Pre-Chapter A/N:Another chapter on time? Guess my lock-in is going pretty well. If you haven't already, I recommend turning on notifications for my stuff so you can see when new stuff drops right as it drops. Next five chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio.
If anyone had any objections to continuing with the journey, they lost them by the time we reached the third house. Each one we searched had mounds of gold just lying about. We gathered the gold in purses, and the mood was markedly improved as the gold levels rose the closer we got to the center. I figured that there would be a vault worth something in the fortress in the middle, and if there wasn't, then the manses that surrounded it would surely be well provisioned.
We killed two more of the creatures. One had attacked as we entered a house, while the other we had managed to catch asleep. The fact that the creatures slept had also done its bit in improving the general mood around the mission.
It normalised them a bit, I felt. They looked queer and unlike anything we had ever seen before, but even these demons needed to sleep, so that made them a bit easier to accept. Of course, no one else seemed to consider the same things I did, and when no one mentioned it, I kept the thought to myself. If they slept during the day, just how many of them remained asleep even now, just waiting for the sun to fall? Such a question would ruin the recently lifted mood, so I kept silent and kept an eye out for movement.
"Searching the whole city will be a waste," I decided.
"We clear the buildings on the way to the fortress and the manses around it, then we search those for treasure. They are likely to have the biggest bounty," I said, and no one objected. Lifted moods or not, this was still a very creepy place to be. The city was just like a ghost town. There weren't any bodies. If not for the buildings and personal property that remained, it was almost like no humans had lived here.
We covered more and more distance as we turned our focus to just making sure we left none of the creatures behind us as we made our way towards the fortress at the middle of the city. The more time we spent here, the better we got at hunting the damn things. We managed to catch three of them asleep on our way. One other one had woken as we stepped into the house it stayed in and managed to knock one man into a wall with just a single backhand.
Ben had fired a bolt into its eye from near point-blank range, killing it instantly. We peppered it with a few more for good measure and then moved on. The man that had been hit walked with a visible limp now, but as he could still walk and could hold a weapon, he was kept around. There was every chance he would be killed if he tried to return to the ships on his own by whatever creatures we had not managed to find and kill yet.
I decided that it was best if we at least knew what was in the manses before we made our way into the fortress. The feeling of foreboding I got from it refused to subside, and the quick acquiescence I received from the rest of the group told me I was not the only one with misgivings.
The first of the manses we walked into had a crest on its gate. It was a blue dragon half in flight with its wings spread like it was trying to catch the wind for a steady line. Whatever house it was, it was clearly a wealthy one. Just looking at the manse made that clear enough. It had once had bountiful gardens, we could tell, but now there was naught but sand and dirt on its wide fields. Either nothing grew in Valyria or it had been so long that the grass had forgotten how to grow. We made our entry point through a hole in the wall rather than the wide entrance doors. If any of the creatures were within, then it was best not to wake it with our movements and entry. We split up on entry like planned into groups of four. I moved with Ben, Vaemond, and a man named Silver, one of the navigators attached to the Velaryon fleet.
We covered ground quickly as we searched for whatever vault existed here. My best guess was that if there was one, it would be near wherever the main wing of the building was. In the absence of any clear distinctions we could use or understand, we went up the stairs and began to journey to the second floor. The floors below us would be searched by the others. Whoever found something was supposed to call the attention of the other search parties. Of course, there was a risk that doing that would wake up any sleeping creatures that dwelled within, but it was a risk worth taking. Hopefully, we'd have found it before then. And if not, they were not quiet creatures by any means.
We reached the topmost floor and moved through the rooms one at a time. They were family dwellings, I could tell that fact easily enough. There were clothes in the closets—massive walk-in closets—that were clearly finery. Each one was made of such silk that it would be considered a special piece by most ladies in the Seven Kingdoms, and those were just the basic pieces. Had we been blessed with enough time, I would have loved the chance to study old Valyrian fashions and how they differed from what was obtainable in this day and age, but that was a waste of precious man-hours.
So we moved on. We went bedroom by bedroom until we reached the one door that did not lead to a bedroom. It led to an office. An office that was massive and had a window overlooking most of the manse's grounds. And above the fireplace was a sword. There was no scabbard shielding it from view, and it was fully exposed to the elements, so it was easy to see what it was. The ripples could not have been anything else.
