Hugh Hammer (ASOIF/SI)

"By next morning we will be astride Driftmark my Lord Admiral" the

 officer announced "we have sighted no sign of the so-called fleet of

 the Sea Snake. They are, as the agents of King Aegon second of his

 name state, all inshore and investing the coast in a close blockade."

 "Good, good" Sharako purred, all was going to plan, a welcome

 outcome, but not one that would surprise him. He had taken the fleet

 up the coast of Essos, hugging close to shore and had only struck

 eastwards when nearly astride Pentos. This he had hoped would

 reduce the chances of the fleet being spotted and reported, and it

 looked like it had.

 The fleet was made up of near equal parts from the Three

 Daughters, but the cogs and carracks carrying ten thousand troops

 had been charted by him and his backers. For Sharko Lohar did not

 only want to defeat the enemies of the Three Daughters, he planned

 to get rich off the backs of doing so. The opportunity to sack

 Spicetown and the legendary riches of High Tide were just too much

 of a prize for him to resist.

 And of the dragons that the Targaryen's still rode? Pah! Dragons, he

 had faced that cunt Daemon and his dragon Caraxes and had driven

 the great beast off on more than one occasion, screeching its

 displeasure and frustration to the uncaring skies. And that had been

 with a fraction of the ships he now had, and he had been even more

 through in his preparations, every ship sported scorpions with good

 sky arcs to combat dragons, every ship had a contingent of archers

 aboard, indeed some ships carried contingents of archers numbering

 in the hundreds. The troops that warships normally carried were

 mostly aboard the great cogs and carracks, Sharako had bet on

 being able to beat off the two or three smaller dragons that the

 Targaryen's were known to be in command of. And as to the

Velaryon fleet? It would be scattered blockading the coast, if needs

 be he was confident he could defeat in detail any small portion of this

 fleet he would come across.

 No, though the Three Daughters had told the silver haired fool that

 sat atop that great twisted mass of melted swords that they were

 going to wipe the sea clean of the ships of the Sea Snake, in

 actuality they were going to avenge themselves upon that same Sea

 Snake for his support of Daemon Targaryen and his adventures in

 the Stepstones.

 Sharako Lohar smiled at the thoughts of the riches he would gain in

 sacking Driftmark, and of his favourite spoils, young, female flesh.

 Westerosi female flesh commanded something of a premium in Lys

 currently, he could not see the attraction himself, he preferred the

 flawless perfection of the Old Blood, he was proud of his heritage

 and that he could trace his lineage back to the Freehold of old.

 And speaking of female flesh, he had sampled the delights of sunset

 lander flesh before he had left the Stepstones, a batch of recently

 caught slaves had included captives from Westeros. Red headed

 and buxom the slave had been, not yet fully broken in, and feisty for

 all that.

 He stayed on deck as his war fleet sailed ever closer to its

 destination, he had scouts out at the edge of visual distance, hull

 down on the horizon ahead of them, he would not be caught

 unawares, especially by dragons.

 The scouts had sighted land to the southwest, most likely Sharp

 Point, he consulted his maps and made some quick calculations,

 they would arrive off Driftmark shortly after dawn the next day,

 perfect, just perfect. He strode around the flag deck of his command

 dromond, the magnificent Larks Song, a rather unmilitary name he

 reckoned but some merchant had apparently paid directly for her

 construction as opposed to paying some outstanding tax debt.

As he basked in his own smugness a shout from a lookout distracted

 him.

 "Dragons, four of them, to the southeast, hiding in the clouds!"

 Pandemonium broke out with shouting and curses, Sharako was

 handed a Myrish far eye by one of his officers which he took up,

 searching for a few seconds before he spied four dragons, wings

 tucked in and diving in a tight formation.

 He pulled the far eye away and looked to see what the dragons were

 diving on….the cogs and carracks, a snarl came unbidden to his lips,

 he snatched the far eye back into place and watched as the dragons

 bathed the sails of the rearmost hulk with flames, one after another

 reducing its sails, rigging and then mast to blazing ruin.

 He watched as the dragons wheeled away and retreated aft,

 climbing back up to some height before repeating this performance

 on a carrack this time. He watched this performance for a third time,

 ice forming in his gut, whomever was in command of these dragons

 knew what they were doing.

 He had assumed that the fools who still rode dragons and who

 wished to rule over that pile of uncivilised barbarians in the Sunset

 Kingdoms would have come straight in to attack his warships and

 been greeted with a welcome hail of scorpion bolts and arrows.

