During the War of the Four Kings, Renly had the full backing of two great realms, the Reach and the Stormlands.
He also had Doran watching steadily from behind. His cavalry alone numbered twenty thousand, and his total forces reached as high as sixty thousand. Among all the claimants, his strength was unmatched.
As the Duke of Dragonstone, Stannis's domain amounted to little more than the Targaryens' meager original base before Aegon's Conquest of the Seven Kingdoms: chiefly House Celtigar and House Velaryon, supplemented by minor royal vassals from nearby islands and peninsulas.
In terms of strength, he ranked last among the Five Kings.
Then he invited Renly to eat a peach and picked Renly's peaches. He gained the support of nearly all the Stormlands nobility, and in the Reach, House Florent led a group of lords into his camp.
Today, there seemed to be the beginnings of another War of the Four Kings. The Dragon Queen, Queen Cersei, Stannis, King Aegon, and the new Young Wolf, who wished to be king yet did not contest the Iron Throne.
The Dragon Queen watched coldly from the sidelines. Her gaze toward Westeros was filled with nothing but disdain.
Yet her sheer presence was too overwhelming, and the people of Westeros did not believe she had no desire for the Iron Throne, that so-called greatest seat in the world. Thus, though she herself was not in the fray, her name spread through it, carried with awe and fear.
Still, no matter how illustrious her reputation, she insisted on merely playing a background role, a rough comparison to King Balon in his day.
The second-generation Young Wolf was much like the first. Despite possessing the power to influence the situation, his unclear objectives made him act with excessive caution.
Cersei was an old hand at this. Back then, she had the Imp and Tywin to help her. This time, she had her dear, loving husband. As before, she remained stationed in King's Landing.
King Aegon carried part of the Dragon Queen's prestige with him and had won the allegiance of many lords. His momentum was immense, like Renly reborn.
Stannis was still as weak as ever, commanding only a few thousand men, and even they were badly divided.
Then Stannis repeated his old trick. He invited the strongest of them all, King Aegon, to eat a peach, and now he was once again skillfully picking his peaches.
Giving peaches and picking peaches. He had become exceedingly adept at it.
However—
Just like last time with Renly, the peach itself was not necessarily willing to be picked.
That day, Highgarden's Tyrells directly led their bannermen home, and nearly half the Stormlands nobles dispersed. It was only by offering a second peach that Storm's End was finally taken. Even after Renly had eaten the peach, the castellan of Storm's End refused to surrender to Stannis, so Stannis invited him to eat a peach as well.
Today, the Vale lords were also expressing dissatisfaction at being "picked" by Stannis. Some even went so far as to say that, between Cersei and Stannis, they preferred Cersei.
This—
"The Vale nobles are clearly unwilling to submit to you. Brynden Tully of the Riverlands is Lady Sansa's grandfather, and Aegon was the one who helped him take revenge. I fear he will also—And the Dornish support Aegon because of Princess Elia. The Golden Company is even more impossible to buy over.
Your Grace, your idea is good, but I fear it will be difficult to win universal support."
The first round of negotiations had just ended. Upon returning to the guest castle, the Onion Knight voiced his concerns.
"Davos, you are my Hand. I will not hide my thoughts from you."
Stannis walked to the window and looked out at the massive winged dragon, its body pinned to the ground in the courtyard by wooden stakes. He sighed and said, "Time is not on our side. Something that should never have appeared has appeared.
With the Iron Bank's support, I could originally have recruited sellswords at my leisure, then marched south through the Neck with Jon Stark's backing.
I would first take the Twins, seize vast quantities of grain and wealth to fund my army, just as Aegon did. I hear they obtained millions of gold dragons and tens of thousands of tons of grain there.
Those supplies would have been enough to support an army of one hundred thousand for two years. Taking King's Landing would have been easy.
Putting Walder Frey on trial would have rallied the hearts of the Riverlands and the North, earning the loyalty of their nobles. Then my twenty thousand sellswords would have landed at Blackwater Bay.
Victory would have been assured.
But Aegon appeared out of nowhere. Not only did he disrupt my plans, he directly threatened my life. Therefore, this is my only choice, my only chance.
Perhaps not all forty-five thousand troops of the True Dragon Alliance will defect to me, but if even half do, it will be nearly enough."
In truth, Stannis had inherited only one-third of Renly's legacy. The rest had scattered to the winds.
Thus, he never expected to take all of King Aegon's legacy for himself.
A peach may be small, but it is better than none.
"Your Grace…" Davos looked at his lord, his expression complicated.
"I'm sorry." In the end, the Onion Knight lowered his head. "I am not a qualified Hand of the King. I—"
He did not say the rest. He had always hated the Red Woman and wanted to remove her from Stannis's side, believing she would only lead him into ruin. Yet now, he found that he was far less useful to his king than she was.
"No, Davos. Now is precisely the time for you to show your worth," Stannis said as he turned back, his spirits high. He placed his right hand on his Hand's shoulder and pleaded sincerely, "I need your strength. Help me."
"I… what can I do?" Davos looked up. Seeing the expectation and trust in his lord's eyes, he felt both deeply moved and utterly lost.
"Davos, do not underestimate yourself. You possess a very rare kind of charm.
You have persuaded me many times when I was consumed by rage. You convinced Lord Manderly when the situation was at its bleakest. Even Melisandre was won over by your courage and integrity.
Your eloquence, insight, wisdom, warmth, and noble character are things few in the Seven Kingdoms can match. Upright men will see your virtues and be moved by your sincerity.
I need you to go to King's Landing. Go and find the leaders of the True Dragon Alliance. Persuade Bronze Yohn. Persuade the Golden Company. Persuade Arianne of Dorne."
