Queen of the Iron Islands Chapter 1

In George R.R. Martin's A Feast of Crows, Euron Greyjoy wins control of the Seastone Chair and embarks on a campaign to conquer the rest of Westeros; accompanied by the usual violence, rape, and enslavement. He then sends his estranged brother Victarion halfway round the world to bring back Daenerys and her dragons. To avoid that I decided to do an alternate history story which involves thwarting Euron's ambitions. Alternate history is a genre of speculative fiction which revolves around "What If" scenarios like the Confederates winning the American Civil War or the Axis Powers winning World War II. Some notable alternate history writers include Harry Turtledove, Steven Barnes, and Robert Harris.

This alternate history ASOIAF story explores how Asha Greyjoy could have defeated her uncle Euron and then claimed the Seastone Chair with some help. What if someone saw Euron's Faceless Man kill Lord Balon Greyjoy and lived to tell the tale? For this chapter, I'll introduce an original character: Ila, a nine year old Wildling girl serving in the court of Balon Greyjoy at Pyke. Please note, I don't own anything. All ASOIAF characters rightfully belong to George R.R. Martin and HBO.

Ila's POV

"I dreamt of a man without a face, waiting on a bridge that swayed and swung. On his shoulder perched a drowned crow with seaweed hanging from his wings."

The Ghost of High Heart, A Storm of Swords

It was a cold blustery night at the castle of Pyke, the seat of House Greyjoy and the capital of the Iron Islands. Ila was accompanying her master Lord Balon on one of his many evening walks throughout the castle's grounds. Unlike the other Kneelers' castles, Pyke was built on a cliff overlooking the sea. Over the centuries, the sea had slowly chipped away at the cliff; reducing the castle to a series of isolated towers resting on a series of rock stacks. With the exception of two stone bridges connected the headland, the Great Keep, and the Bloody Keep, the other towers were linked to each other with rope bridges.

It had been over a year and a half since Ila and her family had fled from Beyond to the Wall. They had fled south to escaping the advancing onslaught of The Others, ice demons whom no blade could kill and who raised the dead into undead monsters. The Others and their undead wrights had descended on her village under the cover of night, slaughtering the unsuspecting villages. Ila along with her mother Orla and baby brother Tristen had escaped. However, her father had not survived that terrible night. She could still remember him making a last stand with his axe against a horde of undead wrights. Run, run, those had been his last words.

For the next six months, Ila and Orla had trekked south. They had barely managed to slip past the Crows guarding the Wall, a great structure of ice and stone that had been built seven thousands years ago to keep the Free Folk out from the green lands that lay south. It had been an arduous and agonizing journey and Tristen had perished along with many other refugees. After months of traveling, Ila and her mother finally made it to a small fishing village on the Stony Shore. These Kneelers hated her people and called them robbers, rapers, and rogues. She and her mother were forced to beg on the streets for a living.

Then one day, reavers from the Iron Islands raided the village. The Ironborn razed the village, slaughtered the men, and seized the women and children as thralls. Their captors had wanted to separate them. Fortunately, Orla's tears and pleas had moved the leader of the reaving parting, a handsome young prince named Theon who carried a bow and arrow. The prince instead decided to send Ila and her mother as a gift to his father Lord Balon Greyjoy, the Reaper of Pyke and the self-proclaimed King of the Iron Islands and the North. Orla ended up working as a sculler while Ila found herself working as Balon's cupbearer. Besides tasting his wines, her other duties included emptying his chamber pot and serving as his "eyes and ears."

While he was still fit and of sound mound, Lord Balon's eyes and ears had grown dimmer with age. Thus, he had reluctantly acquiesced to having a companion accompany him on his numerous evening walks. A fearsome warrior and skilled seaman in his younger days, Balon was not one to allow himself to grow and fat in his latter days. Whether sunshine, wind, or rain, Balon would always walk twice a day for at least an hour. During these walks, Ila learnt a great about her master, his people, and the wider world.

The Ironborn were a warlike, seafaring people who considered themselves different from the other Kneelers. In the past, they had regularly raided on mainland Westeros, which they called the "green lands." While the Ironborn had ceased reaving the green lands since the Targaryen conquest three hundred years ago, their fierce independent spirit had never been broken. While Balon had yielded to the "Kneeler" King Robert Baratheon following a failed rebellion over eleven years ago, he had returned to the "old ways" of reaving as soon as Robert had died. Robert's death had plunged the realm into a civil war as numerous pretenders fought for the Iron Throne.

