A great wind blew, and the Ironborn fleet first set out westward from Old Wyk, answering the call of the new king, Euron Greyjoy, to follow the Old Way and slaughter.
All along that long voyage, the wind favored the Ironborn. They sailed west straight into the open sea, traveling a great distance.
"You should not be so reckless, Your Grace," Lord Rodrik the Scholar had warned Crow's Eye when the fleet departed. "Those islands of Highgarden are nothing but a pile of stones, yet you have drawn the wrath of the roses and the anger of the stags. Some roses have thorns, and some stags are very fierce."
Harlaw was not the largest of the Iron Islands, but it was the wealthiest and most densely populated. And Rodrik, as King Balon's brother-in-law, supported his niece Asha.
But the Scholar could only be considered an oddity among the Ironborn. He ignored the fact that most Ironborn longed for blood and fire.
"Sooner or later, I will kill them too, including these chattering fools of the Iron Islands," Crow's Eye thought, though not now.
Rodrik Harlaw the Scholar, Aeron the priest, Asha, that nephew Theon whose whereabouts in The North were unknown, and even the commander of the Iron Fleet.
"These relatives will be just right for helping me summon storms." Crow's Eye had never been a merciful man.
"I am the greatest storm of all."
Crow's Eye stood at the prow of Silence. A priest, his body covered in wounds and his tongue cut out, had been bound aboard Silence as a gift to the Storm God in exchange for a "fair wind."
Silence looked ruthless, cruel, and swift. Aboard her were mutes and half-breeds from every corner of the world: black men with skin dark as driftwood, and short, hairy men who looked like apes.
At the prow stood the figure of a black iron maiden, one arm stretched outward. Her waist was narrow, her breasts thrust proudly forward, her thighs long and well-formed, and thick black iron hair streamed behind her head. Her eyes were made of mother-of-pearl, but she had no mouth.
Ironborn flags rose up the masts and snapped in the wind: the Kraken of House Greyjoy, the blood moon of House Wynch, and the war horn of House Goodbrother.
But at their stern, another flag was raised for the first time: two crows holding up a black iron crown, and beneath it a single red eye with a black pupil.
A ten-year-old boy brought Crow's Eye a cloak, a blood-colored cloak like fresh red blood. The half-breed had loose curly hair and mud-colored skin, and he obeyed his father's every command.
"Go about your work, child." Crow's Eye took the cloak and looked out over the blue sea, full of ambition. "King's blood, sacred blood, unborn blood. I have all of these."
For a fair wind, he could sacrifice those people: priests, pregnant women, and several of his bastard sons aboard the ship. All of them could be offered.
Another huge mute carried Aeron Damphair up from the cabin onto the deck, and the sudden light left Aeron badly unsettled.
Aeron smelled sunlight. He smelled the sea. At last he saw the sea again, and he began to weep aloud.
"The sea. I can smell the sea. The Drowned God has not abandoned me. The sea will give me new life! What is dead may never die, but rises again, harder and stronger..."
Aeron seemed to have lost all his strength. Each day, he ate bread mixed with sawdust, insects, rot, and stench as his companions.
"I should not be here." Damphair longed for the Iron Islands. He had never been so far from them. He should have been preaching with his priests, overthrowing Crow's Eye's rule with them.
"Rise, my brother. Look upon your king, your god." Crow's Eye laughed wildly, grabbing Aeron's tangled hair and dragging the salty tears on Aeron's face across his wounds, bringing a searing pain.
Aeron looked at Crow's Eye. He was a complete madman. "You will... you will be defeated. You are a godless man. The Iron Throne, the king on the Iron Throne has dragons."
"Little dragons, brother," Crow's Eye corrected him. "I will wash the Shield Islands in blood and plunder Oldtown precisely to draw out the King and his dragons."
"The wind. The Drowned God will not give you the wind."
"I am the storm, so I go wherever I wish." Crow's Eye looked at his younger brother with that evil eye.