"Valyrian steel," Uncle Vaemond murmured, looking at it. I wished I could see the look on his face now. The purpose of this trip was probably sinking in now. Ben marched forwards, climbing onto the mantle and pulling the blade from the pieces that held it up there. In his hands, the blade was even more beautiful. It was a longsword, but still, he held it in one hand with ease. He tried a few testing swings, each one looking so easy.
He turned to me and bent to one knee. He presented the blade to me, held across both his palms.
"For you, my lord," he said.
"Hold it in my name, Ser Ben Celtigar, and guard my back with its naked edge," I said.
He hitched a breath, and froze.
"Please honour this blade with a name, my lord," he asked. I looked down at it.
The guard was a simple thing, and the handle was much the same. For a weapon that had been placed above a mantle, it was quite functional.
"I hereby name her Dragonguard," I said.
"Thank you, my lord," he said, rising, and then there was a noise from one of the lower floors. We were being summoned by the others. They had found something, it seemed.
"Let's get going," I said.
—
The manse's vault was not especially large. It was just a room with more locks on its door, and it had gold heaped high. I leaned in and picked up one of the coins. It was larger than a gold dragon from Westeros, I noted. So that made it even more valuable. How fortunate.
"Log the location. When we return with wagons, we take all of it. Let's move on," I said, rising to my full height again. The sailors didn't look all that enthused to leave the gold behind to continue searching, but I was their lord and I had given an order, and so they obeyed. We moved to another manse. There were a total of twelve of them surrounding the fortress, and we went through each one, one at a time.
In the end, only four of them had yielded Valyrian steel swords. I'd vested one in Vaemond, honouring him as my sworn shield in a gesture some would have perceived as an insult. The other two I strapped to my sides. One was a rapier and the other an arming sword we'd found in an armoury in one of the manses. Five more had sizeable vaults, so we'd logged that as well. And seven had surprises in the form of the creatures. Ser Ben even managed to shed blood with his new sword as he cleaved one in twain with a single heave.
Now we stood in front of the fortress. The gates had given way to a strong shove from five of us working together, and we returned to formation as we made our way inside. If there was anywhere shit would hit the fan, this was it.
The doors leading inside the fortress itself were a massive pair of double doors that reached so high that even standing on each other's shoulders, it would take five of us to reach the top. One of the doors was swung inwards, exposing the interior of the fortress to the elements. The other remained closed. There was no need to even consider opening it. One of the doors gave us enough space to walk inside in full formation.
The doors led to an entrance hall. The ceiling was taller even than the doors had been. The ground was a clear, clean marble. No dust, no volcanic ash despite the fact that a door had been opened. Against each wall were sculptures of dragons in different poses. The Valyrian obsession with our fiery mounts showed even here.
Vaemond took a hold of a Valyrian steel bell we'd taken from one of the manses and began to ring it. The logic here was simple. If we separated in the large fortress, there was a good chance that we would get ambushed in a nook or something. The fortress had more chokepoints and places to hide, most likely, so we decided to head it off. Summon the creatures from here and kill them dead before moving in.
Except that nothing was coming. There were no footsteps. The fortress remained silent beyond the sound of the bell ringing. There was nothing coming from within.
I gave Vaemond a look. He rang the bell even more vigorously. There was a screech from the distance, and I swung around to watch one of the creatures climb over a wall and then run towards the fortress before stopping cold at the steps, not able to make it any closer no matter how much it struggled. Some sort of magical barrier. I shot a bolt through its neck, and it gurgled as it smashed its fists against an invisible wall we had been able to neither see nor feel.
"Something blocks them from coming in. It's safe here," I said.
"Safe from them, yes. But that doesn't mean safe," Vaemond said, and like his words were some sort of trigger, the door that we had walked in through swung closed like it was being moved by some strong wind. There was a loud crash as the door slammed into place.
"What was that?" one of the sailors near screamed. Few of them looked calm after that.
"A draft from within the fortress. Wind can generate great force in closed areas like this one. Light the torches, let's get to work," I said, coming up with an explanation and allowing none of my panic to show on my face. After all, what was there to be gained from panicking?
Vaemond tilted his head at me in the barely illuminated hall we stood in. I had no idea what he was looking for, but he seemed to find it as he turned away.
"You heard him, get to work lighting the torches," he finally said.
