"The peace faction!" Aquad calmly answered Gendry's question. "The Band of Nine took Tyrosh back then, and your strength already rivals, if not surpasses, theirs, Commander-in-Chief."
"I admire you. If the day ever comes when you have nowhere left to flee, you can come to me!"
"Thank you for your generosity, Commander-in-Chief! I certainly hope that day never comes."
"Very well, Lord Aquad. I admit the gifts you mentioned are rather tempting, but they haven't won me over yet!"
"I will bring that message to the Archon and have him prepare even richer gifts!" Aquad was delighted. If Gendry was willing to entertain the idea, there was room for negotiation.
"You may take it that way! Thank you for making the long journey. Go and get some rest!" Gendry dismissed Governor Aquad.
The soldiers took the Tyroshi envoy to a rather secluded location.
"Summon all the military commanders!" Gendry ordered. "The time to take Tyrosh is almost upon us!"
"As you command, Commander-in-Chief!" Qyburn said.
The military council of the Wolf Pack army and the Free Army convened in secret.
Handsome Man, treasurer and adviser to Gendry.
Dick the Bowmaker, adviser to Gendry.
Qyburn, maester, intelligence officer, and Gendry's mentor.
Long Spear, cavalry commander of the Wolf Pack Company.
Steel Fist, infantry commander of the Wolf Pack Company.
Black Billy, archer commander of the Wolf Pack Company.
Gillo Reha, commander of the Long Spear Company.
Grey Wolf, leader of the Unsullied, commander of the guards, and commander of the Free Army.
Ser Jorah, officer of the guards.
"The time for an all-out assault has come. The Tyroshi envoy brought many gifts and a plea for peace," Gendry told them. "The Tyroshi are famous for their greed. They would never behave this way unless their situation was desperate!"
"Then why not turn their scheme against them?" Handsome Man said. "The Tyroshi are using gifts to buy time. Once reinforcements from Lys and Volantis arrive, Tyrosh will certainly counterattack Myr!"
"Tyrosh's help may come not from Lys or Volantis, but from the khals!" said Maester Qyburn, old yet still vigorous.
"The khals?"
"Indeed! Only the khals can rescue Tyrosh!" Maester Qyburn answered them. "The Lyseni have also taken in Myrish exiles, but their governors remain undecided. Attacking Myr by sea is too difficult, and on land the Lyseni dare not confront the Free Army. Volantis has yet to reach election day. As for the Iron Throne, old Jon is dead and Stannis has left King's Landing. The capital is probably in disarray as well."
"That is certainly possible. For years, Myr's governors paid tribute to the Dothraki to avoid being pillaged." Gillo Reha nodded. "If the Tyroshi embellish their tales enough, those horsemen really might come charging at us!"
"My lords, the horsemen are certainly savage! But so long as the Free Army I have trained can form up in the Unsullied's formations, we need not fear their raids!" Grey Wolf said calmly. The Unsullied were most famous for their battle against the horsemen at the city of the Black Goat.
"Gentlemen, I have made my decision! To avoid getting bogged down in a war on three fronts, we must accelerate our assault on Tyrosh!" Gendry announced. "Harris's fleet will blockade Tyrosh. Grey Wolf and Steel Fist will lead the Free Army and part of the Wolf Pack in preparing for raids by the khals. I will serve as the overall reserve!"
"Three fronts?" Someone did not understand what Gendry meant.
"There are also enemies within Myr. Some people will be lurking in the shadows!" Gendry said.
Chapter 70: Bloody Battle for Tyrosh
Waves surged across the Narrow Sea, and the wind drove the swift ships onward.
Booming warhorns carried across the water, their hoarse, deep cries passing from ship to ship like the summons of devils.
The Wolf Pack was Gendry's flagship. Once called the Lace Lady, she had been one of the Myr Fleet's principal warships. Her sails gleamed, bearing the emblem of a snarling wolf pack.
The Wolf Pack had three hundred oars, with ballistae lining both sides of her deck and a trebuchet each at bow and stern for hurling barrels of burning pitch. She was not only fearsome to behold, but exceptionally swift and agile.