Balon had taken advantage of the "War of the Five Kings" to embark on a campaign to conquer the North of Westeros. At first, Balon had been jovial as his people scored victory after victory against the embattled Northmen, who were already preoccupied with other quarrels in the distant South. However, this had given way to melancholy and grief following the disappearance of Balon's last remaining heir Theon during a battle at the distant castle of Winterfell. Without an heir, Balon feared that the Iron Islands would be plunged into chaos if he died. Assuming that Ila was a simple Wildling girl, Balon had treated her as his confidante; telling her all about his life, goals, and worries.

That fateful night, Ila and Balon were making their way back to Sea Tower, which lay on the outermost island at the far reaches of Pyke. This towering edifice was the oldest part of Pyke castle and housed the solace of Lord Balon. To travel from the Great Keep to Sea Tower, one needed to cross three bridges. The last of these was a rickety rope bridge with old weathered planks serving as floorboards. The Greyjoys had a saying that any man who could walk one of these bridges during a howling storm could also run the oars of a ship. A savage westerly wind buffeted past the bridge. The sky was beginning to trickle with rain. A storm was brewing and now was time to find shelter.

"Now, the Drowned God's enemy is the Storm God," explained Balon "He is responsible for all the storms and bad weather. Whenever there is a storm, the two gods are fighting."

"Who is more powerful," asked Ila

"Why, the Drowned God of course," replied Balon "Without him, these islands would have fallen into the sea a long time ago. The survival of our people is a testament to his…"

"Shhh, there's someone walking to us," interjected Ila

"Why, it must be one of the guards or servants coming to fetch us in before that damned storm The figure slowly approached them without saying a word. Ila could see that he did not wear the same garb and armor as the Greyjoy guards. Nor was he one of the servants. He wore a black cloak over a black tunic and pair of breeches. His face was hidden beneath the cowl of his cloak. There was something sinister about his presence. Then suddenly, he dug out a sharp dagger and slit Lord Balon across the throat. The cold metal blade shone against the pale light of the moon. Blood splattered over Ila's hair and clothes.

The ailing lord did not even have time to cry out. He staggered over one of the rope handles and fell into the stormy sea below. Ila screamed and ran back to the other side of the bridge. She ran as fast as she could in her long, flowing linen smock; a horrible thing for running in. Her long brown hair was clouding her eyes and getting her mouth. She could feel the running pains across her stomach.

Suddenly, Lyra saw two figures approaching from the other side of the bridge. These were not strangers. They were Lucas "Left Hand" Codd and Germund Botley, highborn bannermen sworn to Lord Balon. She recognized Codd's lanky form and long, flowing dark hair. She recognized Botley's curly blonde hair and his gilded breastplate, emblazoned with the silver fish of House Botley on a green shield. They were here to save the day, thought Ila. Her cries had not been in vain.

Alas, this was not to be so. Instead of leaping onto the bridge to apprehend the murder their liege, they used their swords to hack at the thick cords of rope that held the rope bridge together. Their swords slashed through the ropes like a pair of sharp razors hacking through hair. Ila attempted to bite the men but Codd punched her hard in the face, throwing her onto the wooden floorboards. She felt the taste of blood in her mouth and spat out a loose tooth.

Ila fell onto the hard wooden plank with a great thump. Before she could muster her wits, the bridge gave way with a great cry. Ila found herself plummeting into the cold waters of the Sunset Sea. She struggled to hold on to a cord of rope but it was of no use. Ila screamed all of the way down. She landed into the sea with a great splash. Seawater poured into her ears and mouth. Ila struggled to keep her head above the water. Seeing a loose plank, she grabbed on to it.

Ila cried out for help but her cries were drowned out by the roaring waves which smashed against the rock stacks of Pyke. There was no one out there to rescue. The ocean current was sweeping her further away from the castle. For what seemed like hours, Ila held on to the plank as the storm raged around her. Near dawn, an Ibbenese merchant vessel sailing from Lordsport to the island of Harlaw sighted a plank and a near-exhausted girl.