Hugh Hammer (ASOIF/SI)

 He looked out from the small castle where the part of the army he

 was travelling with was camped and sighed heavily, it was a dull and

 rainy day, the type of day that you should stay indoors and keep out

 of the rain on.

 Luckily for him he was housed in a castle, but the bulk of his army

 was out there, under canvas and suffering for it. The open lands

 around the castle were bare of the tents and campfires that would

 normally be present, instead his men were dispersed in several

 forests nearby. Every effort was being made to conceal the several

 large groups of troops that were advancing on Tumbleton across a

 broad front. Normally he would never disperse his army thus, for all

 sorts of reasons, but the superiority in dragons that the Blacks had

 was forcing his hand on this matter.

 His mind spasmed at the thoughts of dragons, anger and rage

 boiling through him, that, that idiot Aemond! And without being

 bidden his mind replayed the encounter with the Lord Protector of

 the Realm in his head.

 He had been informed that dragons were approaching from the east,

 and he had gone out onto the battlements of the castle at

 Bitterbridge, they having advanced rapidly and had taken the keep

 and the lands about with little or no trouble.

 The report of a single dragon had not unduly worried him, as Vhagar

 was so much larger than Tessarion and was oft sighted long before

 the smaller dragon, but as the dragon had neared he had started to

 become concerned, for there was no sight of Tessarion.

 Equally concerning was the fact that Vhagar had several great holes

 in its wings and as the great beast finally landed in some open

ground before the castle he could see wounds along the dragons

 back and flanks.

 "I have a very bad feeling about this" came the voice of Ser Criston

 Cole, who had come up behind him on the battlements unheard.

 He just grunted a unformed word as a reply, and hoped that the

 Prince had better have a tale of a spectacular victory to tell in return

 for the absence of Tessarion. A tiny voice in his head reminded him

 that Tessarion and Prince Daeron might still be alive, or even

 captured by the enemy, but he knew with a sinking heart that this

 was highly unlikely.

 Accompanying Cole down to the courtyard inside the keeps gate he

 waited with impatience for Aemond to make his inevitable

 appearance, which the lad did after an inordinate amount of time,

 and with a wineskin clutched in one hand he sourly noted.

 The Prince looked somewhat ragged and unkempt, and had the arm

 not burdened by that very full looking wineskin as wrapped in a

 bandage that gave off a rather unpleasant odor.

 Once the usual pleasantries were observed the Prince demanded a

 bath and a change of clothes before he would consent to speak

 further with them, and a Maester to attend to him and his wounds.

 Aemond totally ignored the great dragon out in the fields beyond the

 castle, and he had to order several cows be sent to the dragon to

 feed it. Vhagar was in a rather intractable mood and burned several

 of the men who had been bringing her food to her. She had been

 overly eager to get to her meal and the men leading the terrified

 cows had been in her way, or so it must have seemed to the dragon.

 Himself and Ser Criston Cole then spent several hours waiting on

 the Prince to appear, apparently after his bath and having what was

 a rather nasty burn on his arm cleaned and bandaged again he had

 decided to enjoy the company of a serving wench that had caught

 his eye. The girl had delivered some food to the rooms that had been

set aside for him and he had taken the chit to her screamed denials,

 apparently the young thing was married and did not appreciate the

 Princes attentions.

 Thus it was that it was well after dusk had fallen that the Prince had

 finally condescended to grace them with his presence, with another

 wineskin in hand.

 "We await your report your Grace" declared Cole, deciding that he

 had better start the proceedings as opposed to him, probably a good

 idea as he was barely holding in his anger at this drunken sot and

 his behavior.

 "Oh, yes…..well" here Aemond gave a loud burp "yes, Dragonstone

 went very well, I dispatched that bastard Jacaerys and Vermax,

 along with that cunt of his, Baela, and her dragon also. I got a third

 dragon, Sheepstealer, and its rider also. Vhagar was far too strong

 for them."

 "You killed them on Vhagar…..did Prince Daeron on Tessarion aid

 you in any of this?" he asked, wanting to see what this idiot boy said.

 "He was more of a hinderance than a help, if truth be told…."

 Replied Aemond, who took a long pull of the wineskin.

 Cole and his eyes met briefly over the Prince's sprawled form,

 Aemond having again hiked his booted feet up onto the table in their

 presence.

 "Indeed, your Grace" replied Cole smoothly, giving no hint that either

 of them had received a different story from an agent of theirs on

 Dragonstone. Which spoke of Tessarion harrying the other dragons

 and using its speed and maneuverability to steer them into range of

 Vhagar's lumbering form.

 "Well, for the destruction of three dragons of that usurper bitch you

 are to be congratulated, a great feast will be prepared for tomorrow

 evening!" he announced, smiling inside at the smug look of

satisfaction that spread across Prince Aemond's slack and drunken

 face.

 "And the battle of the Eyrie your Grace, what of that?" Cole

 questioned, his voice eager sounding and his face betraying only

 excited, and utterly false, interest.

 "We came to the Eyrie at night, Daeron wanted to wait until dawn,

 but I insisted upon an attack at night. We caught the three dragons

 of that cunt Rhaenyra on the ground and had we known about them

 in advance we would have burned them where they roosted! We

 destroyed a whole side of the Eyrie, collapsing walls, towers and

 halls to go falling into the abyss below the castle!"

 "Thrilling stuff your grace, but I believe that your instructions were to

 only demonstrate the power of your dragons so that those loyal to

 his Grace your brother would rise in rebellion and depose the Lady

 Arryn?"

 "What better demonstration of the power of dragons could I give

 them than burning down a whole section of their castle!" Aemond

 replied, anger and pride mixing equally in his voice.

