Chapter 18: A Dinner for the Crabs

106 AC

Twentieth Day of the Third Month

Chamber of the Painted Table

Dragonstone, Crownlands

"These two islands, Corfu and Methioni will be the main supply points for our forces, they are also the main choke points for all sea lanes heading for Bloodstone, once we grab these islands the Crabfeeder and his forces will be trapped," I said as we finalized our plans.

"They might attempt a breakthrough, I would have hoped that the Redwynes would be able to close the noose around Bloodstone from the South," Corlys added.

Too bad the Royal Wedding is holding up the Redwynes and the Hightowers. Fortunately, Boremund Baratheon had no such scruples, and neither did we.

"We don't have the luxury to hope for the Redwynes to be present for this fight, had the Crabfeeder's fortress in Bloodstone been like any other castle or fortress we could have destroyed him and his cronies within a day," Daemon snarled.

"Unfortunately we do not have that luck, that fortress is dug deep into the mountain like Casterly Rock, we will need to draw him out in a pitched battle without the dragons or starve him out which might take forever," Lord Boremund remarked as he walked around the table.

"Is there no other way and do we have to capture it?" I asked as I thought about the possibility of capturing a stronghold dug into the mountains. Most of the fortress is underground with only a little on the way of surface fortifications like Castamere.

"If we need the Stepstones then we need Bloodstone and for Bloodstone we need that Fortress," Corlys replied with a shake of his head.

"Is it necessary to capture the Fortress, why not just cripple it?" Daemon said with a shrewd and calculating look.

"What do you have in mind?" Corlys asked looking at Daemon with an intrigued look.

"We should bury the entrances of this cave mountain fortress with stone, after that we just need to wait, even if they have supplies to wait out for two years, it will be an agonizing two years for them while we control the shipping lanes," Daemon answered, "The presence of our dragons will deter any attempts to sortie out and hamper our efforts,"

"The Crabfeeder will think to lure us into the maze of tunnels inside the mountain but we shall not take his bait but rather use it as a way to make his beloved mountain fortress his tomb," Corlys said with a smile,

"What if there are other hidden entrances?" Boremund asked with a frown.

"There may be a few which is why we shall take care of that by flooding the fortress and drowning everyone inside," Daemon responded with a grin.

For a moment none of us said anything before Boremund broke the silence by asking, "And how exactly do you intend on doing that?"

"Bloodstone is not a rock in the sea, the island is not low-lying like Driftmark and it is bigger than Tarth, there will be ponds, streams, and lakes on that island which we shall dam and divert towards one of the entrances and even if there isn't any stream or pond we will have builders build a channel from the sea into the fortress, either way, they will drown," Daemon responded with a tone that had a subtle glee in it.

"I agree, that island must have some freshwater source, maybe not enough to support a town or city but enough to support a garrison that will be no more than five thousand," I said as I agreed with Daemon's plan.

Corlys thoughtfully nodded, "That might be possible but we are not here just to invade the Stepstones but also to occupy it, that Fortress is the key to holding the Stepstones,"

"That is where you are wrong, Bloodstone is the key to holding the Stepstones not that Fortress, not to mention we can drain the water out once we are done with them and rebuild and if that is too expensive we can always start a new fortress somewhere else in Bloodstone," Daemon replied.

Corlys nodded, "Very well, I will speak with my builders to see what can be done."

"What about Lys and Tyrosh? A power struggle can only go for so long before somebody wins," Boremund then asked as we were about to enter the finer details of the plan.

Corlys informs us "Tyrosh is still in anarchy with no Archon yet elected with most of their nobility and military officers dead and the remaining nobility fighting like dogs over a carcass, however the Commander of the Second Sons is a Tyroshi noble and he was not there in Myr, it is only a matter of time before he either takes the city of his own accord or he is invited to do so by others,"

"How many men are there in the Second Sons?" Daemon asked as he poured himself some wine.

"Somewhere around two to three thousand, he is sure to increase that number before he marches to Tyrosh," Corlys replied.

"And Lys?" Boremund asks afterward.

"The city of Lys has been fortunate, for while there was a vicious power struggle in the aftermath of the Triarchy's fall, it was a short struggle for one family to manage to prevail and bring back stability to Lys," Corlys replied,

He revealed "The Rogare family, a banking family that managed to avoid death in Myr for they refused to attend the celebrations in Myr in protest of the High Council's unjustly high tax rates on their businesses,"

Now, this is an interesting tidbit of information.

"Lysandro Rogare, that's his name isn't it," I speak up. "And his brother Drazenko Rogare,"

Corlys, Daemon, and Boremund look surprised, "Why, yes that's his name and his brother's name as well, you have heard of them,"

"Yes I have and I also know that they are open to allying with us," I continued. Provided we give them a few concessions.

"Really?" Corlys asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes but we can deal with that later, they will approach us after we win," I replied.

"What about Myr, is it still the burning pigsty we left them in?" Daemon asked with a smirk which caused Boremund and Corlys to chuckle.

"No, unfortunately, a Braavosi fleet managed to arrive in Myr while the Pentoshi forces ate up all the borderlands they could, the Braavosi have now occupied the city and have declared it a 'protectorate' of Braavos until Reconstruction is over which might last for a generation or two," I answered him.

"In other words, Myr is now a colony of Braavos," Boremund said with a scoff.

