Valyria II

The next day, the entire ship stirred into action at the first hint of light. Fear of the unknown had kept everyone from sleeping, so they were up early.

Once everyone was ready, Viserys gave the order. "Set off. We're entering the inland river. Slow down and keep quiet."

The Shadow Hunter adjusted her sails and slipped slowly through the Gate of Sighs into the Bloodweeping River, like a silver fish.

The surroundings changed the moment they entered the river. Rocks occasionally jutted out of the water, and the ship carefully skirted these obstacles as she ventured deeper. Signs of carving began to appear on the rock walls on either side. Huge, damaged reliefs depicted scenes that were difficult to make out, with only dragons, flames, and twisted human figures faintly recognizable. These were probably records of family history left by the Dragonlords of this region.

After about an hour, faint sounds drifted from ahead. The ship rounded a bend, and everyone drew a sharp breath at the sight before them.

The channel widened here into a small, almost circular lake. Its waters were still dark red, but near the center, they seemed to glow faintly with a sickly green fluorescence. More chilling still were the several "things" moving slowly along the shore.

They had roughly human outlines, but their movements were stiff and sluggish. Their skin, if it could still be called skin, was entirely stone gray, its surface as rough as weathered rock. Where their eyes should have been were two hollow sockets glowing an eerie green. They seemed unresponsive to the ship's arrival, merely wandering aimlessly along the shore.

"Stone Men..." someone whispered, their voice full of fear.

Viserys studied the strange Stone Men. Were these the wretches consumed by Valyria's curse and turned into living stone statues? Did they still count as "alive"?

"Don't disturb them," Viserys ordered in a low voice. "Pass through slowly."

The ship kept as quiet as possible, following the center of the lake and staying well away from the roaming Stone Men. Everyone held their breath and gripped their weapons tightly, eyes fixed on the slow-moving gray shapes. Fortunately, the Stone Men really seemed to have no aggression toward them-or perhaps their senses had deteriorated so far that they could no longer detect the distant ship.

Just as the ship was about to leave the terrifying lake and enter another narrow channel, a piercing, inhuman howl suddenly rose from the lower hold where Marisius was imprisoned, followed by the clatter of violently rattling chains.

In such quiet surroundings, the noise was especially jarring.

The wandering Stone Men stopped abruptly. Their stiff necks twisted at impossible angles, and every pair of eerie green lights turned to "stare" at the Shadow Hunter.

"Pick up speed. Get us out of here," Viserys ordered at once.

The captain spun the wheel hard, and the sailors rowed for their lives. At last, they escaped the area without mishap.

Once they were clear of danger, Viserys went down to the compartment where Marisius was being held.

The compartment was dim. Marisius huddled in a corner, his Valyrian steel shackles gleaming coldly. When Viserys pushed open the door, he saw that Marisius's mouth was open and he was still muttering something. His teeth had turned black as well, exuding an ominous air.

Viserys stopped in his tracks.

He remembered. In the original story, when an assassin attacked Daenerys in Qarth, the inside of the assassin's mouth had looked just like this.

"Are you from the House of the Undying?" Viserys asked, a trace of uncertainty in his voice.

Marisius jerked his head up, a flicker of astonishment crossing his remaining eye.

"How do you know about the House of the Undying?" he countered.

I'd guessed right.

Viserys stepped forward. "So you created those Stone Men? Were you chanting a spell when you cried out earlier?"

Marisius bared his teeth, black sludge spilling from the corners of his mouth. "Just a few little tricks to guide you down the right path."

"The right path?"

"To go where you should go and see what you should see." Marisius slowly straightened. "Then die when you should die."

The air suddenly grew cold.

Viserys rested his hand on his sword hilt. "Why? Why does the House of the Undying want me dead?"

"Because you came." Marisius's eye began to turn white. "There are things in the ruins of Valyria that the living should never awaken. Especially descendants of the Dragonlords like you."

He paused, his voice growing softer. "The House needs this place to remain as it is. To remain dead."

The moment he finished speaking, Marisius began convulsing violently. Black sludge poured from his mouth and nose, then his whole body collapsed as though it had melted. He stopped breathing.

Viserys stood where he was, staring at the corpse.

The House of the Undying. Stone Men. Guiding us...

So all the supposed "dangers" along the way had been arranged by someone?

He turned and left the compartment.

Arthur and Alliser were waiting on deck.

"Your Grace."

"Pass the order," Viserys said. "Put the entire ship on alert. Someone has been plotting against us. We need to be more vigilant from now on."

Viserys felt he had underestimated this world far too much. He had assumed he would not encounter genuine sorcerers before the tide of magic returned. But the Red God's priest he had encountered earlier, and now this puppet controlled by the House of the Undying, had forced him to face reality. In truth, he should have understood when he met the Three-Eyed Crow. He had simply kept thinking of himself as a unique existence, and so had unconsciously looked down on these "natives."

