Chapter 10

Sugo

Dormer's way of taking people away will always be iconic to me no matter how many times I see him do it. He always takes the easy road and goes with the, "I'm going to carry you like a sack of potatoes under my arm or over my shoulder whether you like it or not." It doesn't really matter who it is, they all share the same fate. Whether they are high or low borns, it really doesn't matter to Dormer. It never matters what it is, he always opts for the easy method and thanks to his size there's never much that the unfortunate soul can do about it much to their dismay.

Anyway, I must say that the prince is much greener than I had initially expected. I knew he grew up in a sheltered environment but I was expecting a bit more from him. However, he may be green but at least he definitely has some spunk so there's still some hope there. Unfortunately, he's got a long way to go I'm afraid but I must say, I'm rather impressed at the strength of his jaw. He almost bite Murray's finger right off.

"I didn't come here for a fucking brat! I came here to fight!" Murray spat as he applies some pressure to his almost severed finger.

"That brat just saved your face and maybe even your life." I reply back and add, "And since I follow the orders of the king and also those of the prince, if he orders me to kill you I will do it without a second thought so know your place."

"I agree with the old lords, we should be able to rule ourselves-"

"Your old lords are dead!" I quickly cut Murray off as I give him a sharp glare for even daring to say such a thing. "Seven years ago, no one gave a damn about the Islanders. They could rot for all everyone cared but I saw potential and the king agreed, and provided a royal pardon for you all." I say as I gaze around to catch the eyes of my men.

Fifty years ago, the liege lord and the noble Islander lords wanted to rule themselves. They wanted their lands to be an independent country and separate from Ilindor completely. They knew very well that what they were doing was treason, they knew but they still attempted it anyway as they ignored the well-beings of their people. They started a rebellion against the crown that was completely pointless since they were severely out numbered all because the former liege lord wanted to become king himself by any means necessary. He became greedy and in the end his greed cost him his life and all of those in his house.

"We're not garbage!" Murray barks back.

"No you're not and the king doesn't think so either." I state.

I know very well how the Islanders feel about the crown and I understand their ill will towards the king but they need to understand now that the king who ordered the execution of all the Islander nobles is not the current king. The king that they serve now is not the one who made the decree to have every Islanders prisoner on their home islands. It wasn't the current king that forbade the usage of ships which forced many family members to be separated for fifty years.

All that was taken away from them was done by the former king and I would be lying if I'd say that I agree with that man's decisions. I understand that he needed to take action and show his power but there were other ways of handling things. Was the killing of all the nobles a reasonable course of action? That, sort of since it was them who pulled the strings but forbidding the Islanders, the innocent people who had nothing to do with the decisions of their lords, well that was taking things a bit too far.

I wouldn't be serving the king if I didn't have respect for the man. He's nothing like his father, the current king is a good man and the Islanders must learn to see it. I wouldn't ask them to serve someone that I did not respect but I can't ignore a large factor that keeps eating at my men.

Ever since the former lords of the Stone Islands failed in their rebellion, a stigma has followed the Islanders for the last fifty years. Even now, after seven years of loyal services to the crown that stigma keeps on following them. To the people around Ilindor, the Islanders are oath breakers, untrustworthy and savages. Due to that, I can understand why my men are frustrated and angry. I really do but it will take more than seven years to fix the past mistakes that were made due to foolish greedy men who had once been their lords.

"Everything that was taken has been restored to the Islanders, you were all given more than what you had before and that's how you repay the crown? By the desire to rebel against the very person who gave you all a second chance?" I ask, quickly catching a glimpse of my men's eyes.

After I became a commander in the royal navy, I left the capital and went to the Stone Islands with only one purpose and that was to gain their loyalty and respect and I did exactly that. Once I had accomplished that, I returned to the capital where I was able to get an audience with the king in person. It was at that audience that I gave him the offer of being able to bring the Islanders back into the fold under one condition, that they be free men and women again. The king didn't hesitate to grant me what I had asked for but he didn't just grant them their freedom but he took care of them with various provisions that the Islands could not provide itself and after seven years the Stone Islands have highly flourished as if nothing had ever happened.

