Game of Thrones: The Stag's Storm

"Yes!" Handsome Man nodded. Though he had lost the feeling in his sword hand, his mind had grown sharper, with a better grasp of the bigger picture.

Handsome Man was brave, resourceful, and utterly loyal. If not for the decisive battles on two fronts, Gendry would have been reluctant to play such a valuable card. He also assigned some Unsullied and Wolf Pack knights specifically to protect him.

"Yes, Commander-in-Chief!" Ser Jorah said glumly. He would rather have faced the Horsemen alongside Gendry and fought to his heart's content, but Tyrosh needed warriors too.

"By the way, Ser Davos, Myr is a dangerous battlefield, and your task is nearly finished. You should stay in Tyrosh! You can help my treasurer as well." Gendry spoke to Ser Davos in a tone that brooked no argument. It was not merely because Davos was not his soldier, but also because Gendry did not want Davos to see his guest.

Moloz piloted his swift ships, secretly ferrying soldiers to the coast opposite Tyrosh at dusk. The operation was strictly confidential.

Gendry met the Red Viper across the water from Tyrosh. Prince Oberyn had brought some retainers with him, roughly a hundred Dornish light cavalry.

"Dornish light cavalry certainly live up to their reputation." The copper parts of their Dornish armor gleamed in the torchlight.

The Dornish favored round metal shields, paired with spears, javelins, or recurved bows. Their armies were renowned for their light cavalry and skill with recurved bows on horseback. Because of the hot climate, Dornish soldiers often wore scale armor lighter than the metal armor used elsewhere in the Seven Kingdoms. These scales might include copper pieces, sewn together with leather. They habitually wrapped cloth around their helmets.

"A splendid victory, Commander-in-Chief!" the Red Viper told Gendry. His spear, Sun-Piercer, and round shield still gleamed. He had witnessed some of the fighting at sea: the fleets clashing fiercely, splintered wood, dead men, flames, and shouts. Then the fires of war had spread through Tyrosh itself. Like Myr, Tyrosh had been unable to escape defeat.

"You didn't come here just to watch the Tyroshi suffer!" Gendry looked at the Red Viper.

The two rode onward. Since the truth had come out, the Red Viper still admired him, but the revelation had certainly left him uncomfortable. The mercenary king he hoped to win over was also a member of House Baratheon. Still, Gendry, who sheltered House Targaryen's orphaned daughter, shared the Red Viper's aims when it came to taking revenge on House Lannister and the existing order.

"Not merely to watch. I was hoping to fight alongside you, Commander-in-Chief!"

"The opportunity has arrived, Commander-in-Chief!" the Red Viper said. "I've heard those rumors too, those strange rumors. The Horsemen are about to attack, and the Myrmen are rising in revolt!"

"Tyrosh was an opportunity too. Why didn't you help me attack it, Prince?" Gendry asked.

"I will not help you attack Tyrosh!" Oberyn stressed. "The Tyroshi are our nearest neighbors, and their archons generally have good relations with Dorne. Many of them lived in the Water Gardens as children."

"Aren't you afraid the Iron Throne will hold you accountable?" Gendry asked.

"Only Oberyn has come. This has nothing to do with Dorne! My brother and I haven't been to King's Landing in years!" the Red Viper said indifferently. "Besides, Dornishmen and Myrmen look much alike. Who knows where my knights came from? Oberyn has always done as he pleased. What's wrong with winning a little honor on the battlefield now and then?"

Chapter 74: The past cannot be reclaimed (please keep reading)

Gendry and the Red Viper rode along the coast. Once they reached level ground, they could pick up speed toward Myr. Moloz's ships were also carrying part of the army there.

Some understandings needed no words. House Martell lacked allies, and a bastard with an army was well worth courting.

"How will you deal with those Horsemen, Commander-in-Chief?" the Red Viper asked.

The Red Viper had a long, melancholy face, with large eyes as dark and lustrous as pools of oil beneath finely arched brows. His forehead and nose were equally pointed, and only a few silver strands showed in his glossy black hair. He was a Salt Dornishman through and through.

Gendry, meanwhile, was a true Baratheon, with hair like black jade and blue eyes as deep as the sea: a tall young man, vigorous and fearless.

