Barbecuing Vultures

"Where are they?" When the Vulture King arrived with his troops at the spot the scout had indicated, he found no hunting party of three to five hundred men.

"Damn it, retreat." The Vulture King immediately realized something was wrong. He wheeled his horse around to flee, but the response he received was not only from his men trying to run as well, but also from a rain of arrows that came from nowhere.

One arrow struck a soldier in mail beside the Vulture King squarely in the neck. Watching the best-equipped soldier at his side fall, the Vulture King understood that matters had likely gone beyond his control.

"Retreat! Retreat now! Scatter and withdraw!" The Vulture King ignored everything else and dug his heels into his horse, trying to plunge into the mountains and forests to shake off the ambush. Part of his forces had yet to catch up. As long as he could gather them, he still had a chance to turn things around.

As long as Vulture's Nest and his troops remained, there was still hope.

Unfortunately, what greeted him was a surging wave of heat and Dorne men engulfed in flames, screaming as they charged toward him. The Vulture King was instantly thrown to the ground by the blast of heat.

He saw a bronze dragon slowly emerge above the forest. Lonzell, clad in armor, sat astride its saddle, though he did not know whether Lonzell had seen him. Thunderous hoofbeats came from every direction.

"I surrender! I surrender! I can help you fight Uller Vail, I can—" Before he could finish, an iron sword swept past the Vulture King's side and slashed him, sending him stumbling. Just as he tried to say something, a morningstar smashed into his head.

His helmet caved in at once. The Vulture King felt his mind turn to chaos, as though his eyes had been covered by a sheet of red cloth. He wanted to speak, but he could no longer say anything.

The next blow came from another longsword. It sliced through his mail coif and left a shallow cut across the Vulture King's neck.

No, I can't die. I'm the Vulture King. I still have a mission. Uller, you Seven-cursed bastard, I'll have my revenge. Run, run now.

The Vulture King staggered as he tried to leave where he stood, only for a warhammer to strike his helmet again.

This time, another dent appeared in the helmet. Seeing that he had not killed the enemy with one blow, the Dondarrion family knight looked at the warhammer in his hand in confusion. Just as he was about to turn his horse and give him another strike, he saw Vomysor diving down from the sky again and hurriedly went after the other fleeing soldiers.

A blast of dragonfire poured down, bathing every Dorne man in its path in flames.

Including the Vulture King.

He was freed.

Red Mountains.

A crude but sizable camp had been set up here. Knights of the Vail family had halted here with the aid promised by Count Uller. Recruiting new soldiers for the Vulture King had gone badly. Prince Qoren had even shut the gates of Sunspear and ordered the army to arrest Old Vulture, the leader of the Vulture Gang, a black-market gang in Sunspear. They could only head west with the family's aid.

Fortunately, they had not encountered a dragon.

Donald Tarly stood on high ground, looking coldly down at the camp. Beside him, the hunters and cavalry of the Tarly family were ready. More than twenty Dorne heads at the Hunter Count's feet were their tally.

Their force had entered the depths of the Red Mountains, bypassed the Dorne patrols at Prince's Pass by taking mountain trails, and marched swiftly until they met the signal Lonzell had mentioned nearby.

The signal was Valar riding Silverwing.

Silverwing lay obediently on the high ground without making a sound.

"Prince Valar, it's time."

Valar nodded and lowered his visor. Silverwing rose into the air. After climbing for a distance, she spread her wings flat and glided toward the camp.

"Advance!"

The Tarly family troops began moving forward as well.

"Dragon! Dragon! Dragon!"

The camp instantly erupted. Nearly everyone descended into chaos the moment they saw Silverwing dive down.

"Take cover from the dragonfire! Take cover from the dragonfire!"

The knight shouted, but Silverwing's dragonfire answered him, along with the thunder of the Tarly family cavalry's charge.

At the moment the dragonfire came down upon him, the Dorne knight had only one thought.

The Vail family was finished.

Vail City.

Uller Vail looked suspiciously at the household knight before him.

"You're saying the Vulture King has already met our men?"

"Yes, my lord." The knight nodded. "The Vulture King will reach the border in two days and attack the Dondarrion family and the new lands of those three little ones for you."

Count Uller let out a long breath.

At last, he could rest easy for the time being.

He drank the cup of wine the knight handed him.