CHAPTER IX - A KRAKEN OUT OF WATER
The last time the Crow's Eye attempted to rebel against the crown, he took the majority of his forces away from the Iron Islands, to launch a suprise attack on the capital. Apparently Euron Grejoy had quite the ego, and probably assumed himself smarter than myself and my advisors. As such, I anticipated that he would presume our forces would make the same move- landing on the Iron Islands to take them back. That would again leave the capital open for an invasion, a tactic I was certain Euron Grejoy would employ yet again. In anticipation of this, I called my banners to the Crownlands, with the hopes that Euron Grejoy would land here again, and my forces could catch him off guard and end the rebellion before it even began. With my entire personal might in the Crownlands, I put my faith in my vassals to quell the rebelling Lannisters to the west. The armies of the Reach and the Riverlands could surely hold the Lannister forces at bay, while I dealt personally with Euron Greyjoy.
Within weeks, twenty five thousand men had gathered outside the walls of the capital- a force surely far greater than any that Euron Greyjoy could muster. In that time, news reached me that House Thorne of Blackwater Rush had sided with Lancel Lannister in his war against the crown. This meant that a large swathe of land in the Crownlands was now in open rebellion against the Iron Throne- a matter that I could not leave unattended. With any landing from the Ironborn surely still weeks away, I marched my army west towards the seat of House Thorne, to quickly rid the Crownlands of any Lannister support. During the march on Blackwater Rush, a small Lannister host of some seven thousand men reached the Crownlands. Knowing I could not let them join forces with those of House Thorne, I sent Lord Commander Rolly, with twelve thousand of my men, to dispatch the force, while I personally secured the seat of House Thorne, Rayonet.
Rayonet, with only a small garrison to hold it, could not withstand my siege for long, and within weeks it fell to our forces. At the same time, Rolly Duck engaged the small Lannister host near Stokeworth, crushing them with ease and scattering the remaining survivors. Word reached our camp shortly thereafter that Lancel Lannister was personally leading a host of thirty thousand men against us, but had been intercepted by a force of equal size, led by Lord Owen Inchfield, a highborn lord from the Reach. The two armies met near Anvilles, in the south of the Westerlands, and Lord Owen managed to rout the enemy, while taking Lancel Lannister captive. With that, the war against the Lannisters ended, and Lancel himself was being brought to the capital to answer for his treason. With the Lannisters defeated, all that remained was the Greyjoy rebellion- who had just recently been sighted in the Narrow Sea, no doubt making for Blackwater Bay.
A host of nearly ten thousand Ironborn landed in Blackwater Bay, and began attempting to take the walls of the city. I arrived within hours of the Ironborn, and our forces met on the shores of the Blackwater. Rolly Duck, with my other twelve thousand men, was marching on the capital as well, and should he arrive in time, the Ironborn would swiftly be crushed. Lord Donnor of Saltcliffe was given command of Euron Greyjoy's van, and was slain by Ser Narbert Grandison of the Kingsguard during the battle. It wasn't long before the Grejoy's began losing morale, and with the reinforcements of Lord Commander Rolly not far behind, the battle would soon be over.
After long hours of fighting, horn blasts sounded, and to the north, a force of mounted knights headed by my Lord Commander reigned down on the right flank of the Greyjoy forces. The rebels began to break under the weight of our combined armies, and they soon began losing all hope. Many began fleeing, and it was at the sight of his army fleeing that the Crow's Eye made his last-ditch attempt at securing victory. Catching sight of me across the field, the Greyjoy king made a frenzied charge at me, in an attempt to cut the head off of our army. Though on foot, the Greyjoy lord in full plate was far stronger than anticipated, and managed to knock me from my horse simply by throwing his body against my mount. A personal battle ensued- myself, a man raised since birth to be a fine swordsman and military leader; facing off against Euron Grejoy, a man who had achieved fame and skill in combat through countless battles and personal victories. Though I was not one to back down from a fight, I knew that I would need the gods on my side if I was to make it out of this fight alive.
A song of steel rang out from where the two of us now stood, as blow after blow was blocked and parried. The Iron King fought with a sword and axe, preferring two attacks to any sort of defense. I wielded Blackfyre and nothing else- as my shield had remained on my horse when I was unsaddled. With a significant disadvantage, I resorted to defending against the Crow's Eye's frenzied assault, in hopes that an opening would appear and I could counter with an attack of my own. After one particularly ruthless assault, the beard of the Crow's Eye's axe hooked Blackfyre and tore it from my hand, leaving me all but defenseless. I managed to catch his downward thrust of his sword hand with my own, but his axe found its way under the faulds of my breastplate, and the Crow's Eye buried it into my upper thigh. The axe was buried deep, but not as deep as it would have been, had I not been wearing a thin layer of leather. My leg gave way beneath me, and I was sent crashing to the sand.