"With soldiers and Myr's defenses! I have no interest in squeezing money out of Myr to pay the Horsemen. That's a merchant's way." Most of the Free Cities stood on flat ground, ideal for Horsemen attacks. To break their bones, Gendry would have to meet them head-on. "It's not as though the Horsemen never lost beneath the walls of Qohor."

"Besides, we have your help now too, Prince!" Gendry added.

"The usual Dornish tactic is to avoid large-scale pitched battles, striking with lightly equipped warriors and our fine Dornish horses, while using the harsh local climate to wear down the enemy. That probably won't work well in the Disputed Lands. Most of this country is open plain."

"Just act as our support! The Wolf Pack and the Free Army can face the Horsemen head-on!" Gendry said confidently. Unless he hit the Dothraki hard, they would keep coming to Myr for handouts.

"Then I'll look forward to celebrating victory with you, Commander-in-Chief!" The Red Viper smiled.

"What about those lands and estates?" As the Red Viper and Gendry traveled through the Disputed Lands, they passed fertile fields and estates whose slave owners had either died or fled.

The free folk on those lands were frightened. After all, the Dothraki destroyed towns like a swarm of locusts. Still, they believed their brave, fearless Liberator was invincible too.

"Distribute them! Some will become public property, and the smaller plots will be allotted to the free folk," Gendry said. "I intend to survey the land and count the population!"

"Survey the land! Count the population?" The Red Viper sounded surprised.

"Exactly. Household registers and land are the foundations of government! Many slaves don't even have names, and the slave owners used to conceal their numbers to avoid taxes. That won't do!" In the framework Gendry envisioned, he would unlock the land's potential. Town administration, household registration, and examinations would form its core.

"A ruthless move!" the Red Viper said admiringly. "The strength of this fertile land is enviable. Dorne is too barren. Even if we accounted for every inhabitant, it would hardly amount to much."

Dorne, the Stormlands, and the North all had relatively small populations among the Seven Kingdoms because of their harsh climates. Dorne had the fewest people of all.

"I knew your father long ago!" the Red Viper said, recalling the past.

"Oh, I barely knew him. I doubt he even remembered how many bastards he had!" Gendry said calmly. He would follow his own judgment through fortune and adversity, lie low, wait, build his strength, and then await the chaos in Westeros.

"Other houses might take that attitude, but House Baratheon? Your ancestor was the Conqueror's bastard brother!"

"That's only a rumor, isn't it? And the succession of House Baratheon is hardly mine to comment on!" Gendry said thoughtfully. House Baratheon was a mess now. Getting involved at this stage would do him no good.

"The great men in King's Landing, Casterly Rock, Storm's End, and Highgarden won't see it that way. You've taken in House Targaryen's orphaned daughter! Won't they think you covet that ugly chair and intend to lead the exiles in revenge?"

"I admit you're a fine persuader, Prince Oberyn!" Gendry looked at the Red Viper. For years, he and his brother had been seeking allies. Nothing would please them more than House Baratheon turning on itself.

"This isn't a threat! Power stirs men's hearts! King Robert's grandmother was a Targaryen princess, after all, but he still overthrew the Targaryen Dynasty."

"The War of the Usurper wasn't a matter of ambition and desire. The Mad King and Rhaegar brought it on themselves." Gendry smiled. Trouble did not spring from nowhere, and the idiotic thinking of the Mad King and his son had been chiefly responsible for the war.

"Whatever the reasons, Rhaegar was the one who lost at the Trident."

"Many years ago, when we were still young, the heir to Storm's End was already famous for his wild ways! He loved women, wine, and tourneys. People said he was like the Laughing Storm.

Robert liked songs that made him laugh, the cruder the better, and he only sang when drunk. Songs like 'A Cask of Ale,' 'Forty-four Casks,' or 'The Bear and the Maiden Fair,'" Oberyn recalled.

"He and the Silver Prince certainly were opposites!" Gendry considered it. "My maester told Daenerys and me stories about Prince Rhaegar. He was born at Summerhall, carrying a sadness and melancholy of his own. He loved music and Summerhall. He liked sleeping beneath the stars and moon in its ruined halls, then playing that ancient silver-stringed harp, lamenting dawn, tears, and kings long dead!"

