In autumn and winter, the monsoon winds in the Summer Sea blow from west to east, completely filling the sails, which can be seen billowing out. Although the ocean currents circulate from east to west, this does not affect ships sailing on the sea.
Velas's fleet, after departing from Oldtown, had smooth sailing all the way, encountering no obstacles. The formidable presence of the large fleet was enough to deter any ill-intentioned ships on the sea. In just two days, they passed through the Whispering Sound and arrived near Arbor in the Redwyne Straits.
Originally, Velas had planned to take this opportunity to visit House Redwyne of Arbor and discuss wine procurement, but a few days' delay in Oldtown forced him to change his plans. He would visit Arbor when he returned from Dorne.
However, Lord Paxter Redwyne of Arbor, House Redwyne, specifically sailed out to meet Velas at sea when Velas's fleet passed by. He was accompanied by Velas's aunt, Mina Tyrell.
A few years ago, Lord Redwyne married Mina Tyrell, becoming an in-law of House Tyrell, and their relationship grew even closer. House Tyrell also placed great trust in House Redwyne, entrusting the security of the southern waters of The Reach entirely to House Redwyne.
The relationship between Lord and Lady Redwyne was also very good; they already had a pair of twin children in just one year, which further strengthened the relationship between the two houses.
This time, Lord Redwyne was so eager to meet Velas, even bringing his wife, primarily to explain the recent attack on Oldtown.
It was the duty of House Redwyne's fleet to prevent pirate attacks on Oldtown and other southern territories of The Reach. Yet, when Euron Greyjoy led thousands of Ironborn to attack Oldtown, House Redwyne was completely unaware, and even failed to stop Euron when he fled. This was undoubtedly a major dereliction of duty.
Although Lord Redwyne had immediately sent a letter to Highgarden explaining the situation, he still felt unsettled. Therefore, he decided to personally explain the situation to Velas when Velas passed through the Redwyne Straits, asking Velas to relay the message.
When the Ironborn attacked Oldtown, Arbor's fleet was unable to detect them in advance because a very large storm suddenly appeared in the waters near Arbor at that time, lasting for five or six days. All ships on Arbor were unable to leave port. After the storm stopped, they received news that Oldtown had been attacked by the Ironborn.
Velas did not doubt Redwyne's explanation, as the news of Arbor being hit by a huge storm had already spread among the sea merchants in Oldtown these past two days. Some wine merchants who were planning to go to Arbor to purchase goods also halted their plans, waiting for news of the storm subsiding in a few days before setting off.
Lord Redwyne only felt relieved after Velas stated that he would relay Arbor's situation to the Duke upon his return to Highgarden. Afterwards, he discussed and signed a wine procurement agreement with Velas before leaving contentedly.
However, before Lord Redwyne left, he assigned two warships to Velas's fleet to escort Velas on his journey to Dorne.
After the small interlude at Arbor, Velas's fleet encountered nothing else noteworthy. Every day was the same monotonous ocean, for which the people on board had to find their own entertainment, such as holding a small unarmed martial arts tournament on the ship.
Linde had the foresight to buy several books in Oldtown to pass the time. Every day, he read in his cabin, practiced swordplay on the deck, and occasionally visited Moroa's cabin to watch her mix medicines and create so-called magical holy relics, leading a very fulfilling life.
After Moroa learned that Glory suffered from seasickness, she concocted some medicinal juice for Glory to drink, which had excellent results. Glory became lively and energetic after a few days.
Thus, after more than ten days of sailing on the sea, the fleet crossed the Summer Sea and arrived in the waters near Sunspear.
Perhaps the merchant ships encountered along the way felt that following a large fleet would prevent them from encountering pirates, so many merchant ships followed Velas's fleet. By the time they reached Sunspear, the entire fleet looked as if it consisted of over a hundred large vessels, completely covering the outer sea of Sunspear.
Even though Velas had already notified Sunspear via ravens from House Dalt of Lemonwood when he passed by Lemonwood, such a large fleet approaching still made Sunspear extremely tense.
