GoT: Lightbull Chapter 22 (Patreon)

Third Person Point of View

Lannisport was on fire. The Greyjoy rebellion went off without a hitch, as most of the ships in the harbor were burned; there wasn’t much raiding, but it was still a heavy blow to the naval forces of the Lannisters. Little did the raiders from the Iron Islands know that someone was waiting for them to strike, waiting to counterattack them when they had their guard down.

The Greyjoy fleet outnumbered them ten to one, but each ship from the opposing fleet was worth five of theirs. That meant if they did decide to fight all out, the Greyjoy fleet could still win… But they wouldn’t. The larger ships crashed into the Greyjoy fleet as they began to flee, before the damage was even worse. It was a delicate dance, too late, and the Greyjoy fleet would have fled, too early, and the Lannisport fleet wouldn’t have been destroyed, throwing egg in Tywin’s face.

…

A month later…

Most of the forces were away; they split their fleet up and struck both nearby port cities at the same time. The casualties and boats destroyed at Lannisport were only a drop in the bucket, but the Greyjoy fleet would have circled around and landed on the now far less defended Salt Cliff island first, then, after they raided and sacked the island, headed to Blacktyde next.

Both islands were on the smaller side, each only having a few thousand civilians. Not nearly enough to stop an army over a thousand strong. Especially since the heads of houses were with the fleets raiding the ports and regrouping near Pike, the castle gate was slowly beaten down as a woman cried out in fear from the loud sound of the gate slamming on the ground. Men poured in as the few peasants brave enough to hold weapons were cut down.

After the area was secured, a man made his way inside and made a beeline for the older man currently holding the fort while the real leader was away. “You’re the leader then?” The man didn’t speak. It wasn’t certain whether he was the father of the man or the woman, and that was the only reason he still lived. “Aye… My son is the current head of house Sunderly.” 

“Alright then… Go ahead and kill him. Where’s the lady of house Sunderly at?” Kicking in the door to the main bedroom of the castle. The lady of the house screamed in fear as I sat down to talk to her. “Calm down, I’m not going to hurt you.” He waited for her to stop screaming and crying before he spoke again. “Now, I don’t really like squids; if it were up to me, I’d just kill all of you and be done with it… But, you are useful to me alive, unfortunately.”

The man sat on a seat, making it clear that he wouldn’t do what other victorious armies did to women. “Now, you have a choice. One, I can raid this castle, find everything of value, take all your food and drink, and leave you and your people to starve… Or, you can offer yourself to me. If you lie with me and promise to raise our child as your own if you become pregnant, I’ll leave without anything else. I’ll even fix the door on the way out.”

It wasn’t much of a choice. Either live or die. She didn’t really love her husband, being a saltwife noble herself. If she could free herself and move back to house Estren, marry into another family, she would love that. But even if she did make it back home, everyone would view her as tainted already. Life didn’t work out like that, unfortunately, and people would do things they didn’t like to survive.

But who said she didn’t like this? As she began to disrobe, she did so gleefully, thinking of how she was going to screw the house that stole her future from her. Even if the head of the house died at war, at the very least, they would have a heir to take over.

…

Months later…

The rebellion was in full swing. Forces were still making their way to fight, as they had a huge lack of ships after the Lannister fleet was wiped out. Robert Baratheon made his way to Lannisport, but once again, there were far too few ships to transport his army. Which left him to either wait for the royal fleet to swing all the way around the continent, or find other transport elsewhere.

And a few weeks before Stannis would have made it to pick him up, a smaller fleet approached and docked. The boats were gigantic, at least compared to the frail-looking ones the Ironmen used. Each was equipped to transport almost a hundred men; to transport them over a short distance, they could easily triple that number.

It was also the first time that Robert met Alexander Dayne, the current leader of the fleet he was going to borrow to fight the Greyjoys.

…

I greeted my uncles, who were on either side of Robert. “Uncle, uncle. Your majesty.” Robert got right to the point of needling me. “Ah, this is the little boy who thought himself a knight, protecting the Targaryian cunts.” I chuckled. “Of course not, sir, I tried my best to convince them to turn themselves in, that’s why we had that falling out after all. Viserys went a little mad when you turned down his surrender.”

I looked behind him and saw the other two famous Kingsguard, Jaime Lannister and Barristan Selmy. “That’s not what my master of whispers has said.” I noticed Tywin and his guards approaching as I came up with a rebuttal. “Who really knows where his loyalties lie. He did serve the Targaryian king before you, after all. One of us is here fighting, while the other is back at the capital, scheming like he always does. I don’t know what to say other than it’s my word against his right now. After this rebellion is over, I’ll address these charges.”

“Well, never mind that, where did these ships come from? Your uncles told me you were trying to make a name as a mercenary. It seems you’ve done quite well for yourself.” I noticed lord Stark approaching, and couldn’t help but smile. “Indeed, expect to hear big things from me. I’ll make a name for myself in this rebellion and expect to hear big things from me after that as well.”

He bellowed a loud laugh as his hand clamped down on my shoulder. “Good on ya, boy. Now, let’s talk strategy for the upcoming naval battle. How many of my men can we fit on each of those ships?”