"But he should never have given that crown to the wolf maid of the North. He destroyed himself, my sister, and Robert." The Red Viper sighed. "That was so many, many years ago!"

Gendry knew that tourney had taken place at Harrenhal, during the False Spring. Everything that had happened still lay shrouded in mist.

"If the gods hadn't played their tricks, they would have made me the eldest and Doran the third son. You've seen it yourself: I live for bloodshed. In truth, I'd rather fight in King's Landing. I've dreamed of it day and night for more than ten years."

"You say that, but I think you'll still obey Prince Doran."

"I have no choice!" The Red Viper gave a bitter smile. "You must know of that humiliating defeat. Ten thousand brave Dornishmen, and Prince Lewyn."

Gendry knew that during the War of the Usurper, the Mad King had held Prince Lewyn's niece, Princess Elia Martell, hostage, ordering him to lead ten thousand Dornish warriors to join Rhaegar's army against Robert's rebels. The Dornish had then suffered terrible losses, and Prince Lewyn had been killed.

"There will be a chance to challenge the Lannisters!" Gendry said. "At least where Tywin is concerned, we have some common ground."

"All that is in the past! And now, at last, I see a glimmer of hope in you. All I want is revenge for my sister and her children. First, I'll kill that ox-brained fool Gregor, the Mountain, and preferably kill that vicious dog's master along the way." The Red Viper spurred his horse into a gallop. "For now, let's defeat those Horsemen who stink of sheep."

Chapter 75: Myr's savior (please keep reading)

The morning breeze was cool. Myr stood beside the sea, and the wind carried its briny tang. Along with it came the smell of blood.

Sunlight shone upon the sea and spilled over Myr's walls, towers, and halls.

While the naval battle raged at Tyrosh, a revolt had erupted in Myr, where the military presence had been weakened. Some slave owners, unwilling to accept defeat, dreamed of restoring the old order, but their attempt had met a storm of counterattacks.

Brown Ben stood atop Myr's walls. Fierce fighting still raged within the city, but the Myr Restorationists remained the weaker side and appeared to be on their last legs. Soldiers of the Free Army and the Second Sons still held Myr's walls, its high ground, and most districts. The free folk and the Second Sons supported the current order, while most Myrish citizens had shut their doors.

"Looks like we've won this round after all." Brown Ben widened his black, almond-shaped eyes, inherited from his Dothraki mother. He breathed a sigh of relief. The banners appearing in the distance were not the Tyroshi Three-Headed God the rebels longed for, but the gray-and-white banners of the Wolf Pack. The wolves upon them seemed to howl.

The standard-bearers rode at the head of the column, like a gray-and-white wolf pack made flesh, a tide of Steel Fist's knights. They advanced along the road, a stretch of the Valyrian Road that extended out from Myr.

"Tell our men that Myr's savior has returned!" Brown Ben shouted. The old, solemn sound of military horns rang through Myr again, their blasts growing urgent.

The horn calls were piercing, joined by the shouts of the Second Sons and Free Army soldiers. The men on the walls cheered.

"Myr's savior has returned!"

"Commander-in-Chief Gendry has returned!"

"Tyrosh has fallen!"

The Myr Restorationists still resisting amid the chaos turned pale. Their leader was a former governor of Myr who had been living in retirement. The abolition of slavery and confiscation of estates had left many Myrmen deeply unhappy with the new Myr. They had seen Tyrosh's counterattack as a rare opportunity and rushed to launch their coup.

The silent knights thundered forward, stopping only when they neared Myr's gates. Brown Ben hurried down from the walls at once and led several dozen knights to meet Gendry.

"Commander-in-Chief!" Brown Ben dismounted and dropped to one knee before Gendry. "As expected, some of Myr's governors and slave owners revolted when they heard about the war with Tyrosh. Fortunately, we were prepared. Myr's walls and high ground remain in our hands. The restorationists are merely making a desperate last stand!"

"What about the harbor and the city hall?"

"Also in our hands!"