"No… My apologies my lord." Murray answers.

"But the next time you disobey my orders and threaten the prince or the king again, I'll have you thrown overboard to the sharks. Do I make myself clear?" I tell him and he gives me a light nod and I step closer towards him for only him to hear, "You'll get your chance to fight, just not today."

Murray nods again before going below deck and the men quickly return to their post.

"Kane, turn this ship around for Octavia." I order.

"Will do my lord." He replies back and climbs up the staircase to the quarter deck and I retreat into my cabins only to find Dormer standing guard in front of the doors and the prince silently sitting on a bed with his face still stained in blood. I don't think he even attempted to clean himself either.

"Leave us." I order and Dormer steps out without saying a single word and closes the door behind him but I can tell, he's standing guard outside of the door. As expected, he won't allow a single person to come near the prince unless I command him to.

"You promised to be merciful." The prince quickly voices out as he stands up to meet my gaze the moment the door closes and now I understand. He's fearful of Dormer, he doesn't dare to act in his presence so if he stays quiet and still in Dormer's presence and he behaves the complete opposite with me, it only means that he fears Dormer more than he fears me.

Smart.

He might be green but he's not without a strong fierceness and for his sake he'll surely need it if he is to survive what is coming but he is so naive and seriously it's time he learns how the world really turns. I simply hope that the harsh reality won't break him but I have faith that his spirit is strong. He'll pull through because he has to.

"I did, he's alive and well. This is however my ship and those are my men and I'm their liege lord. I will not have any misconduct on my ship, it is my duty your grace to keep my men in order as I see fit." I reply back but from the look he's giving me he doesn't seem very convinced.

Actually the whole ordeal was simply a test on my part. I wanted to see the prince's real nature, I wanted to see how he would react in a stressful situation. None of my men were aware of my plan, Murray simply ended up being the pawn of it all due to his infamous temper but things couldn't have gone any better if I had tried to plan it all from scratch.

My intentions were not to burn Murray's face but it needed to be real and I needed someone who'd be more than willing to do the deed in case the prince didn't object to my orders and Dormer delivered a perfect performance. I needed the situation to feel real on both sides but more importantly I wanted the Islanders to see their future ruler.

The prince didn't have to give mercy to Murray, what he did was treason. No matter the circumstances, you never threaten your prince or your king and he threatened both but the prince showed mercy and even though it doesn't seem like much it's a huge thing in the eyes of the Islanders. Tonight, the prince has gained their respect and now I can think of other more pressing matters that needs my attention.

"Why is this ship turning? Where are we going?" The prince asks as the ship tilts at quite an angular position for a few minutes before it straightens itself again.

"The Stone Islands." I answer

"No, I have to go to Harrenhall!" He quickly protests.

Harrenhall, the legendary mighty fortress held by the Umbers for over a thousand of years. Yes that is quite a grand idea and I wonder if it's something that the prince came up by himself or if it was fed to him by lord Richmond but either way I can understand the reason behind wanting to go to Harrenhall though.

"What about lord Richmond? What happened to him!?" He further asks and I can't help but let out a sigh.

"At Emerald Harbor dealing with his affairs I assume." I answer back.

"There's an active rebellion, we have to help him!" He tells me.

"We? You've never fought a battle, that's quite apparent." I reply back and add, "I have sixty men, and such a number is never enough to ease a rebellion, your grace."

"Then you're completely fine leaving him for dead!?" He asks and that's exactly how it is.

Lord Richmond was a fool. A good man but none the less a fool. He allowed his subordinates to walk all over him for far too long and in this world, kindness is a good thing but when you're a lord you can't rule a mass of people with kindness alone. You need order and authority otherwise if not, you'll be finding yourself with a long horizontal gash on your throat.

The thing is that it's not the common people that the liege lords have to keep an eye on. It's the smaller lords that pose the greatest threat. Some are loyal to their liege lord but others, they claim loyalty in your face but in reality they are just waiting for an opening in order to make their move and rise to power in return. It's similar to what's happening right now in this country actually, many noble houses are showing their true colours, one by one they will show their treachery towards the crown and the fall of the Richmonds are just the beginning.

