Hugh Hammer (ASOIF/SI)

 Addam of Hull listened intently to the conversation, the dragonseeds

 and the Prince were gathered in a large room, upon a huge table

 was spread a map of Dragonstone and its environs, showing all of

 Blackwater Bay, Driftmark, the Gullet and the seas all the way to

 Claw Isle and the tip of Cracklaw Point and south as far as Massey's

 Hook. Ulf the white seemed barely interested in what was

 happening, and he stank of wine, Nettles seemed only slightly

 distracted, but at least she did not stink of wine. The girl stank of a

 lack of washing and of smoke, but Addam did not really mind if he

 was honest, he had smelt worse in the years he had spent ashore in

 the shipyards and at sea on his mother's ships.

 Lord Corlys, Hand of the Queen and Hugh were in an animated

 conversation about where the fleet of the Three Daughters might be

 and how best for the dragons to search the seas for them. His

 grandfather and the former blacksmith were discussing tides, winds

 and sailing times, based on a number of scenarios, ranging from

 where the fleet departed from, when it departed and what its

 composition was.

 The word had already gone out to the Velaryon fleet to alter its

 disposition to prepare to receive an attack from seawards, the ships

 should be fully redeployed in a day or two. Any trade ships docking

 in Driftmark or Dragonstone were being questioned if they had seen

 the fleet of the Three Daughters, but so far nothing had been seen,

 or the ships officers and crews were lying.

 Addam thought this unlikely, the crews had been pressed with coin

 and drink in the shoreside taverns and brothels and they were all of

 the same story, they had not come across a fleet of warships in their

 travels through the Narrow Sea.

"I have done some calculations" Hugh said, showing the Hand of the

 Queen a piece of parchment "if you calculate how far one can see

 on dragon back at certain heights, on how fast a dragon can fly

 easily without trying the beast and exhausting it unduly, and on the

 size of the seas we have to search. You can work our roughly a flight

 plan to ensure that we catch the fleet of the Three Daughters before

 they can surprise us."

 Lord Corlys took the parchment from the bastard blacksmith, now

 the rider of the largest dragon apart from that of Lord Daemon and

 scanned it. His grandfather, who was lobbying for his and his

 brother's legitimisation as a Velaryon scanned the parchment and

 Addam saw his lips move several times as he read and re-read what

 was written on the paper.

 "I may be no Maester lad, but I cannot fault your reasoning, the only

 thing I would say is that it leaves us precious little warning time, a

 few hours at best."

 "We could extend the search, but them we would leave gaps in our

 coverage, through which the fleet of the Three Daughters could slip

 through."

 Prince Jacaerys held out his hand and Lord Corlys passed the paper

 over to him, the Princes brows furrowing as he read what was upon

 the paper before him.

 After a few minutes the Prince spoke "I don't pretend to fully

 understand this either, but if Lord Corlys is happy with it, I see no

 reason why we should not follow Hugh's plan?"

 Lord Corlys nodded at this, the Prince looked at each of them in turn,

 nobody gainsaid the Prince so the plan was accepted.

 "Hugh?" asked the prince, nodding to the silver haired giant, who

 towered over everyone, Addam barely came up to the underside of

 Hugh's chest. Despite this he counted himself lucky in Hugh being

 one of his fellow dragon riders, the man was rough and ready, it was

true, but he was courteous enough, and he had defended Addam

 when they had first started to spar in the yards every morning. Some

 of squires and knights had been none too happy with them joining,

 despite the instructions from the Prince that they were to be trained

 at arms.

 Though Hugh knew even less than him when it came to arms, he at

 least having had some training with cutlasses and the like from his

 time aboard ship, the giant was ferocious if roused to anger. Totally

 unskilled and wild, but his strength and speed were a thing to

 behold, as was his penchant for 'fighting dirty' as he called it.

 And the giant seemed to shrug off taunts and insults to his own

 person, answering them only in sparring, where he defeated anyone

 who insulted him. He defeated them not with skill or finesse, nor with

 any great feats of daring and bladework, no for the ex-Blacksmith

 pummelled anyone who spoke ill or insulting of him to within an inch

 of their life in the yard.

 Several household knights had limped away with broken limbs, a

 squire had been dispatched to the embrace of the Stranger with a

 smashed skull.

 And when several attempts had been made outside the yard on

 Hugh's life, he had again bested all comers, though at the cost of

 several scars and wounds. The former Blacksmith had taken to

 wearing scale mail at all times and never going anywhere unarmed,

 now he was rarely seen without an escort of at least four Men at

 Arms. The ringleaders of the last attempt on his life had been fed to

 Vermithor on the orders of the Queen.

 After that there were no more insults hurled at the dragon rider, sly or

 open, and any grumbling about him and Addam's presence in the

 yard disappeared. Ulf the white, the other dragon rider never

 appeared in the yards, preferring to sleep off his nightly drunkenness

 and Nettles also never graced the yard with her presence.

Addam loved the yard if he was honest, not as much as he loved

 riding his dragon Seasmoke, but still, and his grandfather oft came to

 see him spar. His small size had been laughed at and he had been

 discounted at first, but his speed and agility, coupled with his

 knowledge of a cutlass, made him fast become one of the better of

 the Squires.

 Hugh and he often sparred, the giant wielding a sword instead of his

 preferred mace for these bouts, and the giant always laughed and

 joked with him afterwards, always complementing him on his foot

 work and speed.

 Hugh was a strange man Addam reflected, a commoner, an ex

blacksmith, who had apparently been something of a wastrel and a

 drunkard before he had mounted Vermithor. This seemed to have

 changed the man completely, and for the better if the tales of his

 past was to be believed.