"Good. You've done well to manage that much!" Gendry told Brown Ben. With only the Second Sons' five hundred cavalry and some Free Army soldiers, securing the advantageous positions had been quite an achievement. "But the Dothraki will be here soon. I have no time to waste on slave owners trying to restore the old order!"

"I already have a rough list of these restorationists!" Brown Ben said quietly, handing Gendry the names of the conspirators.

"Good!"

"Victory!" Gendry raised his warhammer and brandished it before his knights.

"Victory!" The soldiers drew their weapons-longswords, two-handed axes, and morningstars. Steel rang, and their cheers seemed powerful enough to shake heaven and earth.

"Into the city!" Gendry led his cavalry into Myr. With that old fox Brown Ben involved, the situation had remained tense, but the Wolf Pack and Free Army still held the advantage. Now Gendry's knights would deliver the final blow and prepare for the Horsemen's arrival.

"Are you Prince Oberyn?" Brown Ben recognized the Red Viper with some surprise. They were acquaintances of a sort. During his travels in his younger days, the Red Viper had served with the Second Sons for a year.

"It's been a long time, Brown Ben! You've grown a little older." The Red Viper greeted him with a smile.

"So have you, Prince!" Brown Ben did not ask why Oberyn and Gendry had joined forces. Settling the current fighting was what mattered. "Once we've put down these rebels, Prince, we can catch up."

A great number of knights poured into Myr. Gray-and-white cloaks fought at the very front, with the Wolf Pack's heavily armored knights leading the way and the lightly armored riders of the Free Army and Long Spear Company on either flank. That day would mark the end of many old Myrish noble bloodlines.

Gendry's knights unleashed a hurricane of death. Watching through the slits in their half-helms, they silently slaughtered Myr's traitors with spears, great axes, morningstars, steel hammers, and longswords. Blood dripped from their lances. They had no desire to waste time on these most stubborn rebels.

The Myrish rebels had weapons, including distinctive crossbows capable of firing three times in succession, and fine armor. But they had failed to seize the city's high ground and had no large weapons such as ballistae. More importantly, the Myrmen had always been poor warriors. In a head-on clash like this, the rebels were torn apart like paper.

The balance of the fighting had already been tipping toward defeat for the Myr Restorationists, but the Second Sons truly lacked enough knights. The arrival of Gendry's elite cavalry greatly hastened the process.

"Kill!" Gendry swung his warhammer. The young Myrman before him had olive skin, black hair, and black eyes, and wore ornate, beautiful Myrish armor. He was likely some nobleman, but his fighting ability was pitiful.

Gendry's warhammer smashed into the young man's chest, caving in the ornate breastplate. Another heavy blow shattered the bones beneath it, and his body could not withstand such damage. He crumpled, bloody froth on his lips.

"Devil!" the Myrmen shouted, but their feet were nowhere near as quick as their mouths. Gendry's warhammer followed like a violent storm, striking down the young nobleman's retainers too.

The Red Viper followed silently behind Gendry, sensing that this was a one-sided slaughter. The Myrmen thought they had found an opportunity, but it was merely an opening deliberately left to lure them in.

"The Liberator has returned!" Some of the free folk who had been watching, along with a few brave Myrish citizens, opened their doors and joined the attack on the Myr Restorationists. These rebels were now openly defying Gendry and fighting his army, slaughtering free folk and threatening Myrish citizens against cooperating with him.

Battle cries resounded through Myr, from south to north and east to west. The cavalry killed the Myrish rebels, then cleared away their corpses to the center of the city square.

The Myr Restorationists' final stronghold fell. In despair, the Myrish governor Kasa poisoned himself and his family in his mansion.

Veterans tore down the gates of the governor's residence and dragged out the traitors' bodies one by one.

Gendry looked at the corpses with their ashen faces. The will of power was so cold. The order he had created was destined to draw immense hatred. But was this not the inevitable road to a crown and power?

"You know what to do next!" Gendry told Brown Ben.

"I do!" Brown Ben answered solemnly. "Those on the list who took part will be declared public enemies. Those who knew but failed to report it will be invited to the city hall!"

"Good. Get to it. The Horsemen should be here soon. That's our real battle."