Pre-Chapter A/N: More chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio. Experimenting with two chapters a week, we'll see how long I can keep this up for.
We had underestimated the pirates, and we had done so to our massive loss. For one, they'd burned the shipyard, seemingly having decided that if they could not have it, then neither could we. That loss would have been large enough, even if one did not consider the loss of life. Vaemond had taken the bulk of the Knights with him; Corlys had sent the rest of the men-at-arms into the island to scout and put things in order. That meant those in the village had been a paltry amount of guards, Corlys himself, and the portion of the crew that were not battle-ready. Needless to say, they were an enticing target, and the loss of life from those essential bits was still yet to be fully collated. At present, we would be lucky if we could crew even two-thirds of our ships. Somehow, that was still not the most drastic loss.
That particular honour went to the man who lay before me on the bed now, groaning and moaning. Corlys Velaryon, the Seasnake, had heard the alarm raised about the pirates. And instead of staying still in the safety of his quarters, he had drawn his sword and moved to defend his people the best he could. The only problem with that had been that my father had never been anything more than a passable swordsman even in his prime, and those days had long passed. One pirate had slashed him across the belly, nearly opened his insides for the world to see. Luckily, Ben had been able to sight him from his horse while he'd been saving me, and he'd been able to evacuate him.
Now, we were here.
He groaned again, and I sighed. We had milk of the poppy aplenty, but no Maester to speak of. It was an oversight that did not bear repeating. We had healers aplenty, but even I, with just the basics of first aid and high school biology, knew more about healing than they did. So I shut them out once they proved too foolish to countenance, and I took to caring for my father alone. I bound and rebound his wounds day after day. I cleaned them every morning and every night. I saw to it that his sheets were washed and changed day and and night. I slathered his bandages with boiled wine to ward off infections, and most importantly, I administered the milk of the poppy with a sinking feeling every morning, afternoon, and evening. Because he should have been getting better. He should need the opium less and less as he healed, but every day he seemed to need more to stop the pain.
There was a knock on the door. I turned to it. I had posted guards at the door with the instruction that I was not to be disturbed, so that meant there was only one person that could be there.
"Come in, Vaemond," I called. He did, swinging open the door and stepping in. His gaze was fixed on Corlys's body.
"Is Seaspeaker dead?" I asked. Because if the pirate king was still yet to be found, then I would do something drastic.
"We've loosed the hounds and sent men night and day to search for him, but there seems to be no trace of him."
"You mean to tell me that he has disappeared into thin air?" I asked with a snort. Because trust these men not to accomplish even the simplest of tasks. Vaemond remained silent. The only sound in the room was Corlys's groaning.
"Has the message been sent?" I asked. It was the first thing I had ordered after finding out about Corlys's situation.
"I saw it dispatched myself." He nodded. At least something done right. If my calculations were right, then I could expect both Mother and Laena to arrive between tomorrow and next. If things continued as they did, then he would still be alive when they came. The only question then became what would happen after that.
"I will present the head of her husband's wounder to her when my mother arrives. See to it that I do not have to burn the forest to do so," I said, ordering him. He looked at me, like he was weighing his options, and I met his gaze. I knew he would obey, because that was the type of man Vaemond was. He was the lesser younger brother of a far greater elder. All he had to do was take orders and be good enough at that, and so that was all he had learned to do. He was a follower through and through. When Corlys had fallen, I had feared usurpation, but that had proven needless. Igneel did his part, and the rest of it was loyalty. While this man had tried to take Driftmark in another life, it was one where Corlys had no true-born male heirs. In that situation, could I blame him for doing what anyone else in this accursed world would have done?
Just as expected, he turned to leave the room with a nod. Before he seemed to change his mind and turn around. "There is another matter I wished to discuss, Nephew."
"Yes, Uncle."
"You are not yet of age. There must be a regency." I amended my previous thought. This man seemed to have some hidden ambition to him. How cute.
"What regency?My father yet lives. Corlys Velaryon is Lord of the Tides" I said, giving him the chance to step back and act like nothing had happened. The look I gave him should have been significant enough—warning sign enough that continuing would be nothing short of unwise.
"Let us be honest with ourselves, Laenor. I am a Knight. I've seen that wound a hundred times on a hundred men. None lived past three days. You are a genius without compare and have managed to keep him for four more. But that will not—cannot last. My brother—your father—will die. Only the gods know why they have chosen to call him at this time, but we must move forward as a family," he said. I nodded at his point. I was no idiot. I knew there was no chance of saving him at this point, but caring for him gave me the chance and space to both think and plan. Plus, I knew how much Rhaenys loved this man. She would say goodbye. I would make sure she got to say goodbye.