"I never expected to see you here, Ser Davos!" Gendry said to Davos the Onion Knight. Gendry wore no armor, only a gray-white leather vest, with his helmet at his feet. Heavy armor was a great encumbrance at sea, as his fleet commander had advised him.
Ser Davos had crossed the Narrow Sea on Stannis's orders to assess the market for sellswords and sailors in advance, should the need arise. Naturally, he had come to visit his old friend. He had not expected the Myrmen Moloz to have gone ashore and joined the Wolf Pack Fleet.
It is as though I am looking at the king in his younger days! Davos thought as he studied Gendry. He was as handsome and powerfully built as the king had been in his youth. Renly, that fop, lacked a warrior's bearing. Yet this boy differed somewhat from the king, whose manner had been more wanton. One thing was beyond doubt, however: both possessed the traditional Baratheon warrior's appeal and charisma, like a flame amid a crowd.
Ser Davos found it all rather surreal. For more than a decade, he had faithfully served Lord Stannis. He had never expected that today he would be fighting alongside the lord's bastard kinsman, half willingly and half under compulsion.
"It is an honor to meet you, Commander-in-Chief! Nor did I expect to be betrayed by my old friend!" Ser Davos said helplessly. Davos the Onion Knight was plain-faced and lean, with brown hair, brown eyes, and a thick Greybeard.
Apart from his thumb, the first joint of each finger on Davos's left hand had been cut off. He kept the severed finger bones in a leather pouch as a lucky charm, always hanging it around his neck.
"In the past, I commanded a hired fleet for Myr. Now I am commander of the Wolf Pack Fleet, and I have the honor of attending Myr's round-table council! Our dealings are official business now!" said Moloz the Myrmen.
With his olive skin, Moloz was a typical Myrmen, his eyes gleaming with cunning. When Myr fell, he had decided his career as a hired fleet commander was over. Seeking a brighter future, he had brought his hired fleet into Gendry's service.
"That hardly sounds like you, old friend!" Ser Davos complained. "As I recall, you loved smuggling and selling your services. You never tired of it."
"It is easy enough to understand. Not everyone wants to spend his whole life as a pirate like old Salladhor. You were the first to wise up, and that made you a knight! I have lost interest in smuggling as well!" Moloz was untroubled. "But I know Stannis. He's as dull as a rock. Why not bring old Salladhor and join the Commander-in-Chief? It would certainly beat staying on a volcanic island."
"Enough, old friend! You know I am not that sort of man. I have always been loyal to Lord Stannis!" Davos refused.
Gendry glanced at Davos. Though lowborn, he was among the finest men alive when it came to seamanship and his understanding of sea winds, coastlines, and ships.
"It seems Lord Stannis is having a difficult time on Dragonstone! He has even sent his trusted confidant across the Narrow Sea," Gendry remarked. Dragonstone's desolation severely limited Stannis's ambitions. Now that old Lord Jon had died suddenly, the startled Stannis had little real strength at his disposal.
Ser Davos found it difficult to answer. He was hardly renowned for his eloquence.
"Then you can accompany my fleet, Ser Davos, and see how we take Tyrosh!" Gendry did not press him. Loyalty was rare; if he could be easily swayed, this man would not be Davos.
Davos reconsidered. Since he could not leave the ship, he might as well witness this rare great battle.
"Commander Harris now controls the fleet on the Narrow Sea, while I command the Myr Fleet!" Moloz told Stannis.
They are showing off their strength to me! Their power already encompasses Lys, the Stepstones, and the Disputed Lands. Tyrosh is next. Seen that way, Moloz has accepted high office and rich rewards from the bastard, so naturally he has no interest in Stannis's offer! Davos thought helplessly.
Ser Davos could not help marveling at Gendry's generosity. Young men were usually arrogant and self-satisfied, unwilling to heed the advice of old men. Yet Gendry listened to veteran captains like Moloz. Combined with his numerical advantage, that put Tyrosh in grave danger.
"Commander-in-Chief! Our swift ships have finished their reconnaissance. It is time to launch the full assault!" Moloz said excitedly. He had been a hired fleet commander and an experienced smuggler, but he had never taken part in a battle of this scale.