For this, Sunspear dispatched its own fleet to block Velas's fleet in the outer sea and sent an envoy to present Sunspear's demands.
The envoy sent by Sunspear was Manfrey Martell, Prince Doran's cousin and the castellan of Sunspear, whose position in Sunspear was second only to Prince Doran and Prince Oberyn.
Sending such a high-ranking figure, the third most important person in Sunspear, as an envoy showed that Prince Doran also attached great importance to Velas's visit.
However, after meeting Velas, Manfrey presented Velas with a difficult condition: Prince Doran would only allow Velas to bring two hundred knights and three hundred soldiers to land in Dorne. Everyone else had to remain on the ships and were not permitted to disembark.
"What? How can we manage with so few people?" Before Velas could speak, others around him protested.
"This is the absolute limit allowed by His Royal Highness. Any more people, and we will consider it an invasion of Dorne by The Reach." Manfrey looked sternly at the people around Velas, his gaze lingering on Linde and Glory for a moment, then he turned to Velas and said, "Lord Velas, the Prince asked me to tell you that he can guarantee your safety and unhindered passage in Dorne. Any attack against you will be considered an attack against Sunspear."
Hearing Manfrey's words, everyone fell silent and turned to look at Velas.
They all understood that Dorne would absolutely not permit so many armies from The Reach to land. In fact, on the way to Dorne, Velas had already discussed this matter with his advisors. In their discussions, they thought that Dorne allowing one hundred knights and two hundred soldiers to land would already be the limit. Now, Dorne had agreed to more than double the number they had discussed, which already made everyone very satisfied; their earlier protests in front of Manfrey were merely an act.
Now that Manfrey had also stated Prince Doran's promise, it showed great respect to The Reach, and no one could say anything more.
If anyone else from Dorne had made the promise, perhaps everyone would still have doubts, but Prince Doran's promise was as real and effective as Lannister gold; no one would question whether he could keep his word.
"I agree." Velas said nothing more and accepted Manfrey's conditions.
Afterwards, he discussed with Manfrey the arrangements after landing, such as how to accommodate the ships and people docked there, how to supply food and other items, and how to arrange the route to Godgrace.
During the discussion, Manfrey informed Velas of some bad news: the Greenblood River was experiencing low water levels, with several places showing the riverbed, making it impossible for ships to navigate normally.
This meant that Velas could not travel by boat up the Greenblood River to Godgrace; he would have to disembark at Sunspear and travel overland to Godgrace.
Manfrey then suggested, "Prince Oberyn will also be going to Godgrace to participate in the martial arts tournament. If Lord Velas doesn't mind, he can travel with Prince Oberyn."
"In that case, I will trouble Prince Oberyn." Velas did not refuse Manfrey's kind offer; it was clearly a precaution taken by House Martell for Velas's safety.
After all the arrangements were discussed, Manfrey departed. However, before leaving, he suddenly invited Velas, "Lord Velas, after you disembark, please be sure to go to the Water Gardens outside the city. Prince Doran has arranged a reception banquet for you there."
Velas naturally would not refuse, as Prince Doran was his most important goal, if not the only one, for this trip to Dorne. Without Prince Doran's approval, even if he had reached an agreement with all the Dornish lords attending the martial arts tournament in Godgrace, it would be useless.
So, even if Manfrey Martell had not offered, he would have found a way to have an informal meeting with Prince Doran.
As for a formal meeting, he hadn't even considered it. After all, he was only the heir of Highgarden, and his status was not on par with Prince Doran, the ruler of Dorne. He was not yet qualified to hold equal and formal talks with Prince Doran.
Precisely because he considered Prince Doran the main objective of this trip to Dorne, Velas had collected as much information as possible about Prince Doran, using it to understand what kind of person Prince Doran truly was from different people's accounts, and then formulate his strategy to persuade Prince Doran.
However, what troubled him was that the more news he heard about Prince Doran, the more blurred the image of Prince Doran became in his mind. In the end, he couldn't even describe what kind of person Prince Doran truly was.
