Pre-Chapter A/N: Here we go with another chapter, coming in right on time. Next three chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio.
LATE 120 AC-- LAENOR VELARYON, THE NARROW SEA
"Tighter," I said to Aegon as he did the straps for my breastplate. I was not looking forward to the soreness I would feel at the end of this flight. Flying while armoured was uncomfortable, to say the least. But there was no other option. The letter from Jordayne had described the defences around Starfall as significant. And it seemed I was expected, as every tower was manned with a scorpion and the castle had quite a few of those.
Igneel would be fine, but it only ever took one arrow to end a rider, so I had to be careful. And armour was part of it. The mirror in my cabin showed that I cut quite a figure in my armour. The clean, gleaming steel seemed to glint in the candlelight, and as it did so, the ripples of the Valyrian steel became clear. It was the most valuable thing I owned and it was not even close. So valuable that I'd not even worn it for the jousts in King's Landing. That had also been to avoid whispers of impropriety when I won the whole thing (had to give the others a sporting chance).
But now that I was going to war, it was time. The helmet was my least favourite part, but it was necessary. It was going to be cramping on my neck when I eventually put it on, but for now, I could hold it under my armpit.
"How do I look?" I asked Aegon when he finally stepped back, having helped me put on the whole suit.
"Like a legend out of the songs," he said, near breathless.
"Yes, that's exactly what I was going for," I said, and gave him a wink.
I walked up to the deck with him, and when it was time for me to board my boat, I turned to him.
"Be good, Aegon. Keep sparring with Jak. Pay attention to the tips he gives you. When Ser Cargyll is fully recovered, he will return to your training and I am sure he will do an adequate job until I return. Tell my wife and children I love them. Kiss the children for me. Not my wife though. I'd gut you for that," I said, and ruffled his hair as the poor boy turned red as a tomato. His crush on Laena would never stop being funny.
Igneel was eager by the time my boat reached his carrier. He was already staring into the horizon with some mounting anticipation. I monitored his eating to be sure that he'd had enough. And then I had them add an extra sheep for good measure. Of course, to eat on the ship, he had to put his meal in his mouth first and then give it a good burning in there before beginning to chew and swallow.
When he was done, the deck was evacuated. I waved my goodbye to Aegon, who waited on the deck of my flagship, and pressed myself into the saddle.
"Igneel, you know what to do," I whispered.
He pushed down against the ship, spread his wings fully, and then with one single jump, he was gone. Taking off from a ship was still one of the most exhilarating things I had ever done in the world. It was like being fired from a catapult. I hated using the chains to strap myself in, so the sense of danger was magnified by the fact that it was only my thighs and the grip strength of my own two hands that prevented the wind from sending me flying as we pushed through the air, heading up.
Igneel's wings flapped powerfully, each one sounding to me like the crack of thunder as we sailed through the air now. We were fast. I knew this theoretically. But it was only at times like this when we just got to push and push with no worries that I truly felt that speed in my gut. If my body was not essentially superhuman, something like this was a death sentence. Even at that, this speed was punishing for me, but we were in a hurry.
Calculating how fast ravens flew and how fast ships went told me my letter would have reached Icarus Jordayne some time yesterday. The order had been to begin their assault on Starfall once the sun rose. I promised that I would be there to make things easier for them, but they could not wait for me to arrive before beginning.
The reason for this was somewhat selfish, of course. If I arrived and then the assault began, the Daynes would know to spread their defenders between manning their scorpions and seeing to the walls. It would mean a somewhat easier time for the Jordayne and Yronwood men, but it would also mean that Igneel and I would be facing dozens if not hundreds of scorpion bolts. Even a 1% chance became a terrifying possibility when spread out across so many attempts.
So I would force them to fully commit on Icarus' account. They would have had scouts reporting on the sky that would have told them I was nowhere nearby. Their spies might even have told them when I left King's Landing at the head of a ship with only one destination. All those facts pointed at one certainty: I would not be coming.
They would rely on it because they were reasonable people, and they would die for it. That was the nature of this world. Not every defeat came with a lesson. Sometimes you were perfectly correct, but still ended up wrong because the other side just had bullshit on their side. I was the other side. I was the bullshit.
Igneel roared his disagreement in my mind.
Sorry, buddy, I said mentally before amending my earlier thought, we are the bullshit.
His pleased roar came next, and then he pushed even further, somehow managing to eke even more force out of his wings. We were shooting forward now. I closed my eyes, unable to even try to see at this speed with the wind slapping at my face.