"I can't do anything for lord Richmond." I admit and that is the honest truth.

The Islanders would indeed go into battle if I ordered them to do so but where would be the point of sending men out to fight when you know they can't win? I don't intend to send my men off to die for nothing. The affairs of the Richmonds are their business and not mine, we Islanders have no business butting our nose into their affairs just as much as we wouldn't want anyone to butt their nose into ours. As a fellow liege lord, all I can do is pray that everything turns out for the best.

"He was going to take me to Harrenhall, can you at least take me there?" The prince asks and there it is again. Harrenhall. I could swear that the word has been branded onto his tongue.

"Your grace, we are Islanders which means our strength lies with our ships." I tell him as I sit down but never removing my eyes off him as I continue, "We are not land soldiers so no, I cannot take you to Harrenhall but you are my prince and my future king and therefor I will protect you and that's why I'm taking you to the Stone Islands."

I might be able to succeed in bringing the prince to Harrenhall with the men that I currently have if I try. I know that if any battle would ensure, Dormer and Kane would indeed be able to crush their enemies without problem but it would be a dangerous gamble to take. It's a gamble that I'm simply not willing to take when it involves the prince directly.

When it comes to soldiers, the Umbers and the Islanders are at complete opposite ends of the scale, two different sides of the same coin. Both forces have strong armies and loyal soldiers but one stands best on land while the other stands best on the sea.

My priorities at the moment until being told otherwise is to protect the prince at all cost until I know exactly who we are dealing with and the best way I can do that is on my own lands and the best place to do that is on Octavia. Umber may hold the strongest fortress on land but I hold the strongest fortress on water.

XXX

Chapter 10.5

Ginoza

"Your grace, we are Islanders which means our strength lies with our ships." The commander tells me as he sits down behind a small wooden table without taking his eyes off me as he continued, "We are not land soldiers so no, I cannot take you to Harrenhall but you are my prince and my future king and therefor I will protect you and that's why I'm taking you to the Stone Islands."

I don't know anything about the Stone Islands themselves. Maester Aemon never attempted to teach me about their history and culture much. It's like he never saw it necessary for me to learn about them or he simply didn't care…

I don't understand much about warfare, I won't deny that but I don't get what's the difference between land soldiers or whatever kind of soldiers the Islanders view themselves as. To me, soldiers are soldiers and I've seen how one Islander fights. Dormer sure didn't have any problems to kill his targets on land and I'll assume that the others must be the same as him but then again, I don't know anything about warfare.

The commander gets back up, pours some water into a bowl before dipping a piece of cotton cloth into the liquid and comes closer towards me, pressing the water soaked cloth onto my brow causing me to wince as it starts stinging.

"It's not deep…" He states as he gently dabs and further inspects my brow as he rinses the cloth into the water and gently dabs my face to wash off the dried up blood.

"Outch." I wince again as the cloth touches the cut on my cheek but he doesn't seem to be very bothered that he keeps hurting me each time he touches my face.

How can simple water sting so much? If I didn't know any better I would have thought it was some sort of alcohol or something but the liquid itself is scentless compared to how alcohol smells like and well, wine is usually red anyway.

"Is it the first time you've been struck, your grace?" The commander asks as he continues to wash my face and I wish that he would stop already. The left side of my face is aching so much and when I touched my cheek earlier it felt somewhat swollen.

"Yes…" I mutter.

I'm a prince and to strike a prince would be punishable by death so no one has ever dared to touch me because they know better to do so but I've never been problematic towards the people who have been assigned to serve me. I don't try to give them a hard time, I just try to make their jobs much easier. Anyway, my father is free from the law about striking royalty since he's my father but even he has never laid a hand on me because he never had to. I'm not perfect, nobody is perfect but I'd like to think that I'm not a terrible person…

"Those men, they hated me. They never met me before but they hated me." I mutter the words as I remember each of their faces. The look in the eyes of the man who had been on top of me, they were full of hate and rage.

