Capítulo 61: Arthur XXIV
293AC
When my fleet departed the bay at Starfish Harbor, we had lost two ships and gained one more. The Gale-Crest was going to depart the same route tomorrow, after some maintenance work, and the Maiden-Sea was carrying the books I had originally intended to deliver on my now-canceled visit to Oldtown. Copies of all the Valyrian tomes I had decided were safe enough for the Maesters to handle, along with a couple of books of notes from our now mostly functional mass-education system on Dragonstone. I had sent Ravens ahead explaining why I wouldn't be coming in person alongside another message to my father explaining the situation. Even if I couldn't catch Euron it was possible that my father might cut him off in the Stepstones. Plus it was just sensible to make my father aware of my actions, I had sent another letter after the assassination attempt, but I hadn't heard back yet.
The new addition to the fleet, the Black Wind frankly stuck out like a sore thumb, as it lived up to its name and looked like something out of a blasted Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Lady Greyjoy had seemed quite happy to get back onto its deck, as had most of her crew, though as I understood it a fairly severe argument broke out as to whether they should pursue Euron at all, given his apparent magical defenses. Asha had come out on top, but I was keeping men on watch in case those idiots mutinied out of fear or some nonsense.
Most of my time, however, was spent drilling the crew or observing their drills at least. We had been fairly sedated before this change in course since this was intended to mostly be a show of prestige as far as the ships went, but now we were looking at real combat, albeit one where I expected we would significantly outnumber the enemy.
Aurane for his part, or captain Aurane rather, was more than happy to do his part with it, and if anything seemed to relish the prospect of entering into an actual battle. I was less confident, from what Lady Asha had said Euron had mutilated hundreds of corpses, and I doubted a little wind was all he could call up with that kind of blood on his hands.
I had some understanding of the proportionality of such matters from the tomes Gerald and I had gone through. The old Valyrians were quite happy to sacrifice slaves, especially when making their ridiculous steel, and if fourteen slaves and a bit of Dragonfire were worth a sword that could last a millennium then I suspected that Euron's sacrifices had some darker purpose to them yet.
That said, for all my worries the chase was easy to start with. A decent wind at our backs that let even the longship keep pace for a little while, though it quickly became apparent that the Black Wind was no Black Pearl as the Greyjoy quickly began to lag behind. It was a new experience for the lady Greyjoy I could tell, and one she didn't enjoy very much. I was sure I could smell salt from more than the sea as we had to slow down to let her catch up for the fifth time. Honestly, I was half torn to just leaving her behind, but the war of the Five Kings might still happen later, and I'd rather have at least one person in the Iron Islands who I had some connection at all too.
It would save me from just deciding to butcher the lot of them, though they certainly deserved it, barbaric monsters that they were, even in a world of barbaric monsters. They weren't at the top of my list of cultures to break over my knee if I ever got the chance, that honor going to the Ghiscari cities, or maybe Asshai on the shadow if the rumors proved true but they were easily within the top five.
Fortunately for us, the Easterly Wind grew through the night, sending us onward by the light of our deck-lamps. We passed into the bay at the mouth of the Brimstone just as the first cracks of sunlight peeked over the horizon, the scent of sulfur mixing into that of the ocean.
In the blazing red light of the newborn day, a silhouette of a longship was faintly visible in the distance, and even as the cry went up from the crow's nest, I felt my heart tense.
'What surprise do you have in store for me, monster?'
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