of a vassal's vassal's vassal of a liege house.

"Oldtown... the Reach... speak, what do you want me to do?"

The descendant's proposal clearly touched the soft spot deep inside this Kraken's heart, and it decided to do something.

Euron clearly had a complete plan, and he slowly stated his scheme, "You need to gather all the krakens in the coming months, then lurk in the waters near the mouth of the Honeywine. When the time to control the Dragon comes, I will tell you what to do."

The Kraken raised one of its large black tentacles and waved it up and down a few times, seemingly expressing that it would certainly get it done, before slowly sinking into the seabed.

Euron watched Dagon leave, a mocking smile slowly appearing on his rather handsome face.

If he didn't still need to use the Kraken, he wouldn't be so polite.

The night was still long; Euron walked to the iron statue, untied the ropes on Falia, and took her into the ship's cabin.

For every additional child, he could have one more life.

King's Landing was also shrouded in night.

Marquess Innes, wearing a black brocade robe embroidered with gold silk, walked into the King's bedchamber, followed by the captain of the Royal Guard who was leading the way, Anguy Bracken.

Since joining the Small Council, the Lord of The Twins had begun to care about his attire. In order to make himself look both profound and wealthy, Marquess Folei Marquess had put quite a bit of thought into his clothes.

"Your Grace, your War Minister has arrived."

Innes bowed to the King, who had his back turned to him, though he did not understand why the King had summoned him at this hour.

Arthur turned around, "Do you remember me saying you could get a pair of Dragon-skin Gloves if you did me a favor?"

Previously, Innes had asked for Dragon-skin Gloves, and Arthur had promised to give him a pair if he performed a moderate service.

Similar to a lizard shedding its skin, Dragon skin only sheds a few times during the rapid growth period of a Dragon, a period that ends before the Dragon reaches youth.

The bald War Minister's expression immediately changed slightly, "Please give your orders, Your Grace; even if it takes the full capacity of my House Folei, I will share your burdens."

Arthur rubbed his chin and said slowly, "Find your eldest son, Bloodthirsty Aegon, and have him go to the Vale. As for what exactly to do, I will tell him."

According to news from Gulltown, Lord Littlefinger was brokering a marriage between a wealthy merchant from Gulltown and Leonor Corbray; at that time, Littlefinger would leave the Eyrie and appear at Heart's Home.

Arthur prepared to take this opportunity to send someone to kill the troublesome Littlefinger.

PS: Seeking recommendation tickets and monthly votes.

(End of this chapter)