Game of Thrones: Viserys the Three-Headed Dragon.

Chapter 92 Scout

In the moonless night, the sea was dark. The sea was wide and wide, and the ship sailed on the black sea like a leaf. A Lysian warship with a black hull painted by a Lysian pirate was heading for Dragonstone.

The purpose of this ship is to send four soldiers who are familiar with the terrain of Dragonstone to Dragonstone. They are scouts of King Stannis.

The pirate sailors, under the command of the king's scouts who were familiar with the coast and waters near the island, wandered around the waters of Dragonstone and did not begin rowing closer until nightfall. These pirates were familiar with how to sail stealthily in the dark.

King Stannis doesn't need scouts to rescue the queen and princess for him, he just needs them to find out the strength of the Targaryen army in Dragonstone.

It is said that there are only two three-hundred-oared ships patrolling the waters near the Dragonstone dock. If this is the case, then it would be particularly easy to enter Dragonstone from the hidden part of the island.

The purpose of their trip was to find out the number of ships in Dragonstone Harbor. If they could find out the number of defenders, that would be even better.

The king's fleet had now sailed out of the Throat under cover of darkness, and if they were discovered they would have no reinforcements.

The waves behind Dragonstone were fast and high, and there was no lighthouse, so they could only assess their position in the dark. A sergeant named Rickon squatted at the bow, longbow in hand, looking far away for reconnaissance. A pirate squatted beside him with a flag, waiting for his instructions to change direction.

Foster and Secken leaned against the side of the boat, their hands steady on their whetstones, slowly and endlessly sharpening their swords. Mander was eating his corned beef, chewing it slowly.

The oars on both sides of the warship were beating the black sea water, creating white foam.

Only the sound of the oars hitting the sea water and the wind echoed in my ears.

“Almost there,” Rickon rumbled as the boat began to rock, and he held out his hand.

The pirate next to him waved a command flag, and the sound of oars hitting the water gradually died down.

Foster and Secken put away their whetstones and sheathed their swords. Mander also put away the pickled beef and wiped his hands roughly on the black leather.

The boat slowly sailed into a beach with gentle waves.

The Rees pirates untied the small boat that was attached to the side of the ship. Foster took the lead and jumped onto the boat that could accommodate seven people, and the remaining three followed closely.

The Lys pirate made a pirate-lucky gesture to them and watched them row to the shore on their own.

Not long after, the boat ran aground due to the waves. The four people immediately jumped off the boat, and then they worked together to pull the boat to the shore and tied the fixed rope to a large rock.

So far, everything has been going very smoothly.

"Let's go." Mander led the way, while Rickon followed behind and was responsible for vigilance.

The rocks of the ancient volcanic deposits along the coast would cut leather gloves, but they were not slippery.

Everyone followed Mander silently, paying attention to where he walked. As they got farther and farther away from the coast where the ship was anchored, the road along the coast became increasingly steep and dangerous. If they were not careful, they might slip down and fall into the rough dark sea below.

however.

"thump!"

There was a sound of someone slipping behind him. Mander turned around and saw Foster grabbing a branch between the rocks with one hand and Rickon with the other.

Rickon nearly slipped.

Foster pulled Rickon up and warned him, "Be careful."

Rickon, who was rescued by his companions, was acting strangely. He was staring at a certain spot on the mountain and said with a strange look on his face, "Something just flew over there. A big thing."

Foster asked, "Bats? Birds?"

“No,” said Rankin. “Large. At least as large as the boat we were in.”

"what is that?"

“I don’t know. A shadow.” Rickon continued to stare for a long time, but there was no movement on the mountain. His companions were waiting for him. He shook his head. “Never mind it. Keep going. There’s still more to go.”

Mander, the leader, shrugged and continued to lead the way. They continued to climb along the steep rock wall, circled around, and came to the other side of the mountain where Rickon said he had found the shadow. Mander turned back subconsciously and saw his brothers behind him, including Rickon, who had the same idea as him and also turned back to look at the mountain.

They looked around cautiously, but didn't find anything strange.

Maybe I'm just overthinking it.

They were already alert and careful enough to ensure that no accidents would happen during this trip.

After the most difficult part of the journey, the road gradually became flatter, which meant that they had already circled the rugged back of Dragonstone to the front. They began to run faster, aiming to reach the expected location at the expected time.

As they ran, they finally saw the farmland outside the Dragonstone town. The beans planted before autumn had sprouted and were growing well with the care of farmers. They had achieved their goal, and the next step was to hide in a smuggler's cave on the coast of Dragonstone. This was the destination of this trip, where they would hide and observe the castle of Dragonstone.

Everyone is very familiar with this road. They often catch smugglers here. Even without Mander leading the way, everyone knows how to get there.