 But instead, the dragons were whittling down his soldiers and cargo

 ships, both vital for the real mission he was undertaking.

 "Order the fleet of come about, and close with the cogs and

 carracks, we must protect them from the dragons!"

 Sharako was old enough and seasoned enough to know that no plan

 survived contact with the enemy, but he was confident that he had

 enough scorpions and archers that once he closed with the sailing

 ships he could deal with the dragons.

Though a little shiver of fear ran through him, four dragons, and all

 seemingly ridden by capable riders, mayhaps he had bitten off more

 than he could chew this time. For a second or two he debated calling

 for a retreat and leaving the cogs and carracks to their fate, but he

 ignored this, even if he survived his enemies in the Three Daughters

 would likely kill him for what they would see as a defeat. No, he was

 committed to this plan, now all he needed to do was make sure that

 he took down these dragons, he had been sure that he had enough

 weapons to deal with two of them, now they would just have to deal

 with four instead!

 Sharako Lohar wondered for the umpteenth time how his luck had

 held so far, two flagships burned out from underneath him, yet he

 was unscathed, if a little wet. The battle had been raging for hours

 now, the dragons having either torched or disabled all the cogs and

 carracks. His warships had fared little better, despite their heavy

 armament designed specifically against dragons.

 For the dragons had given them little or no opportunity to use their

 scorpions or the massed arrows of their archers. He had observed

 their tactics as he had approached the cogs and carracks and been

 confident that the fools would have abandoned the attacks upon his

 cargo ships and instead concentrated on his warships.

 And indeed, they had, but not in the manner he had hoped for, the

 dragons and weaved and fled, staying beyond the range of their

 scorpions, sizing them up until an opportunity presented itself to

 them. Then they would dive in and immolate a ship or two, before

 breaking off and retreating to await another opportunity to attack.

 He had discerned their method after losing a few ships and had

 signalled the fleet to close up as much as possible and to adopt a

 wedge like formation, the widest part of the wedge downwind. The

 manoeuvring to assume that formation had allowed the dragons to

 strike several times but once the formation had been stabilised the

 dragons had circled warily for almost an hour, before resuming their

 attack. This time they would come straight in towards the points of

 the wedge, on a direct line to minimise their exposure to the flanks of

the fleet, coming in one after another to bathe the ships at the head

 of each corner with dragonfire.

 That they did not succeed in destroying ships every time gave

 Sharako hope, and as the day wore on the dragon attacks became

 less frequent, the great flying beasts obviously tiring of their efforts.

 But then massed sails were spotted on the horizon and within the

 hour it appeared that a good portion of the Velaryon fleet was

 bearing down on them.

 With dragons above and warships ahead of him Sharako decided

 that turning tail and running was now the only option left to him. He

 still had more than half the fleet and running now, with this number

 surviving was not as bad as it looked, and he was certain that he

 could survive the coming backlash in the Three Daughters, to have

 escaped with half his fleet from what was obviously an ambush

 would be hailed as a victory of sorts. And as to the traitor who had

 sold them out to the Sunset Landers? Whys he could think of any

 number of his enemies that could be lined up to fit that bill, some

 judicial bribery and some assiduous forgery and he could see how

 things would play out to his advantage.

 He burst into a flurry of orders and commands, bringing the fleet

 around and turning their backs on the Sunset lands, the dragons

 seemed to be content to shadow them for now thankfully. They

 hoisted sails and the rowers bent their backs to cranking on more

 speed, the distance was still slowly closing to the enemy behind

 them, but Sharko was not concerned, nightfall was only a few, short

 hours away, he would lose his pursuers in the darkness for sure, the

 night would be moonless and thick clouds scudded across the

 horizon, it would be a dark night to come, of that, he was sure.

 As the sun dipped lower and lower towards the horizon behind him

 and Sharko Lohar became more confident that he had extracted his

 fleet from the trap that had nearly befell it, until suddenly an

 unearthly screech rent the heavens behind him. Stumbling around

 he only had seconds to register the massive shape of a dragon

diving out of the low sun before its fire reached him, setting every

 nerve in his body to screaming agony.

 Shako drew breath for a massive scream of agony, inhaling dragon

 flame as he did so, cooking his lungs to char and his final scream

 died as he died, consumed by dragonfire.