After a day of cautious sailing, they finally reached the Obsidian Plains. Under Balzer's expert guidance, the Shadow Hunter deftly avoided submerged rocks and whirlpools, finally making landfall on a small stretch of black beach.

Viserys was the first to step ashore. Fine obsidian gravel crunched beneath his feet.

"Set up camp and repair the ship. We'll rest and regroup here tonight," he ordered.

The warriors began unloading supplies, while the sailors inspected and repaired the ship.

That night, a squad of warriors stood guard at the camp entrance.

Then an extremely faint rustling rose from beneath the ground all around them, like countless tiny scraps of metal rubbing together.

"There's something there," a sharp-eyed soldier called in a low voice.

The gray-black "ground" began to writhe and bulge. Fist-sized creatures emerged, looking like a cross between cockroaches and crabs. Their shells were dark black, their compound eyes glowed a dim red, and their mouthparts opened and closed with a teeth-grating clicking. More and more appeared, until they formed a dense ring around the camp.

"They're Ash Crabs," said a scholar who hurried over after hearing the warning. "Their shells are hard, and they can bite through leather. They fear fire and bright light."

"Shields up. Spearmen forward." Ser Arthur arrived and swiftly issued orders without losing his composure. "Light the torches."

The troops acted at once. Shield-bearing soldiers formed a circle, with spears thrusting through the gaps between their shields. Torches were lit, blazing conspicuously in the darkness. The creatures called Ash Crabs did indeed fear the flames. Their advance slowed, and they prowled restlessly at the edge of the firelight, the clicking of their pincers growing more rapid and shrill.

But there were simply too many of them, and more kept appearing in the distance. Some of the bolder Ash Crabs tried to slip beneath the shields or through gaps at the sides, only to be smashed by swords or maces, splattering thick, foul-smelling bodily fluids.

Viserys did not draw his sword. He stood at the center of the circle, scanning the monsters surging toward them like a tide. He tried to concentrate, sending a powerful mental pulse outward, carrying an intent to intimidate and drive them away. This was another application of his skinchanger ability. It was ineffective against intelligent beings, but perhaps it would work on these lesser creatures.

Wherever the mental pulse reached, the foremost Ash Crabs fell into obvious confusion, colliding with one another as their advance faltered. But a new problem soon appeared. The Stone Men they had seen during the day had now emerged behind the swarm of crabs. They had followed the river, pursuing the ship all the way here.

They soon clashed with Viserys's soldiers. Ser Alliser drew his longsword and slashed at the first Stone Man to lunge at him. Clang! His blade left only a small cut in its shoulder, while the recoil numbed the web of his hand. The Stone Man paid no heed and reached straight for his face.

Fortunately, Ser Arthur's Dawn arrived in time. The blade flashed, severing one of the Stone Man's arms. Yet the creature felt no pain and continued attacking with its other arm.

"Attack their joints!" Viserys shouted after watching them.

The warriors changed tactics, targeting the Stone Men's knees and elbows. It worked. One Stone Man fell when a heavy hammer shattered its knee. Though it still crawled across the ground, it posed far less of a threat.

The battle lasted a quarter of an hour before all dozen or so Stone Men were "dealt with." They could not truly be killed, only broken into pieces that could no longer move. Even then, their severed limbs still twitched faintly.

The cost was seven dead and six wounded. Most terrifying of all, one soldier whose arm had been scratched by a stone claw found the skin around the wound slowly turning gray-white and petrifying.

"Cut it off," Viserys ordered without hesitation. Amid the soldier's screams, his entire forearm was severed. Blood gushed from the stump, but at least the petrification had stopped spreading. It was like the zombie viruses in films from his previous life. The infection spread far too quickly.

They did not let their guard down, however. These Stone Men were only some of those they had seen that day; more had yet to arrive. They needed to find defensible terrain and settle there as quickly as possible, somewhere they could fight the Stone Men more easily.

In the end, Viserys decided to lead the group to a nearby castle marked in the ancient texts, one belonging to the Dragonlords of House Satheryen. He had originally planned to explore it the following day, but circumstances forced him to go now. Fighting both Stone Men and Ash Crabs on the plains would be difficult, after all. A single misstep could wipe them all out.

Viserys led them toward a nearby mountain. At its foot, his gaze swept rapidly across the terrain before settling on a secluded spot. There was a clear recess in the rock face, where they could faintly make out man-made steps leading upward.

"There. Head for higher ground."

The group began gathering at the recess in the rock face.

The stone steps were steep and slippery, badly worn by the passage of time. After climbing several hundred, they suddenly emerged into the open. They had reached a platform halfway up the mountain, with the outline of a castle visible at its far end.

The castle was built from obsidian in a strange style, all sharp angles and few curves. Its gates were shut, bearing the triple-spiral sigil of House Satheryen.