-Chapter 89-
-POV Balon Greyjoy-
I felt a sense of crisis grip me the moment I sensed the unrest in the castle, but it was only when I looked down from my balcony to see the harbor ablaze, set afire by the fleet bearing the Redwyne and Targaryen colors on their sails.
'Those sons of bitches' I thought.
"SEAL THE GATES, LET NO ONE IN OR OUT, AND BRING ME THE MAESTER!"
"Yes, Your Majesty."
I quickly issued orders to my men, and then a few moments later, as I was donning my leather armor and grabbing my weapon, the maester entered: "write quickly."
He positioned himself in front of my desk and looked at me, waiting for me to dictate what I wanted him to write: "To my dearest daughter, King Aegon with the help of the Redwyne fleet has attacked Pyke. He is currently preparing to siege Pyke. Bring the Iron Fleet back to Pyke immediately."
"Are you sure and certain? You have committed to the..." he said.
"I AM THE KING AND I COMMAND YOU TO SEND THIS MESSAGE IMMEDIATELY."
Once his letter was written, he tied it to a raven's leg and then pushed the raven to fly away. I let out a small sigh of relief once I lost sight of the raven and smiled because if we closed the castle gates and waited for the arrival of the Iron Fleet, our victory would be assured.
From my vantage point, I could estimate the Redwyne and Targaryen forces to be about 30,000 compared to our fleet of 50,000 Ironborn. The gap was too large for them to win against us. All we had to do was wait.
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-POV Mycah-
From atop my horse, I watched King Aegon advance, perched on Ghost towards the outer wall, his expression cold and indifferent, his dragon flying high in the sky.
The archers on the ramparts all released their arrows at him without pausing to hear what he had to say—a rain of thousands of arrows fell on him, but he did not panic. He simply raised his hand in the air, creating a sort of invisible shield that protected him and Ghost as the arrows planted themselves at the latter's feet.
Even seeing that the king had stopped their arrows without exerting any effort, the archers were not discouraged and continued to fire under the orders of the officer in charge of the wall's defense until their quivers were empty.
Once the archers stopped, the king yelled: "BALON, YOU HAVE CHOSEN TO MAKE WAR ON ME, SO I WANT YOU TO SEE WITH YOUR OWN EYES THE END THAT AWAITS THE IRON ISLANDS AND ALL MY ENEMIES."
The King of the Iron Islands did not deign to respond or even show himself on the walls, and after a few moments, the king returned to a safe area and said, "Begin setting up camp and do not attack."
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-3rd POV-
"Why are we not attacking?" asked Corian, the leader of the fifth legion of the dragon and a knight of the order of the white dragon.
"Because I did not come here to subjugate the Ironborn, as you must have realized," the king said, looking at the map of Westeros.
"Your Grace, even though the Ironborn are all fishermen, a simple massacre is not necessarily the solution..."
"Lord Redwyne, I imagine that as the lord of such an illustrious house as yours, you know the history of this kingdom, or at least part of it."
The Lord of the Arbor nodded without showing any emotion, and then the king continued, saying:
"How many times have the Ironborn decided to betray the kingdom by attacking it and attacking the innocent citizens of the kingdom?"
"Innumerable times."
"I agree with you. Even if I win today, they will rise again tomorrow to start anew. I do not plan to exterminate them all, but in any case, the Iron Islands will never again be governed by a noble house of the Iron Islands. The barbaric culture of these squids will die with their lines in this campaign, and I will do everything to ensure it."
"So, what do we do exactly?" said the current Crown Prince Viserys Targaryen.
"We split our forces," the king said, moving two pieces representing the 5th and 8th legions on the map.
"Why? We clearly have the numerical advantage, and on top of that, we also have a second advantage thanks to our surprise attack. We can raze Pyke and move from island to island before the Iron Fleet even realizes what's happening," said Prince Viserys.
"We have only been able to gather 2 legions, those of Corian and Jonothor. If all the Ironborn gather to encircle us and attack, many soldiers will die,"said Bronn, supporting his pupil's argument.
The king nodded and said, "Tactically, it's not the best solution, I know perfectly well, but we must not forget the bigger picture. I must prioritize the best strategy to win this campaign, and for now, the most important thing is to push the Ironborn to return with all their forces to free up Duke Stark's attention so he can focus on the threat that the growing Bolton alliance represents."
"In other words, we are the bait," said Corian, slightly annoyed.
The king shook his head and said, pointing towards Greyjoy's castle: "It's not us; they are the bait."