"Prince, they've started boarding each other's ships. If we keep firing the ballistae, we might hit the pirates too."
Krahas Dahar watched the distant ships with an indifferent expression and replied flatly,
"Stop firing the ballistae and have the longbowmen stand ready. Let them fight for a while. Once they're within range, shoot them all, friend and foe alike."
"Yes!"
Krahas Dahar, the Prince of Myr and naval commander of the Kingdom of the Three Daughters Alliance, had been the infamous Crab Feeder in the original history, a man whose name alone inspired terror. Now, however, he had yet to conquer even the Stepstones.
In the original timeline, sometime after the year 96 of the conquest era, Lys, Myr, and Tyrosh had defeated Volantis's invasion of the Disputed Lands and announced the formation of the Triarchy. Over the next few years, they drove out the pirates and outlaws entrenched in the Stepstones and occupied the islands entirely.
At first, the Seven Kingdoms had been delighted by this development, but the steadily rising tolls soon seriously hampered their trade with the Free Cities across the Narrow Sea. No one suffered more than the Earl of Driftmark, Corlys Velaryon, the Sea Snake.
Now, however, thanks to interference from Danyla, who had successfully become a dragonrider, the Kingdom of the Three Daughters had repeatedly failed to achieve its goal and had lost quite a few warships and men in the process. Naturally, Danyla had long since carried those ships and men off to Tarth.
This time, the Three Kingdoms Alliance Fleet had deployed a hundred warships under Krahas's command, expecting to crush these pirates with ease. Instead, an entire year had passed without them achieving their objective.
That was because the pirates of the World Islands now received secret supplies and support from