In the eyes of most people, Prince Doran was a pitiful figure. For a long time, he grew up under the suppression of his mother, the Princess of Dorne, and only ascended to power after her recent passing.
However, he was in very poor health, acted weakly, and the Dornish seemed to prefer his brother, the Red Viper, Oberyn Martell. The various lords of Dorne also seemed to disobey him, making it feel as if he could lose his throne as Prince of Dorne and be replaced by Oberyn Martell at any moment.
However, in the eyes of some others, Prince Doran was entirely different. They said that Prince Doran had actually taken over power from his mother, the Princess of Dorne, very early on, but nominally he was still just an heir.
The various lords of Dorne outwardly appeared very dissatisfied with Prince Doran and seemed unwilling to obey Sunspear's commands, but in reality, it was completely different.
For example, when Princess Elia and her children were murdered more than a year ago, the entirety of Dorne formed a large army at the Red Viper's call, intending to march north to avenge Princess Elia. Prince Doran, with just a single command, disbanded all the gathered Dornish lords' armies on the spot, and the unruly Prince Oberyn was also confined to Sunspear by him.
From this, it is clear that Prince Doran's control over Dorne is comparable to Duke Tywin's control over the Westerlands.
Velas had also asked the Thorn Queen how she evaluated Prince Doran, and the Thorn Queen's answer was that she couldn't see clearly.
The Thorn Queen said that Prince Doran had always hidden in the shadows of others, in the past in the shadow of his mother, the Princess of Dorne, and now in the shadow of the Red Viper. Any Prince Doran seen by anyone was only the side he wished to present. If anyone truly used this information to study Prince Doran's character and abilities, they would ultimately arrive at a false answer.
The Thorn Queen finally gave a summary for both Prince Doran and the Red Viper.
She felt that the Red Viper, Prince Oberyn, was like a venomous snake with its head raised high, ready to strike at any moment. While one might not necessarily avoid the snake's attack, at least one could know its intentions.
But Prince Doran was like a venomous snake that completely buried itself in the sand. No one could see its existence, and the moment it launched an attack, it would undoubtedly be the most fatal and precise strike. The target of his attack might not even be able to think about who attacked them before they died.
This was the first time Velas had heard his grandmother speak so highly of someone, which made him even more curious about Prince Doran.
So, while the ship was still selecting the one hundred knights and five hundred soldiers to accompany Velas to Godgrace, he already impatiently led Linde, Gals, and more than twenty other knights to take a small boat and go ahead to Sunspear.
Sunspear is located on the coastline north of the Greenblood River. It is surrounded by the sea on three sides, with the land curving inward, forming a natural deep-water port. A huge dock is situated on the south side of the city, separated from the inner city by three high walls.
To the west of the dock is Shadow City, where most buildings are constructed from adobe bricks made of mud and straw. The architectural planning is extremely chaotic, with many buildings often built on top of existing ones, making it feel like a child randomly stacked a pile of stones together. Furthermore, due to the building materials and architectural style, the entire Shadow City appears extremely crude and old, completely unlike an auxiliary town of a nation's capital.
However, in reality, the prosperity of this crude town is no less than that of any other city. Spices, silks, and precious porcelain from the East are sold in the town's market. Taverns and brothels are filled with visitors from different parts of the world, and noisy crowds fill every street of the city, with various clamors not ceasing until late at night.
Due to its construction methods and other reasons, the streets of the entire Shadow City are like a labyrinth. You never know whether the next turn awaits a surprise or a fright, and how many dangers are hidden within. It is an island of no one, and without a local guide, it is very difficult to get out once you enter this town.
After Velas and his group disembarked at the dock, the Sunspear officials who had been waiting there led them directly through Shadow City to a manor in the northwest, which was Prince Doran's arranged temporary residence for them.
The reason it wasn't arranged in Shadow City was probably out of concern about conflicts between the Dornish people there and Velas's men from The Reach.
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