They had carefully surveyed the enemy and probed their strengths and weaknesses rather than charging in recklessly. As Davos's old friend, Moloz was equally outstanding in his knowledge of ships, sails, and coastlines.
Davos calmly observed the situation at sea. A fleet's best course was to close in from both flanks and surround the enemy in the center.
"Oars down," Moloz called. "Form ranks." Three hundred blades dipped into the water at once, and the oarmaster beat his booming drum. It sounded like a vast, steady heartbeat. With every beat, the oars moved, three hundred men rowing as one in perfect unison.
The Wolf Pack Fleet and the Narrow Sea Fleet closed in from both sides. The Narrow Sea Fleet had been assembled from pirates rounded up in the Stepstones and escaped slaves who had joined them. Though it numbered more than two hundred vessels, its ships were not as large as regular warships, making up for that with agility and maneuverability. The Wolf Pack Fleet, meanwhile, had been formed from the former Myr Fleet and consisted of proper naval warships.
"Full speed ahead!" Moloz roared. The Wolf Pack sailed in the first line, flanked by great ships with two hundred oars. Every other ship in the first battle line had more than a hundred oars. Behind them came a second line of hundred-oared warships, commanded by seasoned sailors, fugitive river pirates, and escaped slaves. Only farther back came the smaller, slower Myrish ships. Beyond them were merchant vessels and cargo ships.
The ships in the first and second lines carried knights and soldiers, but not many. Too many armored soldiers would slow the ships. The vessels behind the second line carried more troops.
"Commander-in-Chief! The Wolf Pack Fleet consists of the king's Myrish warships. We are the right fist of this operation!" Moloz explained. "The Narrow Sea Fleet under Commander Harris is our left fist!"
Bwooooo! The warhorns sounded. Orders went out from the Wolf Pack, and the harsh horn blasts filled the sky. They seemed almost to pierce the surging white foam and its rhythmic pounding.
Clang! Clang! Clang! On deck, the infantry struck their shields with their swords, joined by the archers.
Gendry gazed at Tyrosh ahead. The city was close at hand, but a bloody battle lay between them.
Chapter 71: Storm
"The storm has arrived!" Gendry said, looking at Tyrosh.
The waters around Tyrosh roared with horns, shouts, cries, drums, the trilling of pipes, and the splash of thousands of wooden oars rising and falling. Some warships also carried rams and trebuchets, which slowed them down.
Gendry could now make out Tyrosh. The city stood on an island and was far larger than Sunspear. The Weeping Tower stood at the entrance to its harbor, and the Dionysian Fountain lay within the city. Temples and shrines to many different gods lined its streets and riverbanks.
"Tyrosh's outer city should not be too difficult. The problem is the mighty inner fortress built of black dragonstone!" The city grew ever larger before Gendry. Ideally, the fleet would seize Tyrosh's harbor, then begin attacking the city. Even if they could not take the inner city, they had to capture the outer city.
On the waters near Tyrosh, the ships of both sides began battling one another. Tyrosh's great fleet numbered more than two hundred and twenty vessels, joined by twenty exiled Myrish warships. They had come out in full force.
Our fleet has the advantage in numbers, and I have chosen the most capable captains for this assault. We will take Tyrosh! Gendry thought. The Narrow Sea Fleet and the Wolf Pack Fleet closed around the Tyroshi warships.
The battlefield became a chaotic whirlpool. Gendry saw the Light of Myr ship her oars just before a collision, but the oars along the Fireweed's port side were snapped like matchsticks by a passing Tyroshi warship.
"Loose!" Moloz ordered, and his Crossbowman unleashed a deadly rain of bolts. The purple-haired Tyroshi captain fell, though no one knew his name.
Grappling hooks flew, and iron rams smashed through wooden hulls. Amid drifting clouds of thick smoke, arrows rained down and warriors fell in droves!
"Forward!" Moloz commanded. The Wolf Pack and the Warhammer smashed into a large Tyroshi warship almost simultaneously, shattering her from bow to stern. The impact was so powerful that men aboard another Tyroshi warship several vessels away were thrown into the water.