They sneaked in quietly, and when they arrived here, they could already see the situation at the dock. There were three large ships at the dock of Dragonstone Island, all without lights. There were two ships patrolling near the sea with lights on. The distance was too far to see the sails clearly, but it was obvious that the two ships with lights on were patrol ships of the Targaryen army. These two Targaryen ships were a little further away from the dock during the day and a little closer to the dock at night, and they were very cautious.

They rested here and stuck their heads out to look around.

The fire in the night lit up the hillside at the other end, which was the location of Dragonstone Castle. The ferocious dragon statues in the castle reflected the faint light of the fire in the night. When this place belonged to King Stannis, they almost forgot how terrifying these statues were in the night.

Seeing it again now makes people feel cold all over.

There were no torches on the mountain path, and it seemed that the Targaryen army was gathered inside the castle.

In the darkness of night, you can vaguely see many traces of burns on the mountain, black as scars.

Are they the remains of a battlefield?

How could the Targaryen soldiers attacking the castle light a fire so far away from the mountain path?
Without time to think, they will rest here.

Next, they will stay here as firm and silent as shadow cats, quietly observing everything in Dragonstone Castle.

Some people had already huddled into a corner of the crevice in the cave, and Silken and Rickon had also hidden themselves in a corner, not saying a word.

The four of them will stay here for one to two days. The sea is not far away from them, there is a bright moon and stars outside the cave entrance, and Dragonstone Castle can be seen not far away.

At this time of year, no one except themselves knew that in this corner, there were four scouts of King Stannis quietly observing everything on Dragonstone.

Rickon whispered, “We did it, didn’t we?” as if any louder and the sound might carry to the castle.

Mander has closed his eyes and is resting.

Foster responded to him: "Rest first, I will be on the first shift, tomorrow will be a long day."

Rickon nodded, took one last look at Dragonstone castle in the dim orange light, and then retreated into the smugglers' cave and fell into a deep sleep.

They had walked a rough and dangerous road all night and now it was time to get some rest.

Before we knew it, the Smugglers' Cave had gone quiet.

When Rickon woke up, he was alone in the cave. His companions were nowhere to be found. He became nervous, and the feeling of the longbow made him feel better.

He walked out of the cave cautiously. Suddenly, he heard a sound behind him. He turned around and saw a fishing net coming down on his head. Someone immediately pressed his head into the sand. Only then did he realize that his companions had been caught. He was the last one.

-

In fact, there was more than one group of scouts that landed secretly from various places on Dragonstone that could not be seen from the watchtowers and the port that night. There were also two other groups, some of which went deep into the island, and some simply lurked in the uncultivated wilderness of Dragonstone - those scouts were difficult to catch.

There was a group of places where fishermen were said to often go to cast their nets to catch fish. Viserys sent the Lambton brothers and a team of Unsullied to hire fishermen from Dragonstone Town to take two fishing boats to try to catch them.

The enemy's high-profile reconnaissance made Viserys alert. He thought that Stannis's fleet was approaching. In order not to expose himself and scare away the enemy, he deliberately hid, shrinking his body and observing from a low altitude along the ridges of the Dragonstone Mountains.

The Lys warships that sent scouts to the island were rowing boats and did not have the ability to sail far in the ocean. They had taken a detour after sending the scouts last night. Viserys guessed that there might be large ships nearby. Although he had the advantage in the sky, there were many soldiers with sharp eyes, not to mention things like telescopes, so he did not pursue the matter further.

Viserys simply hid himself and waited for the enemy to attack.

He had not expected Stannis's actions.

The four captured scouts were stubborn and unwilling to reveal Stannis's military intelligence. Viserys did not torture them, but asked Earl Gunther to escort them to Dragonstone Prison and let them see Shireen before entering the prison.

Then he was thrown into the dark cell block where the surrenderers were kept and would be brought to trial later.

But before they could be interrogated, one of the second group of captured scouts surrendered. Two of the scouts died in the battle, and one of the remaining two chose to surrender.

It was not until the Lambton brothers and the Unsullied team returned to the town of Dragonstone in a slow rowing fishing boat and ran back to the castle to report that Viserys learned that Stannis's fleet had headed south for Storm's End last night.

The Lys warships that sent the scouts to the island had no large ships to cover them. They relied on the port of Tidemark to carry out their operations. These Lys warships stayed behind only to scout Dragonstone. According to the plan, after completing the reconnaissance, the scouts would find a way to get the castle maester to pass on the information at Tidemark or by boat to Pointe. Then they could go to Pointe Castle to collect a large bounty and find another opportunity to return to Storm's End. In fact, by the time they got the money, Stannis, except for the diehards, could no longer restrain the actions of the pirates and scouts.

Since Stannis has already gone south, Viserys must consider unifying Dragonstone's territories, Tidehead and The Point, as soon as possible, to control the three castles inside and outside the Throat. Moreover, he is short of warships now, and those three Lys warships may be small, but they are still meat, and he must take them down.

(End of this chapter)