"Who are you waiting for?" Crow's Eye seized Damphair's chin, his strength nearly crushing the bones. "Victarion, or Asha? Victarion is fighting for me. As for Asha, she is nothing more than my cargo."
Aeron was indeed waiting for them, waiting for someone to save him, but his pleas were useless.
This was not his fault. The blame lay with Asha, for failing to support the commander of the Iron Fleet and allowing Crow's Eye to seize the advantage.
"You will not... you will not succeed," Aeron wailed. "I curse you."
"Your curse is of no use to me." Crow's Eye laughed loudly. "I will feed your Drowned God until he is full. With so many sacrifices, he must have grown fat. Words are like wind. Blood is power. I have offered thousands to the sea, and he has given us victory in return."
Crow's Eye clapped his hands, and the mute sailors dragged Damphair back down to the bottom of the ship.
The great Ironborn fleet first circled away from the land, sailed west into the open sea, then suddenly turned back and charged toward the Shield Islands.
...
Golden Kraken flags covered the sea, and the ships of the Shield Islands could not escape the golden encirclement.
The ships of the Shield Islands all flew rose banners. The Ironborn had found prey. Their prows and sterns bore a white rose on a red shield, while atop the masts stood a golden rose, the golden rose on green.
Drums beat out the rhythm of battle, and the Iron Fleet surged across the sea. The Drowned God had created the Ironborn, and so demanded that they create slaughter, pleasing the gods with killing.
Longships were the pride of the Ironborn. These ships had shallow drafts, were nimble and powerful, and could approach the shore, while the Ironborn made their living on the sea.
As for the captured vessels, flat-bottomed cargo ships, broad-beamed sailing ships, and great sailing ships, their qualities were exactly the opposite of longships. Their drafts were deep, they had difficulty approaching shore, and they were slower.
"Bang."
Iron Victory slammed into a ship of the Shield Islands. Iron Victory struck its side with brutal force, and half the Reach crewmen preparing to fight were thrown sprawling.
Oars snapped and cracked, a sweet melody in sailors' ears.
Boarding actions were the Ironborn's most familiar way of fighting, not the head-on clash of great warships at sea.
The commander of the Iron Fleet, Victarion Greyjoy, wore heavy armor, a Kraken helm on his head and a battleaxe in his hand.
He believed devoutly in the Drowned God. Even while sailing, he wore heavy armor and never feared drowning in the sea.
Victarion was the first to leap over the rail.
"Kill him!"
The White Rose warriors summoned their courage. In their hands were longswords, long axes, and spears.
"A pack of cowards. They are no Ironborn," the Kraken thought contemptuously. These rose warriors wore almost no armor. Even the last man among them wore only patched scale armor.
Because they were at sea, these cowards did not dare wear armor too thick, lest it make escape difficult.
"Come on. I'm only one man," Victarion shouted. "If you have the courage, come kill me."
"Don't get too proud. The King will come save us!" one rose warrior shouted, and then the Kraken chopped away the upper half of his body.
The commander of the Iron Fleet was powerfully built, and clad head to toe in heavy armor. He was all the more unstoppable.
The sharp great axe carried a coldness of steel. Victarion struck left and right, seeing the cowardice of those Reachmen. The long axe swept across, cutting off the first man's arm, then the second man's shoulder.
Another man buried his axe in the Kraken's soft pine shield, but the Kraken smashed the fool over with the shield, then neatly cut through the warrior's heart and lungs.
"The King? How would that little brat on the Iron Throne know we were coming?" Victarion thought.
At most, these fleets had strengthened their guard as usual, but they had not prepared well enough.
The Kraken thought that a fleet could have only one commander. Oldtown, Redwyne, and the Shield Islands fleets had consulted and confirmed among themselves until the Shield Islands' defenses had already collapsed.
Besides, they had borrowed the wind, and Crow's Eye had sorcerers under his command.
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