I waited until the torches were lit, bathing us all with light before we began to move forward. The hall led to a single set of doors at its end. There was no other visible means of leaving the entrance hall, so we proceeded onwards and kept going.
We maintained our formation the best we could as we made our way through that set of doors and then found ourselves in a throne room of all places. There was a massive stone chair in the middle, and on it sat a body. A dead body, I noted. The finery it wore had barely decayed, but the body itself had been worn down until there was nothing but bone left. Yet, it maintained its grip on the blade it held.
Valyrian steel, I noted. It was a bastard sword held in one hand, while the other propped up the skull. The pose was like a bored king sitting to pass judgement on his subjects. We filed into the throne room and began to look around before the door swung shut behind us this time again.
"Was that the wind again?" one of the sailors asked, clearly skeptical of the story I'd told.
"Yes," I said, and then the corpse on the throne began to move. To move in a way that the wind could not support.
"Targaryen, you dare come here. You dare disturb our rest." I froze on hearing the voice. There was only one possible source, and I snapped my head to it as the corpse stood. Oh fuck no. Fucking hell no. Two of them had already fallen to the ground, whispering some sort of prayer. I shot first, and asked questions later. I fired two bolts at it, neither of them doing a thing to it as it began to make its way down the steps that the throne sat atop.
"You dare to return after what you did. After the doom you caused!" His voice was raised now, and he was shouting. Part of me wondered how he was doing this with no vocal cords or flesh to speak of.
"You will die here, Targaryen!" Several of us fired at it this time, but none of the bolts did a thing. This wasn't a wight, I knew that much to be true for sure—no blue eyes, no rotting flesh. But the rules had to be similar. I tossed my crossbow to the side and pulled out the arming sword from its place at my side and took my stance as it ran forwards, approaching me.
It lifted its blade, and I was bodied out of the way as Ben took my place. Dragonguard met the blade the skeleton wielded, and the silence in the room was replaced by the song of steel. Ben pushed back against the slash that he blocked, but for literally a bag of bones, there was a surprising strength there in that he refused to be moved, and so was not moved. Instead, he began to press down on Ben's guard.
Ben was no stranger to fighting stronger opponents. Years with the Baratheons would give you more than a passing familiarity with the particular problem. He spun out of their engagement and twisted his blade to attack from the side. The skeleton proved to be just as fast as he was strong though, and blocked the blade with the side of his own. Once again there was the sound as the blades came together.
The skeleton pushed against his blade, and he took a step backwards. I'd seen enough. I pulled on Igneel's power, and the second I did so, the skeleton turned to me.
"You would dare bring the foul art—the foulest of arts—into this sacred tomb, Targaryen?" it hissed in my direction. I drew the arming sword I'd taken and took my stance.
He pushed against Ben and stepped for me, but I was waiting. I attacked with all the ferocity of a chained dragon. A left slash, a right one from below, a straight stab, a slash aimed right at the top of its skull. It blocked each and every one of them. Our blades screamed their song when we clashed. Valyrian steel on Valyrian steel. I stepped backwards, baiting a step forward as Ben joined the dance again, attacking from my right.
I stepped to give him better access, and we fought as one unit. I attacked, and where the skeleton tried to force openings or disengagement, he defended. He also kept his own steady pace of attacks, if far less ferocious than mine, with the goal of either taking advantage of openings I created or creating them for me. Ben heaved and attempted a full slash that would have split the skeleton in two. It turned to block. I took that chance and struck.
My blade slipped through the joint with ease, causing one of the hands to drop at the elbow. It fell to the ground, finally dead, and I had expected that to end the fight, but I was sorely disappointed.
It readjusted to fighting one-handed and began to defend both from Ben and me at the same time. Where I tried to force it to lock blades, it pushed back at me and took a step back to disengage to allow it to block Ben's next attack. I heard a twang above the sound of both blades clashing, and then a bolt from a crossbow buried itself in its exposed skull.
I moved to take advantage of the distraction, and with a lunge, I buried my blade where his heart should have been. He twisted with the attack, my blade still within him, and then turned to block Ben's next attack. I pulled out the rapier I had and buried it in the back of its head. It cracked the skull and pierced it with little resistance.
"Ahhh!" Ben screamed as he put all his strength behind a single slash that cut it in two halves at the waist. Both fell to the ground, dead finally.
A/N: More Valyria, of course. 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.