'Shape the wind to not be such a bother,' Aurion's bored voice sounded in my head then.
'What?' I asked back, not sure what he meant.
'The wind is pushing at you. But it is not pushing at your dragon. It bends around him. The dragon does not cast a spell, of course. What it does is instinctual, but what it does by instinct you can copy with intention,' he said.
'How do I do it?' I asked.
'Skinchange into your dragon first. Feel how the wind bends around him and hold that feeling in your mind. When you return to your body, use your magic to do the same. The spell is simple enough even someone with middling talent like yourself can manage it,' he said. I resisted the urge to rise to his bait, which somehow managed to stay effective even after close to a year of having him talking my ears off.
I pushed into Igneel's body, wearing it like a second skin while keeping some awareness of my own body. Sometimes I wished I had more First Men blood than I had inherited from my Baratheon side. Being a full-blown warg would probably be so useful. Back on topic, I scolded as my mind started to wonder which animals I'd find most useful.
I felt it as Igneel flapped our wings and pushed himself forward. Aurion was right. The wind was bending around him instead of pushing against him. It was a very tight field, covering only as far as his scales went. Igneel was not even consciously doing it. It just happened as he pushed to go faster. I left his body and returned to mine.
'Let's hope you manage not to disappoint me even further now,' Aurion said. I ignored him and pulled on that power within me. That power that Igneel had woken when he killed the other Aurion Baelarys all those years ago. I shaped it like Igneel's wings shaped his own power, bending the wind to my will and forcing it to obey.
And suddenly, I could hear again. It felt like I was on the ground on a cool summer day. A windless one, of course. I opened my eyes and felt the disconnect between what my eyes could see, the way the sea passed beneath us as we pushed on and on, and what my body felt, which was to say, none of it.
'Why didn't you mention something like this earlier?' I asked, feeling a scowl build up. Something like this was a game changer.
'Do not blame me for assuming you were something of a competent dragonrider. How far has House Targaryen fallen if it trains riders who cannot even do something so simple as shape the wind?' he said with a scoff.
'So this was a common skill in Valyria?' I asked.
'Even children could do it. Why do you think it came so easily to you?' he asked. Okay, that's enough of you now, I said and zoned him out.
XXXXX- ICARUS JORDAYNE, 120AC, OUTSIDE STARFALL
"Today, many will die," he said as he watched the sun rise. He found that the night before battle was the worst time to get a night of sleep. He had tried. Really tried. But whenever he closed his eyes, he saw nothing but the faces of those who would die today.
"We can wait for the dragon," Oberon said. Icarus scoffed at the thought. He had considered it. He really had. But he knew better. He had seen what the wrath of Laenor Velaryon could look like firsthand. The ruins of Sunspear made excellent viewing for anyone who wanted to risk making an enemy of this particular Dragonlord.
"We cannot. Because while this is ostensibly an alliance of equals, he has still given us an order. And it is one we cannot afford to reject," he said with a sigh. mbs. We must start the attack as instructed, but we will onlt
"How will he even know? We wait for one of the far eyes to spot him and then we begin the attack. If we just start without him, there is every chance that he never comes. And in that case, what are we going to do? Perhaps we take the castle, but our war will be over from then," he said. Icarus had done the numbers himself. He knew them better than anyone else. He took a sip from his flask and scowled at Oberon as he tasted the heavily watered wine again.
Somehow, the man he trusted the most had betrayed him. He had watered all the wine in their army. Every supply train that arrived came with watered wine as well. Either his letters back home for some real fucking wine were going ignored, or going missing. And he could bet on the latter.
"He will know. But you are right as well. We can buy time before we move in force, but not by sitting on our hands or twiddling our thumbs."
"How?" he asked.
"Thank you for the sellswords," Icarus said.
"They'll see what you're trying to do before you even begin," Oberon said.
"I have no doubts that they will see the attempt to burn their lives instead of that of my own men, but they also will not fight it. Oberon, these men are not Westerosi. They are Essosi. Gold is the only god they truly follow. I will increase my offer to their commanders by a fourth and you will watch their men rush these walls like they are the gates to the first seven," he said.
"I will call the meeting then?" Oberon asked.
"No need. I will speak to them all separately. See if I can get a deal and a lower price from a few of those who don't care too much for their subordinates," Icarus said, before taking another swig of the coloured water—for that was what this disgracefully watered wine tasted like.
"Gods be with you, brother. While you're doing that, I'll look to the camp. Make sure everything is in order," he said, and they went their separate ways.