Looking at the sincerity and trust written plainly on Stannis's face, the Onion Knight's eyes filled with tears.
"Your Majesty, I—I will do everything I can, but…" He turned his head, quietly wiped away the tears at the corner of his eyes, and said in a muffled voice, "Even if I take a fast ship, by the time I reach King's Landing it will probably be a month later. There simply isn't enough time!"
He did not mention riding hard day and night, covering a thousand miles in a day.
Westeros had no official postal stations to begin with. In peacetime, one might be able to buy a few useless nags from roadside inns, but now, with war raging everywhere, no one would dare travel alone.
Mutilated men, bandits, black inns, unemployed peasants, wild beasts.
"We have that!" Stannis pointed at the Black Reaper in the courtyard.
"A wyvern?" Davos exclaimed, then said with difficulty, "I have no true dragon blood. How could I control a wyvern? And besides, Balerion's master isn't dead. Can we really seize control of it?"
"Wyvern riders don't need true dragon blood. That Aegon, I even suspect Varys swapped in one of his own relatives. At the very least, Tyrion certainly doesn't have dragon blood."
"As for control, heh, you should thank Melisandre. She can破解 Daenerys's Holy Knight seal." Stannis laughed smugly.
"She's cracked it?" Davos asked eagerly.
"Not yet. A sacrifice is needed."
"A sacrifice?" Davos's face changed abruptly, and he could not help thinking of the flayed man struggling and wailing in the flames that day.
"Your Majesty, you already broke your promise and secretly burned Ramsay to death, which has stirred dissatisfaction among the Northerners. If you sacrifice Theon as well, I fear even Duke Jon will develop divided loyalties.
Theon was his father's foster son, his sworn brother!" Davos said worriedly.
"Divided loyalties?" Stannis snorted. "That ungrateful wretch had them long ago. Without his tacit approval, would Aegon dare challenge me at Winterfell?"
The veins on Stannis's neck bulged, his teeth grinding audibly.
"Your Majesty, Sansa is his sister. You cannot expect a vassal to completely abandon his family's interests," Davos urged.
"Then are the oaths of loyalty sworn by vassals to their king nothing but bullshit?" Stannis roared.
"Your Majesty, during the War of the Usurper, you too were a vassal of the Mad King. The Mad King even planned to kill Robert and grant you Storm's End as a duchy.
Yet you stood without hesitation on your elder brother's side, rejected the temptation of liege and title, and chose family.
Putting yourself in his place, you should not resent Duke Jon. Instead, you should understand him, admire him, reward him, and rely on him even more. He is far more loyal to his king than you were back then.
If you were in Duke Jon's position, and if Sansa were replaced by Robert, you would probably have already led the northern armies south to press us. Even hiding a hundred Lady Melisandres wouldn't help."
Stannis stared wide-eyed at his Hand, his face full of murderous intent.
Davos's expression was calm, his gaze neither avoiding nor retreating.
"Grrrk, grrk—" Stannis's square jaw trembled as he ground his teeth hard.
After a long moment, Stannis was the first to turn his head aside and give a bitter smile. "Only you would dare say such things. But you're right. I cannot demand of my vassals what I myself could not do."
"If we don't sacrifice Theon, we can use his sister, Asha."
The Onion Knight's expression changed again as he said anxiously, "Your Majesty, Asha is a duke's daughter, and she redeemed herself with a precious Valyrian steel dagger. We absolutely cannot kill her!"
"Then what do you suggest?" Stannis asked.
Davos's face suddenly turned deathly pale as he said weakly, "Could we use quantity instead of quality?"
Over on Sansa's side, things were just as lively. As soon as she returned to the great hall of the main keep, a group of nobles loyal to Aegon immediately surrounded the queen, talking all at once to urge and advise her.
"Queen Sansa, there has never been such a precedent in Westeros," said Lady Margaery.
"The True Dragon Alliance was not easily formed, and the Iron Throne is within reach. We must not let villains snatch it away!" Ser Andar Royce was almost wailing.
His father, Bronze Yohn, had led twenty thousand men of the Vale on a long march, finally drawing close to King's Landing.
The fruit was about to ripen. They truly did not want someone else to pluck it.
"Your Grace, you should go directly to King's Landing. Once we take the Iron Throne, once you give birth to a prince, once the Dragon Queen ends the war in Slaver's Bay, Stannis will have no choice but to release King Aegon," said Lord Gawen, offering a steady and prudent suggestion.
Sansa shook her head firmly and said, "If it were anyone else who had captured Aegon, I might be able to bargain slowly. But Stannis—"
"That heretic is almost mad. You can't judge a madman by normal standards."
"He may be difficult to get along with, but not to the point of—" Jon said hesitantly.
"Actually, I've always thought he was a madman," muttered Tormund Giantsbane.
"Do you truly intend to give up the Iron Throne and exile yourself?" Lady Margaery frowned.
To be honest, the Northerners were not necessarily very fond of Aegon, but since his queen was a Stark, they were naturally more inclined toward him.
Or rather, Stannis's charisma was simply too low. No one liked him.
In the Seven Kingdoms today, Stannis, Cersei, and Aegon contended for supremacy. Aegon was not necessarily that great, but Stannis and Cersei were such oddities that they made a mere foxtail weed look like a precious immortal herb by comparison.
Sansa swept her gaze over the assembled nobles and said in a firm tone, "Aegon is not only my king. He is also my husband and the father of my child.
For him, I am willing to accept any excessive condition Stannis demands."
All the nobles looked at her with solemn respect.
"Besides, Aunt Daenerys is about to conclude the war in Slaver's Bay. I do not believe she will refuse to seek justice for us."
Jon and the others twisted their faces in discomfort.
(End of chapter)
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