Heedless to any warning signs or signals, Vaemond plowed on ahead like a captain heading into a storm with no competent navigators on his ship. "House Velaryon will be weaker than ever with my brother gone. While I have nothing but the highest respect for your mother, she is a woman. A woman cannot lead the captains or sailors of House Velaryon. Not when war comes."
"What would you ask of me, Uncle?"
"I would ask that you make it known to the King that you intend for me to act as your regent so he can make the appointment. Your mother would never dispute an appointment made by the—" he faded off as I turned to look at him. I guessed he could finally see just what I thought of the idea.
"You served my father loyally, admittedly without distinction, but loyally nonetheless. So I will take this foolish attempt at treason as a lapse in judgment brought on by grief and nothing else. I will not have your line purged to the last man, even if Igneel would like it very much, and I will not have my mother feed you to Meleys. This will be the last bit of mercy you get from me, Vaemond. Go forth and do my will. If you fail, then I just might see myself making a different choice," I said, and resisted the urge to chuckle as the full-grown man scurried from the room like the rats that famously called his ship home.
I stood at the edge of the harbor. Vhagar had been spotted miles away, and sometime later, so had Meleys. It was not like Vhagar was ahead, but the dragon's larger size made her visible from long distances. Igneel lay sprawled behind me, lounging in the sun. I had never known how much the lack of the sun had affected him in the Stormlands, where it was always either raining, cloudy, or overcast. Here, he seemed focused on getting as much sunlight as possible for as long as he could. He probably did it just in case we would have to return to the Stormlands, but that had become incredibly unlikely. Well, unless Mother had come with a miracle in her dragon's saddle.
Meleys landed first, and Mother moved to disembark immediately—the years had been kind to her. She was still just as beautiful as she had always been. Maybe she had a wrinkle or two more, but they only added to her grace and beauty rather than detracting from it. It was impressive just how beautiful she remained. I noticed she had the Maester behind her, and that was good, at least. There was still hope at least. Maybe the Maesters of this world had the capacity to do things I could not. Vhagar, with my sister on her back, landed next. The Bronze Bitch caused a tremor on the immediate surrounding area with her landing, but I did my best not to react. Animosity with this dragon had gotten me sent from home, and now that what was happening was happening, I could not afford to not be home anymore.
"Where is he?" Mother asked first. I said nothing about the twinge of disappointment I felt at our reunion being so stilted, because I understood she had literally more important things to handle first of all.
"The big house, the one with two floors. The guards will show you to him." She nodded, and both she and the Maester continued onwards. I waited to greet my sister. Laena was Rhaenys writ small, except there were small differences that you wouldn't notice unless you'd studied both of them for a while.
"Sister, it's been a while," I said when she got within talking distance so I did not have to shout. She did not reply, closing the distance instead and swallowing me in a hug. Nearly two years between us in age meant that she was closer to sixteen than I was to fifteen and easily towered over me. I couldn't wait for my growth spurt to finish—this wasn't proper.
"Are you done?" I asked, face mashed into two mounds that I did my best not to think about. She's your sister, Laenor, I told myself. You're Valyrians, a traitorous part of my mind replied. A part of my mind that I banished to the far reaches of the universe.
"Just getting started, lovely little brother. It's been so long. Look at you going out and getting so big. Who would have thought that ickle Laeny climbing through the chimney could grow so big?" She said, squeezing me even tighter. When thinking of anything but the breasts smashed in my face failed to work, I turned to a trusty weapon from my first life—Dumbledore being fucked by Hagrid. Every drop of blood that had strayed South returned North with due haste.
"Okay, enough. Unhand me, woman," I said, and began to wrestle my way out of her grip. It seemed that had been just what she was waiting for as she tried to wrestle me to the ground. It made me think about the fights we'd had as children. Of course, then her age had given her a massive advantage. Now, all she had on me was height, and in a blur of motion, she was on the ground with me poised over her.
"Okay, I give," she said with a bright smile. I grunted.
"You don't want to go see Father?" I asked her.
"No. I don't want to see him like that. If he gets better, I'll see him. If he doesn't, then let the last memory I have of him be the strong man who stood at the bow of a fleet headed for war, unbent by the wind, unafraid of anything." She said. And I nodded. I could at least understand that much.
"Let's go flying," she said, smile wide.
"No chance. I know Vhagar is just waiting for the chance to get Igneel and I in the air so she can take a chunk out of her," I said. And even though Igneel had grown immensely over the years, I wouldn't bet on him in any sort of fight against the Bronze Bitch. My grey lump of fire and magic just growled behind me. I figured he could sense the thoughts even if I hadn't been specifically sending them to him.