They attacked an hour after the sun rose. There was no chance of attacking by surprise with how many people the Daynes had on the walls watching and waiting for them. So instead of trying to storm the castle with speed, they would do it with a plan and superior organisation. All the sellsword companies had proven more than willing to lead the charges on all fronts.
It was amusing how quickly the commanders had been willing to sell out their own men for some extra gold in their pockets. Essosi, he thought, resisting the urge to shake his head. He had to part with quite a lot of said gold, but quite a few of them would put that gold back in his pockets and buy minor knighthoods and holdings in Dorne. Yorren's pockets really, but the gold he spent right now was Yorren's as well. Technically, at least.
The loan contract was yet to be drawn up, but that was a matter for later. Yorren was yet to stir from Yronwood. He would do so once Starfall fell, but not before. And for Starfall to fall, this plan had to go perfectly.
With a mighty blow of the horn, Oberon began the battle that would run these sands red with blood. The sellswords began to march at the gates and walls with shields held over their heads. They didn't have enough men to assault the castle from all sides. Instead, they would attempt to split the storming of the walls into two fronts.
One larger group would head towards the gates. They had the battering ram and the mighty men who would wield it in the hopes of forcibly prying open Starfall to their waiting army. The smaller group went towards the east-facing walls, with ladders aplenty. Ostensibly, it was a standard siege tactic where you forced the defenders to split their force so they could not fully commit to the defence of a single point. Of course, it came with the effect of doing the same to your own attacking force.
But Icarus could afford that. He had more men. Even before the sellswords, he had more men. His men-at-arms had grown as his gold had grown. With the sellswords, it was not even a contest. But one man on a wall was worth ten beneath it. And Icarus watched that hold true as arrows found quite a few of the sellswords even with them holding shields above their heads.
But onwards they marched, a veritable sea of men moving in either direction, with one looking denser than the other. The core of the group that went for the gates held the men that wielded the battering rams, and the Dayne men were doing their best to prevent them from reaching the gates. Arrows flew unceasingly, and when those began to bury themselves in more shields than bodies, they brought their own artillery to bear, massive wall-mounted trebuchets sending rocks into their approaching horde.
A wave of Icarus' hand was all that was needed to get his own men to begin to counter that attack with their own trebuchets. The superior weapons bought from House Velaryon allowed them to shoot with more force and more power, as well as reload the massive boulders that they sent over the walls more readily. The weapons were some distance away to allow them to strike just beyond the walls, and parts of the walls themselves without striking their men.
The guardsmen on the walls were being pushed to their brim, and Icarus' men had yet to even reach the gate. If he ignored the bodies that piled up outside said gate, Icarus could even begin to think this was going well. It was going well, that is. But not well enough. Because the gates would only be the first test. And when they took said gates, they would have to fight their way through an unfamiliar castle manned by loyal and skilled men. It would be a nightmare...if the dragon did not come.
And the horn that Oberon just blew told him that he had nothing to worry about on that account. He turned to his brother several paces away and he nodded. The message had come then. Velaryon had been spotted.
The men knew what that signal meant, but their enemy did not, and it made them fight all the harder for it. The first man to make it up the eastern wall fell with an axe buried in his head. The second managed to kill the first man he met, but fell from what looked to be friendly fire. The archers were getting a bit too enthusiastic, weren't they? The third and fourth men, now that they had two ladders on the walls, managed to secure a foothold.
And then behind them came more and more men. The defenders above the gates realised their mistake too late. The split hadn't been to draw attention away from the gates and split their focus. It had been because seizing the walls was always the target, not bursting the gates open. And so they drew their blades and rushed for his own men on the wall, leaving a skeleton force to deter his men from approaching the gates.
The battering ram was there in a matter of minutes, the skeleton force woefully insufficient. And while their men died in droves above the walls, his men rammed at the gate over and over again with all their might. The gate was not even buckling yet, but it would. All gates broke. It was just a matter of time.
And that time mattered less even as the shout began to spread. Icarus turned his gaze towards the sun, and like a chariot dragging the sun behind it came the dragon. Igneel the Shipburner, the Destroyer, the Castle-smiter, descended on Starfall. And that was the end of one of the greatest of the Dornish castles.
A/N: Doing this from Icarus' POV was fun. My first time writing a siege and eventual storming. I probably got a few things wrong. As for the travel timing, Igneel moves far faster than any other dragon we've been shown in the books, and so a journey that would have taken them half a day is the work of a few hours for him. Next chapter comes on here by Sunday night. Next three 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.