"Back water!" Moloz gave the order, and the oars reversed. Seawater rushed into the enormous breach they had just torn open. Before Gendry's eyes, the Tyroshi warship broke apart, sending crowds of men into the water. The living struggled desperately; the dead lay silent. Tyroshi sailors with hair of every color wailed before sinking beneath the sea.
By now, the battlefield had grown chaotic. The first battle line scattered, its ships fighting independently. The Wolf Pack and her two accompanying vessels also joined the melee. As the Wolf Pack Fleet tangled with the enemy fleet, the warships slowly turned. Blood began to stain the decks.
"Die!" There was a raucous edge to the Tyroshi accent. Gendry watched the Tyroshi warrior before him. He too wore leather armor and seemed to be a deputy officer in the Tyroshi navy. The man swung his longsword and attacked Gendry.
"Die!" Gendry put on his helmet. His Valyrian steel arakh could cleave through anything, and it delivered death's greeting, cutting the blue-haired Tyroshi naval officer in half at the waist. Spilled entrails made the deck slick, demanding careful footing.
An arakh was best used to slash wildly from horseback, but that was not an option here.
Davos also picked up a weapon and attacked with cold resolve. He had come as an envoy and had no desire to die here for nothing. The fighting remained brutal until the enemy ship before them was crushed.
"Captain, can we make our next move now?" Gendry asked Moloz. Naval combat truly was different; to him, it was an entirely new discipline. For experience and skill, he had to rely on Harris and Moloz. It was a pity he could not lure Ser Davos into his service. He greatly valued specialists like him.
"It is time, Commander-in-Chief!" Moloz answered, and the horns sounded again. The Wolf Pack Fleet and the Narrow Sea Fleet attacked together, quickening the pace of battle. The Tyroshi warships struggled to hold on, still outnumbered. Those swift, nimble ships in particular circled and hunted them like sharks.
"Let us see how much longer the Tyroshi can hold out!" Gendry said, watching their fleet.
Warships crashed together. Once their rams struck, close-quarters fighting followed. If a ship was too slow, she would be rammed and sunk. Currents and winds had to be taken into account. Fortunately, Moloz had considerable expertise from his years as a pirate.
"Old friend! It seems you have not forgotten your old skills!" Ser Davos praised him.
"Of course not. Have you forgotten when we made our living together at sea? If we were a little too slow and got caught, we lost our heads!" Moloz declared proudly.
The fires of war blazed across the sea. This was a battle for survival. Tyrosh's slave masters and governors had spent their fortunes ensuring that free Tyroshi and wandering sellswords controlled the fleet, suppressing the slave sailors as much as possible. They sought to prevent betrayal within the Tyroshi fleet, making the fighting exceptionally brutal.
But the Tyroshi had forgotten that by sending wandering sellswords, free sailors, and Tyroshi citizens into battle, they had left Tyrosh City undermanned.
"Kill!" "Kill the slave masters!" An enormous uproar suddenly erupted within Tyrosh, and flames and smoke rose into the sky. The Tyroshi had prepared trebuchets to counter a Wolf Pack landing, but the slaves had begun a mass revolt. Some of the trebuchets had already been destroyed and burned by the slaves.
"We have this!" Gendry breathed a sigh of relief. Before the attack on Tyrosh, the Free Army had secretly sent considerable quantities of leaflets, information, and weapons into the city. Though Tyrosh's governors had temporarily suppressed the unrest through their numerical advantage in sellswords, Tyrosh itself was unstable once the fighting reached its height.
Mutinies also began aboard some ships in the Tyroshi fleet. Furious slave sailors fought Tyroshi sailors and free sailors, and the situation now collapsed completely.
"Kill! Kill the slave masters!"
"Kill! Kill these Tyroshi slave masters!"
The Tyroshi fleet saw trouble erupting behind them, while Tyrosh City itself seemed to have descended into chaos. This fearless Tyroshi fleet, a counterattacking force armed at enormous expense, slowly fell apart. Many ships began rowing toward Tyrosh, while others evaded the attacks bearing down on them.
"We surrender!" "We surrender!" Some helpless Tyroshi ships raised white flags.
Gendry looked at Tyrosh ahead. This was the moment.
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