"You are everything that they will never have your grace. Your horse eats better than their children." The commander tells me but it's impossible that those men could have recognized me. They were simply common men and most common people in the capital have never seen me before so the chances that they knew who I was, was probably very slim but I guess my clothing kind of say that my social standing was much higher than theirs.

"I would have given them food if I had any." I say.

If hunger was what caused the people to rebel, I would have fed them all if I could have but if the common people accepted to rebel against their liege lord, I have to wonder exactly what the Richmond had been doing. How could they have allowed their people to starve? How could they have allowed such a thing to come to that point?

"I know you would have but stop thinking about those men, they are dead now." The commander says, taking me out of my thoughts.

They are dead now… Dormer saw to that. He never gave one of them a chance to flee and he even ignored as one tried to plea for his life but it did little good for him. Dormer didn't care at all; he simply cut them down one by one without any remorse.

I know what those men did was horrible but did they deserve to die? They could have received punishment for their actions and be given a second chance for life. Maybe they could have done some great things in the future if they had been given a chance but now we'll never know.

"Are you truly loyal to my father?" I ask as he finishes washing my face.

"Might be hard to believe but yes I am." He answers as he reaches for a brownish paste and gently applies it on my cuts. "And you've somehow gotten good grace with my barbarian giant; you're officially his little bird."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" I quickly ask.

A barbarian giant is a fitting title for a man like Dormer but exactly what does that even mean? That I'm officially his little bird, I mean yeah I know he's been calling me that ever since he met me back in Donau but I didn't pay much attention to it. To be honest, I kind of find it creepy how he keeps calling me that. Little bird… Exactly what those that even mean anyway?

"I have no idea." The commander replies as he walks away from me and go back to the small table.

"That's comforting…" I mutter back.

"Your grace, Dormer won't hurt you but he'll hurt anyone you want him to." He suddenly tells me as he puts away a few things back into their little boxes that laid scattered onto the table.

Dormer wouldn't hurt me but he's hurt anyone that I would want to. Exactly what kind of person does the commander think that I am? I'm not like him, I wouldn't try to get one of my soldier's face burned just because of a mistake. I'm better than that.

"Is that supposed to make me feel any better?" I ask.

"Yes." He answers as he turns to face me and continues with his gaze upon me, "Dormer has expressed his desire to be part of your personal guards and for him to express such a thing is one thing altogether. He won't fail you, that I give you my word, your grace."

I'm not exactly sure how I would feel about that. If Dormer would become one of my personal guards it would mean that he'd be constantly with me almost twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week. Even more, I don't even know why he would even want to serve as my personal guard to begin with just like I'm not sure why he even came for me back at Emerald Harbor.

Back in Donau, I know that Dormer didn't recognize me as his prince and I'm sure that his friend didn't either. Yes they knew that I was heading to the Harbor to meet lord Richmond but they had no idea that I was the prince and yet the Dread came for me. This whole thing is really creepy, the ship is creepy, everything about this is creeping me out.

"I'm just a prince; you don't have to call me your grace." I tell him. The only person who is called your grace is my father. It's a title only given to kings, not princes. Of all people, a liege lord should know that.

"I say it because I want to say it." The commander states.

This man seems to do and say what he wants a lot. It makes me wonder exactly how he even became liege lord of the Stone Islands in the first place. Did my father choose him and if so, why him? I mean this man, can he really be a good liege lord if he's more than willing to mutilate one of his men for simply speaking out of terms?

"Is my father even searching for me?" I ask, trying to change the subject since it's obviously not going anywhere.

"Yes, he sent many knights out searching for you but this was a delicate situation. He didn't want to cause a mass panic with the people." He answers what I had figured earlier. With me suddenly gone missing, to rise the alarm that I had been attacked and abducted could have sent the people into a mass panic and not to mention it could have encouraged some houses to betray my father also.

"And he sent you to search for me at sea?" I ask.

"No, I chose my men and set sailed by my own accord." He quickly replies so does that mean that my father has no idea that the Islanders have set sailed?

"Why?" The word quickly blurts out.

