Chapter 57 (Patreon)
Content
It was finally here, we had arrived at Lys with no complications just as I expected, now was where the war started, my men were prepared for what is to come, I had told them there were only two rules, no raping, and no killing kids. Most of the last year has been spent increasing my military strength to prepare for the challenges ahead, this was my first challenge. My first conquest as the King of the Seven Kingdoms, the King of Essos.
At the coast, we found nothing but a desolated area, that made unloading and setting the camp walk long and silent. The Magister probably opted to play on the defense without his navy. He didn’t have many options after all.
But so much silent could mean they were trying to ambush me, so with that in mind, I sent a few Ravens to scout the area, and some to investigate what the Magister was doing right now.
If they had a militia of two thousand sellswords it would a lot, and against my army of eighty thousand Dothraki, plus what I had from the seven kingdoms. Made his options very limited, he can’t face me head-on, so trying to starve me out here the best option, quite crafty considering he is nothing but a merchant, but I suppose I must give credit where its due.
It takes our men roughly eight hours to set the camp, starting with my tent so that my wife could rest, the rest of the day was spent on unloading our supplies from the ships, weapons, food, medical equipment, and more, but it was fairly simple to do it without opposition, I originally expected to face some type of problem once we arrived at the tropical island, but I’m glad I was wrong with that. I can relax at the thought nothing will happen to Dany not even by mistake.
A few hours after setting the camp, my ravens flew back to their posts with updates, and things were mostly like I expected them to be, The Magister had indeed planned a defensive strategy, but not for the entirety of Lys, he had moved the entire company of sellswords he had hired to his castle and had locked himself there with some other nobles, with all the food he was able to move and raid from the people of Lys, his plan. To stall me for a long as possible, while he contacted Braavos for help, little did he know his ravens had betrayed him and no messages would arrive at Braavos, ever.
Little did he know, he made this conquest massively easier, he had left out at their own risk, all the citizens of Lys, from slaves to whore to fend for themselves against my army. All I had to do was show a bit of generosity, after all, If you feed a stray dog, he's going to stay, help someone in need and you will have their undying devotion. Is politics 101, seriously who picks these guys to rule. But not only he had screwed up with his people practically handing them to me on a silver platter, but he had also made my hunt easier, because thanks to him, all my enemies in this island were now in one single place. A target begging to be burned.
“How delightful,” I smirked, very happy with the information I had been given.
But that wasn’t all the information my Ravens were able to gather for me, apparently, the Magister originally pretended to slave my people, and make my wife. A Queen. His personal whore.
With that insightful new information at hand, I let my men know the situation, sending as you would say political ambassadors around the island with each one a small army of five thousand soldiers to back them up, with simple one mission, to tell all the citizens that would not harm, that our target was the magister, and that if they bowed the knee, we would ensure that the Magister paid for his crimes against them.
As for me, I had an entirely different mission, on a completely different tone, I was not in the mood for peace, quite frankly what I wanted right now was to boil the magister alive for his hubris of thinking that he would ever touch Daenerys, for I would make sure he begged with all his might for the sweet and kind release of death, and only then I would deliver his wretched soul into the fiery pits of hell.
So with anger boiling within my soul and the unyielding desire of butchering a Magister, I rode with my Khalasar to his castle, ready to bring him and every down, no mercy.
My beliefs were simple, in war, if they stand behind me I would give them protection, as I do with my men. If they stand beside me, they would get my respect. But if they stand against me, they would get no mercy.
“May the Gods have mercy upon our enemies!” I shouted, getting cheers of approval from my Khalasar, “Because we won’t!”
“Athvilajerar! (WAR!)” My Khalasar chanted as we rode to the castle, each and every single one of them, ready to taint their blades with blood.
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[Peteky Malore - Magister of Lys - POV]
The brat had arrived, his army was as my source in Pentos had said, massively big, with over eighty thousand men, Dothrakis, and Westerosi men, but mostly Dothraki.
There was no way I could confront him with my three thousand sellswords, our navy was our only defense, without it, thanks to those Kraken, we were in a pretty bad situation, so I contacted Braavos, with their support this could be salvage, and we would destroy this threat, all I had to do is wait.
And the lowly citizens of Lys would serve as sand for my watch, they would die for a bigger and better cause than themselves, to protect me, their Magister.
“Sir!” One of my servants entered the room, sweating like a mad man, “Our scouts! The came back! the army is moving our way, they say at least over sixty thousand soldiers,”
How did he know where was my castle, there were several dozens in Lys, this castle is even my primary castle, and more importantly, why wasn’t he laying waste to the city or focusing on controlling the citizens first?
It mattered not, his army might be big but is useless if he can reach within my walls, I have more than enough food to survive a year feeding everyone here, and more if I just let others starve.
“Have the archers ready,” I ordered, should they try to approach too much.
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[Back to Ronard POV]
I had two plans for the siege this time around, after all, I was better prepared this time, basically I would set huge scaling ladders against the castle's outer walls. For my soldiers to climb and gain access to the castle. However, this would leave my men vulnerable to arrows and other objects thrown at them from the battlements on the castle walls.
That where my ravens come in. They would attack the archers and help my men to reach the walls.
But this was just plan A, Plan B was that another part of my army would ram the doors of the castle, If we could break down the castle gate, we would have free access to the castle. So with the large wooden logs, I had brought, I would set my men to pound against the gate and eventually until they destroyed the Gate. I would set my men with both plans, and one way or the way, we would enter and lay waste on their men.
“Kill all the archers,” I ordered my raven squad, who immediately after left the formation, flying to the castle was to carry out their assignment diligently.
*HISS!* Neltharion hissed excitedly like always he had refused to part ways with me, this would prove beneficial once he was fully grown.
“We’ll be there soon,” I patted his head, as I continued to gallop with my horse at full speed through the city of Lys, people cowering in fear, not even daring to move, and one can hardly blame them, Dothrakis were quite fearsome, and even more in massive numbers.
*HISSS!* This time I felt anger within Neltharion as if like me, he wanted retribution with the Magister, was he feeling my feelings?
“We will don’t worry, he will burn,” I smiled with a dark undertone, as I pondered, could Neltharion breath fire already? “Can you set him on fire?” I knew asking this was maybe a tad complicated for a newborn, but they do grow-up fast.
In response, Neltharion blew a bit of fire, doing his maximum effort to keep it up, the fire being at much like two lighters.
This development seemed to depress Neltharion who sulked under my jacket, “Hey buddy, don’t worry… you’ll be soon burning like a massive flamethrower, besides with a bit of oil, that fire you have will work,”
*Hiss?!* Neltharion hissed, with hope, with an expression that said, really?
“Yes, you will set the man on fire,” I chuckled, “Hey maybe we can make a dad and his dragon day out of this,”
*HISS!*