The Death of the Viper

Count Uller slowly sipped the Dornish red wine in his hand, pondering how to resolve this matter without losing face. At first, Count Uller had merely wanted to make a quick profit at Blackport as usual, but he had never expected to provoke the Dragonlord. In the end, he had gained nothing and only brought trouble upon himself. Even at full strength, the Vail family could only muster around three thousand soldiers. After one battle, they had lost more than a thousand men, all veterans who had seen battle—specifically, men who had gone to raid the Borderlands. Seven or eight out of ten had been burned to death by dragonfire, and the rest would never return. Wyl's military strength had been cut in half at a stroke, compounded by the consequences of all the vile things the Vail family had done over the years.

In the end, he had to swallow the bitter pill himself.

The more Count Uller thought about it, the angrier he became, but he had nowhere to vent his anger. He could only drain the red wine in his cup, one mouthful at a time. "Wine? Bring me more wine!"

He called to the household knight standing before him. For some reason, the attendant who usually served at his side had vanished, as had the son responsible for pouring his wine. The castle hall contained only himself and the household knight. Even the servants responsible for cleaning the castle had disappeared.

Uller immediately became alert. "Where has everyone gone?"

"My lord, you just gave the order for everyone to evacuate the commonfolk and prepare to withdraw at any moment. Have you forgotten?"

"When did I... You..."

Count Uller suddenly felt as though something were struggling in his throat. Within a single breath, it filled his windpipe. The count clawed painfully at his throat, as if that could somehow let him breathe fresh air.

Unfortunately, it was all in vain. Count Uller tore bloody scratches across his neck, but the increasingly purple color of his throat only proved his helplessness. His eyes slowly bulged outward, blood gradually beaded from the scratches on his neck, and veins stood out along his arms.

He died.

The count's body rolled helplessly from his chair. His bulging eyes stared fixedly at the household knight who had handed him the wine, but he could no longer utter a single word.

The knight slowly walked over to the count and placed a hand on his face.

"All men must die, my lord."

The corpse on the ground slowly melted away. When the knight rose and turned around, he already wore Count Uller's face. Count Uller picked up the clothes from the ground and shouted, "Guards! Guards!"

Only then did his personal manservant, having heard the commotion, come thundering up from beneath the tower. He lowered his head and accepted the dust-covered clothes from Count Uller's hand. The count waved dismissively. "Tell those below to leave the castle with the commonfolk."

The servant dropped to the ground in terror. There were dedicated tunnels in the castle that led outside the city, but beyond the castle there were only a few deep pits for sheltering from dragonfire. The tunnel that had once led to the harbor had also collapsed in one section during the Valaerys fleet's retaliatory burning of the port, making it nearly unusable.

And as a servant of Wyl, he knew perfectly well what sort of man his master was.

"Get the hell out." The count yanked the servant to his feet and leaned close to his ear. "The Dragonlord promised not to kill commoners." He shoved the servant to the ground. "Now get out!"

Only then did the servant understand what had happened. He gave Count Uller a grateful look before hurriedly running back to the room at the base of the tower.

He saw that all the servants on the lowest floor were packing their belongings to flee. A kitchen girl he knew well, carrying a ham, ran straight into him.

"How can you be so careless?" The kitchen girl pulled up the manservant, who had nearly been knocked over, and complained.

"Why are you all running away?" the manservant asked fearfully. "Aren't you afraid..."

"You've been upstairs too long." The kitchen girl spat at him in displeasure. "Everyone downstairs already knows. Those lords are the root of all this. The northerners in town said that neither the Dragonlord nor the Yronwood lords in the south would make trouble for us commonfolk. Hurry up and run. The town is safer than the castle, and the villages are safer than the town. I'm going back to my hometown, anyway."

"Wait for me."

Count Uller sat alone in his chair. It was a long time before the castle gates were finally opened by a group of soot-stained family members.

"Father?" Uller's son, Arlan Vail, stared at him in disbelief. "Why are you still in the castle? Weren't you preparing to evacuate?"

"Pah. When did I ever say I was leaving?" Uller spat in annoyance. "Arlan, are you questioning the courage of a Dornish warrior?"

"Haha, Father, I wouldn't dare." Arlan burst into laughter. "This must be why you summoned everyone."

Uller patted the armor on his body. It was a plain but exceptionally sturdy suit of Dornish scale armor. "I'm ready to have a fight with the little Dragonlord's army. The Vulture King will teach those little brats a lesson too."

"Dragon!"

"Dragon!"

"Where are the scorpions? Get on the scorpions!"

"Run! Run!"

"Ahhhhhhh!"

A sudden uproar broke out outside the castle. Arlan hurriedly led his brothers, uncles, and every girl in the family capable of fighting outside.

Uller hurriedly pulled over his wife, who had just come down from the main tower with the children, and instructed her to hide in the hall with them. Protected by the walls and numerous towers, it was enough to withstand most attacks from above, even dragonfire. During the Conquest, the conqueror's queen had once ridden Vhagar to burn Wyl. The entire castle had been reduced to ruins, yet the hall had remained relatively intact.

Pushing open the side door, Uller watched expressionlessly as Vomysor and Silverwing spewed flames from the sky. The two dragons tacitly avoided burning the fields and villages outside the castle. Instead, they continuously unleashed flames hot enough to melt stone, scorching the entire castle.

