"Are you sure?"
"Positive your Grace" replied Hugh, slightly out of breath "I have
them, here" he pointed to a spot on the map.
"How many?" asked Lord Corlys, eager to know the strength of their
opponents.
"About ninety ships altogether, mostly galleys, some dromonds
towards the rear, also several largish Cogs and Carracks. Galleys
are a mixed bunch, single, double and treble rows of oars, dromonds
are big fuckers…..sorry your Grace…"
He waved a hand with a short, barked laugh "never mind Hugh,
never mind… now, to take them, thoughts?"
The council consisted of The Hand of the Queen, himself, Hugh,
Addam and Nettles, Ulf was still out on patrol, Hugh had raced to
where he assumed Addam was flying and had brought him back to
Dragonstone, collecting Nettles on their way back in. Also present
were the Lords of Celtiger, Massey and a few other minor houses,
along with some Velaryon men.
The dragon patrols had been running for three days before they had
caught sight of the Fleet of the Three Daughters, and Jacaerys had
been on the cusp of ordering the patrols stopped when Hugh and the
other pair had appeared over Dragonstone with the news that their
enemy had been sighted. It was just as well he had not sent Aegon
and Viserys away to Pentos, they might have been captured by the
fleet of the Three Daughters, and that would have been a disaster.
He would not have liked to have faced the wrath of the Rogue Prince
once the news of his son's fate would have reached his ears in
Harenhal.
Jacaerys shook his head to clear his thoughts, refocusing his mind
on the council, Lord Velaryon was giving orders to his men, the
defences of Driftmark were to be prepared and the ships of his fleet
at sea alerted, a string of small, swift vessels that stayed in visual
contact with each other to act as message relays would be used to
pass the necessary orders.
Once this had been disposed of the matter of attacking the enemy
fleet with dragons was discussed.
"Stay high, as high as you can and still rain dragonfire on them, and
we shall take out the Cogs and Carracks first, knock out their sails
and they are dead in the water."
"You dare, you dare order your Prince, you, you Ruffian!" sputtered
one of the minor Lords, making to draw his sword. Ser Lorent
Marband, the Lord Commander of the Queensguard and assigned to
him this day, drew his blade and menaced the minor Lord with his
sword.
"ENOUGH!" shouted the Sea Snake "enough! Hugh is a dragon
rider, and it was his idea that we even know about this attacking
force. I will have silence, I will, this is a discussion for the dragon
riders of the Queen, not for all and sundry, who know nothing of this
art, to intervene, do you all understand?"
When it looked like the Lords were being far too slow in responding
Jacaerys knew he had to intervene "My Lord Grandfather is correct, I
will have silence form those not of the Old Blood who have ridden a
dragon, the only one I give exception to his Lord Corlys, as Hand of
the Queen! Now Hugh, you were saying?"
"Thank you, your Grace, the cogs and carracks first, we come at
them from upwind, it will slightly lessen the range of any Scorpion
bolt or arrow they might lose at us. We take out their sails, ignore
their hulls. The reaction of the galleys and dromonds will tell us
much, if they cluster around to defend them, then we burn the cogs
and carracks, for they are obviously carrying something the fleet
values. If the galleys and dromonds ignore our attack or only
dispatch a small force to defend the cogs and carracks, then we
ignore the them once we have destroyed their sails."
"And the disposition of the dromonds would support this?" asked
Lord Corlys.
"Aye my Lord, the galleys are arrayed in a crescent ahead of the
dromonds, too far ahead to be able to support them, I think…"
"Hrmm, interesting, and you say they are here?" at this Lord Corlys
indicated a spot on the map.
"There or there abouts my Lord, about five hours ago now."
"They will be swinging into the Gullet, likely with most of their force to
engage my naval strength, the rest will land at Driftmark, that's what
the cogs and carracks are for, they will be packed to the gunwales
with troops. The Daughters want revenge for my support of Prince
Daemon in the Stepstones" declared Lord Corlys, Jacaerys noticing
a nod pass between Hugh and the Sea Snake.
"Hugh, anything else?" he asked of their most talented dragon rider.