 "Your orders were to ensure that the castle was captured, and more

 importantly that the necessary hostages were secured, you risked

 that by your actions your Grace" came Cole's coldly furious

 response.

 "The banners you told me would be flying were not, only the Falcon

 of House Arryn. So by my reckoning either the disposal of Lady Arryn

 had failed, or not yet happened. And you do not 'order' me, either of

 you, I am the Lord Protector of the Realm. Neither of you were there,

 I made the decision to use the dragons as I saw fit! I will not have my

 decisions on this matter questioned!"

 "And the fight with the three dragons your Grace, tell us of that

 please?" he interjected, keen to distract the Prince's petulant anger

 and rage.

"The three dragons rose quickly from the Eyrie, but rather than

 attacking us directly they instead flew off and hugged along the

 steep mountains that flank the Eyrie, soaring upwards and away

 from us, looking like they were trying to escape. So, I did what

 anyone would do, I ignored them and dove back to continue

 attacking the Eyrie. But they dived upon us from above, just as

 Vhagar was about to release his fire Daeron veered off suddenly on

 Tessarion, this alerting me to their attack. I was too close to the Eyrie

 to manoeuvre away so I had Vhagar tuck in her wings and we dove

 under the attack. She got a lick of flames along her back for her

 troubles, and I got splashed with some dragonfire" at this the Prince

 lifted up his bandaged arm.

 "I pulled Vhagar around as hard as I could, only to see Tessarion

 take a blast of dragonfire from Seasmoke to one of her wings, it went

 up in flames like a piece of parchment dipped in oil, and the dragon

 and Prince Daeron spun away, falling into the darkness below. I, I

 never saw Tessarion again, so I assume that the dragon and Prince

 Daeron are dead."

 "Go on" asked Cole, his voice menacingly low, the implied threat of

 which Aemond seemed to be blithely ignoring.

 "The three Dragons came at me as one, belching flames but never

 once getting close enough to use claw or teeth, I had to use the rick

 of tucking in Vhagar's wings to escape two attacks, she was too

 bulky and slow to avoid the smaller dragons attacking her. On their

 third attempt they staggered their attack and caught Vhagar as she

 tucked in her wings and dove away, that is how she has the wounds

 on her wings and flanks. But they misjudged the attack, or at least

 the smaller one, Tyraxes did. Vhagar snapped out and caught

 Tyraxes with her mouth, breaking the beast's neck clean in two and

 causing her rider to fall from the broken dragon. I did not see either

 the rider or dragon fall to earth, I simply had Vhagar keep her wings

 tucked in and we fell away into the darkness. I looked around several

 times but there was no pursuit, so once we were about a thousand

 feet above the floor of the Vale of Arryn I commanded Vhagar to

head north eastwards along the Vale to the coast. We flew for four

 days solid until I felt we were safe to land, near Massey's Hook

 actually. We stayed there only briefly, crossing over into the

 Stormlands a few hours later."

 Both men digested this for a few seconds before Ser Criston asked,

 "and the wound on your arm your Grace?"

 "According to the Maester it will heal, though the skin may well be

 permanently scarred."

 Ormund dragged his mind back to the present as he heard the door

 open behind him, knowing that it was Cole entering from his

 footsteps.

 Still looking out the window at the fitful drizzle he asked, "you have

 read Daemon's terms I assume?"

 "Aye, I have…."

 "And?"

 "And what? He knows these terms, such as they are, will not be

 acceptable!" spat Cole.

 "Of course he does, these are sent more to insult us than anything

 else, he has the whip hand, and he knows it."

 "So, what are we to do?"

 "Lord Strong is confident that he can make life unpleasant for

 Daemon in Kings Landing…"

 "That's hardly enough, if we are relying on that we might as well slit

 our own throats now and be done with it!"

 "I have made some moves to seek wiser counsel within Rhaenyra's

 circle of advisors, there may yet be a way out of this that does not

 end up with our heads on spikes."

"I have no wish to take the Black!" Cole retorted.

 "If it means our hides and the safety and continuation of my family, I

 am willing to swear my oaths as a Black Brother! As I said, we might

 just have a slim hope of coming out of all of this unpleasantness

 somewhat whole…."

 "The Sea Snake? You are relying on the Sea Snake to talk sense

 into Rhaenyra and Daemon?" asked Cole, sudden realization

 dawning in his eyes.

 "Aye, I am…"

 "His influence has taken a knock recently, the death of the last

 Strong bastard whom he was claiming to be his grandson has

 weakened his hold on the Queen, and as Daemon's get now stand

 to inherit the Iron Throne, I fear that usurping bitch's days are

 numbered."

 "Of which I am sure Lord Corlys is aware of, there are options we

 can offer the Lord of the Tides in Kings Landing that can see

 Daemon's influence, curtailed shall we say. There are also potential

 ways of disposing of Daemon altogether, the only consideration

 being do we do this before or after he does away with Queen

 Rhaenyra? But for these to work we would require Corlys, if not

 actively assist us in our plans, at least not stand in our way."

 "I suppose the question is, do we ask him to turn his cloak or do we

 ask him to, to use his influence on our behalf…" came the sotto

 voiced query from Cole.

 "Indeed, my Lord Hand, indeed, that is the question now is it not?"

 he replied to Cole, and before Cole could reply he changed the

 subject, "Any news on Vhagar and how the dragon is healing from its

 wounds?"

 "The great beast is cantankerous at best, downright impossible at

 worst, even Aemond fears to approach her at times."

"So?"

 "She will be impaired for several moons at least, that's the best I can

 offer."

 "'Impaired', not very reassuring news now is it?"