Though the would surely would have been enough to allow the Crow's Eye to end me there, luckily I still had some strength and wits about me, and managed to protect myself from Euron Greyjoy a while longer. With the axe still in my leg, the Iron King threw his full weight downwards, thrusting his sword towards my heart. I managed to push the blade aside before it could pierce my breastplate, and the Greyjoy lord landed on top of me. With little thinking on my behalf, I grabbed hold of the Crow's Eye with both arms, and threw my hips and one useful leg upwards, throwing the Ironborn over my head. I held on to him, and used the momentum to roll backwards, and now I sat atop Euron- the Grejoy king momentarily stunned from the impact of landing hard on his back. In what amounted to no more than seconds, I grasped the head of the axe in my leg in my hand and ripped it from my thigh. Grabbing the Greyjoy's head in my left had, I slammed the axe into the right side of his face without a moment's thought. I put enough power into the swing to pierce the Crow's Eye's skull, and the axe made it's way almost to the center of his head. It was safe to say that the man died instantly.
The sight of their king's death made the already-feeble morale of the Greyjoy army even more so, and the Ironborn sources quickly routed. At the end of the fighting, the majority of the Crow's Eye's forces had been killed, with very few casualties of our own. Initial counts indicated that for every seven of theirs that died, only one of our own fell. With the defeat of the main Ironborn host, the war ended and the survivors were sent reeling back to their ships, hopefully aware that any further rebellion against the crown was futile. I spent the next few weeks recovering from my wound, giving the regency to my Lord Hand, Jon Connington. According to Grandmaester Pycelle, it was lucky that the leather was there, otherwise it was likely I would have lost my leg, and quite possibly my life. Fortunately, the wound was small enough that with enough care, it would heal itself over time.
I had Lord Jon called to my chambers during my recovery, and ordered that word be sent to Pyke, demanding Victarion Grejoy- the man who was surely ruling over the Iron Islands after the death of his brother- to make for the capital to answer for his family's crimes. However, according to reports from Lord Varys, Lord Victarion was not the man who succeeded his brother. Apparently unhappy with Euron's control over the Iron Islands, and his renouncing of the Drowned God, the Ironborn had lost faith in the Greyjoy family, and a power struggle ensued. At the end of it all, a lowborn reaver who called himself 'Cleftjaw' seized control of the islands and named himself king. I had had enough of the Iron Islands for at least a while, and I commanded that the islands should be left to their own devices for the time being.
They will tear themselves apart, I told Lord Jon,
and then, we will strike.
After a few weeks in the dungeon, Lord Lancel Lannister was brought before me to hear my judgement.
You and your family have forfeited your right to a trial, Lord Lancel, I told him, having suffered enough at the hands of House Lannister.
Your defeat is judgement enough- the gods have deemed your life forfeit for your crimes against the crown. I hereby sentenced you to death. The next day, Lancel Lannister was dragged to the block, and I personally took his head. Having sworn celibacy years ago, the rule of the Westerlands would pass to his brother, Martyn. Martyn was a more adept commander and diplomat than his brother had been, but could not rival his father or his uncle in those regards. A large part of me thought it was foolish to allow the Lannisters to remain as Lords Paramount of the Westerlands, but there were few houses in all the kingdoms that could rival their power, let alone in the Westerlands. For the time being, I would put my faith in the hands of Martyn Lannister, and pray to the gods that the Lannsiters would not betray me again.
Shortly after the war, my son and heir Rhaegar had his tenth nameday. The years had passed quickly, and soon he would be a man-grown, one worthy of succeeding his father at that. However, it came to my attention that their was no royally-decreed seat of the heir apparent. Since the time of the Conqueror, Dragonstone had served as the seat of the heir apparent to the throne. However, the Masseys now controlled my ancestral home, and as they had done me no wrong, it would be tyrannical of me to strip them of that title. In lieu of this, I decreed that Summerhall was to be rebuilt, and upon it's completion would serve as the new seat of the heir to the Iron Throne. Lord Jon told me of how my father was born there, the very day of the tragedy that befell it. It was a grand house, and would serve Rhaegar and his sons well, until the day of my passing when he would take up the throne for himself. It would be many years before the reconstruction was complete- hopefully in time for Rhaegar's coming-of-age in six years time. At long last, it seemed that the reign of House Targaryen as finally returning to what it once had been, and hopefully it would continue to be as such for generations to come.