 But Addam liked him, he radiated an easy charm and calmness, and

 he was not loud or boisterous, which Addam hated in others. Hugh

 was a good dragon rider, and like his training at arms he worked

 hard to improve, flying almost every day on Vermithor, twisting and

 diving, climbing and turning above the castle. Addam had taken to

 joining him on Seasmoke, Hugh explaining him that he was trying to

 practice what dragon on dragon combat would be like.

 There was surprisingly little written on that subject in the great library

 in Dragonstone Addam had been told by Hugh, and so the former

 smallfolk was trying to learn this for himself. The Prince sometimes

 joined them in their aerial displays when his duties allowed him, and

 they oft had long discussions afterwards about the subject of dragon

 combat, both against enemies on the ground, and against other

 dragons in the air.

 Hugh had proposed that the key to what he called 'air to air' combat

 was energy, or speed. And that as height could be traded for speed,

 height was also vital. He practiced what he called 'boom and zoom'

 tactics on Vermithor but cautioned that this was best suited to bigger

dragons, smaller dragons were better suited to what he called

 'turning and burning'.

 Addam found these conversation fascinating, as did the Prince, who

 oft remarked wistfully that his grandmother Princess Rhaenys would

 have loved these conversations also. Hugh always remarked that he

 would have loved to have met Princess Rhaenys and talk 'dragons'

 with her.

 Dragging his mind back to the present Addam found that the talk had

 turned to potential tactics to use against the ships of the Three

 Daughters. Here Lord Velaryon shared what he knew of the

 composition of the fleets of Tyrosh, Myr and Lys, how many galleys

 and of what numbers of oars they had. How many Scorpions each

 could hold and how many troops for boarding etc. Though this

 number was more relevant in terms of archers than ordinary soldiers,

 Hugh in particular being very concerned on this matter, long had he

 been keen to point out that Dragons were not invincible, that the

 Dornish had felled Meraxes with a Scorpion bolt. He was even more

 insistent that the Three Daughters had recently clashed with Prince

 Daemon and Caraxes in the Stepstones, and thus they would be

 well equipped to fight dragons.

 Ulf had scoffed at Hugh's expressed caution, calling him craven, at

 which Addam had been sure Hugh would have set upon the drunken

 fool and beat him to death, such was the anger and rage boiling off

 Hugh.

 Lord Velaryon had commanded Ulf to hold his tongue until he had

 something constructive to say, chastised the man for contributing

 nothing so far and commanded him to listen and obey the

 commands of Hugh.

 The former Man at Arms bristled at this, but he held his peace, red

 faced and all that he was, though Addam could not tell if his

 reddened face was from drink or being rebuked so by Lord Corlys.

The Prince seemed to be willing to countenance the words of Hugh,

 and obey his commands even more strangely, but then again Hugh

 was not shy when it came to Dragons, he seemed to love them

 fiercely, especially his great beast Vermithor. Hugh and the beast

 were often found together in one of the three Baileys of

 Dragonstone, the dragon curled up and Hugh resting against its

 great head, patting and whispering to the dragon.

 When asked Hugh had said he was simply 'bonding' with the dragon,

 but Seasmoke did not like it when he tried this, his dragon preferred

 to roost in the dragon mount when not required and seemed averse

 to him trying to replicate what Hugh did with Vermithor.

 Eventually the debate on tactics wound down, any approach they

 would have to destroying the fleet of the Three Daughters would

 have to wait until they had sighted them, and they could make an

 account of the numbers and types of ships that they were facing.

 Hugh would be taking the first patrol, along with Nettles on

 Sheepstealer, each patrol was planned to last about six hours,

 several hours into the first flight he and Ulf would take off, to follow

 the same route. The first pair would rest for six hours and then they

 would take to the wing again, the process to be repeated for as long

 as it took to find the attacking fleet.

 Lord Corlys was worried that the enemy fleet would not yet be near

 enough for them to find it, and that they would just exhaust the

 dragons and their riders, Hugh was confident that the fleet of the

 Three Daughters was at most a day or two away.

 Addam hoped Hugh was right, he was eager to try out his mount in

 combat, and to prove that he was a 'real' dragon rider.

 Down outside the castle the two dragons were ready for their flight,

 Vermithor's bulk beside the thin, scrawny shape of Sheepstealer.

 The larger dragon ignored the smaller one, seeming to only have

 eyes for its rider as he strode over to the great beast. Hugh was

dressed in thick, wool felt boots, heavy woollen pants and a double

breasted sheepskin coat that reached to his knees. Gloves, a silk

 scarf and a strange hat that fitted to his head rounded out his

 clothing. A Myrish spy glass was slung around his neck on a long

 leather strap, Nettles also having such a device. Though she was

 dressed much less elaborately than Hugh.

 She had laughed at his get up when she had first seen it, warning

 Hugh that Sheepstealer would think him a tasty snack in that get up.

 Hugh had ignored the girls jibes and instead walked around and

 underneath Vermithor before mounting the dragon, something Hugh

 did every time he flew his mount, Hugh had said it was a 'good luck'

 ritual. Though how it would bring good luck Addam did not know.

 After a moment Vermithor turned and started to take a few steps,

 each one quicker and longer than the last, until the dragon jumped

 into the air, beating its great wings to gain height. Sheepstealer

 followed a minute later, taking a different course than Vermithor, who

 had turned south-eastwards and was rapidly climbing away into the

 distance.

 "I hope this works" Addam heard Prince Jacaerys mutter under his

 breath to Lord Corlys.

 "You and me both your Grace" came the equally muttered response

 from the Lord of Driftmark.