"I'm sorry to say but I can't help you. I need them to fight against the Ironborn as they are in rebellion currently. You have to find another way, Raymond." Damian said.
Jory had his hand on the handle of his sword as he feared that the foreigners would attack them in case of rejection. But nothing like that happened. Instead, they offered their services to Damian to fight the Ironborn for a price which was in terms of the percentage of loot and a ship of course.
Damian accepted Raymond's offer and they shook hands after inking the contract on a piece of parchment.
In future, such acts wouldn't be necessary after he gets land for himself. For now, he needed to fool others that Raymond's group were sellsails who had come from Essos and he hired them to fight against the squids.
Jory advised keeping Raymond and his closest aide on their ship while distributing his forces don't eh other two to safeguard against treachery. It was natural that Jory would find it hard to trust some unknown force. Damian too would trust anyone without knowing their background but he had to keep the act and assuage his friend's fears so he did as Jory had counselled.
Now the men under him had increased from some sixty to hundred thirty-five. His fighting force had doubled and now Damian was confident in fighting a larger fleet if he came across them in the open waters.
All three longships were filled to the brim with his men when they set sail again for the Lonely Light.
Damian kept his troops fed during the journey with fresh food stock that he had stored in the warehouse of the system. It took them seven days to reach Lonely Light as Damian had the help of the System's map and compass plus the wind was on their side during the journey.
He had warged into Ace and flew to the islands first to scout for information and find the best route to attack Farwynds tower.
The islands around Lonely Light weren't big, and they looked bleak. Most were just some big atolls made of only rocks and some moss growing on them.
Aside from the main island, which was the seat of House Farwynd, there were only three small islands where Damian found the settlements of small folks while the rest were either unhabituated or just used to mine some minerals. No one lived on them.
Damian ignored such islands and flew straight to the keep of House Farwynd which was a tower made of stone that also acted as the beacon to show the way to the island.
Damian scouted the place while keeping his distance and became happy when he found the garrison to be lax and understaffed. From what he saw from above, they numbered around thirty. There could be more in the tower but Damian didn't think it would be more than ten or twenty. Still, it wasn't easy to mount an attack on the stone tower as it was built on a rocky hill and there was just a single path that lead to its gates. His forces would sustain heavy causality if he took that path.
Damian thought it was better to keep his force intact and find any other discrepancies in the defence of the stone tower. If he could find a way to open the gates to the walled tower or find a way to infiltrate without alerting his enemy then that would be great.
Damian flew around the tower but he couldn't any place that he could exploit. So he decided to fly around the island itself and see if there was any other way he could infiltrate the tower. It took him almost an hour and three flights around the island to find a place which was essentially a tunnel that led up to somewhere deep into the hills. It was obscured by the rocky terrain and was home to some big and vicious-looking seals.
Damian would need to check it in person as Ace would have difficulty navigating inside the tunnel with his size.
Back on his ship, Damian told everyone that they would wait till night and attack when everyone had fallen asleep.
Until then, Damian decided to check the marked location that was shown on the treasure map. It was on one of the smaller islands that was devoid of any people. Damian didn't want to alert House Farwynd so he took one smaller skiff to the island. He was accompanied by Sirius and six of his loyal men to the island while the rest stayed on the three Longships.
The island looked bleak and devoid of people. When Damian stepped onto it and examined the place, he found some signs of mining around the base of the hills but it seemed to have been stopped midway.
Damian brought up the treasure map to look closely at the path that would take him to the spot. They followed the path all the way to one of the hilltops on the island. It took him some time and hard trekking to reach the spot which was a cave hidden by small shrubbery and vines.
Damian sent two of his guards ahead with blazing torches in their hands to check for any dangerous animals occupying the cave or to find any hidden traps that were set to kill any unwanted visitors.
Damian waited for fifteen minutes before he saw them coming back.
"Captain, the cave is empty except for some bones of an animal littered around. We found a couple of bronze weapons and armour that look centuries old and one of the walls has paintings of a battle and some texts written in a language we do not know." The guard quickly narrated what he saw inside the cave. He had brought one such weapon with him and gave it to Damian.
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