"Would that your mother was here and on Syrax, but unfortunately
she is still indisposed… Against the galleys and dromonds remember
they will have scorpions and archers and you will have to stand off
and not get too close. Again, similar to what we would do against the
cogs and carracks, come in from downwind, attack only the nearest,
DO NOT overfly the fleet, that is asking for your dragon to get
multiple scorpion bolts in the gut. We fly together, as a unit, we
attack as a unit, concentrating fire on one ship each, make a single
pass, break off before you get into scorpion range, and we climb
away and reform for the next attack. Again, and again and again,
that is how we will defeat this slaver scum, no heroics, no glory
charges, nothing like that, for that way lies defeat and death. We
whittle them down, relentless, terrible, untouchable, and sooner
rather than later they will break and flee, it does not matter how
many we sink, if they flee, they are defeated, and we will let them
flee."
"That, that is cowardice!" sputtered the lord who had spoken up
earlier "cowardice your grace, but what could you expect from
a…..urgkkkkk!!!"
The man's outburst was stifled by Hugh turning, taking a single, swift
pace forwards and grabbing the Lord by his neck.
"I find you lack of faith, disturbing…"Hugh said calmly, while the
minor Lord chocked and gurgled, no one made to draw a weapon on
Hugh, until Lord Velyaron simply said "enough of this! Hugh, release
him!"
"As you wish" replied Hugh and he let the Lord go, who promptly
collapsed to the ground and started vomiting and gasping for breath
on the floor.
Hugh ignored this and resumed his place at the table, two
Dragonstone guards lifting the minor Lord up and taking him swiftly
from the chamber.
"Why are we letting them go Hugh?" asked Lord Corlys once the
hubbub has died down.
"If we slaughter them all we will have won a great victory that the
bards will no doubt sing about for years to come. But the Three
Daughters will not hear of this song, they will only know that they lost
a fleet, and they might be tempted to try again, to intervene is this
dance between the dragons. But if we let a few escape, then the
sailors and soldiers abord those ships will tell the true tale of what
happened all across the wine sinks and brothels of Essos. And the
surviving officers and high nobles will tell their families similar tales,
of how it is not worth it to get involved where the dragons dance and
duel. But all the survivors will tell of how if you try and tweak the tail
of the dragon you will get burned. And the next time the Three
Daughters think to stick their nose into our business, they will find
they have no stomach for such a folly!"
Corlys Velaryon smiled a wolfish smile at Hugh and remarked "you
know what lad, I'm glad you are on our side!"
"Your Grace?" asked the Hand of the King, turning away from the
bastard ex Blacksmith.
"Seems like a reasonable plan to me, I have no objections….."
"Good!" announced Lord Corlys, while motioning with his arms for all
the others apart from the dragonriders to leave.
Once they had gone his face turned grave and serious "Hugh is right
Jacaerys, Addam, no bloody heroics now! Stick to Hugh's plan and
things should go alright…"
"No plan survives contact with the enemy…" announced Hugh, to
break the mood somewhat.
Corlys Velaryon gave Hugh a sharp look at this, the blacksmith
simply shrugging his shoulders "all we can do is plan and hope our
plans go right. We have the advantages as we have dragons, but
they can be countered, all we can do is try and negate these
counters."
"And what of courage and strength, of boldness and bravery?" he felt
obliged to ask of this former smallfolk, who maybe was rising too
high and too fast above his station.
"Save them for the songs to make maidens open their legs, you don't
win by dying heroically, you win by making the other side die
heroically…."
With that they had broken up and went to prepare their dragons and
themselves of the fight to come. Of Ulf and Silverwing there was still
no sign, but when he returned from his patrol, he was to be allowed
one hour's rest and them he was to be sent out towards where the
battle would likely be.
Hugh insisted on sporting that ridiculous looking sheepskin coat and
hat, he donned his riding leathers and cloak, as did Addam. Even
Nettles sported a semblance of riding leathers, as each went about
preparing themselves for the combat to come, within a half an hour
of the end of the meeting all four were airborne and heading towards
where the fleet of the Three Daughters should be.
They flew in line astern, Hugh saying that it would make them more
difficult to spot, and just below a bank of clouds that stretched to the
horizon seawards, behind them Dragonstone and Driftmark, which
he could just make out, were bathed in sunlight.
Something caught his eye, Hugh was gesturing with his arm, a
Myrish spyglass to one of his eyes. Jacaerys's mind read the sign
language, another thing that Hugh had proposed, a simple series of
arm movements that would communicate orders and observations.
Jacaerys felt his stones tighten in his groin and tingles rush up his
spine, for Hugh was signaling 'enemy in sight'.