"They really aren't attacking us?" Near the castle, an olive-skinned Dornish man stood outside a cave, watching Wyl become enveloped in blazing fire.

"When have Valyrians ever kept their promises?" a wrinkled old woman shouted from within the cave. "They only know how to enslave us!"

"That's not quite right, old lady." Another elderly Dornishman looked thoughtfully at the burning castle. "This time, it was those Borderlands folk who warned us. Maybe they really only want revenge on the lords?"

"Have you forgotten the atrocities of the tyrant Aegon?"

"But we still remember Jaehaerys's rule." A Dornishman inside the cave spoke wistfully. "At the very least, aside from the lords above our heads, everyone had been living well these past years. The northerners could bring us grain, and our fruit had somewhere to be sold."

"Enough." The old woman viciously struck the ground with her cane. "What do you little brats know? Valyrians are rotten to the bone. Just because they aren't sending dragons to burn us now doesn't mean they won't send dragons to burn us later!"

"Old hag, say less." Another old woman traveling with them had just finished praying. "If the lords back then hadn't insisted on resisting, and if those new lords hadn't been so utterly disgusting, the adults in our families wouldn't have rebelled everywhere, and so many of us wouldn't have died." She looked toward the castle slowly melting in the flames. "Don't forget, the food we can eat now comes from grain secretly brought in from the north."

The old woman finally had nothing to say.

The commonfolk in the cave watched nervously as the two dragons reduced the entire castle to ashes. After the bronze dragon collapsed the main tower with its fire, it deliberately flew down and stomped on it several times, bringing down the whole castle completely. Only then did it spread its wings and fly away with the silver dragon.

Within the collapsed castle, Arlan's charred body could never have imagined that when they had rushed out to fight the dragons, it had been his beloved father who shut the gates blocking their retreat. Every man and woman of the Vail family capable of wielding a sword had thus been exposed to dragonfire.

The bronze beast had needed only a few blasts of dragonfire to send them before the Seven. As for the women and children hiding inside the castle...

The silver dragon and laurel leaves of the Valaerys family, the striding hunter of the Tarly family, the purple lightning of the Dondarrion family, and the three sheaves of wheat of the Selmy family. Numerous banners emerged from the mountains and entered Vail family territory. Spears stood thick as a forest, their tips adorned with heads.

At the front, Hofa Lawkeeper held his Valyrian steel lance upright. A head smashed halfway to pieces had been impaled upon its tip.

It was the head of the dead Vulture King.

The residents near Wyl watched in surprise as this army of several thousand marched through their lands without taking anything. The merchants traveling with the army even sold food and seasonings to the commonfolk.

The Dornishmen of Wyl found this very strange. They would have to wait and see.

Thus, the army passed unimpeded through Wyl's lands.

Though Wyl was now nothing more than a smoking ruin.

Sunspear.

Prince Qoren let out a long sigh. "Maester, tell me all the bad news at once. How much more is there?"

"Prince Lonzell's forces have occupied all Vail family lands. According to our reports, Wyl was completely destroyed by dragonfire. Count Uller and the Vail family's many branches most likely have no survivors, unless the gods have shown them mercy."

"What about the people and knights under Wyl's rule?"

"The count's landed knights likely died in the previous battle. Prince Lonzell has forbidden the army from harassing the commonfolk, and has provided them with grain and meat at half the original price. He has also abolished the Vail family's taxes. Now, not a single commoner under Wyl's rule is willing to avenge their lord."

"Seven hells."

"Hellholt was burned as well. Prince Lonzell and Prince Valar burned the Toland family's spearmen to ashes on the road, then turned Hellholt into a scorched wasteland. If Count Toland had not fled so quickly, it would not have been only his wife and children who burned to death."

"Wonderful. Those two dragons were just a little short of burning Sunspear while they were at it. And then?" Prince Qoren commented sarcastically.

"Count Toland has gathered three thousand men. He opened his treasury and borrowed many ships from the Three-City Alliance, intending to head north toward Wyl. And Count Uller has taken four thousand men north. He has already reached south of Yronwood."

"Wonderful. My kingdom has become a complete mess, hasn't it? Does no one take me seriously?"

"I'm afraid not, Your Grace."

Prince Qoren rolled his eyes at the maester and lay back wearily.

"How much more bad news is there?"

"A great deal, Your Grace. Count Jordayne of Tor accepted Count Toland's gold and sent his brother north with fifteen hundred spearmen. But he also sent an identical force to Count Yronwood. Count Yronwood has withdrawn the soldiers he stationed at the border and is instead gathering troops to attack Skyreach. Count Fowler of Skyreach has also raised an army and is marching east to fight Count Yronwood. The Dayne family has yet to make a move."

"Write in my name and ask whether these bastards still remember the oaths they swore when I ascended the throne." Prince Qoren angrily slapped the arm of his chair and rose to his feet. "Send out the ravens. Muster the army. Tell those fools that if they don't stop immediately, the two little Dragonlords won't even get the chance to burn them. I'll let them learn that the sun can be just as merciless."

"As you command, Your Grace."

Sorry, everyone. I went for an examination today. The pus has basically all been drained, but there is still some inflammation that needs time to heal. I only just got home. I had originally planned to combine three updates into one, but the later war scenes do not fit well here, so I'll post them tomorrow instead. Two updates on Sunday, three on Monday, three on Tuesday, and back to two updates on Wednesday. Each chapter will also be longer. There will be several war scenes coming up, so please look forward to them.