After Lord Blacktyde's death, his lineage died out. Unless some relative from an outside branch wanted to come forward and claim a melted castle and an island covered in ashes, they were welcome to do so. Seeing the castle collapse, the men threw down their weapons and surrendered.
Women, children, and the elderly thanked him through their tears; it was obvious they were afraid. Jaehaerys did not execute them immediately. Instead, he had the people vote.
Jaehaerys separated the looters from the rest of the population, who were used as shields. He was going to kill them; he had had enough of them. He knew what was coming, he knew what he had to do. It wasn't just because of hatred, it was for the future.
Jaehaerys left a force of 500 men from the 3,000 he had taken to war. They would ensure peace was maintained in his absence. As for the pirates, their charred bones adorned the depths of the island. There were still more men scattered around the island who could be the ones to mine the iron Jaehaerys would demand.
After conquering the castle, the prince went to the next island to conquer, Orkmont, where the houses of Orkwood, Tawney, and Goodbrother resided. It was a little more difficult than Blacktyde; after all, he had to burn three castles.
The Ironborn did not repeat Lord Blacktyde's strategy. They decided to face him at sea, their ships scattered and armed with a huge number of arrows. They even used boarding harpoons to shoot at the dragon. In the end, it all ended in a naval battle. Jaehaerys did not let a single boat reach the shore. Those who died on the ships did not live to see their castles fall.
In the end, he made the same offer of asylum to those who lived on that island and left another six hundred men to keep the peace.
The last island was Harlaw. Rodrik the Reader, the Lord of the house, greeted him with a white flag and ships tied up on the shore. Jaehaerys could have listened to him, talked to him. But what for?
He responded to the white flag with fire of the same color. He knew in advance that Nightfall, the Valyrian steel sword of the Harlaws, was in the hands of Harras Harlaw, Rodrik's heir. Harras was not on the island; he was with Euron's troops when they attacked Lannisport. At that moment, he should have been in Pyke, waiting for them to come for him.
Apparently, Rodrik was a kinder lord than the other Ironborn. On that island, he obtained a minority of people willing to go with him to Argentstone.
In the end, he spent a long time on the island. The Harlaw house had a total of five forts, the first of which he destroyed along with Rodrik inside, was Ten Towers. He had to go through four other forts and destroy five standard-bearers on the island. In the end, Jaehaerys decided not to leave any men on that island. But he made sure to destroy every ship he could see; he didn't want to leave a sword to stab him in the back.
It was by far the richest island in the Iron Islands. If the entire Harlaw fleet and its bannermen had been there, he might have had problems, but most of them were not there; they were with his heir.
Jaehaerys ended up sailing with the two thousand men he had left to Banefort, which was the settlement of a house of the same name in the Westerlands. A blockade was already in place, agreed upon before the prince left, since after all, his 30 ships would not be enough to cut off the Ironborn if they wanted to move freely, and his dragon could not fly over the ocean all the time.
Lord Quenten Banefort was a well-trained and educated man. He was stocky and polite. He offered bread and salt to Jaehaerys when he arrived at his settlement. His wife was a beautiful woman from the riverlands, smiling politely as she introduced her children.
Banefort was prepared for war. It was close to the Iron Islands and vital for supplies, so it was busy. That is why its lord was not called upon to send troops or participate directly in the war, but rather to handle logistics.
Jaehaerys was in the manor with Lord Benefort after taking a bath.
"Have there been complications in capturing the three islands?" Lord Banefort asked. It had been two months since Jaehaerys set out to capture the islands. Just the time it would take to travel from Lannisport and search every house on the island would be about six weeks.
"No," Jaehaerys shook his head. "They have all been captured... extinguished." Lord Quenten's eyes widened.
"Extinguished?" he asked as he stood up. He walked over to a chest.
"Probably. I didn't waste much time searching through the ruins of their castles," Jaehaerys' voice was cold.
Lord Benefort said nothing for a while, but Jaehaerys watched as he took out a bottle sealed with wax.
"Here..." The lord poured him a glass of wine. "Have a drink, my prince," he said suspiciously.
But Jaehaerys's necklace indicated nothing; it was ordinary wine, although the container was more luxurious than those he was used to. It was a Myrish glass bottle of surprising purity, almost transparent. Although the necklace indicated that it was safe, he only pretended to drink it.
"It's... exquisite." He lied.
"I know, I got it from Lord Redwyne. A gift," the man drank a glass in one gulp. "My wife lives in fear, fear that the Ironborn will reach our shores. I always thought she was exaggerating, you know? Who would touch Tywin Lannister's lands? A madman," he poured himself another glass. "And it turns out there were thousands of madmen," he said as he emptied the wine directly into his stomach. "But now there are a few thousand madmen less as well," he said, raising his glass again. "So they won't rise again," he smiled at Jaehaerys.
"So they won't rise again," said the prince. The drink he took was sweet.
Lord Benefort drank a little more, but not enough to get drunk. He had prepared a small feast for the prince's arrival.
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A few days later, news arrived that Stannis Baratheon had taken Saltcliffle Island, with little resistance from the Ironborn. That left only Old Wyk and Great Wyk to be taken.
Jaehaerys thought of Aegon, who was leading the troops against those two islands.
He had separated from Myrcella and come to war. It seemed that the girl was not going to die, but Aegon's attitude toward Jaehaerys had changed. He barely factored him into account in his war planning.
He even made it clear that Jaehaerys would only take the three islands and then wait to take Pyke.
The prince didn't care; he would save his men's strength for the siege.
But Aegon's attitude was a concern. He became cautious around Jaehaerys. It was as if he feared him or expected him to rebel at any moment.
Would he blame him for Myrcella's illness? The prince did not know. He suddenly felt a pain in his head. The idea of dealing with Aegon was tedious, and the thought of wasting time weighed heavily on him. It was quite likely that after he left, other voices would whisper in the young king's ears. He was already quite indecisive, prone to overthinking.
The idea of losing someone you love makes your mind fragile, and he could be manipulated if several people told him the same thing: to be careful with Jaehaerys Targaryen.
Varys, Melissandre, perhaps Myrcella herself could give him that warning.
'Should I kill him now?' the prince wondered. And he felt bad after thinking that. In the past, he would have problems with those kinds of thoughts. Aegon was not Rhaegar, he was not a monster, he was a child who could not choose between red and blue. He was a child with gold in his head. A man with a woman who almost died.
Jaehaerys decided to wait and see. It would be in the rewards after the war that the prince would see the new king's will towards him. It would be then that he would decide on his nephew's life.