I continued, "That's right, now on the bright side, the Braavosi have assured us that they will not raise tariffs on Westerosi ships and goods and Myrish products shall continue to be made and sold at lower prices for us and in addition to that all the slaves are freed, the third Free City to be free after Braavos and Lorath,"

With slavery now banned in Myr, the slaves who escaped have started to return, the depopulated city has started to regain its numbers, and Pentos' ambitions to have more of Myrish land have now been put on hold due to the Braavosi presence.

We discussed the finer points of our plans for a few more hours before Corlys and Boremund left leaving me and Daemon alone in the room.

"So do you have anything to say or will you just keep it all inside?" I asked him as he took refilled his cup.

"What? I thought we discussed our plans on the Stepstones thoroughly," Daemon asked with a bemused expression.

"I wasn't asking about the war plans, I was referring to our brother's new life plans," I said with a smirk.

Daemon released a long-suffering sigh before he gave out a growl, "What more is needed to be said? That cunt Otto managed to twist our idiot brother's feelings to the point where we were disinherited from the line of succession and now he has married his shrew of a daughter to our brother,"

"Yes, that," I said nodding, technically I wasn't disinherited I was still second in line like before, earlier it was after Daemon and now it is after Rhaenyra.

Viserys knew that if he disinherited me for speaking my mind he would have a serious problem on his hands which is why a few days after the whole 'Heir for a day' incident he came to me and begged me to accept Rhaenyra's place as heir with me being the spare.

I was half-tempted to tell him to shove his offer up his arse but I relented after Dacey begged me not to make things worse, I had to think about her and the twins, and getting into a rebellion against my brother was not a good idea when it came to their safety.

However I did make a deal with Viserys that allowed all my children and grandchildren to have dragon eggs and to bond with dragons, so no cadet house bias for my kids when it comes to bonding with dragons.

"You haven't sworn your oath to Rhaenyra to uphold her status as the Princess of Dragonstone, technically that is treason but having a spine was never our brother's strength," I continued.

"Please, those oaths to Rhaenyra will be obsolete once the Hightower bitch starts breeding," Daemon waved it off,

"That, my brother is where you are wrong, for we both know that Viserys will not change the line of succession or replace Rhaenyra as heir," I answered with a smirk.

"He loves Rhaenyra too much and for Aemma's sake he will not change the succession even if the Hightower bitch whelps out a hundred sons for him," I continued and soon Daemon's smirk matched mine, and then he broke out laughing.

"I would love to see the cunt's face when he realizes that his grandson will not be king," Daemon chortled.

"As much as I would love to ridicule Otto with you, you do realize what this means," I said to him in a serious tone.

Daemon nodded as he stopped his laughter, "Yes, I am well aware it means that a succession crisis is on the horizon."

"Rhaenyra and Alicent are on good terms as of late but that will shrivel up and die the second a son is born and I won't be surprised at all if the firstborn son is named Aegon," I remarked.

"Aegon, yes, that is a good name," Daemon became thoughtful for a minute "You know what, I will name my firstborn son after you as well, it is only right as you named yours after me, and who knows maybe Mysaria is carrying a boy."

"There will soon be a lot of Aegons in our family," I said with a chuckle.

Like OTL Mysaria became pregnant this time around as well, but this time I was here at Dragonstone so when Daemon wanted to give the yet-to-be-born child a dragon egg, I shut it down before news about it reached King's Landing. This means that Mysaria might give birth in Dragonstone or maybe the Stepstones and not lose the child.

"What about the City Watch? Who did you leave in charge of that?" Daemon asked me as we drank.

"Don't worry, before I left I gave the command to my Deputy Commander Harwin Strong, he is a good man, strong and incorruptible, and just the kind of person we need to lead the City Watch," I reassured Daemon.

My four-month-long stint as Commander of the City Watch wasn't so bad, I already knew all of the officers and the rank and file knew who I was, so it was a seamless transfer of power for everyone involved and just as seamless for Harwin.

"This means that he will not become Otto's creature and with Lyonel Strong in the Small Council, Otto won't be able to kick him out that easily," Daemon nodded.

I managed to finish Daemon's work of marshaling the men of the Crownlands and I added them to my men of the Riverlands all the while dealing with Lords who came to me to talk about their fears about the succession, many Lords were disturbed by Viserys naming a girl as his heir and in my brother-in-law's case outright distressed.

I had to walk a fine line between openly undermining Rhaenyra's position as heir which would cause Viserys to get further angry with me while not dismissing the Lord's concerns outright as they would be important allies in the years to come.

I know for a fact that Corlys, Lyonel, and a delegation of other Lords (future Green and Black Lords amongst them) tried to convince Viserys not to name Rhaenyra as heir and make me instead the heir but once Viserys makes a decision he is not one to back out from it and Otto was there to support him through it all.

Corlys was the most pissed, Rhaenys was passed over for being a woman despite being the only child of the heir and now Rhaenyra was named heir for being the only child of the King, the double standards when it came to his wife for being his wife did not please him at all.

And to rub salt in the wound, Viserys chose not to marry Laena but instead chose Alicent despite Laena having Vhagar. Sometimes I wonder what goes on inside Viserys' head that he somehow forgets the obvious.

In the end, I was the first one to swear my oaths to Rhaenyra and put a rest to all murmurings about the succession that will reignite the minute Aegon II is born.

I sent Dacey and the twins to Raventree Hall the day after Rhaenyra was sworn in as the Princess of Dragonstone while I left after all my work was completed and I arrived in Dragonstone just as Mysaria realized that she was pregnant. Talk about timing.

Daemon raised his cup to me, "Well, my brother, soon we shall embark on yet another adventure, this time to the Stepstones."

"And once we are done, may we leave a dinner for the crabs," I replied as I raised my cup.