'Sorry, bud. You know what I think. Give us a decade and I think we'll take anyone in the world,' I sent that to him, and he grunted again, at least partially mollified.
"She's going to be on her best behavior. As the magnanimous Queen of the Sky, she has forgiven you for all your previous mischief." I gave her a doubtful look. Magnanimous was not a word that belonged in the same sentence as the Bronze Bitch's name.
"Yeah, you're not catching me out with that one," I said, pushing myself to my feet and helping her up a second later.
"Come on, Laenor. Pleaseee." Nope. Not even touching that with a ten-foot pole.
"Please, brother," she said, adding emphasis to the word.
"There's nothing you can tell me that would make me agree to getting in the sky with you guys," I said, digging my heels in.
I lowered my body on the saddle to lower my drag as Igneel and I banked sharply to the right. The race was ten laps around the island, and we had already finished the first two laps. Our rapid acceleration had let us basically get a fifth of the way across the course before Vhagar could even truly get moving. But after that, it was a completely different story. I'd barely noticed it when they landed, but now that we were in the air with her, it was clear to me. Vhagar had grown muscle to replace a lot of her fat. Well, not like she'd been a fat dragon before—could a dragon be fat? I wasn't too keen to find the answer to that. But yeah, there was definitely muscle, or at least what passed for muscle when dragons were concerned, on her body.
The culprit was easy to see. And it made sense. I had made liberal use of Laena's free and excitable nature when we had been younger in making her my unofficial research assistant with training Igneel. A lot of his earliest milestones had happened with Laena by my side. It seemed that she'd taken that knowledge and applied it with her own dragon. Now, the scariest dragon in the world was even scarier. I mentally made a note that I would have to reassess my plans for possible combat against Vhagar.
The plan to fly circles around her was a no-go. Igneel was still faster—at this point I think even Meleys couldn't catch us when we tried, no matter how long the circuit was, but Vhagar was fast enough that we had only been able to lengthen our lead to the point where we were a whole quarter of the island ahead of her. That was how the next six laps went. We really wanted to lap her and rub it in her face, so we pushed and pushed, but we only managed to get the barest slivers of extra breathing room minute after minute. When the eighth lap came, we were a third of the way ahead, but against all odds, they were beginning to gain. Igneel was flagging. We'd worked on his endurance a lot, but that was more in terms of learning to maintain a sustained load, not keeping peak performance for long periods, and in trying to lap her, we'd pushed too much.
I should have seen the play for what it was. Two laps left, and our lead had shrunk. We were a quarter of the island ahead now and losing ground rapidly. "Stay with me, buddy. Just keep going. You know, Vhagar is going to be smug as all hells if she manages to beat us in this," I said, rubbing his scales. We accelerated for a few seconds before returning to coasting speed. Igneel grunted beneath me, and I nodded. "Okay, let's just coast and hope for the best."
By the time we reached the last straight of the last lap, Vhagar was a mere two lengths behind us. We'd pushed more and more in the time since, managing to accelerate for brief periods to keep our lead as much as we could, but all that had managed was allowing us to avoid being overtaken. Except that it seemed that Laena's strategy had also included a last-minute push. The giant dragon behind us was still accelerating while we had nothing but fumes left in the tank.
'They're going to beat us.' I sent the thought to Igneel through our bond, but even through it, I could feel just how tired he was, physically and mentally.
'Help me, brother,' he sent back. Okay, that was wrong. It was not that he sent the words back as he spoke neither English nor Valyrian, but he sent the intention and concept back which I was able to translate into Valyrian—it was a quirk of the language, don't question it. But still, I listened. I tried to feed him my energy through our bond; God knows I had plenty to spare right now, but it wasn't working. It was more like the path I used to send thoughts and emotions did not want to expand to take anything else.
We felt a gust of wind near knock us off course. Vhagar had pulled up right alongside us, and to my dismay, she was clearly beginning to pull ahead.
'How do I help you?' I asked the dragon. Sure, we were the same age, and adding my previous life, I was the older one, but he was the creature of magic here, so he should have known. It turned out, he did.
I felt our bond expand from his end, and then I felt a bone-deep weariness. Like I'd been sparring for two days in a row with no rest. All my muscles ached—my aches had aches. And then Igneel was off, shooting past Vhagar like a rocket to cross the invisible finish line in a matter of seconds and win us the race. I might have celebrated if I wasn't so damn tired.
A/N: We get a surprise death in the family, and some more exploration of the bond between Dragon and rider in this story. Next five chapters up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)(same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.