The commander should know more than anyone how sensitive the position of the Islanders are. They are known as traitors to the crown and it was my father who restored their former positions for whatever reason that I don't know for but acting without the king's permission could be dangerous for them; it could look like a sign of rebellion on their part. Considering the current situation, it wouldn't take much for such actions to be seen as a threat to the crown. Maybe there will be some who will start rumors that the Islanders were the ones who ambushed us int he king's wood and abducted me to spark a new rebellion.

"Because you are my prince." The commander softly states.

Who is this man?

In the last seven years I've never seen him once at the Tearling. I knew there was a new liege lord for the Stone Islands but I didn't know anything else about him. I didn't know how he looked like until now, I don't even know his name and yet he seems so devoted to me and my father but why?

"Will you fight for me if it ever calls for it?" I ask as I remember what lord Richmond told me. Men follow strength beyond everything else but real strength isn't about being a superb soldier. Real strength is about gaining the loyalty of the people by your own merits.

"Die for you if I must." He responds without removing his eyes off me.

"Swear to me." I order as I rise to my feet. I'm not exactly sure why I quickly blurted those words out and I almost feel stupid for even ordering him that since he probably already swore to my father and to the crown so I'm basically making him do it again. I'm an idiot.

The commander draws out his blade from its sheath before taking a step forward and kneels in front of me as he holds out his blade flat in both hands towards me as if offering the large blade to me.

"The Islanders are yours and so is Teppei Sugo, liege lord of the Stone Islands. My sword is yours. My life is yours. My heart is yours." He tells me never lowering his gaze from mine.

I feel my heart start beating harder, I suddenly feel nervous but I don't know why. I guess that I didn't think that he would actually do it but he did without an ounce of hesitation in his actions or his tone. I know he meant every word by the look in his eyes but I still don't understand why he would be willing to be this loyal to me. I know I'm his prince but still…

Anyway, now I know what his name is without having to ask him for it. I honestly had no idea how to ask him such a thing after all I should know the name of all liege lords in my kingdom and yet I don't. There are so many to memorize, I don't know how my father does it.

"The sun will be rising soon; you need to be off this ship by then." Sugo tells me as he sheaths back his sword as he gets up and now I'm confused. He said that he wanted to protect me, that he would die for me if need be and now he wants me off his ship in the middle of the ocean of all places.

"What?" I blurt out the question as I watch him grab a pair of pants and quickly rolls it up.

"You're going to need this, don't lose it." He says as he gives me the rolled up pants and walks out of the cabin and I follow him closely behind with even more confusion. What am I going to do with a pair of pants? I already have pants.

"Everything is ready my lord." The guy from before says to Sugo.

"Well done Kane." Sugo tells him before turning his attention towards me and leads me to the side of the ship where a roped ladder has been hooked on. "We are not too far from Octavia and the morning fog will hide you until you get to the city. Once there, make yourself comfortable within the castle walls and we'll speak once I arrive." He tells me.

"This is madness." I blurt out.

"This is politics your grace." He replies, his facial expression back to when I had first met him moments before he had ordered his soldier Murray to get his face burned.

I can't believe for a minute I thought this man was actually sane. He's completely the opposite of sane, no sane man would ever make someone climb down a ship using a ladder made out of rope. Anyway, does he honestly expect me to swim all the way to the Stone Islands? I don't even know which island is Octavia, only thing I know is that there is only one city on each island and that's it.

With the serious expression that Sugo is giving me, I guess there's really no point in arguing about this. Obviously the commander already made his mind up a while ago but still, this is completely crazy.

I let out a sigh as I shove the rolled up pants inside of my vest for safe keeping even though I still have no idea what I'm supposed to need it for. I climb over the safety wall as I carefully grab onto the roped ladder and start climbing down the ship until I reach the bottom when I feel something touch my legs and I quickly look down to see what it is.

"Kougami!?" I blurt out and he gives me a smile.

"You're a pain to chase after you know that?" He tells me and I can't help but smile back as he turns around, his back facing me and looks over his shoulder. "Hold on, it won't take long." He tells me and I allow myself to drop into the water, wrapping my arms around his torso.

The roped ladder starts being pulled upwards and Kougami starts swimming away from the ship. I never thought I'd ever see him again…